Transit
Directed by:
Christian PetzoldScreenplay:
Christian PetzoldCinematography:
Hans FrommComposer:
Stefan WillCast:
Franz Rogowski, Paula Beer, Godehard Giese, Lilien Batman, Maryam Zaree, Barbara Auer, Matthias Brandt, Sebastian Hülk, Emilie de Preissac, Antoine Oppenheim (more)VOD (2)
Plots(1)
The German troops are just outside Paris. Georg escapes to Marseille at the last moment. His luggage contains the legacy of a writer named Weidel, who took his own life out of fear of persecution. This legacy comprises a manuscript, some letters and the Mexican Embassy’s assurance of a visa. Only those who can prove that they will leave are allowed in this port town, and this means you need an entry permit from a potential host country. Assuming the identity of Weidel, Georg tries to obtain one of the few scarce passages on a ship. Talks between refugees take place in the corridors of his small hotel, the waiting rooms of consulates, and the cafés and bars down at the harbour. Georg befriends Driss, the son of his late comrade Heinz, who died whilst trying to flee. But when he meets the mysterious Marie, his plans change. (Berlinale)
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Reviews (3)
The German director and screenwriter Christian Petzold’s Transit is a movie precisely to my taste. The dramatic story with a slightly romantic touch and tragic etudes surrounding the main protagonist Georg, in a very convincing performance by the charismatic Franz Rogowski, got under my skin right from the opening minutes and kept my full attention right into the closing credits, accompanied by the sweet stains of Road to Nowhere by the famous new wave band Talking Heads. I have a nagging feeling that the setting of the events of World War II in the contemporary world gave the action an almost terrifying dimension. (90%)
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WWII LARP on Valium, or how to fictionalize the failure to raise money for a period novel adaptation. If it had at least been more acknowledged in the idea of the universality of fatalistic clichés, and if the filmmakers had at least decided to work with that "malaise" a bit more formally and scenically, we might have come to an agreement, but the film horribly sniffs its own farts, not to mention it's just sloppy craftsmanship. The last time I tore at a cinema seat like this was with Jarmusch's The Limits of Control. ___ Watched as part of Catch-Up Tuesday at Prague’s Světozor cinema, and as much as I'm increasingly thinking that putting films into context with some spoken introduction is actually not a bad idea, if it's going to be in this form, I take it all back. The five-minute-long ascension, quoting the promotional materials for a film where one gets the feeling that the person is describing his own start-up, reminded me of the Summer Film School information brochure the other day, where the descriptions for about sixty films began "It's as if Lynch and Haneke…"
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Christian Petzold makes interesting and unusual films, I've seen a number of them. Thus far, however, Barbara remains unsurpassed. As I was watching Transit, I reflected that it felt like I was watching a movie from World War II, yet set in current realities. Halfway through, I couldn't resist, and had to read the plot summary to figure out that Petzold had chosen an unconventional play on the viewer pointing to certain evils that are timeless. This is worth seeing.
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