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6 utilisateurs sur 7 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Melancholic, Bitter and Depressive Reality of an Era, 9 décembre 2007

Auteur : Claudio Carvalho de Rio de Janeiro, Brésil

In the 50's, in a rainy night in Germany, the sports reporter Robert Krohn (Hilmar Thate) offers his umbrella to the former successful UFA actress Veronika Voss (Rosel Zech) but he does not recognizes her. Later she calls him inviting for a drink, and he finds an unstable and decadent actress living in her past success. In a mixed sensation of love, empathy and curiosity, Robert has an affair with Veronika, and discloses a dangerous gang leaded by Dr. Marianne Katz (Annemarie Düringer) that addicts wealthy patients in morphine to get their fortune when they die.

"Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss" is a melancholic, bitter and depressive tale based on the reality of an era, and the association with "Sunset Boulevard" is immediate. The story is based on the last years of the German actress Sybille Schmitz (1909-1955), who died due to an overdose of sleeping pills. The performance of Rosel Zech is impressive, showing the glamour of a former star in the Nazi period and the depression of an addicted woman in the 50's. Hilmar Thate is also perfect in the role of a simple innocent man that faces a greedy world of pain and death. The magnificent cinematography in black and white, using perfectly light and shadows, is homage to the Golden Age of Hollywood. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "O Desespero de Veronika Voss" ("The Despair of Veronika Voss")

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6 utilisateurs sur 7 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Third film in Fassbinder's trilogy, 18 novembre 2003

Auteur : rosscinema (rosscinema@cox.net) de Oceanside, Ca.

This is the third and last film in the trilogy that included "Marriage of Maria Braun" and "Lola". This also turned out to be one of the last films Rainer Werner Fassbinder made before his sudden suicide in 1982. Story takes place in 1955 where a former German movie star named Veronika Voss (Rosel Zech) is now a morphine addict and she gets her shots from a doctor who specializes in hooking wealthy clients on morphine to the point where they sign over their homes and belongings to pay for their shots. Veronika use to be a star in the 40's for the state run UFA studios that made Nazi approved dramas. Now ten years after the war and unable to further her acting career Veronika is dependent on Dr. Marianne Katz who lets her stay in a backroom of her office. One rainy night Veronika runs into Robert Krohn (Hilmar Thate) who is a simple sportswriter for a newspaper and he offers her his umbrella. She is taken in by his kindness and the next day she calls him for drinks. Robert lives with his girlfriend Henriette (Cornelia Froboess) and she is curious about what will happen between them. Robert gets involved with Veronika and learns of her addiction and he seems to think that he can help her. He meets her ex-husband Max Rehbein (Armin Mueller-Stahl) and he warns him that there is nothing he can do. Robert learns of Dr. Katz and what she has been doing but he cannot prove to the authorities of her intent.

This film was shot in black and white and its Fassbinder's homage to old films like "Sunset Boulevard" but the black and white cinematography actually resembles the look of the films that the UFA Studios made in the 30's and 40's. The film for the most part is very dark looking except for the scenes in the office of Dr. Katz. All the decor in this place is very shiny and white and I think Fassbinder wanted this area to appear dreamlike or heavenly and its in stark contrast to the very dark tone of the outside world. The character Robert wants to try and save Veronika but its to no avail and Fassbinder wanted him to symbolize how people wanted to change and save others through their own selfish reasons. Not that they necessarily want to do harm but for their own sake of humanity. Fassbinder was a die hard cynic and he portrays Roberts efforts to save Veronika and expose Dr. Katz as pathetic and futile. This simple everyman was in way over his head and its a jab by Fassbinder to the common man who tries to stand up to corruption. The story is loosely based on a real German actress named Sybille Schmitz. This film is not in the same league as "Marriage of Maria Braun" and even though Zech is pretty good she doesn't give the commanding performance that Hanna Schygulla did. This is still a very interesting film to watch and all three films in this trilogy should be viewed. Fassbinder has once again directed a visually striking film and gives the viewer another look at a character that has sold their soul in the war.

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4 utilisateurs sur 5 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Memories are made of this, 25 mai 2005

Auteur : dkbs de Allemagne

Like many other Fassbinder films "Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss" tells about a decline and is very depressing. It is a visually stunning film that shows how much Fassbinder admired the classical Hollywood cinema and especially the films of Douglas Sirk. Like the films of his idol this film is stylish and artificial to an extreme extent which creates quite a distance between itself and the audience. Probably an even greater distance, since the style and the artificiality are used more consciously here, even as a instrument of alienation. So it is more fascinating than touching or even moving and might leave one even cold. Nevertheless the story is intriguing and it really tells something about the post war society in West Germany, so the film is interesting and even fascinating to watch. The scene where Rosel Zech as Veronika sings "Memories Are Made Of This" is very haunting, a gem.

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5 utilisateurs sur 7 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
My brief review of the film, 26 juin 2005
Auteur : sol- de Perth, Australie

Beautifully photographed in simple black and white, with some lovely gliding shots and some interesting camera angles and framing, the film is an amazement on a visual scope, even if the screenplay and acting are nothing special. Fassbinder's choice of lighting is excellent, giving true stark contrast between areas of black and areas of white in certain scenes. Sound is a significant aspect too, with soft radio recording heard in the background of just about every scene. The meaning behind such an audio style is not clear, but still it provides an interesting feel if not much else. As already alluded to however, the technical aspects outweigh the rest of the film. It is a rather cold tale with awkward characters, which are hard to sympathise with. Towards the end it also goes off on a bit of a tangent, from being a drama to a thriller. The film definitely seems more dedicated to its style than its substance, but that only makes is a certainly degree less fascinating to watch. The style quite literally sparkles and the film applies a few interesting editing tricks to change from scene to scene. If not involving as a tale, it is nevertheless great "eye candy".

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1 utilisateurs sur 1 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Veronica Voss, 11 février 2008

Auteur : haz567 de Australie

This was my introduction to the works of Rainer Werner Fassbinder & only one of a short selection of New German Cinema I have seen.

Immediate thoughts were that the direction is nice, Fassbinder has a fascination of adding touches such as shooting from behind objects such as windows and walls and framing the scene within this context as well as lots of interplay with shadows. The black and white is used to a really good contrast and if anything the film is pleasing to look at. Scenes with the leading lady have glitter shining off her jewelery and it looks like you would expect fame in all its superficial but alluring glory.

The soundtrack is great, I get off on detail in this area and radio interludes constantly playing in the background a'la Midnight Cowboy along with well timed emotional musical cues are very effective. A few songs are highlighted in key scenes such as some twangy country music and the beautiful vocal number towards the end which provides quite an impact on the senses.

The thing that really lets Veronica Voss down is the story, its good but its just not very interesting. A sports reported has an affair with a fading actress, who is involved in a plot by a neurologist that hooks rich patients up with morphine to get their trust and eventually their fortune when they die. Now... it sounds workable and it is. But its rather plodding how it is played out, although the actors are fantastic and do a great job portraying their characters it all feels very superficial and it is hard to sympathize with their plight. Some might argue that this is the intention of the film maker to get across the superficial nature of actresses in general but it doesn't feel so convincing to me.

In short Veronica Voss is a feast for the eyes at times, and the soundtrack is excellent but something feels a tad hollow. Most of the appeal seems to come from that it shows off the era, and well I can respect it for that.

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3 utilisateurs sur 5 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Dances with Death, 15 octobre 2006

Auteur : Galina de Virginia, USA

A famous German actress, Veronika Voss (Rozel Zech) in her forties tries to revive her career while struggling with alcohol and drugs in the final chapter to Fassbinder's trilogy about collapse of the West German postwar dream. The film was inspired by the tragic life of famous UFA actress, Sybille Schmitz (1909-1955). She began her career in the films by the giants such Georg Wilhelm Pabst and Carl Theodor Dreyer and soon became one of Germany's beloved actress. Everything changed during the WWII and especially after its end.

Fassbinder's film which was shot in black and white visually is very impressive. "Light and shadows are two cinema's best secrets" says Veronika in the movie and light and shadows make the film a joy to behold. I like it but I think it is the weakest part of the trilogy perhaps because "Lola" and "Maria Braun" are so strong. I found the documentary about Sybille Schmitz, "Dances with Death" which is included on Criterion DVD much more compelling.

Veronika - 7/10 Dances with Death 8.5/10

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3 utilisateurs sur 5 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Quite good, 7 décembre 2002

Auteur : zetes de Saint Paul, MN

A man runs into a pretty but aging woman in the middle of a rainstorm. He politely protects her from the downpour with his umbrella, and even lifts her over a fence so she can get to her bus. He also gets on the bus, and, beginning to pant, she declares that she can't go near anyone else on the bus, because she's a famous actress and she'll be thronged. The other passengers on the bus look up at the exasperated woman, but don't pay her any more mind than that. A bit later, the woman proudly tells the man that she is Veronika Voss, and all he can do is politely nod. She hasn't been in a movie for three years, and hasn't been in a good one for longer than that. Veronika has to try really hard to pin the man, Robert, down and seduce him, and even when she accomplishes this feat he doesn't seem particularly interested. Robert's interest does grow when he begins to discover some nasty secrets about her life, notably that she is addicted to morphine. A strange doctor seems to be little more than a local drug dealer when he begins to look into the situation.

The plot is decent; it would have been a really good one for a classic Hollywood film starring Joan Crawford or Bette Davis or someone like that. Its greatest worth is in the performance of Rosel Zech, who has the titular role. Cornelia Froboess as Robert's girlfriend and Annemarie Düringer as the wicked doctor are also good. The character of Robert is never very interesting. The black and white cinematography (Xaver Schwarzenberger) and the unconventional score (Peer Raben) are very good. The tape I watched was not in a very good condition, so I may have liked it more if I had seen a better copy. 8/10.

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The search for congealed history, 12 octobre 2009

Auteur : hasosch de Etats-Unis

Rainer Werner Fassbinder's second-but-last film does not show primarily the life and downfall of the UFA-star Sybille Schmitz, but gives, at the hand of the Schmitz-inspired, yet fictive character Veronika Voss an unvarnished and hopeless picture of the Bundesrepublik Germany in the 50ies. Part of Fassbinder's "BRD-Trilogy", it is also one of his 4 "women"-films, besides "Lola", "Maria Braun", and "Lili Marleen".

It is hard to say if the main focus of this movie is the former UFA-star Veronika Voss or the sports reporter Robert Krohn. One rainy night, he meets, in a little forest amidst of Berlin, a crying little bundle of mensch who seems to have completely lost her orientation. She is not so much thankful for his help but astonished that he does not recognize her: the great Veronika Voss. After he accompanies the woman to her door, she continues to occupy his mind. He asks his older colleagues who confirm him that she was once a movies' super-star, but now forgotten, divorced, impoverished, addicted and out of work. Soon, they meet again, and between Krohn, who is in a steady liaison, and Veronika, who sees in him one of her once many admirers, a very problematic love story starts which costs two humans' lives, leaves an investigative mind back in despair, discloses the corruption between medicine and politics and portrays the deterrent situation in the post-war German film industry which used his former flagships as fuel.

R.W. Fassbinder got for this films the "Golden Bear" out of the hand of Jimmy Stewart who was his friend for many years. Fassbinder had been nominated for the highest German film price since a long time, but it was Stewart who realized that soon it might come too late. Fassbinder passed away only a few days after having received the Golden Bear.

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one of Fassbinder's true masterpieces - which, in his career span, says a lot, 15 juin 2009

Auteur : MisterWhiplash de Etats-Unis

Veronika Voss is a movie in love with movies, and also a movie where its maker, RW Fassbinder, continues on his life/career-long obsession with capturing the essence of melodrama on screen. He might have come closest with this story, since it allows him to make it a "movie-movie", so to speak. I saw some echoes, mayhap, of Sunset Blvd and even Ed Wood, and that may just be attributable to it being a true story (more or less as one would gather from this cinema "tribute" to Sybille Schmitz), but maybe too in how fascinated Fassbinder is with glamor and decadence, decay and self-absorption, the mental faculties to be caring and gentle (Robert) and with a streak that suggests the very essence of everything arguably wrong in Germans (the doctors who keep Veronika quasi-captive, hooking her onto morphine). It's a glorious, multi-faceted critique of a time and place, of a 1950s Germany that had moved on from the war only relatively - the madness could, and would, continue on in ways that involve some subtext, and some things so out in the open it's hard to stand it.

It's ostensibly, in its "plot" sense, about a sports reporter for a paper, mild-mannered Robert, who on a bus one night helps shield the movie star (or once real "STAR" in quotes) Veronika Voss (very great Rosel Zech). She's interested in him, convinces him to buy her an item for $300, and he's interested too - if only for how she's not really, how to say, 'balanced', and we soon see that she is in fact under medical care of an unusual sort by Dr. Marianne Katz. That, and the involvement soon after with Robert's girlfriend in trying to figure out how to get Veronika real help, of getting the police involved as well, makes up the bulk of the rest of the story. We also get a subplot of sorts with an old couple (one look at the arm, numbers tattooed, is all that's needed to fill the pieces), but Fassbinder isn't interested in plot, per-say. He's interested in how to move it, how to transgress a simple melodrama into something more lively, profound and moving.

He's also invested in creating this look for the film that is at times expressionistic of a 1930s tone, of the dark corners and streets and moments of a film-noir, and then sudden blasts of bright light thrown in (an early scene has a bunch of lights intentionally blasting at the camera lens, a perfect homage to cinema itself), with the glamor of a expensive restaurant contrasted with the white walls of Katz's quarters. Fassbinder wants us to see this as a "movie" in the sense of the usage of crafty dissolves and fades, or those wipes that are precisely artificial, but at the same time not lose sight of the drama at hand. Part of this is the acting, which is by many of Fassbinder's regulars- not least of which Armin Mueller-Stahl in a terrific, quiet but haunted supporting role as a screenwriter and ex-husband of Veroika's who says a great deal in one look to Robert down a hallway while a scene is being shot; or Günther Kaufmann, perhaps the one loose link to the previous film in the "BDR trilogy" as a G.I. who adds a curiously affecting song he sings to himself in the middle of a dramatic scene between the doctor and Veronika.

Another part of this are just many, many great scenes and moments put together. Things like when the doctors start to laugh after one of them says around Veronika "It's not like we're trying to kill you," with it bordering on an Austin Powers level of absurdity, if it weren't for it being so cold a moment of satire. Or how we see Robert and Veronika contrasted, brilliantly by cinematographer Schwarzenberger, with Robert being relatively normally lit while Veronika's face gets slightly brighter with each cut-away as they talk at a table in the restaurant. Or how music is used throughout, the collection of tunes from the radio mixing with the actual score, creating a sense of illusion and madness that gets us close to the psyche of Veronika Voss while still maintaining the homage-quality of the picture. And, most notably for me, are the closing scenes, where, without revealing too much (though it may be hard in just revealing it's a melodrama at the core), Veronika dreams of a farewell party, that may be surreal enough to be a dream, but in that first moment of singing at the piano who is to say?

It's such a stroke of beautiful film-making all around, from the mix of sets and real locations to the sense of history captured, of the given theme of fame being so easy to disintegrate, of the melancholic sense of cinema that bears on our lives while civilization crumbles and gets back up again. Maybe this is just what I took away from it, but it's all a credit to Fassbinder's dedication to his art form - which, soon after this, took his own life from a similar excess to that of his character here. It's one of the superb films of its country: A+

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Fassbinder's bleakly bitter examination of guilt, greed and exploitation, 23 mars 2008
Auteur : Graham Greene de Royaume-Uni

*** Ce commentaire peut contenir des spoilers ***

Veronika Voss (1982) was the final part of director Rainer Werner Fassbinder's celebrated trilogy of films that looked specifically at the period following the end of the Second World War, and in particular, the socio-political and economic re-birth of Germany following the Wirtschaftswunder. All three films in the trilogy look at these situations through the eyes of a strong-willed, arrogant and determined female-protagonist who strives against all odds to achieve the kind of lifestyle that she has always desired, but, once she does, finds herself still feeling empty and lacking in spirit. The characters in these films come to represent Fassbinder's own feelings about the Germany of this particular period, whilst simultaneously acting as an allegorical portrayal and deeper interpretation of the qualities and characteristics of the country itself.

The first film in this loose, thematic trilogy, The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979), looked at the ideas of determination and the triumph of will that would go towards rebuilding Germany from the ashes of the Second World War through the eyes of resolute young woman willing to push her own emotional stability to breaking point in order to secure a better future for her and her incarcerated husband. The second film, Lola (1981), which took its inspiration from Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel (1930), looked at how that same sense of opportunism, greed and determination can be used for more selfish reasons, sowing the seeds of tragedy and eventual air of blind exploitation that will come full circle here. Veronika Voss exists in very much the same cinematic universe as the two other films that would come to form the backbone of what would eventually become known "the BRD trilogy"; though Fassbinder himself had often talked of plans to make more films in a similar vein - analysing post-war German history through to the present day - but was unable to continue the theme due to his untimely death in June of 1982.

It would have been interesting to see where Fassbinder would have taken these continuing themes following Veronika Voss, which ends on a perfect note of heartbreaking cynicism, very much in tune with the Germany, and indeed, the world itself at the end of the 1970's; representing in a sense the same emotional landscape of cold desperation and political confusion presented in his more personal, contemporary-set films of the same era, such as In a Year of 13 Moons (1978) and The Third Generation (1979). Like those films, Veronika Voss continues Fassbinder's reputation as probably the greatest exploitation filmmaker who ever lived, in the sense of the crushing despair and continual disappointment that befalls his various characters whenever they put their trust in the hands of others. This can be seen as far back as the masterful Fox and his Friends (1975) as well as the underrated Mother Kusters' Trip to Heaven (1976), with Veronika Voss continuing the themes of those particular films, but with the greater sense of visual experimentation and bold use of mise-en-scene that would be found in his last few films following The Marriage of Maria Braun.

Whereas that film employed a much grittier use of production design and almost unglamorous use of cinematography - the complete antithesis to the subsequent Lola and its gorgeous kaleidoscope of luminous colours and expressive use of shadow - Veronika Voss is presented in cold, stark, gorgeously textured black and white. The use of photography combined with the costume and production design not only give us a definite feel for the period in which the film is set, but also a great understanding of the moods of the characters and the atmosphere of the world in which they inhabit. It also allows Fassbinder and his cinematographer Xaver Schwarzenberger to draw parallels, not only to the 40's and 50's set Hollywood melodramas that have seemingly inspired the plot and use of character - I'm thinking specifically of references to Sunset Blvd (1950) - but also capturing the very iconic style of the early, pre-Second World War cinema of the UFA film studios, which plays an important part in Veronika's spiral into the pits of despair.

Fassbinder incorporates other elements such as a romantic subplot and traces of a perhaps volatile love triangle with more elaborate references to detective fiction, cinema and the blurring of the past with the present. These stylistic devices help to keep the film moving with a brisk enough pace, while the continual use of confinement and claustrophobic camera angles that exaggerate how close, yet similarly disconnected the characters are from one another, help to convey the more hopeless and alienated aspects of Veronika's internal state-of-mind. Without question, this is one of Fassbinder's most interesting films; a bleak and bitter minor masterpiece that continues the themes and ideas behind The Marriage of Maria Braun and Lola, whilst also bringing to a close, in hindsight, a number of reoccurring themes familiar to anyone with a fondness for or interest in Fassbinder's life and work.

Veronika Voss is intelligent and deeply emotional film-making rife with ideas that are still relevant, both socially and historically; such as the aforementioned allusions to the UFA film studios as well as Veronika's hinted affair with Joseph Goebbels and the broader, more controversial historical implications suggested therein. As with the majority of the Fassbinder's work, Veronika Voss is intense, evocative and unbelievably well acted - particularly by Rosel Zech, Himar Thate and Annemarie Düringer - though it is perhaps worth mentioning that the bleak arch of the narrative combined with the almost despairing allusions to the again aforementioned Sunset Blvd (and films of that ilk) may be a little too formidable or uninviting for some. Although Fassbinder would go on to produce one more film before his death, the dizzying and surreal adaptation of Genet's Querelle (1982), Veronika Voss - along with the other two films in the BRD trilogy - is a fitting testament to his enormous talent and under-appreciated genius.

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