The writer-director had a good idea and it seems there were other components of successful filmmaking as well: a supportable budget, crafted cameramen and a well-chosen composer, and most of all the majestic locations! But regretfully he could not make a memorable film from all this. (In my opinion, but it is possible that there is something in this film that is understandable for Germans only.) The end result is more gloomy than cathartic and I felt robbed of my time in the end.
One of the main reasons is modernity for modernity's sake. The non- linear handling of time, lots of flashbacks and "what if" fantasies does not really add to the story. Besides that there is a plethora of gratuitous characters whose presence only disturbs the viewer -- one constantly has to seek some hidden meaning that is actually not there. Why does an elegant red-haired woman keep on staring at Elisabeth openly and impolitely all the time? She never notices her wound, but the little girl does -- why does she smile and turn away without saying anything? After Elisabeth's pointless moving to another compartment, there is the astronomer and the inventor-crook but I could not figure out for the life of me why they were needful in this story.
Secondly, the stars! Gunther Malzacher is the only one who plays his role adequately. Certainly the role of the strong insensitive rich man is very cliché and he did not have to perform any better than he did in his numerous criminal films. The waiter-lover is a bad joke, it is impossible to take him seriously. But the main component of failure is Elisabeth who is not either mysterious or desirable enough, she looks just plain and quite often stupid. This kind of slow suicide is hard to believe anyway, but a good actress and a real femme fatale, Hanna Schygulla or Romy Schneider could have played this well, filling up the empty spaces of the script. (Not for the budget this film had, but the 91 minutes are too long anyways. Herr Schilling should have better made a really good short instead of a failed feature film.)
One of the main reasons is modernity for modernity's sake. The non- linear handling of time, lots of flashbacks and "what if" fantasies does not really add to the story. Besides that there is a plethora of gratuitous characters whose presence only disturbs the viewer -- one constantly has to seek some hidden meaning that is actually not there. Why does an elegant red-haired woman keep on staring at Elisabeth openly and impolitely all the time? She never notices her wound, but the little girl does -- why does she smile and turn away without saying anything? After Elisabeth's pointless moving to another compartment, there is the astronomer and the inventor-crook but I could not figure out for the life of me why they were needful in this story.
Secondly, the stars! Gunther Malzacher is the only one who plays his role adequately. Certainly the role of the strong insensitive rich man is very cliché and he did not have to perform any better than he did in his numerous criminal films. The waiter-lover is a bad joke, it is impossible to take him seriously. But the main component of failure is Elisabeth who is not either mysterious or desirable enough, she looks just plain and quite often stupid. This kind of slow suicide is hard to believe anyway, but a good actress and a real femme fatale, Hanna Schygulla or Romy Schneider could have played this well, filling up the empty spaces of the script. (Not for the budget this film had, but the 91 minutes are too long anyways. Herr Schilling should have better made a really good short instead of a failed feature film.)