Sophiiiie!

I saw it at Cinequest film festival in 2003. I don't usually do this, but I saw it three times then. I have since been hoping to see it again somewhere, or better yet, to buy it on DVD. I even tried to send some emails asking about it, and check for it from time to time.

It's a thrill ride that affected me and stays in my mind. In many ways, the story seems unbelievable, yet no more than many other films, I guess. Maybe it even reminds me of a few drunk and dangerous nights in my own life.

At one level it may be a parable about the dangers if women act too much like men. I can't find the right words for exactly why I like it, but I do.

A low-budget German reality drama? Hand-held camera? Social issues including abortion, prostitution, binge drinking, and sexual harassment? It sounds like a recipe for disaster, but Michael Hofmann pulls it off. In a sense, he does it by the book, strictly adhering to the Aristotelian commandments of unity of action (Sophie's pub crawl), time (one night), and place (Hamburg). But more importantly, he wrote the script with Katharina Schüttler as Sophie in mind, and gets her to go all the way from coy seductress and precocious slacker to downright lost soul, suffering multiple breakdowns along the way. "Sophiiiie!" is a one-woman show, and Katharina Schüttler's shattering performance makes it believable and appealing. She displays a wide range of personality traits and mental states without making Sophie a showcase of her acting abilities. Thanks to her talent and courage, the idea of compressing her character's inner life into the encounters and emotions of a single night doesn't feel forced at all. It's hard on the audience though. Apart from minor acts of kindness by random strangers, life is dealing Sophie pretty shitty cards.

The director was present at the screening of this film in Istanbul Film Festival and said that this was a quite radical and intense film and encouraged us to bear with the "hard to bear" scenes because it would all be tied up in the end, which didn't. the audience didn't find it strong at all, and the question "why was it found so radical in Germany?" kept coming in the Q&A session.

Wwhat I have to say is that the acting is superb but the film is only "trying too hard" to be radical. It has no resemblance to "Irreversible" nor can it match the artistic depth of it. the director says you either love the film or hate it but just the opposite I left the film with almost no emotional residue. in short, bold scenes and good acting is not enough to make a strong film and the director seems to lack the real intensity which makes an auteur.

I gave it a 7, but almost an eight when I saw it didn't reach that very average.

Katharina Schüttler is so huge as main character (she's 25 years old)I thought about Hanna Shygulla (R.W.Fassbinder's fetish actress), the comparison is by no means far-fetched.

The film is very well done, in the reality-drama genre, which is a difficult one as everything seems to have been done in that field. It makes plenty of room for the incredible actress (I understand it has been written with her in mind), but all other parts are excellent as well.

It's no happy movie, Sophie's destiny gets more terrible as time goes by. (So: not to watch if you're feeling down...)

But a very reassuring sign that Germany is beginning to have a Cinema and a generation of directors and actors/actresses that want to do tell stories in today's world, and who seem more and more capable to!

Recommended!

I knew in advance that I would like this film because Katharina Schüttler is my favourite German actress for some time now and because the director's first film "Der Strand von Trouville" was a small, underrated gem. Yet I didn't expect to be blown away this far and fall in love fervently with what is clearly the best German film of 2002 (IMHO).

I won't give a plot synopsis here, because the less you know beforehand the better. I will give a warning though: "Sophiiiie!" may not be the the right film for faint-hearted or easily offended people (and especially for pregnant women). It is a provocative, controversial, wild and fierce movie, less extreme but not unlike Gaspar Noé's "Irreversible".

Sophie is a great character (played brilliantly and very courageously by Katharina Schüttler) and to those people who complain that there can't be a woman like her in real life, I would reply: That's the magic of cinema! She is self-destructive, fearless, charming, sexy, funny, pitiable, and she shoots recklessly through the night like a ricochet in a china shop, leaving burning "Monsters", confused taxi drivers and lots of "assholes and nice idiots" behind.

If you (like me) didn't quite understand the ending, I can give you a hint that hopefully doesn't spoil anything: After the screening which I attended the director answered questions and he said that the "Texas TWO STEP" routine by the Polish cowboys may explain that ending (you'll know what I'm talking about when you see the film).