Review of Anna

"Anna" is a West german 90-minute live action film from 1988, so this one is already over 30 years old and got in the news not too long ago again when we found out that lead actress Silvia Seidel died an untimely death under the age of 50. Also way too early died director Frank Strecker and writer Justus Pfaue, who adapted his own book for the screen here. On the opposite end of the scale, actress Eléonore Hirt also died not too long ago almost making it too 100 and outliving them all. Now as for the film here, I thought it had some okay moments, but overall, it just wasn't enough. This one follows up on the mini-series with the same name starring Seidel too and it is about Anna making it big with her legendary dance instructor mentor and making it to New York. They added some new characters like an American boy who is her love interest, but as we quickly find out really not the right one for her. He did not appear in the series, so I guess that was why they did not mind killing him off around the 1-hour mark which I absolutely did not see coming. You could say it was a bold move and to some extent it was, but you also need to make the most of it and that sure wasn't done here. I will not go much into detail about professional choices, but the really weakest moment of the entire film was really when we see Anna make out with the wheelchair boy lying topless in his bed. Okay, they clearly wanted to cheer us for him and that these two get together, but yeah I will not hesitate to call Anna a cold-hearted slut if she does that days after the other boy who clearly liked her and she liked him too dies in a tragic accident. Also the moments when she knows something is wrong before her performance feel pretty cringeworthily written. And how on Earth was the entire thing not cancelled? A boy died for Christs's sake. So yeah, you cannot really expect too much realism here. In America, there were Dirty Dancing and Grease and many other dance-themed movies back then and if this is the German answer, then I would say it is really a bit slim and on the disappointing side to be honest. As for the cast, there is also surprisingly few big names in here looking at how the series was a bit of a hit I think. The one most known is probably the moustache fella who played George's sidekick on Schimanski/Tatort and even he is barely seen on screen and only plays a really small part. I think in terms of the script, this film comes way too short for a positive recommendation. The acting is not a revelation either, so if you really really love ballet/dance films and don't care about everything else, then feel free to check this one out. It's neither a failure nor a good movie. Overall, I give it a thumbs-down.