Valerie

Fashion models are not the usual type of people with whom I can relate, but I found myself strangely moved by the plight of Valerie, as she slowly comes to realise that her previously glamorous lifestyle was not all she thought it was, and the only person who shows her any sympathy is an attendant who works in the underground car park where she spends her lonely nights.

Agata Busek gives a strong, touching performance as Valerie, and Devid Striesow is contrastingly low-key as Andre, the car park attendant. The cold of a German Christmas is well conveyed by the direction and photography.

What may at first glance seem a slow, slight film is in fact well worth watching, and even repays watching more than once.

Like all inspired artists, writer-director Birgit Möller makes us see something we think we know in a new way. Her first full-length feature is a case study of homelessness in a present-day metropolis (yawn!), but seen through the eyes of an out-of-work fashion model (oh?). She had it all and she had it all and then she had some more, as Martin Amis famously put it in "Night Train". But as a twenty-something, Valerie is yesterday's news in an industry obsessed with youth. A teenage brigade of up-and-coming new faces takes over, and Valerie fast-forwards from riches to rags, finding herself out of work and out of money more or less over night. Her fancy Jag with the yellow lights and French plates is held hostage by the underground parking lot of the luxury hotel she was once a regular at. Birgit Möller's direction is musingly paced and positively minimalistic. Fine performances by Agata Buzek, one of Europe's most graceful on-screen smokers, as Valerie and Devid Striesow as her knight in not-so-shining armor. Too bad Birol Ünel's part, a photographer you can't help liking despite his exploitative behavior, is so small.

First of all, do not attempt to watch this film if you are feeling down or sad, it might render you in a very depressing mood...

It's a movie about disappointment, broken dreams and social decay. Seen through the eyes of a model at the end of her career. A world which is based on hopes and dreams, where you could be top notch one day and unemployed the next. It is an unforgiving life that can change so quickly that you do not want to see or accept it. As the protagonist attempts, trying to fool herself while the world around her breaks to pieces.

It's a movie which should be mandatory to all the contestants to all of the Top Model TV shows. Friends are somewhat party toys, good for amusement when you surf on the wave. But after all, the loneliness and lack of hope, as cold as a Christmas Eve in Berlin when you are totally alone out there... This picture makes you shiver.

The movie itself is no Academy Award winner, the directing is not state of the art, the story not as deep as it could be. But the main actor really gets it up going, absolutely authentic and disturbingly touching. I still give it a 10 as it made me think and feel sorry for this fate.

Shall you ever get a chance to watch that one, give it a try... It's worth your time for sure!

As of today (13th Dec, 2020) IMDb shows 243 votes for this film, which I would put forward for the case of "We get the Cinema we deserve", this isn't the greatest film ever made, but it is competent and not without merit. It doesn't better anything by Robert Bresson and it would have a fight with most films by Mike Leigh.

The point is that worth the watch and I justify that by the fact it put me in mind of the two above truly great directors.

This is Birgit Möller first and only full length feature from 2006 (14 years ago!).

I hope we haven't just miss the next Robert Bresson or Mike Leigh.

I watched "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" recently, that has 361,782 votes and is rated at 8.4/10, possibly we get the cinema we deserve, with a odd film like "Valerie" which is better than we deserve.