User Reviews

"Die linkshändige Frau" or "The Left-Handed Woman" is a West German German-language film from 1978, so this one will soon have its 40th anniversary. The writer here is Peter Handke who did not only come up with the novel that this is based on, but also adapted his work for the screen. Plus this is one of the rare occasions where the prolific writer also acts as director. His most known work as the man in charge. The film received a good deal of awards recognition and you could call it one of the career-defining films for lead actress Edith Clever, who plays the title character. She is supported by more known names like Bruno Ganz, Angela Winkler, Bernhard Wicki and Rüdiger Vogler and even Gérard Depardieu appears briefly. This is the story of a man who returns home from abroad, but when he does, his wife informs him that she intends to leave him, together with their son. This is fairly fine and interesting, but really not even the core plot for the first half of the film. The rest is basically about how Clever's character deals with the new complicated situation, for example how her son annoys her during her work as a single mother. I must say this film has some solid moments, but I still found it fairly dragging and way too long for its own good. It is extremely bleak and had many lengths in my opinion, which is why I am not convinced by Handke's work as a director. Just as a writer, if at all. Maybe Wenders (Handke's longtime collaborator) could have made something better out of this one. I also am not really impressed by Clever's performance and I would not call it awards- or even nomination-worthy. I guess she received lots of recognition because she is basically in every scene of the film except the very beginning and has lots of screen-time in a movie that comes close to the 2-hour mark. I would have preferred more elaboration on Ganz' and Vogler's characters for example. The way it turned out, I can not recommend the watch. I have seen many better (German) films from the 1970s. Thumbs down.

Haven't you noticed, asks the closing epigram of Peter Handke's The Left-Handed Woman, that there is space only for the one who brings space himself...? Acknowledging that the precision of the subtitles may only extend so far, it's an apt closure; the conversational tone emphasizing the film's investigative qualities, its questioning of the interplay between inner and outer lives. The choice of "himself" could be puzzling in this context, and yet the credits that follow identify Edith Clever's protagonist only as "die Frau," even though the film itself does give her a name, Marianne; her husband on the other hand is identified as "Bruno," the same name as the actor playing him, Bruno Ganz, seemingly setting out its own little puzzle regarding the relative identifiability and tangibility of the two character/actor presences. The film revolves around a German couple living in Paris (summing up the pervasive sense of dislocation) - he returns from a business trip to Finland professing his renewed joy in their relationship, to which she soon responds by instigating a split; he moves out and she goes on living in their house with their young son, gradually constructing a revised personal and social equilibrium. Marianne talks very little (her first words come so far into the film that one might have assumed her to be mute) and explains herself less, demanding that we take her on her own terms, an act of feminist sympathy which however does carry the offsetting effect of rendering her something of an abstraction (her relationship with her main female friend Franziska is also one of few words, although provides a key moment of validation when, after earlier flailing to understand Marianne's choices, Franziska finally allows that "now even I want to be alone"). But it's a satisfying film overall, with numerous secondary mysteries including the brief presence of Gerard Depardieu, billed as "Mann mit dem T-shirt," which indeed sums up his contribution exactly.