Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by tinear (A) on April 22, 2011 at 12:11:39

easily ranks among the best dramatic examinations of the violent young Westerners that created havoc from the US to Italy to Germany. Ready to kill or be killed, these ideology-driven revolutionists (most of these people came from educated if not privileged backgrounds) vainly attempted to incite their fellow bourgeois citizens to overthrow their "capitalist regimes" for the "purity and fairness" of the Communist state.
Schlondorff is a cagey director, never stooping to glorify nor demonify the characters: we see the murders carried out as well as their terrible toll on the criminals.
The film centers on a small cadre, but soon hones in on one of the members, Rita Vogt, sensationally played by Bibiana Beglau. After a murder is committed in W. Berlin, she and her cell mates attempt to join an international group of terrorists. When that proves impossible, help arrives from E. Germany: the communist authorities apparently are not inimical to their anti-capitalist activities, but neither are they willing to openly support their activities: they are offered asylum in E. German under the one stipulation that they must assume new identities and forego all political activism. As Rita slowly learns, this deal has Mephistophelian implications: the state has complete control over all aspects of her life.
I don't know why we cannot deal so intelligently and creatively with the same issues: has there been any worthwhile American drama examining the Weathermen?
Don't stay away from this film in fear that it's a political treatise: it is an exciting, intense portrait of a fascinating woman.
If you're not familiar with Volker Schlondorff's work, you should be. He's one of the most intelligent, talented filmmakers attempting to make sense of modern history. Unlike, say, Antonioni who is his equal in societal criticism, Schlondorff places politics directly into the story. For lesser directors, this results in a "Bonnie and Clyde" silly romanticism. In the hands of this master, however, human tragedy fully is exposed.