Nicht nichts ohne Dich

"Actually, I've got real problems!" "Seriously? I wish I had some." - With this dialogue the movie ends and it kind of sums up what's wrong with it. Some people love the idea of making movies. Not because they have something to tell or a talent for telling other people's stories. No, they just love the idea of being a storyteller, a "filmmaker", they love the image, the prestige.

Pia Frankenberg (script, direction, production and leading role) didn't have anything to tell, had no ideas, so she made this movie about a filmmaker (herself), who has no ideas either. There is no real story, just some strange scenes with a bit of (self-) irony. Sometimes the sound is so bad that even Germans need subtitles. The film is maudlin and has an old-fashioned sixties vibe. And there is "humor" like this: (Someone pointing at a cracked egg): 'What's the white stuff?' - 'Stringhalt.' - 'Abortion!' -- That's not funny - at all. Is it surrealismus? Deconstructionism? Pia-nism? Why would anybody crack a joke like this, why would anybody make a film like this? If it cant't be anything else, it must be some kind of art.

In 1981, Pia Frankenberg joint the "Hamburger Filmbüro", a film subsidy organisation with lots of yummy government dough to share for projects that were too non-commercial for the free market. Two of its most important men, Dieter Kosslick and Hark Bohm, have small parts in this movie. She wanted it, she had the opportunity, she did it. "Nicht nichts ohne dich" (Not nothing without you) is a prime example for the rule that if you absolutely WANT to and if you CAN make a movie, but you have nothing to say, you should do it in an art film context.

Pia Frankenberg was successful: Even though "Nicht nichts ohne dich" is a proud exercise in nothingness, it was shown on film festivals, even on the big one in Venice. There is nothing new, funny or just interesting about this movie, but she had become a legit filmmaker. This is an inspirational story for many. ("Bad German Movies"-Review No. 23)

An accurate translation of the original title is 'Not Nothing Without You' but, for whatever reason, the subtitled English print I saw at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley (in January of 1987) was renamed 'Noisy Martha'. The title character may be a trifle neurotic (or, in her own words, superficial), but there's certainly nothing even remotely loud in her voice or behavior. Martha's problem, shared with the world in general, is one of miscommunication; every character in the film seems to be out of sync with everyone else. Fortunately, writer director Pia Frankenberg isn't half as bewildered as her protagonist, who she portrays in the film (and who, incidentally, is also a filmmaker). It's a difficult movie to categorize: humorous without being distinctly funny, vague without being meaningless, and seemingly slapped together with spontaneous ease.