A portrait of claustrophobic adolescence within the confines of a bourgeois Catholic Austrian family, the 'lovely Rita' of the title appears to be a typical brooding teenager, but there are darker consequences to this seemingly everyday tale. Rita is an only child who displays classic adolescent truculence in response to the strictures of her family and school. Her parents lead a life hidebound by convention and routine – socialising with the neighbours, shooting birds for sport, and repeatedly berating Rita for her sullen attitude. There is an uneasy imbalance of power within the family, where the father's unpredictable temper creates an atmosphere of constant tension, and the mother seems to enforce the father's tyrannies with a smile of twisted satisfaction.The low tech production values create a surprisingly effective medium for this bleak exploration of family life. Not the most uplifting viewing experience, but an honest and brave approach at portraying the familiar theme of adolescent alienation in a harsh and realistic light. KR
6 Reviews
Portrayal of a sullen teenager fails to excite
raymond-1526 July 2004
Lovely Rita is not lovely at all. She is a sulky, deceitful, calculating teenager bent on seducing the local bus driver. She is very much an outsider at school and is the source of many arguments at home.
In the title role Barbara Osika gives a good rendition of a frustrated and unbalanced youngster, despite the fact that the script is both rather dull and uninteresting.
A couple of sex scenes are suggested rather than portrayed in any detail. The faces of the participants are immobile and unseen by the camera. The back of the young girl's head is seen blocking out the face of the bus driver. With very little movement the rest is left to the imagination of the viewer. The scene is short. One wonders if the censor has been at work here.
The director seems to have an obsession with the backs of heads, but sometimes it can be quite effective. The bus driver is filmed from behind as he sits at the wheel ( just as the passengers see him) while Rita exchanges fleeting glances with him in the mirror above his head.
It's amazing how the lid of a pedestal toilet seat can start an argument which grows from day to day to an unexpectedly very tense situation.
The final climax comes quite suddenly and adds a nice bit of drama sadly lacking in the earlier part of the film.
In the title role Barbara Osika gives a good rendition of a frustrated and unbalanced youngster, despite the fact that the script is both rather dull and uninteresting.
A couple of sex scenes are suggested rather than portrayed in any detail. The faces of the participants are immobile and unseen by the camera. The back of the young girl's head is seen blocking out the face of the bus driver. With very little movement the rest is left to the imagination of the viewer. The scene is short. One wonders if the censor has been at work here.
The director seems to have an obsession with the backs of heads, but sometimes it can be quite effective. The bus driver is filmed from behind as he sits at the wheel ( just as the passengers see him) while Rita exchanges fleeting glances with him in the mirror above his head.
It's amazing how the lid of a pedestal toilet seat can start an argument which grows from day to day to an unexpectedly very tense situation.
The final climax comes quite suddenly and adds a nice bit of drama sadly lacking in the earlier part of the film.
nothing to do with comedy
marinelad8 August 2001
Whose sick joke was to describe this film as a comedy? It is a drama, family drama or teenage drama that does not have anything with comedy. It is pretty dark film showing typical teenagers' ways of dealing with growing up, especially when they have no support, just punishment measures from their parents. Unfortunately, sometimes it ends up tragically
Good but the ending belongs to AKI KAURISMAKI
simon-4718 January 2003
I saw this film at Cannes Film Festival in 2001 and was very impressed by the ending. However, when I saw Kaurismaki's Match Factory Girl last year, I found that the ending and the movement of the camera picturing Lovely Rita is almost same with Match Factory Girl.
The stories of those two films are different, but when you see the ending itself, you could say they are sharing the same ending.
The film still remains good to me, but the ending belongs to AKI KAURISMAKI
The stories of those two films are different, but when you see the ending itself, you could say they are sharing the same ending.
The film still remains good to me, but the ending belongs to AKI KAURISMAKI
although just 80 minutes long, it seems to never stop
beowulf22229 October 2001
this movie wants to show the fake facade of a Catholic, bourgeois family, and it does so by boring the user for 80 full minutes.
shaky camera, bad lightening, strange doings by the characters. everything feels acted and not real.
shaky camera, bad lightening, strange doings by the characters. everything feels acted and not real.
Sadly this film is not as lovely as its protagonist
Horst_In_Translation3 April 2018
Warning: Spoilers
"Lovely Rita" is a German/Austrian co-production from 2001, so this one is already over 15 years old and it is the first work by writer and director Jessica Hausner that crossed the one-hour mark. It took home some awards recognition and is one of the reasons why Hausner is making films these days still and pretty successfully in fact. It is a relatively short film though as it stays under the 80-minute mark and that already includes credits. I must say that I am not familar with any of the actors here despite being a bit of a German film junkie, but that's fine I guess because most of them aren't too famous overall. Lead actress Osika for example apparently never appeared in a movie before or after this one. Still she is definitely among the better aspects to this one, not only because of her looks, but also because of her performance. She is the shining light in what is otherwise a really sterile and bleak work. This is not necessarily a negative criticism, but while the film feels realistic for the most part, including the characters, there is not one area where it excels enough for me to really make an impact and make this memorable and worth watching. It was tough to care for any of the protagonists really with the exception of Rita probably. But that's not enough. The rare louder and more significant moments like shooting at a gun range did not only not fit in in terms of style, but also did not result in half the impact thesy were supposed to result in. So while this film is far from a failure, I think that Hausner was a bit away from her best still. But if it was one reason why she became who she is today, then it is still good this film got made. I do believe though that there was the potential for something really better than this was overall. The coming-of-age aspect as severely underdeveloped as is the struggling with everybiody around her involving school as well as family and of course religion, one crucial aspect here. Maybe watch "Kreuzweg" instead if you are interested in that subject. Still I feel that "Lovely Rita" is a film that could get better on reatch, so maybe I'm gonna check it out at some point in the future again. For now, I have to give it a thumbs-down though. Not recommended.
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