Pepperminta

This was probably the scariest movie I've ever seen. Maybe I don't understand it but it was pretty disturbing. Not sure how the other reviews compared it to Alice in Wonderland, perhaps they just saw the cover and moved on. Wish I could say the same. I had to turn it off because after 30 minutes of oblique moving camera angles and shots of feet and creepily licking everything in sight I was physically uncomfortable. I think a horror movie could've made me feel less gross inside. Mostly about a girl going around making people uncomfortable and then converting people to her cult like following. For the record I did end up watching the rest only because I had to for a film class, so this isn't a baseless review, but I am genuinely concerned. How does this not haunt peoples dreams??

With a sweet and original introduction to what would be a surreal colourful film journey through the story of Pepperminta and its different stages as we thoroughly explore her personality, her journey and her friends. Werwen, a chubby, timid youth, and Edna, who talks to tulips, join hands to rebel against the system. Pepperminta is a children's film for adults, I can say that cinematography is virtuoso staged, with strong color dramaturgy from the camera angles to the special techniques it uses, both abstract and simply creative, it seems to me something unique that captures me a lot about this film. Sometimes to classical music, sometimes to church bells. Whether all of this says a lot can be doubted, but Pipilotti Rist puts enough stimulating themes in her debut film to give it a claim. And that in addition to aesthetically stages nudity, the color excesses - which I'm also into. Pipilotti Rist loves playing with contrasts (art / trash, pretense / grubby etc.) and I am glad that I can gain something from both sides of her work and, like here, that the fusion of the two enhances each other.

Pepperminta just looks good, the colors, the camera and how everything is cut. You just notice that Pipilotti Rist had a vision, which she implemented here. Pepperminta is like a cross between characters from films such as Poppy from Happy-Go-Lucky (Mike Liegh), Maries from Daisies (Vera Chytilová), Kumi from Robinson's Garden (Masashi Yamamoto), Eunice from Butterfly Kiss (Michael Winterbottom), Djam (Tony Gatlif), (Amelie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet) and Honey Whitlock from Cecil B Demented (John Waters). It is beautiful, dark, bizarre, and dreamy film! My temporary place to be!

The film tells the story of Pepperminta (Ewelina Guzik), who seems to be a combination of Alice from Wonderland and Dorothy from Oz, and who exists in time both as a young adult and as a child. (Her child self is played by Noemi Leonhardt). She lives partly in the real world, partly in a fantasy, but the two are not always separate. Pepperminta's fantasy overlays reality like coloured plastic over the camera's lens changes the colour of the world the lens sees.

Pepperminta is on a quest to live without fear, to help everyone she comes in contact with to know themselves and achieve exactly what they "really, really, really want". Along the way she gains champions and partners: the fat, shy Werwen (Sven Pippig), Edna NeinNeinNein Tulip (Sabine Timoteo), and the elderly Leopoldine (Elisabeth Orth). Pepperminta helps each of them to overcome their fears and they join her and become her followers and accomplices.

The film makes great use of colour and perception, but also goes out of its way to focus on more senses than just sight: sound, touch, smell and taste also figure prominently. Special effects are generally more analogue than digital, for example, the stop motion sequences with strawberries or clothes, or the clever cutting in the "transporter" scenes when the characters travel to Pepperminta's hideaway via her bath. Still, the production values are professional – this is video art for a cinema audience – and the film's 80 minute running length does not seem too long.

It is not the most intellectually challenging of films, and I suspect some people will be irritated by the adult Pepperminta in the first few scenes. However, if you can reach the Nirvana of suspended disbelief quickly enough I think the film will charm and delight.

Unless you understand German, make sure you see a sub-titled version.