Tuesday, May 23, 2006
HANNA
Today's Best Film was
Die Ehe der Maria Braun / The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)
This is the second in the BRD Trilogy (see Lola below) and certainly best of the two so far.
I saw it when it came out and still remembered a lot of it.
Maria, played by Hanna Schygulla, is a product of the West German 'economic miracle' as well. She hardens up and gets to work so that someday she can be reunited with her husband.
This is a very rich film. The men who help Maria with her plan are just great.
The shock of the immediate postwar period is tangible. The changes in prosperity evolve slowly in the visuals that accompany the story.
This is a best best film.
I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.
There is a great interview with Schygulla which helps understand some arcane points in the film. She is a wonderful actress and comes across as a person you would like to know well.
A new point emerges out of today's watching. The BRD Trilogy shows how German women were largely responsible for the rebuilding. The men who survived were beaten men. You see it in the films. The women carry it as they have through all the years of the War.
For the fun of it, here is a second review by Roger Ebert on the release of the DVD in 2005. It is rich in anecdote and has the perspective of 27 years.
