"Paula" is the most recent work by still relatively young German filmmaker Christian Schwochow. He is mostly known for the collaborations with his mother Heide in the past, but this one we have here has a chance of becoming his most known solo work. "Solo", however, is relative in this context, as he was not the man in charge of the script either this time, but it was written by the pretty experienced Stefan Kolditz and rookie writer Stefan Suschke. "Paula" received some solid awards attention here in Germany, including a Bavarian Film Award for its cinematography and a German Film Award for its production design. These are exactly those categories where you would expect a film to succeed that is mostly about the life and fate of a artist, i.e. painter in this very case. The movie runs for over two hours, which is really long indeed and sadly they did not manage to make such a long film without occasional lengths and dragging.
The title character is played by Carla Juri and I must admit there are previous performances by her that I found really unappealing, so I was a bit surprised that I somewhat liked her in here and that she did not have too many moments where I found her embarrassing and over the top. The film may be in the German language, but there are still more French and Swiss actors in here, also in core positions. My favorite smaller performances was perhaps Nicki von Tempelhoff, who was a bit of a main antagonist in here, but left a decent impact in the audiences' minds, especially in relation to his screen time. A big part of the film was about the discrimination against women back then at the very end of the 19th century and while this was done okay at times the way it was displayed, it also lacked sufficient talent at other times when it felt just for the sake of it. I wouldn't really blame the actors though, more like the context. The title character Paula Modersohn-Becker really did exist in fact and makes this a more relevant film than it would have been with an entirely fictitious protagonist. But it also makes it more of a missed opportunity as I personally did not feel this was a captivating biopic for any reason or did a fair tribute to PMB. Looking at her extremely prolific life in these short 30 years, she would have deserved better I guess. It may be a mix between the disappointing script and Juri's occasionally underwhelming performances. I still would say that people who like biopics about painters can check this out, but only if they have seen stuff like "Renoir", "The Girl with the Pear Earring" or "Egon Schiele". And don't have too high expectations as this one is really only for genre lovers. From a general perspective, I give it a thumbs-down. Not recommended.
The title character is played by Carla Juri and I must admit there are previous performances by her that I found really unappealing, so I was a bit surprised that I somewhat liked her in here and that she did not have too many moments where I found her embarrassing and over the top. The film may be in the German language, but there are still more French and Swiss actors in here, also in core positions. My favorite smaller performances was perhaps Nicki von Tempelhoff, who was a bit of a main antagonist in here, but left a decent impact in the audiences' minds, especially in relation to his screen time. A big part of the film was about the discrimination against women back then at the very end of the 19th century and while this was done okay at times the way it was displayed, it also lacked sufficient talent at other times when it felt just for the sake of it. I wouldn't really blame the actors though, more like the context. The title character Paula Modersohn-Becker really did exist in fact and makes this a more relevant film than it would have been with an entirely fictitious protagonist. But it also makes it more of a missed opportunity as I personally did not feel this was a captivating biopic for any reason or did a fair tribute to PMB. Looking at her extremely prolific life in these short 30 years, she would have deserved better I guess. It may be a mix between the disappointing script and Juri's occasionally underwhelming performances. I still would say that people who like biopics about painters can check this out, but only if they have seen stuff like "Renoir", "The Girl with the Pear Earring" or "Egon Schiele". And don't have too high expectations as this one is really only for genre lovers. From a general perspective, I give it a thumbs-down. Not recommended.