ChWasser

I knew in advance that I would like this film because Katharina Schüttler is my favourite German actress for some time now and because the director's first film "Der Strand von Trouville" was a small, underrated gem. Yet I didn't expect to be blown away this far and fall in love fervently with what is clearly the best German film of 2002 (IMHO).

I won't give a plot synopsis here, because the less you know beforehand the better. I will give a warning though: "Sophiiiie!" may not be the the right film for faint-hearted or easily offended people (and especially for pregnant women). It is a provocative, controversial, wild and fierce movie, less extreme but not unlike Gaspar Noé's "Irreversible".

Sophie is a great character (played brilliantly and very courageously by Katharina Schüttler) and to those people who complain that there can't be a woman like her in real life, I would reply: That's the magic of cinema! She is self-destructive, fearless, charming, sexy, funny, pitiable, and she shoots recklessly through the night like a ricochet in a china shop, leaving burning "Monsters", confused taxi drivers and lots of "assholes and nice idiots" behind.

If you (like me) didn't quite understand the ending, I can give you a hint that hopefully doesn't spoil anything: After the screening which I attended the director answered questions and he said that the "Texas TWO STEP" routine by the Polish cowboys may explain that ending (you'll know what I'm talking about when you see the film).

What do you get when you mix a coming of age drama, a teen comedy and a nostalgic flashback to 1985 ? Well, in this case you get a wonderful movie (especially appealing to those people who were teenagers in the 80ies), which is neither too broad/gross nor overly sentimental (except for the present-day frame story). Apparently you also have a marketing problem: sadly this seems to become another undeserved flop at the German box office.

The main forte of "Das Jahr der ersten Küsse" are the actors: I've rarely seen such a good ensemble of young actors (most of them giving their debut), who really are the age of the characters they're playing for a change instead of 22 year-olds playing 15 year-olds as in most Hollywood movies. Every one of them (especially Rebecca Hessing, but also Max Mauff, Nina Asseng and Luana Bellinghausen) is perfectly cast and acts very natural.

The main weakness of the film is the tempo: the unnecessary frame story and voice-over narration (first person to boot, which is usually a bad idea), the frequent "fade-to-blacks" (a stylistic device which was also overused in another recent German film, "Wie Feuer und Flamme") and the relatively long takes, all make this movie slower than it needs to be. If a bit more were happening plot-wise (like a disco visit of the clique, for example) this could have been balanced, but unfortunately the actual story is a little thin. Two minor quibbles that I have with the film are the freedom which the turkish girl Tümai enjoys (in 1985 she probably would've had a father like Simone's, who wouldn't allow her anything) and the fact that 15 year-olds still play bottle tricks. Today's teenagers may indeed have their first sex earlier, but 17 years ago teenagers were not *that* naive either.

As an overall rating I'd still give this movie 8/10 (despite the mentioned flaws), because it gives such a likeable and realistic portrait of German teens in the 80ies.

Normally I'm not particularly fond of movies about mental illness and I hate it when an actor automatically gets an Academy Award just because he plays another autistic person or Alzheimer patient. "Das weisse Rauschen" is the exception to the rule. In this film you really get an insight into the mind of a paranoid schizophrenic (played brilliantly by Daniel Brühl - he deserves every award that he got already or will get in the future), because it is so well researched that it appears 100% authentic (the director studied neurology).

And yet the film does not become a clinical case study, but tells an interesting story about a young man, Lukas, who moves to Cologne to share a flat with his older sister Kati (Anabelle Lachatte) and her friend Jochen. At first everything is going fine; they spend their days taking drugs and having fun, but when he abandons his university studies on the first day just because he can't find the enrolment office and when a date with a girl goes a little bit wrong ;-) the audience begins to suspect that there's something wrong with Lukas. After the schizophrenia first breaks out, the movie becomes a very intense experience (similar to the films of Darren Aronofsky or even to "Das Experiment"), because on the sound track you hear the same cacophony of voices that begin to torment Lukas.

Without exception the acting is great. Anabelle Lachatte's character (sexy as hell, but very down-to-earth) may be the worst help a "madman" can get, but it's always clear that she loves her brother and would do anything to help him. Katharina Schüttler in her small role is as good as always. The cinematography has the look and feel of a "Dogma film", but for once it didn't make me dizzy.

All in all, I would say that in comparison to "A Beautiful Mind", "Das weisse Rauschen" is the better film ... much better.