Aller jamais retour

Ticket of No Return is a very weird film, without a plot but with an abundance of symbolism and beautiful costumes worn by the fabulous protagonist as she flies to Berlin to spend days and nights of complete drunkenness without any care for the world that sees male drunkenness as positive and female drunkenness as repulsive and degrading (which is narrated by the onlookers and a special trio of sociologists), ultimately giving us a lot of information to look at and ponder upon about women who booze and the emancipated lives of drunkards themselves but still with the ability to put you to sleep if you are not smitten in the first few sequences. TN.

(Film #3. Watched and reviewed at its online premiere at the We Are One Global Film Festival on YouTube. Curated by the Berlinale.)

A posh aristocrat's drunken shuffle through the post-modern, post-structuralist wasteland of post-war Berlin signifies a repudiation of modern ethics and expectations... Prost! Language is no longer a viable method of communication. Excess is no longer a privilege of the upper class. Modernity's failed pledge for unity built on the preservation of logic and ambition has resulted in the celebration of resignation and the descent into hedonistic splendor. To act irrationally, to reject rational thought, is the only logical continuation in the wake of twentieth-century horrors. The appeal for harmony and beauty through art and culture has been replaced by the promise of temporary happiness and decadence through hollow consumerism; "pleasure gained not by aggression but by regression." The film poses the question: which is worse? External destruction or spiritual dilution; one is the product of the other, and both are roads that lead to the annihilation of individualism. Ticket to No Return is a beautifully shot and artfully imagined film that is simultaneously profound and ludicrous. Its incessant absurdity is both endearing and insufferable, revealing and isolating. By no means is it thoroughly enjoyable, though it does present the viewer with rich aesthetics and a thought-provoking narrative.

There is not much of a cohesive plot to speak of, but nonetheless this is a great film. The lead character does not speak, so if this would bother you then you should not watch this film. I think of this as a German, experimental Absolutely Fabulous. Nina Hagen has a bit role in this film, and she is spectacular. The tone of this film is a lot like Fassbinder's Satan's Brew, in fact Ottlinger could be called the female counterpart to Fassbinder. This is a comedy, but a subtle, and strange one. Unfortunately, I don't think this film is available in the U.S., however a German woman showed it to me and the version she had did have English subtitles, so it is out there somewhere.