"Die flambierte Frau" or "A Woman in Flames" is a West German 100-minute movie from over 30 years ago written and directed by Robert van Ackeren. It stars Gudrun Landgrebe as the title character and she was one of the biggest female actresses at this point in terms of star power. The supporting players also include a couple somewhat famous names, but I will not mention them. just check the cast list. The title of this movie is tough. It is a major spoiler actually as the entire movie is about what happened exactly that drove one character to madness that he would set Landgrebe's character on fire. But then again, it looked like van Ackeren for whatever reason decided that this was actually not too relevant when he randomly shows us the main character in the final scene with no injuries at all. Did this play before the attack? I don't think so and yet she looks like nothing happened. Years must have passed in-between and even then she cannot be uninjured again I believe. However, I am not a doctor, so who knows. To me, it felt like a forced happy ending though in the worst possible way one could imagine. Lacked realism entirely.
I personally did not enjoy the watch at all. I guess the German Film Awards got it right with not paying any awards attention to this one here. It is like a weak man's version of a Fassbinder movie with a lot more sexuality. Sadly these explicit scenes added little in terms of the story and to me it really just seemed they were included to make the film even more controversial. I was fairly disappointed with this film. Landgrebe once again could not convince me that she can carry a film on her own, even if she is in almost every scene of the movie. I have no idea why the German Film Academy would pick this very mediocre work to represent Germany at the Academy Awards that year. No surprise, this one did not even manage a nomination. The only somewhat thumbs-up I can give is for Carrière who was solid with what he was given and elevated the material on some occasions. But that is far from enough to let me recommend this one. I give it a thumbs down and it is another example of how the 1980s really weren't great for German film if a movie like this one here gets so much attention and praise.
I personally did not enjoy the watch at all. I guess the German Film Awards got it right with not paying any awards attention to this one here. It is like a weak man's version of a Fassbinder movie with a lot more sexuality. Sadly these explicit scenes added little in terms of the story and to me it really just seemed they were included to make the film even more controversial. I was fairly disappointed with this film. Landgrebe once again could not convince me that she can carry a film on her own, even if she is in almost every scene of the movie. I have no idea why the German Film Academy would pick this very mediocre work to represent Germany at the Academy Awards that year. No surprise, this one did not even manage a nomination. The only somewhat thumbs-up I can give is for Carrière who was solid with what he was given and elevated the material on some occasions. But that is far from enough to let me recommend this one. I give it a thumbs down and it is another example of how the 1980s really weren't great for German film if a movie like this one here gets so much attention and praise.