¿Bin ich schön?

My friend just summarized this film perfectly:"I paid ten DM for this film and I can't even be upset about having wasted my money". This movie is completely German: every character which appears in it is introduced, explained and motivated. No holes in the plot, no surprises, no bad scenes as well. The acting is great, but hey, what do you expect if you throw a lot of "soul" and "drama" to a selection of Germany's finest actors.

If you are not German and never lived in this country, don't see this movie; it will appear dull and retarded. If you are German, you will enjoy it, laugh (a bit) and feel sad in the end. Just fine for a casual Saturday evening out with your girl-/boy-friend.

Summary of the plot: the movie is set partly in Spain and partly in Germany. All scenes are essentially dialogues between two of a bunch of characters that are all somehow related to each other. The web of their fates, loves, flirts, dramas is pulled tighter and tighter, but unlike your expectations no climax occurs. So you end up with a collection of short stories, which is where the script of the movie originated from (To read a truly fascinating book based on the same idea, try Ingo Schulzes 'Simple Stories' -- much better than the movie!). Apparently, Ms Doerrie made this film in order to memorate her late partner, who died during the first attempt to shoot it. This is why all the dialogues circle around the ever-hot topic of love, death & marriage. She hadn't had the courage and the understanding to do the film with two persons, so instead she multiplied the problems and characters as if to demonstrate that in the end we are all alike with our problems and our solutions. Heavy stuff ! And, being German, Ms Doerrie offers instantly the perfect solution: Stop being German and become Spanish! They got songs, dances, sun and know how to mourn and live...

I give this film 5 points, because it is so average and stubborn. I wished that once these directors dared and I could love or hate their films. Now they annoy me, but decently.

P.S.: If you are up for a good German movie, go see 'Lola rennt' by Tom Tykwer !

I am sorry to say that, but this film is one of the worst I have ever seen. There is nothing to say against breaking a rule, but breaking all rules in one film definitely is too much. This film lacks the plot, the protagonist, the conflict and the showdown. It is an "esoteric" report about what life is about (or so) and may be intended as a portrait of todays social behaviour. Being stuck in a traffic jam for 5 hours is more interesting.

This movie knits a web of stories that revolve around the loveless wedding of a girl, concerning her mother and father, her sisters, her former boyfriend, the wedding party caterer, a girl accidentally met in a rainy evening, and the people these people meet: a Spanish man who brings the ashes of his dead German wife to Germany, to bring her to the rain and green grass she missed; an extravagant girl who seeks the attention of strangers by pretending she is handicapped or ill; the father's mistress who slashes her wrists in a clandestine visit to her lover's house; an abandoned old woman found by the younger sister in the airport.

The stories, located half in Germany and half in Spain, can be intensely poetic, or intensely brutal, or funny, or poignant, and make up an absorbing whole. All of them have to do with love, love being found, lost or hankered after. By the end of the movie the stories have not been brought to any closure; like in life, there are no neat endings.

"Life according to Doris" might be an adequate alternative title to this film. Instead of telling a linear story with a showdown, Dörrie spotlights moments in people's life that tell everything about their past, their present and the world that surrounds them. The way she does it puts her in one line with Jim Jarmusch. As in most of her other films, it is what the characters say and do more than how it is filmed what makes the film. "Bin ich schön?" is the closest any of Dörries's films comes to her remarkable short stories.

Now that is a film that tries to show the modern world of relationships and how many people just do not get what they want, due to mean folks around, lack of communication and trust or just unfitting circumstances. Depressing autumn movie, but with a glimpse of hope and great music of mostly Spanish origin.