Christa Theret shot to fame as the glamorous
model Andree Heuschling in _Renoir_, set
during one summer in WWI. _Luise_ is an
interesting bookend; it takes place in the
last cold months of that war, with Theret's
Helene dropping by Luise's farm house
uninvited. They are immediately interrupted
by German soldier Herman trying to kidnap
Helene and explain his captain's death to
his superiors. The three fall into a fatal
love triangle rendered all the more
claustrophobic by religion, the marauding
Wehrmacht, and the ever more easy access to
violence.
Newcomer Luise Aschenbrenner (Luise) is
really the main character. Her protagonist
is a child at the edge of adulthood. She
is stoic, runs the hard scrabble farm all
by herself, and has long mastered an icy
stare and God-fearing rigid posture. In
contrast Helene always bows her head, as
though defeated by misfortune (and more
literally by her father, no doubt for
being a lesbian). This sophisticated city
girl is often photographed at an angle,
out of place in this wilderness. Yet even
in her down-and-out, deglamorized state
the Prix Romy Schneider winner Theret has
enough charm to draw Luise out of her
isolation. The screenplay subtly tells us
how they complement each others' strengths
and vulnerabilities. Hermann is a physical
specimen and not much more, but his toothy
grin and lame jokes are enough to make
Luise care for him too. For the first
time in her life she has admirers, and
Aschenbrenner handles the growth of her
character beautifully. It is the other
two, who literally don't speak the same
language, that cannot handle the
competition.
The story is loosely adapted from D. H.
Lawrence's novella _The Fox_. The
mise-en-scene is deceptively simple,
using very shallow focus in interior
scenes to heighten the characters'
disconnect (at least early on). These
scenes are beautifully interspersed
against the atmospheric Black Forest
hilly landscape. The spare wind-and-
string score is perfect for the film
too. Dutch director Matthais Luthardt
has created a memorable gem; I wish
more will go to see it.
