Das Mädchen Rosemarie

"Das Madchen Rosemarie" is about a callgirl that goes into industrial espionage. It is loosely based on the live of Rosemarie Nitribitt (1933 - 1957). Very loosely indeed, because Rosemarie Nitribitt was a prostitute and she was murdered but there is no convincing evidence of espionage, only rumors.

The film is a cynical comment on the German economic miracle after the Second World War, in the film referred to as "das Wirtschafts-wunderland". The self pronounced heroes of this miracle, the capitalists, are less a role model than they pretend to be.

Two petty criminals, with whom Rosemarie formed a vaudeville group before her "career", comment on the plot in the form of cynical songs. The film assumes thereby a Brechtonion character, sort of a "Drei Million Grochen Oper".

Rolf Thiele was a German director active from 1951 to 1977. His films are mostly sex comedies and mediocre at best. "Das Mädchen Rosemarie" is one of the best, although still not a top movie. In 1976 he made a (far worse) sequel about the daughter of Rosemarie with "Rosemaries Tochter".

A real art film,with bizarre music (especially the recurring music from the film's opening),great camera movements,and a film making technique that was truly ahead of it's time-you'll grin knowingly when you see the final scene.Unfortunately,the remake adopted none of the film's weird and bizarre stylings,instead only going for a straightforward reworking of the story.

I enjoyed this movie a good deal. The thing that stood out to me the most was the interesting camera angles. There were many times when the camera focused on an object instead of the people who were speaking. There was also many other interesting camera techniques. These various camera angles added to the over feeling of the film. This film also had a very interesting plot, showing how powerful the powerful are. No one can get too close to them, or know too much. The movie was darkly funny. There were many funny moments and even more irony. The most ironic part was the movie ending right where it began. It came full circle, and showed how small and invisible the poor were compared to the rich. The movie kept a constant contrast between the rich and the poor. The movie was full of black male, threats and using people. Everyone was pinned against everyone esle. This made the movie very interesting to me, but at the same time there was an entire subplot that was never made clear.

There was secrets about the factory and a conflict between the French man and the English that was never made clear. This made the movie a bit hard to enjoy, because we never get to know what is actually happening. And then there is Rosemarie in the middle of it all, and by leaving out all the details it allows the movie to focus on her story, after all thats what this movie is about. Overall, the camera angles and irony made this movie enjoyable to me.

Although I came into the movie theater with high expectations for this film (which had been selected for my film class) I left a bit disappointed and a bit more confused. In short, I didn't like this movie. Artistically the movie was pleasing. The camera work was smooth and the shots were from creative angles (such as when Rosemarie visited her old domicile and the shot was of her feet walking in, somewhat showing how she was above that life now) and the scenes flowed nicely from one to the next. Content and plot-line were my biggest disappointments with this movie. Firstly, all of the characters in this film are static. There seems to be little character development in any of the characters. Each character interacts starkly with the next and neither seems to learn much from the next. Secondly, the plot-line in this movie was loose. The end of the film left many avenues open and some of the plot was not even tied together.

For example, the small apartment where Rosemarie lived at the beginning of the film was not explained at all during the film. Even the men who lived in the apartment weren't explained in effect or purpose. The story also switched from being somewhat comical, to stark and realistic, to unrealistic at the end. In short, this is a well-done movie that I didn't like.

German director, Theile, did a great job of utilizing Hollywood with his filming techniques. The first thing that came to mind when watching this movie was ?Twilight Zone.? The camera movements, the angles, and the close-ups were very reminiscent of an old sci-fi movie. Watching Rosemarie forty-five years after it was first debuted was refreshing. There aren't many films with the same amount of character uniformity these days. Like the way in which the business men silently walked through scenes in queues. And how they all slowly drive the same car through the streets, wear the same clothes, and all have personal frustrations that Rosemarie exploited. All these traits added an eeriness to the film. The recurring, whirring sound effects of the revolving door were laughable. The two most bothersomme things were that it was obvious that many (if not all) of the street scenes were not shot on location, but rather on a closed studio set (though this made the scenes automaton-esque) and the subtitles weren't very precise to what the characters were really saying.

Perhaps I have little patience, but I was ready to leave towards the middle of the movie. Or perhaps I have little patience for movies or I didn?t like the sci-fi feel. But I stayed and found myself to be intrigued with the circular ending of the film?as the final scene reminds the viewer of the opening scene and leaves them questioning, 'Will she meet the same fate'?