Customer Reviews

The Nasty Girl ( Das Schreckliche Mädchen ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.0 Import - United Kingdom ]

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

German playwright Bertolt Brecht felt that theatre should teach the audience certain moral lessons, and to this end he developed a mode of presentation frequently described as "theatre of alienation"--a type of production in which the audience is never allowed to fully indentify with the characters and their situations and is instead asked to critically observe the material and draw conclusions from it. For the most part, this is a style that works best on the stage--but director Michael Verhoeven uses it as a springboard for THE NASTY GIRL. And the result is one of the few instances in which these Brechtian concepts come successfully to the screen.

The story is wickedly funny. A bright young lass, the daughter of two teachers, wins an essay contest--and when the next contest is announced she again decides to compete, this time with an essay on "My Hometown During The Third Reich," in which she plans to show how her small Bavarian town resisted Nazism. But few, even those regarded by the townfolk as heroes of that era, are willing to discuss it--and those that do provide conflicting information. She eventually gives up the project, but it continues to fester in the back of her mind, and some years later when she resumes her research with the idea of writing a book she discovers that the anti-Nazi heroes were not, perhaps, either anti-Nazi or heroic.

The main thrust of the film centers upon Sonja's relentless battle against the powers that be to obtain access to documents from the Nazi era, and how civic leaders work to frustrate her--both by persistently dodging her demands for the material and by direct terrorism. But their resistance makes Sonja all the more determined, and she becomes willing to pay any personal price. Ultimately, she does arrive at some of the truth, only to discover that she has now been enshrined by civic leaders as a "hero" in an effort to silence her with praise.

Director Michael Verhoeven presents the story in an odd mix of documentary and theatrical and realistic styles that mesh extremely well to create that famous Brechtian effect without ever actually seeming preachy. And leading actress Lena Stolze, as "the nasty girl" who accidentally drifts into the role of advocate for the truth at any price, is equally remarkable: she gives a very likeable, bemused performance that draws the viewer in even while maintaining the necessary degree of detachment the style requires. Not all viewers will appreciate the film--some will find the subject too dark, others may not be able to buy into the style--but this is a brilliant film, and you owe it a chance. Strongly recommended.

This is one of my favorite movies that I have watched countless times ever since I purchased it. It's got a great plot along with good acting. The movie's plot deals with how a girl researched and uncovered a lot of history that the town folks would rather have kept hidden and buried, regarding the role the German town took during World War II. Lena Stolze does a great job in the lead role. This is one of the best German movies I've ever seen. The only thing that should be changed is the title of the movie. It's misnamed. The title is very misleading and more than likely keeps people from viewing this. But other than that, this is a great movie that's also funny that you can watch over and over. Totally recommended.

Ahh. Germany has changed in the early '60s, trashing the ghost of Hitler's Third Reich. But has it really? Bright young Sonja researches the history of town of Pfilzing, to tell the story of how one German town resisted Nazi fascist ideas. The more she pushes, the more she learns a sad reality - in Germany's monumental tragedy, there were few true innocents.

The people of her town are not evil by any means, but their resistance to Sonja becomes increasingly aggressive, as they try to forgive the sins of their parents. The town is haunted by shame - shame is the central idea of the film. Pfilzing denies the past and protects the guilty. It is a town that cannot be free. And the promising student who sees this can only be called "A Nasty Girl"...

Like Sonja herself, this film has a way of getting under many viewers skin. Many reviewers - including Roger Ebert - admire the story but feel the arty "New German Wave" edits/art design clash badly with the subject matter. I could not disagree more. The story is unusually strong, so I suppose a somber po-faced approach might have made for an equally good film. But that would take out all I loved in this movie, making it a typical Holocaust film. The creative edits, avante-garde art design and cinematography create a world full of surprise and humor. By showing the comedy of life, you see how wonderful life is. And the fact that so many German Jews are not there to see it or share it, the tragic message comes clear. This movie may dare to smile - but the shadow of history is in every frame.

Lena Stolze is Sonja, the "Nasty Girl", a pint-sized girl from a small homey but slightly sinister German town. Not slightly precocious, Sonja is an iconoclast in the Luther mold. As the middle-child in a comfy family in the fictitious Berg of Pfilzing, Sonja arouses ire as a schoolgirl by her attempts to write an essay on the experiences of "Meine Heimat in der Drechsen Reich" - my hometown during the Third Reich. Already famous for winning an earlier essay, Sonja presses ahead on this new essay, interviewing townspeople and meeting resistance from every direction. (Few believe Sonja's stated intention of depicting heroic commoners resisting the Nazi regime). Not ready to give way when her essay fails to materialize, Sonja turns her energies to writing a book, and resistance becomes more heated. Friends turn away from her, town fixtures turn on her, her family becomes embattled (her parent's house is bombed). Worse, just getting the documentary evidence proves virtually impossible, since those who run the town's archives want to avoid scrutiny on themselves. Through luck and pluck (she tricks an unwitting substitute archivist into letting her access the records, then sneaks them out of the library with the mail), Sonja manages to uncover the proof that implicates various respected citizens, which only gets her into more trouble.

"Nasty" is a peerless gem of a film. Michael Verhoeven (not the "Showgirls" guy) crafts a movie that aims to tell different kinds of stories - and manages to pull off each one. Verhoeven allows the film a tinge of lightness that doesn't undermine the seriousness of the subject matter, but does underscore the humanity of the characters, especially Stolze's adorable Sonja. Nobody's a hero, but it doesn't take a hero to be horrified at the specter of the Holocaust. There are no villains, and the script implies a moral rot that obviously survived the war, and probably pre-dated the NASDP. (The town's prominent businessmen regularly receive preferential treatment when bidding for municipal contracts; In school, Sonja and her classmates routinely receive exam answers prior to the test; the director frequently cuts scenes of mysterious, unnamed gangs meant to represent a very active and not too clandestine neo-fascist element). The film also resembles a whodunit - with Sonja's investigation focusing on an otherwise innocuous incident (for the Nazi era, anyway) involving a Jewish merchant, two anonymous clergymen and some underwear, and a shadowy figure referred to by nickname who may or may not be the town's now deceased and universally reviled wartime mayor Zumtobel. By keeping the focus on local events, the script avoids reducing the characters to generic figures asked to account for all of Germany's domestic affairs, yet crafts a beautifully subtle statement on moral ambiguity. With a weird cinematography style (characters sometimes speak to the camera; cuts between color and black and white or sometimes shoots moving backgrounds for stationary charahcters) the film appears like some kind of documentary. But above all, the film is the story of Sonja, who remains nasty in the sense that she'll never leave you alone.

The story of Sonja's hometown in Bavaria is the story of Germany, a country struggling with an identity crisis and a lack of national self-esteem. How does a country responsible for the worst war, and the worst crimes, of the century come to terms with its present and future? The first draft of Sonja's essay on her hometown presents the fabled "good Germans" we all want to believe existed exclusively during the third Reich, but as she digs further, she finds that not everyone was against, or even neutral, to the removal of jews from Germany. Sonja discovers the power of propaganda and prejudice, and learns that its effects still linger, as she encounters resistance to her search for the truth in this powerful film about a country coming to terms with its past.

This film by Michael Verhoeven provides a fictionalized account of the true story of Anja Rosmus, a Bavarian woman who set out to discover the history of her home town under the National Socialist Regime. The meat of the subject is the trend of Vergangenheitsbewältigung, or the process of coming to terms with the past. This trend proves to make her report very touchy, as there are many things about her home town which the survivors and their descendants wish to leave unsaid. In a sort of "Peyton Place" atmosphere of silence, Anja (in the film Sonja) struggles to overcome the shame of the past and uncover the truth, exposing the troublesome past provlivities of many prominent figures in her town. At the beginning, Sonja enters an essay contest on the subject "My Hometown in the Thrid Reich." One of her instructors hopefully wishes, "I know she'll write the right things." Her mother even tells her to write only the positive about the past. Sonja, however, makes herself a pariah by ardently seeking the truth. Some graphic scenes of the hatred of the townspeople are taken directly from the life experience of Anja Rosmus.

Can it be that the only DVD edition of this is for non-US countries? I think this film is brilliant. From start to finish, it showed the impact that one person can have with determination. It is a film in my library I watch at least once a year. What a crime to not have a DVD edition!

This movie, a light-on-its-feet comedy about history and Nazism, shouldn't work. But it does, marvelously. I really liked the performance of Lena Stolze, who reminded me of a German Tracey Ullman. Whatever happened to her?

"The Nasty Girl," directed by Michael Verhoven, is a German film about a woman, Sonya Rosenberger, trying to find the truth behind her Bavarian town's hidden past. Everything about Sonya's town appears pleasant and quaint as she is growing up until she begins digging into its history during the Third Reich. While Sonya's search encounters obstacle after obstacle, the town's pristine appearance fades. Secrets of clergymen ratting out Jews to the Nazis, concentration camps, and other scandals upset the townspeople when their true identities are revealed by Sonya.
For the ordinary viewer, "The Nasty Girl" may seem more of an avant-garde film. However, there is much meaning behind the way Sonya is portrayed through her own actions and the actions of the town. Sonya feels the gaze of everyone in the town, as her every move is documented and judgments are cast against her. In his book, Ways of Seeing, John Berger's idea of the surveyed, being Sonya, and the surveyor, being the townspeople, is beautifully displayed in scenes of the film where her world and pursuit for the truth is known by all the townspeople. The film may also seem different because Sonya's character does not fit the Hollywood stereotype of a "perfect" woman. She is not typified as a tall blonde who acts in a "girlie" manner or is purely a sexual object. She has her own set of values and beliefs that she holds strongly to, even though others might try to scare or hurt her. Sonya is a rare kind of woman in film because looks like any other woman and endures many hardships like any other woman. Overall, this is a highly recommendable film for those who enjoy thinking beyond what is on the screen.

When a German girl starts investigating the history of her town during the Nazi era, she unearths more than anyone had bargained for -- especially those who wish their complicity with the Nazis to remain a conveniently forgotten fact. After all, "the past is past," why dwell on it? And so our determined heroine Sonja finds herself scorned & attacked for insisting that the truth be known.

But this isn't simply A Very Special Episode sort of film, so nobly intended that it's drudgery to watch. There's a sly wit & energy at work from the start, so that it plays like a dark comedy with a much more serious undercurrent. Lena Stolze is superb as Sonja -- a student so assertive that she pursues, seduces & marries her much older teacher, having two children with him. Her determination isn't so unreal that she isn't frightened, especially as scorn escalates into threats, and then into actual attacks. But she refuses to back down ... and even more tellingly, refuses to be co-opted when it's clear to everyone that there's no silencing her.

What makes this both a timeless & timely story is the question of truth & justice. Every country has shameful secrets & deeds its people don't want to acknowledge, much less expose to the light of day. What matters is whether its people have the honesty & courage to face what they'd rather avoid & deny, and take responsibility for that dark half of their common heritage. It's a question Americans find themselves facing today, as we struggle to come to grips with torture done in our name. Not surprisingly, our own Sonjas find themselves scorned & attacked for daring to reveal the ugly truth.

Sadly, this provocative film is unavailable in America, except as an out-of-print VHS tape. I'm hoping it'll be released on DVD eventually; if so, some extra material dealing with the real-life inspiration for the story, and a director's commentary, would make it even better. For now, though, if you can track down a copy of the VHS, you'll find that it's worth watching.

Most highly recommended!