Salmonberries

I like picking up random movies I've never heard of, to see what I think. This was one of them. I went in with no expectations and was still disappointed. If anything, I can usually get amusement and a laugh out of a strange movie, but this fell flat on all marks. The acting was bad because it was so flat. ...it was really bad. The story just kind of existed, and wasn't interesting in any way. Things progressed very slowly, which is fine in itself, but there was basically no feeling of anticipation. Now, I like off-beat stuff, but this, I just couldn't get into. I think it tries to be artsy at times, or something, I'm not really sure what to think about some of the scenes. It was just plain boring.

I'm giving it a 2/10 simply because I was able to finish the movie, and because I've seen worse. But make no mistake... This movie is quite bad. And not even in a funny way. I was having a hard time even picking a rating for this movie. It's kind of like watching an instructional video for your new Singer sewing machine- it's not really something that you rate. It just kind of... Exists.

I think it's sad that this movie suffers from a shadowy existence under "Bagdad Café". I always found "Bagdad Cafe" to be dragging and weird, while "Salmonberries" is one of the most fascinating and extraordinary movies I have ever seen. Also after having watched it several times, it never loses its very strong appeal to me.

There are two very interesting and totally un-stereotypical main characters, which I both like very much in spite of their (or because of their?) quirkiness. They are played very well by k.d. lang and Rosel Zech. They both have interesting and touching life stories that are slowly revealed throughout the film. Both the revealing of their stories and the development of their unique relationship keeps you guessing where the film will go and keeps you interested.

The story itself is helped a lot through other things like the extraordinarily beautiful imagery of the film. The Alaska scenery is stunning but never cheesy. And anyone who ever saw this film will ever forget the image of Switha's bedroom with the sunlight shining through the glasses with the berries.

On top of that comes the equally beautiful and haunting song "Barefoot" sung by k.d. lang herself. It's amazing how you can hear how much the film inspired her as a singer and songwriter in the recording.

I honestly recommend to buy the DVD - also because in the Extras, there is a great interview, well it's more like a meeting, where director Percy Adlon meets with k.d. lang 11 years later and shares memories. Again, in k.d.'s thoughtful and insightful comments you see what an emotional film this was to produce.

I honestly can't imagine how anyone can find this film weak or boring. Of course there are minor flaws - Kotzebue's too sudden and strong change of character when they visit Berlin is the most obvious one - but this film always strikes a chord in me.

There is a dream sequence in the movie, a concert given by Chuck Connors, where he runs through a transparent foil on which is written "Germany". Kotzebue is named, as we hear from the lesson hold by Rosel Zech in her library, after the German August Von Kotzebue. And then there is Roswitha herself, living since 21 years in this icy asylum, escaped from the German Democratic Republic, cheated by her brother, her husband killed. The West would not have been an alternative, it had to be the land of the Eskimos that had been settled since the early 18th century mostly be the missionaries of Herrnhut, Germany. "Alaska is my home", Roswitha says later.

There is an outer and an inner story in this movie. The outer story is the extraordinary and partly one-sided friendship by an androgynous native and the German librarian. This story is, frankly, mediocre. But much more important, it seems at least to me, is the inner story: Imagine you are 21 years exiled in Alaska and now you have suddenly the chance to fly to Berlin, your home-town, and exactly at the time when the East German Wall falls which kept you exiled for such a long time. When outer things collapse, then there is always the problem how your inner reacts, how you hold it back from also collapsing. I think this is what this movie is really about, and I also think that this is the reason, why the climax, the landing of the machine of Alaskan Airlines in Tempelhof, is prepared by the stunning beauty of the remote landscape of the former Air Force Station at the Arctic Sea. As long you are in asylum, you represent this asylum and if it be only for you alone. This is why Alaska is Germany, and, as we heard, not only for Roswitha. If you are not convinced that I am right, ask yourself about this short scene with the tightrope walker, or have you missed it? Shortly after the landing of "Kotz" and Roswitha in Berlin. - Nietzsche, Zarathustra, chapter 6, correct.

After clearing away all the acting and plot lines and cinematography and scripts, what I want to see in a movie is something that makes me sit up an take notice. Something that opens my eyes and my mind to some new previously-unperceived reality. Salmonberries does this in a powerful way. Salmonberries transports you to a place where you have never been, to a culture you have never known, and opens the hearts and souls of people you have never known, and lays it bare. See this film.

The story of the film is not something to write home about; but its direction and editing makes you take note of the mastery of techniques in both the fields.

Take the example of the character of Roswitha's German brother: we are told he is deaf. Yet he speaks; literally and more with his nervous hands, his mournful attentive stance, they all speak volumes. It is not acting you spot but the deft, confident direction.

k d lang's theme song "Barefoot" is haunting and the more you hear it, it grows on you. But her performance did not evoke much response in me. I do not consider her performance to be great by any standards.

However Rosel Zech as Roswitha is pleasure to watch as she blooms from a cold person to a warm personality in the course of the film. Zech and Adlon have contributed much to the film as did Conrad Gonzales' editing. Gonzales and Adlon together have made electricity come alive on celluloid--electricity goes off during crucial scenes, electric neon lights buzz, electric surges in voltages create capture enigmatic scenes as still life...

Adlon's exteriors are predictably white; his interiors are dark, both in Alaska and in Germany. But there are brief moments when the dark interiors become white like a ritual, in a baptism of sorts.

Adlon's choice of actors intrigued me including the casting of Chuck Connors and k d lang. Why did he choose to make this film? What was the basis of the "salmonberries" storyline? Was it a book? It reminded me of Kurosawa making "Derzu Uzala" in old USSR. Both movies asked questions about roots of characters. Only Kurosawa was much better of the two. This is my first Adlon film but he has made me take note of a very distinct style of direction that cannot be ignored. Hollywood could learn a thing or two from this film which is so close to pristine European cinema.