Große Mädchen weinen nicht

I'm currently studying with an exchange guy. He's from Germany and is learning many different languages. A very smart boy and fun to be with; and although he speaks to us in our language, it would be interesting to listen to him speaking German. Watching this film, I realized how that would be. Besides the German language itself, he would probably speak the same way; the expressions, and special words, because this film's characters live in the teenage world. The piece is very brave, and I don't know what the reception was at its country in its time, but director Maria Von Heland is trying to declare: "These things happen…And they happen to teenagers".

In this very real reality, kids go to school and have best friends, hang out with boyfriends, form rock bands, carry on a sexual life and so on. Von Heland's screenplay covers all of these aspects three dimensionally, because it expands them with a lot of knowledge. Best friends are what Kati (newcomer at the time Anna Maria Muhe) and Steffi (Karoline Herfurth). The first has just ended a relationship and the last has a boyfriend named Carlos (David Winter), who is in a rock band. The sexual life of teenage girls isn't something understood, it comes by the person each one is. The movie deals with this letting us know that Steffi and Carlos have known each other for a long time but they still haven't made love.

On the other side, Kati is always looking for chances; going out late, meeting older guys and carrying condoms inside her jeans. All this we learn when we are taken inside her house, where a ruined family clearly lives. In one scene, while Kati's family is having dinner, Von Heland shows with a still camera the faces of each of the members, and it becomes obvious; it's a tense and dysfunctional life. We later experience a father-daughter talk about some discoveries, and Kati and her younger sister praying to God while we listen to their parents' screams. They say: "God, I know you're very busy and all that, but please make our parents divorce soon". There's another strong scene near the ending, where Kati prays by herself.

Strong is about everything in this movie. Steffi also has his family issues, we find out. We know the character and we believe she'd resolve them maturely, but when Tessa (Josefine Domes) comes into the picture, and Steffi resolves, we realize that Kati is probably more mature than her and therefore how contradictory life is. Steffi has her motives for what she does with Tessa and everything she does later, so does Kati when she tells her mom: "This is who I am…Look at me!". So does Tessa's mom when she acts, and Kati's mom when she gets mad, and Kati's father when he advices her, and everybody else. One notable thing about the feature is that is difficult to take sides; you understand everyone.

Another very remarkable detail is the use of music, all of it in English, representing each moment of the story with lyrics and songs according to the music people of the movie characters' age listen. Everything that happens to the two friends is something that could occur to any friendship any day. Because when two people are friends since little, it is something given (in my case with my ever best friend Matías), and when they fight they always make up; it is the tough bond that unites them. But the truth is that sometimes there are some much stronger things that test that bond; and that is the time to find out if the feelings are real. What Kati and Steffi live is way too strong for their age, but it is up to them to work it out, while is up to the movie to show us how powerful friendship truly is.

"Big Girls Don't Cry" is a little German gem about two affluent late teen females - best friends since childhood - whose bond of love for each other is tested when life experiences force them to cope with serious matters of character and integrity. The film is a stylish shoot, imbued with the ever present aura of a female auteur, which offers some superb performances by a young cast, especially tyro Mühe, as it wends it way through a somewhat thin story with realism, balance, proportion, and a distinct absence of that most prevalent of cliches - teen angst. A huge kudo to von Heland for this engrossing little foreign subtitled film which will play best with females, especially teens and young adults into foreign flicks. (B)

Note - If you like this film, you might want to give "Bandits 1997" a try.

I don't think that this is a movie just for girls. I'm a guy and I thought it was brilliant. I think it's a movie just for teenagers and the effect that parents can have on their kids. I mean, Steffi goes crazy when she finds out about her dad's affair and wants to ruin other people's lives, and I think it was portrayed beautifully on-screen. I think that people should take a closer look at how they can take care of their kids.

I also think it's just a beautiful movie of friendship and how far you'll go to help a friend, without losing yourself along the way, as in Kati's situation. I thought it was just a beautiful movie, and I love watching this on TV. I've seen it about 8 times now and still continue to watch it every now and then. By the way, this is the first foreign movie I've seen fully. Sub-titles usually bother me, but they didn't with this one.

What a superb film. I hadn't heard of it until a director friend drew my attention to it. Though it might be regarded by some as a movie for young people, it is much more than that. There can hardly be a parent who doesn't identify with at least some of the problems so accurately, touchingly and acutely portrayed. I was much impressed by the way the director used simple, often brief, scenes to powerfully indicate a shift in character. In addition to the portrayal of a wonderful universal story, it also told us much about the social and economic problems of Germany following the re-unification.

A real shame the film hasn't had a wider audience. See it if you can.

In most movies about teens - at least those made in America - we usually don't have to spend a great deal of time trying to figure out who are the "good" people and who are the "bad." The filmmakers are usually kind enough to do that for us. This is obviously not the case in Europe, however, for in the German film "Big Girls Don't Cry," the adolescents we meet are anything but morally and ethically clear-cut.

The two best friends, Steffi and Kati, seem like fairly typical middle class teens - somewhat mischievous, obsessed with boys, and faintly rebellious against the authority figures of the adult world. They also drink, party and experiment with drugs - nothing too radical for teens anywhere in the world today. However, one night Steffi inadvertently discovers that her father is having an affair. At this point, all hell breaks loose, as Steffi decides to take her anger and revenge out on the innocent daughter of her father's mistress, an aspiring singer named Tessa. Steffi sends Tessa to a potentially dangerous local pornographer, leading her to believe that he is actually a record producer searching for new talent. This single action leads to a series of cascading events that winds up, in some way or other, adversely affecting most of the people in Steffi's life.

Steffi and Kati are both fully realized and complex characters who refuse to be pigeonholed at any given point in the movie. Steffi begins her crusade of vengeance convinced that she is acting strictly out of righteous anger, especially since, in her mind at least, her actions are as much a way of protecting her mother's honor as her own. And if innocent victims have to be sacrificed along the way, well, so be it. What Steffi doesn't realize, until it's too late, is that we can't always control how the human dramas we set in motion will ultimately act themselves out. Kati, who is far more rebellious and far more promiscuous than Steffi, finds herself torn between her loyalty as a friend and doing what she knows is right. It is Kati, the less self-assured one, who, ultimately, becomes the moral beacon that Steffi will be forced to follow if she hopes to survive in the world.

Anna Maria Muhe as Kati and Karoline Herfurth as Steffi give brilliant, well-rounded performances, as does the rest of the talented cast. The acting, writing and directing are so good and true, in fact, that the movie is able to override the occasional implausibility or touch of melodrama that wanders into the storyline.

I just wish American movies about teenagers were this thought-provoking, interesting and impressive.