Customer Reviews

Veronika Voss [VHS]

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"Veronika Voss" is the noir\melodrama Hollywood never made, or is it the noir\melodrama Hollywood did make but Fassbinder borrowed from it?

I'm not quite yet a strong admirer of Fassbinder's work, though I'm getting there. I've seen a few of his films and they have all pleased me on different levels, but, "Veronika Voss" is one of the best films I've seen from Fassbinder. The other one is "The Merchant of Four Seasons" (easily one of the greatest films I've ever seen).

"Voss" immediately captures your attention with the beautiful black&white cinematography from Xaver Schwarzenberger.

"Voss" though may recall the classic Billy Wilder film "Sunset Boulevard", and maybe that's done on purpose. While it would be foolish to try and compare the two obviously "Veronika Voss" gets away with things Wilder's film could never have.

"Voss" tells the story of a once famous actress who was popular during WW2 and now finds herself a "has been". Whether she just has too much pride or is in denial I'm not sure, but she stands no real chance at a comeback. As it turns out Voss is addicted to morphine. It may even have been one of the reasons for her marriage to end. And just like "Sunset Boulevard" the former star finds herself attracted to a younger man. In this case Robert Krohn (Hilmar Thate). But the film, to me at least, isn't really a satire on the movie industry the way "Boulevard" was. "Voss" takes on the noir\melodrama. And does so in a very effective way.

Rosel Zech who play Voss does a great job. She maintains our interest for the entire lenght of the film and displays a wide range of emotions. And I also enjoyed Cornelia Froboess, who plays Robert's extremely understanding girlfriend. She adds some humor to the film.

If your just starting to get interested in Fassbinder's work "Veronika Voss" should win you over.

Bottom-line: One of the best films I've seen so far from Fassbinder. I loved the black&white cinematography and the performance from Zech. Fassbinder makes the film Hollywood forgot to.

The tragedy focuses precisely this point. The raising and vertiginous career of an artist and its later decay in every little detail. The abandon and the moral wreck in what this lovely star sometime meant for the audience, her addiction to alcohol and drugs are explored with masterful approach by Rainer Fassbinder . this real icon of the Post War West Germany generation. With the visible influence of Douglas Sirk, you can link certain parallelism with Sunset Boulevard, despite this picture goes far beyond in what a human being can become. The last masterpiece , not the last film (Querelle) of one my favorite directors in any age, deserved for him his definitive signature in the Holly Pantheon of the top directors in Berlin, 1982.

A must see!

In English it is simply titled 'Veronika Voss', which I think is unfortunate. The entire title should have been translated. One of the web dictionaries informs me that 'Sehnsucht' means 'longing', which makes a lot of sense after viewing the film. While watching the movie it would be good to ask one's self what it is exactly that Veronika longs for. Many things, of course, but what is at the bottom of it all? The film is a mystery in which some of the secrets are hidden in pretty dark corners, and being the work of Fassbinder it is deeply woven into the fabric of his own life as well.

A washed-up movie star is somewhat immoderately grateful for the kindness offered to her by a sportswriter, and soon a lopsided relationship of undefined reciprocity blooms. Perhaps 'reciprocity' is too chilly - there is real affection between the two, but neither character really seeks to understand the forces that have driven them together. Is the reporter simply looking for a story, and is the movie star simply looking for adoration? Not quite, for the sportswriter can be seen scribbling strange poems in the margin of his marginal life, and the actress has a habit of trying to turn the world around her into a movie set. Something else is at work behind the intersecting fates of these characters. Robert's attempt to right the balance of their early friendship turns into a quest to discover the reason for some of the darker irregularities in Veronika's life. He does so under the guise of being a reporter (he is a reporter, but this story would seem to lie outside his domain), although halfway through the movie he can't say whether his pursuit is more professional or personal. The dramatic irony that develops during those incidents in which the plot turns is such that even the most predictable destination demands to be seen in light of other characters' reactions to it. The less predictable fates of relatively minor characters are even more sad, prompting the question of why others must pay the price for the darker obsessions of selves unable to break free of their fetters, whether they be societal or psychological.

It's also a tremendous indictment of the society that developed and developed under the economic miracle of Germany in the 1950's, without being the least bit preachy. An American soldier drifts in and out and is often visible in the background taking care of business, providing supplies, and generally making himself at home in a world that really isn't his. An elderly gentleman rolls up his sleeve to reveal his concentration camp tattoo, and a public health official maintains the impossibility of a drug scam developing, but describes his own complicity in his very denial. The entire story unfolds to the tune of tired American country western songs in endless repetition on the radio. It's all stunningly filmed in beautiful black and white, and accompanied by a rather unique soundtrack of harmonicas, guitars and saxophones by Fassbinder's usual collaborator, Peer Raben.

The film is not without humor. A simple, drunken joke about two brothers limns the complex interconnection between the principle characters, and the soldier is played more as a buffoon than a morally corrupt villain. The sportswriter's girlfriend inexplicably stands by him, even after being left on her doorstep for a strange woman. Veronika's loosening grip on reality is at times painfully on display, and one can only wonder that she isn't aware of the extent to which her life is becoming a mockery of 'Sunset Boulevard'.

The DVD edition includes the best extras I've seen on disc yet, for any film. Tony Rayns' commentary track is a model that other critics would do well to observe, and the conversation between the star, Rosel Zech, and editor Juliane Lorenz is the most informative of any I've seen in the Fassbinder series. The whole package is really a minor masterpiece, as Zech says in the interview; perhaps something more than minor. Watch it for yourself and see.

Great to see an artist trying his hand in differing genres.Films like this make one renew one's interest in black n'white. Godard's "Praise of Love" was like a symphony of lights,shadows,textures, lines, arrays.

Fassbinder is a bit more functional again as other reviewers here say puts his own arm into this film, paints his own obssessed world of one-on-one relationships the sexual politics that exists. Postwar Germany was a dark time, and the black and white technique I thought served a double function of portraying this penumbral time of reconstruction (with Washington looking up everything) and as a fascinating set in Veronika's drug-infused world,areality that doesn't really exist yet it does for those who have the means to see it; escaping reality wherever and whenever possible.She's an actress that's what she does. The odd bits of American popular tunes also lend a wonderful :mist: of ir-reality, the Dean Martin hit "Memories are Made of this"for example Veronika sings this toward the end at her own final party (a finality only her female doctors who are maintaining her drug addiction to rob her home and possessions). The presence of the Black Army Man in the doctor's office who I suppose is the courrier of these drugs to other 'so-called' patients was a nice touch pointing to the reality of Germany now allowed to reconstruct but dependant totally on panoptokonish aid from the USA.

Fassbinder is saying the globe is addicted, we are simply in situations harboring entertaining varying states of it.Voss is like a Used Car of the Film industry of Germany much like Hollywood that simply uses humans as grist for the mill of production, "dream-makers" dreams of what? dreams that are simply corridors to obsessions and addictions.Voss is the"adagio" the slow movement in a symphony opposite of"Allegro" of Maria Braun who reveals another addiction, that of work and production and dignity, and progress.

Veronica Voss is shot beautifuly.

The plot is similar to Sunset Boulevard...aging has been film star, still trying to live in her previous glory, with an all encompassing pride that won't let them let it go.
Veronica Voss is much more realistic than the hysterical Sunset Boulevard..but they are both good in their own style.

Veronica hooks up with a younger sports reporter for her outings from a "clinic" that she lives in. He finds out the "clinic" is in actuality a scam to keep wealthy patients addicted to morphine, as a guise for treatment, while the patients pay with all their belongings, properties, antiques jewelry.etc until they are destitute and can no longer pay, at which point they go cold turkey or are offered sleeping pills.
The sports writer tries to expose the scam, but finds that he is up against powerful people with connections.

Altho I enjoyed this movie, I liked The Marriage of Maria Braun much better.