Maria la maléfique

When I first saw Deadly Maria at the Berlin & Beyond film festival in early 1996 here in San Francisco I was blown away.

It's full of style, like nothing I've ever seen, and uses techniques that punctuate the content more successfully than in probably any other film I've ever seen. Tykwer's later films, Wintersleepers and Run Lola Run are equally brilliant, but I prefer Deadly Maria on most levels.

As far as the content itself, it would most appeal to anyone who knows the pain of living life as someone other than who they truly want to be. It's dark and intensely honest.

What else can I say? This film touched my soul. The catharsis of seeing it shook me to my roots. Tom Tykwer is a genius, in my opinion.

See this film.

Director Tom Tykwer has made a film, that shows the fateful powers, that are to emerge, when a woman is suppressed by men all her life. Maria lives in a dream-land, that exudes violently into real life. Tykwer managed to show the magic of common things in a gray and sorrowful existence.

It's a good movie and to be honest, i should have rated it higher. However, i didn't enjoy it that much. I thought this was a "drama/thriller/fantasy", so i was prepared for something like that. Truth is, it's mislabelled. This is a drama. A "heavy drama", i mean, it was tough to watch at times. There are some poetic/dream-like scenes but its core is realistic as it gets. Nothing wrong with these movies, but i was not in the mood. In any case, it's good. Viewer empathizes with the leading character, there is a strong, almost heartbreaking story and i was waiting for a payoff, because she faced too much adversity in her life. I won't say anything about the ending, i'll just say that i didn't expect it. Not satisfying or unsatisfying, just strange.

Great acting performances by everyone here.

I was fortunate enough to be present at a viewing of the only print w/ english subtitles. Also, I wish that Tykwer had the funds available in the early nineties to complete his vision of the last scene. The way he described it in a 2003 lecture at the MFA was surreal and beautiful.

A good young woman in terrible trouble, a good man who tries to save her, her fixation with him, their ultimate union in death or dreamland. chance encounters, chance events that change everything, problems of self-identity; all of these and especially, the scene that is repeated in Run Lola Run and The Princess and the Warrior, and Heaven. In this scene, a person, usually the female lead, is seen from the camera's POV (in the middle of the street) crossing the street while a large vehicle looms behind her - will it hit her, or stop just in time? In RLR of course, the plot is reversed, with Lola giving her all to save Matti, but that scene is repeated several times, sometimes with Lola, sometimes with Matti, depending on what version of the run we are seeing. Sissi, in TPATW, is accidently hit by the huge truck, her life is saved by the man who caused the truck to swerve, he is able to save her life because it happens that he knows how to do emergency tracheotomies. Life is a series of accidents, apparently. Is he trying to make this cliche of film making new again - and then into a cliche again? Perhaps we have seen the end of it, though. In Heaven, Phillipa steps into the street on the way to her bombing mission and must jump back to avoid being hit by a small sportscar. It seems to be Tykwer's self-referential joke and a hint that even he has had enough of the image.

In Deadly Maria, the Nice Man Next Door (whose name I forget) is too late to save Maria. Happy chances have passed her by, only the first unhappy chance, of being her father's daughter, has formed her life. Even the bus that almost hits her as she crosses the street stops just in time, might just as well have knocked her down - a happy break, however, for the driver. The NMND may still save her, but what are the odds?