Horst_In_Translation Review of Malina

Malina (1991)

Huppert isn't bad, but ultimately a fairly forgettable film

[4/10 · 11 September 2016]

"Malina" is a German/Austrian co-production that resulted in a French/German-language film, but I believe the only French thing here is lead actress Isabelle Huppert and she spoke her parts in her native language and got dubbed by Lisa Kreuzer. This film is from 1991, so it has its 25th anniversary this year. It is possibly the most known work by director Werner Schroeter and the two Austrian writers, Ingeborg Bachmann and Elfriede Jelinek, are somewhat famous today too, at least here in Germany. The film was a huge success at the German Film Awards where it did not only take home the big prize, but also received trophies for directing, lead acting and editing. I cannot share the praise, however. While I occasionally liked Huppert's performance, I felt that overall the story as well as the minor characters were really not even close to being captivating enough for a two-hour film unfortunately. German film fans will see more familiar faces such as Peter Kern or Mathieu Carrière. But they did not sparkle my interest in this film either. Then again, I must say I am a bit biased here as I have seen Schroeter's most known works (5 years after his death) and I was very much underwhelmed by pretty much everything I saw. But I must also say that this one here is entirely different than his work with Montezuma for example and I guess this is also why it is more easily accessible for awards bodies as it received more outside the German Film Awards. But like I said, I cannot share the praise here and this film's success is just another piece of evidence for me that the 1990s started fairly weak for German cinema and the great films of reunited Germany followed years later, not yet so quickly. I give this one a thumbs-down. It dragged on several occasions and Huppert wasn't that good either, just not as bad as the rest about the film. Watch something else instead.