Purely Joyful Movie!

A different way of telling a story

The acting in this movie is really good.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

This is the fourth Petzold feature film I've seen; they've all been well-made and all have left me unsatisfied in some way. Die innere Sicherheit is his remake of Running On Empty and has some effective performances but lacks the emotion of Lumet's film. Barbara is a wonderful vehicle for his muse Nina Hoss, but the suspense you'd expect to find in a DDR story isn't there. Jerichow is a version of The Postman Always Rings Twice that is underpowered in its acting.Now Yella has another effective performance by Nina Hoss--think of Julia Roberts with more acting ability--but the script somehow doesn't satisfy. It's more Daphne du Maurier when you really want Graham Greene. David Striesow as the cynical yet somehow sympathetic Philipp impressed me; I'd want to see him in another vehicle.

If you are looking for a thriller that sweeps you away for 90 minutes go elsewhere. If you are looking for a twister that strives to constantly outwit your keen literary and cinematic intellectual sensibilities with its never-ending brain teasers this isn't it. The film does have flaws but, as a vehicle that facilitates a better understanding of human nature, it is very successful.Why can't bright people get over the need to duel with the directors and writers of film and, instead, pay attention to what is important? Whatever its shortcomings, this is a look into the psyche of a human being that, at least for me, reveals all the frailties, contradictions and inconsistencies that our species is heir to.See this film, allow yourself to enter into Yella - then, by all means, dissect and analyze it later.

We can forgive wooden dialog, flat characters, and all manner of implausibilities, just so long as the story's a good one. But this film looks like a draft from a bad and very boring TV show: a bunch of scarcely-related, independently developed thematic elements are sliced, diced, and shuffled together into a melange of ideas precariously balanced on the teetering bones of a half-baked story. Pacing and sequencing is clumsy and amateurish. I made it through about one hour and I only got that far because I thought it HAD to get better - it just couldn't be this lousy and boring. It did not get better at all. I kept thinking, "How much longer can this pseudo-artistic film go on?"

Petzold is a very controlled and composed film-maker. In this film, as in GESPENSTER, he uses this almost forensic calm and diurnal realism to explore metaphysical issues. So this film, which ostensibly takes place in the aggressive financial world of mergers and acquisitions, is also a film about death, the soul, and guilt. It is a great challenge to look at these intangible themes through the prism of a very tangible, concrete world - but this Petzold does achieve, with beautifully composed and controlled imagery, and even a nice line in wry, ironic humour. There are some great performances in the film - they draw you part of the way in, but nevertheless there is still some distance between viewer and film. This maybe results in a slightly cold viewing experience, but the film has stayed with me long after its end - it is a complex and highly rewarding work, if mainly in retrospect.