Sophie Kluge wants to get close to the reality of today's 20-year-olds and places a reserved heroine at the center of her film, which is still in search of herself and her position in life.
A nice neighbor carries Ava (Henriette Confurius) the heavy suitcase up the stairs, as the young woman from a stay abroad returns to her mother's apartment. At first, one does not recognize the prominent guest actor in Sophie Kluge's feature film »Golden Twenties«, but it is actually Blixa Cash, who tackles here so energetically. Ava is 25, and the title of the film means, ironically, her life and maybe even a generation. Young people like Ava, who are at a crossroads: The study is finished, but how it should go on, is uncertain. Even Ava must first find her place in life. When asked what she's up to, she answers, "I'm not sure yet."
The Phenomenal and profoundly disturbing thing about Kluge's episodic feature film is that you do not know its main character at the end. The production consistently revolves around the provisional vagueness of the young woman. Ava seems to fit in everywhere, just because she lacks a sharp interest profile.
It should initially be a guest performance at the theater. The place receives the Ava by relations of the mother, which is drawn as vague as the daughter, moreover. Everything looks undefined: the relationship of the young woman to men, to work, even to the mother. With certainty it can only be said that Ava is there, that it exists. And when she actually has sex with one of the young actors from the theater, it seems she just wants to do something, because that's just what it's all about.
Sophie Kluge staged this film because she did not feel represented in the cinema. The trend to tell of strong young women, she is basically great, but restrained heroines were always neglected. That's why she wanted to focus on a silent fighter. Kluge has a fine sense for subcutaneous processes, latent depressives - and the phrases that gloss over the fact that everything is actually quite terrible: the uncertainty, the invisible perspective, the generally prevailing non-bindingness.
All relationships in "Golden Twenties" are clearly strained. What is said in this film about the theatrical work that it succeeds as on a staggering ship, also applies to Avas existence. She lets herself be carried away.
The most interesting are probably the interactions between the theater director (Nicolas Wackerbarth), actors, assistant director and the guest assistant Ava during the rehearsals and piece discussions and the way how Ava is kept down here with friendly insincerity; how conflicts are ironed away before they can be formulated; how territories are marked and defended mercilessly. If the mother hangs the chain on the door in the evening and prevents Ava from getting in, it gains symbolic content. One desperately wants Ava to reach for the ax and hit all the doors.
A nice neighbor carries Ava (Henriette Confurius) the heavy suitcase up the stairs, as the young woman from a stay abroad returns to her mother's apartment. At first, one does not recognize the prominent guest actor in Sophie Kluge's feature film »Golden Twenties«, but it is actually Blixa Cash, who tackles here so energetically. Ava is 25, and the title of the film means, ironically, her life and maybe even a generation. Young people like Ava, who are at a crossroads: The study is finished, but how it should go on, is uncertain. Even Ava must first find her place in life. When asked what she's up to, she answers, "I'm not sure yet."
The Phenomenal and profoundly disturbing thing about Kluge's episodic feature film is that you do not know its main character at the end. The production consistently revolves around the provisional vagueness of the young woman. Ava seems to fit in everywhere, just because she lacks a sharp interest profile.
It should initially be a guest performance at the theater. The place receives the Ava by relations of the mother, which is drawn as vague as the daughter, moreover. Everything looks undefined: the relationship of the young woman to men, to work, even to the mother. With certainty it can only be said that Ava is there, that it exists. And when she actually has sex with one of the young actors from the theater, it seems she just wants to do something, because that's just what it's all about.
Sophie Kluge staged this film because she did not feel represented in the cinema. The trend to tell of strong young women, she is basically great, but restrained heroines were always neglected. That's why she wanted to focus on a silent fighter. Kluge has a fine sense for subcutaneous processes, latent depressives - and the phrases that gloss over the fact that everything is actually quite terrible: the uncertainty, the invisible perspective, the generally prevailing non-bindingness.
All relationships in "Golden Twenties" are clearly strained. What is said in this film about the theatrical work that it succeeds as on a staggering ship, also applies to Avas existence. She lets herself be carried away.
The most interesting are probably the interactions between the theater director (Nicolas Wackerbarth), actors, assistant director and the guest assistant Ava during the rehearsals and piece discussions and the way how Ava is kept down here with friendly insincerity; how conflicts are ironed away before they can be formulated; how territories are marked and defended mercilessly. If the mother hangs the chain on the door in the evening and prevents Ava from getting in, it gains symbolic content. One desperately wants Ava to reach for the ax and hit all the doors.
