Customer Reviews

Yella

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This enigmatic drama is a story of a young woman who confronts her ambitions and insecurities head on. The film starts with Yella accepting a new job and moving to the more modernized western part of the country. With hopes for a better future, the life she leaves behind include her loving father, her obsessive husband, and the stability of a reality understood.

Christian Petzold uses a bold no frills approach to exhibit this thought provoking film. The narrative has a minimalistic quality which serves the film well, allowing the viewer to focus on the subtle yet compelling performance by actress Nina Hoss. Yella is an intelligently layered film and a triumph for modern day German cinema.

This is no 1 star movie as another reviewer lamely gave it. Yella is a weird puzzling film, part thriller, part NOIR, part completely abstract, and by "abstract" I mean I didn't "get" the ending, or the hints that were building up to it.. Then again who understood the Beatles "I Am The Walrus"? Or countless other works of suggestive yet obscure art? This movie does make suggestions and perhaps there are answers to the inevitable "what did it mean?"

I will say that for the 90 or so minutes that this movie runs, I was engrossed, intrigued and very much in awe of the performances all around. Nina Hoss (Yella) speaks volumes with her silences (with her voice as well) though for all the silences in this movie, there's water boiling beneath it, an edgy tension that keeps you hooked - the silence itself creates more suspense than any cinematic music could have. In jazz they say "Silence swings". In this movie it is also the empty places that give meaning to what is there, and lest anybody get the wrong idea, there is quite a bit of dialogue and it's as interesting as any good courtroom drama. The movie moves at a surprisingly quick pace. It is by no accounts boring. It is a thriller every bit as exciting as any novel by Grisham. Only it's obtuse ending and the complete bewilderment that it left me in at the end keep me from giving it 5 stars, although that may be shortsigtedness on my part. As I write, possible explanations for what the ending may have meant come drifting past like some faint scent that you sense you may almost recognize before it is gone. This movie would make an interesting forum for discussion.

Yella: "You thought I slept with Schmitt-Ott to get that job."

Philipp: "That doesn't matter to me."

Yella: "That's not an answer."

Philipp: "You're right."

Petzold is only partially successful with this moody examination of love and corruption, where plot is sidelined in favour of mood and enigma. Now, there's nothing wrong with that: I love riddle-like movies that often alienate others, but here the meat of the movie is too slight to carry the mystery. Yella's experiences on her vaguely picaresque journey fail to compel in the way intended. It's never boring but most of the fascination is supplied by Hoss's reticent performance, which is wistful and haunting. Another failure is the final twist, which is all too obvious quite early on and produces a sigh rather than a gasp. But overall this movie somehow manages the hold the attention and is worth watching, if only for Hoss's performance.

(1.) The DVD needs a warning, particularly to non-German audiences, because this abstract (meaning - it's so obscure you can read whatever you want into it) parable has allusions embedded in German history and economics.
(2.) Filmed largely in a car being driven from one room to another (total of about four rooms). A woman (Yella) is looking for a job, has had a bad marriage, stole some money, died in a car accident.
(3.) Acting - hard to say since half of the movie focused on Yella sitting and essentially not doing much. Except close-ups suggest that the audience should look for deep subtle facial expressions.
(4.) I suggest that if one needs to spend 90 minutes in some profound activity better to read any book or go for a walk.