Maria's Lovers

Nasti KINSKI and all the lovers of Mary

At the beginning of the 1980s, German actress Nastassja KINSKI began her astonishing and wonderful rise to becoming a world-famous GOLDEN GLOBE winner (she received the trophy for her title role in TESS). In the years following this brilliant start to her career, she established herself as a busy actress in Hollywood, but had significantly less success at the box office than she had hoped. As a result, many of the films she made back then were all too quickly forgotten. When a then Soviet Russian director like Andrei KONTSCHALOWSKI made his very first Hollywood film with her in the lead role, it could only have gone wrong, as was often etched in the newspapers at the time. Not even close! MARIA's LOVERS from 1984 is an astonishing film that the German-French television station ARTE graciously made available to interested audiences again a few months ago.

At the beginning there are remarkable documentary recordings that director legend John HUSTON shot immediately after the Second World War. American soldiers clearly suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder! After the First World War, such men were still called "war tremors". Just such a soldier is young Ivan Bibic (John SAVAGE), who wants nothing more than to marry his childhood sweetheart Maria (Nastassja KINSKI) after the end of the Second World War. Although she is still with the handsome Al Griselli (Vincent SPANO), she then marries Ivan, to whom she is genuinely fond. But that's just where the problems begin, because Ivan suffers from erectile dysfunction due to the mental stress during the war. It goes without saying that this is not good for the young marriage at all. One day a traveling folk singer (Keith CARRADINE) comes to the poor steelworker town...

KONTSCHALOWSKI dares to do something! As a film director from the Soviet Union, he dares to create a modern story about the Virgin Mary, which is supplemented by a very sensitive topic. There are not only attractive pictures of the beautiful Nastassja KINSKI to see. John SAVAGE in particular, who is best known from the exciting musical HAIR, had to film some intense scenes here. Some things make others ashamed, others - like the rat in the mouth - are really absolutely disgusting! But that makes this film something special, but one that you should consciously get involved with. This is not for the faint-hearted!

Other roles include the indestructible Robert MITCHUM, the sensual Anita MORRIS and the brilliant John GOODMAN. This remarkable film also had far-reaching consequences for the fabulous Nasti KINSKI. In real life, her actor colleague Vincent SPANO became the father of her first child.

A World War II soldier (Savage) returns to marry his old lover (Kinski) but his inability to father a child leads to the destruction of their marriage. The couple goes through a series of tribulations before coming together again. Savage gives a so-so performance as the tormented husband who loses the will to commit to the sanctity of the marriage bond. Kinski gives her most versatile and inspired performance ever as the anguished wife. If anything, watch her. The director, Andrei Konchalovsky, is actually Russian. The movie is a pastiche of styles from American and European film-making. Strong powerful storytelling through the chronology of time tinged with the emotional pathos that is typical of most European films. In the end, the mix is a bit jagged and mismatched, but this doesn't stray from an otherwise strong and moving movie.

Set in the immediate post World War II in the small rural picturesque American town of Brownsville, Pennsylvania among Yugoslavian immigrants, `Maria's Lovers' follows a young soldier with the name of Ivan Bibec, played by John Savage, who has been discharged from the Army, into his home town. The film seems to unfold slowly upon first viewing, but that is misleading because it has been very tightly edited and one can only pick up some of the nuances of the film by watching it a second and/or a third time. Nastassja Kinski is Maria Bosic and is the central character in the film. The supporting cast is first rate with Anita Morris, Robert Mitchum and Keith Carradine. The film has a European feel to it because of the direction of Andrei Konchalovsky, meaning that it is sparse and compact, yet exquisitely framed. Early on, Ivan marries his sweetheart, Maria, and the rest of the film deals with love and infidelity and how it impacts the two main characters and their marriage.

1984 found Nastassja Kinski in four film releases: `Unfaithfully Yours' a nice light comedy, `The Hotel New Hampshire' (a Nastassja disaster in which she initially appears in a bear costume and is so happy to escape it that she does one cartwheel at the end of the film), the Wim Wenders' legendary `Paris, Texas' in which she appears in the last part of the film, and then there was `Maria's Lovers' in which she was the featured and marquee performer. In `Maria's Lovers,' Nastassja has to carry the film in a very difficult role that would stretch any actress's abilities and skills. Of the forty plus Nastassja movies that I have seen, this is probably her best role and performance. Nastassja's Maria is textured and rich with innocence, shyness, passion, vulnerability, and character strength. If anything, Nastassja Kinski is chameleon like because she so easily blends into the film and yet her character is quite distinctive with depth, dealing with the irrationalities of love, intimacy, and infidelity. In a sense, `Maria's Lovers' is an end point for Nastassja because she was finally able to integrate everything into one performance. There is little question that Nastassja Kinski is foremost a dramatic actress of unparalleled skills that can be subtle or dynamic or anything in between when on the screen. Coupled with her singular striking beauty and expressive eyes, she is a package that very few actresses can ever hope to equal. Nastassja intuitively knows how to move on screen, have the proper inflections in her voice, use her face and eyes as an ever changing canvas, project intelligence and sensuality, and be charismatic with great screen presence. This was nothing less than a superb performance.

An excellent period piece set in post WWII small town Pennsylvania. This is an unvarnished look at working class life among the "ethnics" and sexual dysfunction. The production values are fantastic. This movie really captures what it was like then including a passing shot of a large coal burning locomotive. The interiors are drab and worn with peeling paint in some scenes. The directorial style is similar to that of Michael Cimino in The Deer Hunter and Heaven's Gate.

The producers probably wondered why the excellent script and performances didn't garner at least Oscar nominations. It was nominated as Best Foreign Film for the French Cesar award.

"Maria's Lovers" is, first of all, a beautiful-looking film. Juan Ruiz Anchía does a fantastic job photographing the film, making wonderful use of light. Scene after scene is brilliantly framed and shot, at times feeling like a series of photographs. Anchía and director Andrei Konchalovsky make a great team. But this is essential to make a film such as this watchable, because the general attitude of virtually every character is endlessly frustrating. Most are motivated by sex, some by fear, some by greed, some by possessiveness, some by misguided innocence.

There are no particular flaws in any of the performances. Kinski, Savage, Mitchum and Carradine create characters of real depth. There are times when "Maria's Lovers" has the overpowering sense of being made in the mold of the great classic tragedies. Which is to say, everyone is more miserable more often than is entirely likely in real life. But I could be wrong, and perhaps there are lives which very closely parallel those shown here. Either way, it is a supremely difficult, painful, intense, and ultimately believable picture. To the right audience, it could very nearly be considered perfect. It's a clean, true, human depiction.