Het Meisje en de Dood

one of films with status of trip. because it is a large, complex, precise map. to one of the most popular themes of Medieval Germany. to an art gallery. to the Romantic stories about impossible love. to the admirable Russian dramas. to the Flemish paintings. to the delicacy of beauty and known tragedies who are mile stones of history. a film for feel more than for understand. this is its virtue. and its sin. because it is one of films who, in precise manner, selects its audience. that is all. and the motif to say, after its end, only - it is a beautiful film. but....

a love story. like many others.stereotypes,dialogs, faces, few special images.slow, fragile, dark, sad. cold beauty. only virtue - maybe, atmosphere. but it is far to be enough. or seductive title.short, a beautiful common movie. the story is not impressive, but almost touching. the acting is part of story, gray, usual. and the emotions, the translation of emotions is the problem. because the circle is broken. the old beauty ,the passing time, the music, gestures, words, silence and the atmosphere are ideal ingredients but always something missing. for a state of soul, like a kind of absinthe, it is perfect. but it is not easy to remember it. because it seems be an ice piece - the time, the sun destroys each by each images, impressions. I admit, I like it. but it is difficult to say than I love it.

This movie is a piece of art that i keep coming back to. I must admit that i admire Stellings work, his unique decaded, mortally overwhelming story- telling. There is something so haunting and eyrie about this love story. The emptiness and grayness of the sheltered box in which Stelling places his characters amplifies their emotions and ties, creating a turmoil of beautiful, almost still-like pictures of an unfortunate lovers. Stellings minimalism in story telling and carfully detailed frames gives unique realism to somewhat overused plot. Hoeks delivers a great performance of believable innocence, tortured by "Stellings time" ,that is painstakingly crushing her.

One of the saddest movies I've ever watched.. but beautiful!! Love story a bit like Anna Karenina! Obsession, drama and impossible love!! Cried a lot with this movie!! I didn't know the actors but I was actually impressed with both "Elisa" and "Nicolai", all characters with a powerful way of expressing themselves even without words! Strong movie even though by the title and even the beginning of the movie already tells you the end of it. I always enjoyed this kind of movies, tragic and obsessed love and if you also are a fan of this kind of films you should definitely watch this one, just prepare some tissues ;))

This seems to be one of the longest movies I've seen in years. But where some long movies have complex stories and plot lines, this film has a very simple story, that could comfortably be told in half the time. The fact that there is very little dialogue in the film doesn't exactly help the flow either.

So the film has a slow pace, and that's obviously by choice. I guess the director wants us to enjoy the beautifully lit scenes, the slightly overacting faces in close-up and the meritorious artwork. Maybe he wanted the film to have a pace fitting to the period the story takes place, and thus drag the audience into it. For me it didn't really work. The ideas maybe fine, but the elaboration just isn't powerful enough to account for the time spent. It didn't help that both the story and it's portrayal are loaded with platitudes and stereotypes. I guess this is also by choice, for the story could be seen as kind of a fairytale, but again: for me it didn't really work.

If you're a hopeless romantic or in need of some serious cooling down you might enjoy this film, but I could imagine nicer ways to spend all this time.