Banklady

I am not surprised that this Biopic has never been released in France, even on ARTE channel. At least I guess...This is about a german couple who, fifty years ago, pulled bank robberies. I understand that, in Germany, it may be very interesting, but in France, or even Brazil or USA...But that remains very well made, although I prefered Arthur's Penn's BONNIE AND CLYDE, or even Joe Lewis' GUN CRAZY. Good directing and acting.

In the aftermath of "westgerman wirtschaftswunderzeit" a young girl's dreams got trapped between the low expectations of her parents, her fiancé (who promise her almost with tears of joy in his eyes: a brand new washing machine, so that "she doesn't have to wash his clothes by hand, anymore") and all the sweet promises of modern life. It's like a Trümmerfrau's daughter wants to climb through Hamburg's shop windows right into the consumer's wonderland. All of a sudden a buddy of her fiancé show's her how to do it. Gisela got her gun - they rob banks for fun and fortune and, at least for her and her slightly naive adaption from magazine's front pages, for fame. Gisela became Germany's first postwar female bank robber. This is based on a true story but full of links to the present as well as it sketches a certain 60's pre-68-melancholia and it's lust for life pretty well. A number of critics in Germany put it down for not giving the "German answer to Pulp Fiction or Bonnie & Clyde". Though it's a thought worth, if Christian Alvart's ambition to make a low budget production look like a bigger budget production sometimes gets him out of focus of what he really wants to tell, it's still a pity that German critics once more stick to their own, often quite limited expectations and show no interest in a perspective that might differ from their own. This is a vision of it's own inside the genre, not a failed pastiche or "answer" at all.

Best films are like love affairs. Some work right from the start, get you carried away, and while they last you just don't know what hit you. This is one of those films.

Montage, music, Art direction -those buildings! women's dresses and hairdos!, everything works towards the flow of the movie, never distracting from the main goal, that is entertain us with a couple of lovable delinquents. Love and sex are not what ties them together. Probably Gisela wanted to escape the dull routine of the factory, and Messieu wanted the thrill, as any psychopath. Roger Ebert already wrote better than anybody on why do we like people on the big screen that are not exactly role models, so I won't deal with that thorny issue here. I want you to watch this film and enjoy it as I did.

IMDb reviewer Ralfscheapthrill put it down perfectly: 'pre-68- melancholia and lust for life'. 2 more great reasons x watching this gem.

I've got a couple quibbles. Nadeshda Brennicke is too nice and attractive to be a factory worker, same goes x Henny Reents, probably Kommissar Fischer and her secretary too. It also happened in 'Monster' when, as in this film, when you saw the pictures of the real criminal, they were not alike. And the scene of the bank shooting, Gisela showing empathy x the victim, has so many troubles that it would be tiresome to mention them.

This film made me happier after having watched it, its powerful images remained on my memory the next days, and probably won't be forgotten. The seaside resort with the lady jumping out of the roofs as the quest for liberty, our own one, is my favourite scene. And Gisela clad as Banklady at the costume party from the factory. Or the proposal. Dialogues are also well crafted, the audience cracked at some jokes. Like the answer to the lady who lost her dog at the shooting, funny because Germans can be so formal when they want to, thus creating contrast. Or how Gisela replies to the marriage proposal in the last bank robbery. Secondary characters do have a role, like Gisela's unlucky 'boyfriend' and Fischer's grouchy boss, relentlessly effective at bullying the obsessive Kommissar.

This film is enjoyable like a bubble bum and well made as a Mercedes. I can't see why some critics didn't like it.

PS: Gisela's mum saying matter-of-factly what she has to do when Fischer raids their house only makes me wonder how Germans and a few other selected countries like Japan are so different from the rest of us, how they value honour and the social regard, the way they see crime as something that's bad, period.

This is based on a real story, though as always I'm sure they took some liberties with the truth to create more tension or just the right amount of it. The police is not only portrayed as incompetent, but also as crazy. Our heroes are insane too (to a certain level) and therefor it's tough to really root for someone.

The Banklady gets our sympathies to a degree and there are some moments where we almost lose our faith in her, where they give her a line to pull as back in. The performances are really good, Ken Duken has one of the toughest jobs to pull off (it's a fine line, though at the end even he's not able to keep it in line, up to that point, great job though). It's a decent movie, that ticks off the right boxes with a twist towards the end that's sort of unbelievable to say the least

This is one of the most cinematic movies I've seen! I've never heard of the cinematographer The Chau Ngo, but I will surely see some of his other films. Without him (and the good acting), this movie would be pretty borring.

A huge amount of the shots were connected to the message of the scene in such a way, that speaking was not needed to portray the meaning. This is getting more and more rare in last few years, where characters "explain" the plot and their emotions with words, instead of acting. Luckily, most meaning here was delivered using very cinematic shooting, fast cuts, Kill Bill / James Bond style scenes and most importantly, all was very eye-pleasing and well balanced. Even small details were thought out.

And as we know, devil is in the details.