Transit (2018)
Country: GER/FR
Technical: col/2.39:1 101m
Director: Christian Petzold
Cast: Franz Rogowski, Paula Beer, Godehard Giese
Synopsis:
In an uncertain present that appears to replicate the events of 1940, a young German technician takes the identity of a dissident writer and travels from Paris to Marseilles in order to secure passage to Mexico. There, in a curious replay of the plot dynamics of Casablanca (1942), various characters strive to obtain visas and residency permits, and he makes the acquaintance of an idealistic doctor and his woman, with whom he falls in love and who is in reality, but does not know it, the widow of the deceased writer. The whole is recounted by the personage of the Mont Ventoux café where much of the action takes place, and whom we do not see until the final moments.
Review:
More a rumination than a coherent narrative, and diverting into separate rivulets before returning to the main stream, Petzold's beautifully shot and composed homage concerns itself less with freedom politics and more with the existentiality of human relationships: between the compassion he shows the dying man on the train, the friendship with the boy his son, the solidarity with the woman who looks after the dogs, and the growing bond with the beautiful widow there is a unifying theme, that of the hero's openness to others. His most selfless act rebounds tragically on its beneficiaries, though we are left with the tantalising promise that all is not lost. Depending on your mood, it's a dreadful mess or a haunting reminder of life's randomness, as technically precise as a Swiss watch.
Country: GER/FR
Technical: col/2.39:1 101m
Director: Christian Petzold
Cast: Franz Rogowski, Paula Beer, Godehard Giese
Synopsis:
In an uncertain present that appears to replicate the events of 1940, a young German technician takes the identity of a dissident writer and travels from Paris to Marseilles in order to secure passage to Mexico. There, in a curious replay of the plot dynamics of Casablanca (1942), various characters strive to obtain visas and residency permits, and he makes the acquaintance of an idealistic doctor and his woman, with whom he falls in love and who is in reality, but does not know it, the widow of the deceased writer. The whole is recounted by the personage of the Mont Ventoux café where much of the action takes place, and whom we do not see until the final moments.
Review:
More a rumination than a coherent narrative, and diverting into separate rivulets before returning to the main stream, Petzold's beautifully shot and composed homage concerns itself less with freedom politics and more with the existentiality of human relationships: between the compassion he shows the dying man on the train, the friendship with the boy his son, the solidarity with the woman who looks after the dogs, and the growing bond with the beautiful widow there is a unifying theme, that of the hero's openness to others. His most selfless act rebounds tragically on its beneficiaries, though we are left with the tantalising promise that all is not lost. Depending on your mood, it's a dreadful mess or a haunting reminder of life's randomness, as technically precise as a Swiss watch.
Country: GER/FR
Technical: col/2.39:1 101m
Director: Christian Petzold
Cast: Franz Rogowski, Paula Beer, Godehard Giese
Synopsis:
In an uncertain present that appears to replicate the events of 1940, a young German technician takes the identity of a dissident writer and travels from Paris to Marseilles in order to secure passage to Mexico. There, in a curious replay of the plot dynamics of Casablanca (1942), various characters strive to obtain visas and residency permits, and he makes the acquaintance of an idealistic doctor and his woman, with whom he falls in love and who is in reality, but does not know it, the widow of the deceased writer. The whole is recounted by the personage of the Mont Ventoux café where much of the action takes place, and whom we do not see until the final moments.
Review:
More a rumination than a coherent narrative, and diverting into separate rivulets before returning to the main stream, Petzold's beautifully shot and composed homage concerns itself less with freedom politics and more with the existentiality of human relationships: between the compassion he shows the dying man on the train, the friendship with the boy his son, the solidarity with the woman who looks after the dogs, and the growing bond with the beautiful widow there is a unifying theme, that of the hero's openness to others. His most selfless act rebounds tragically on its beneficiaries, though we are left with the tantalising promise that all is not lost. Depending on your mood, it's a dreadful mess or a haunting reminder of life's randomness, as technically precise as a Swiss watch.