Tuesday, f.Utxh 13, 1C34
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'Marianne and Juliane is contrast between uneasy sisters
Review by
Eric Peterson
Margarcthe von Trotta's
most recent film, Mari
anne and Juliane, reveals
great care careful
thought, a careful eye.
There are some of the
same elements in Mari
anne and Juliane that
there are in von Trotta's
earlier film, ThrcsSizicrsr.
the same balancing and
contrast of intimate but
uneasy sisters, the same
delving into the past and
childhood throui except
ionally vivid flashbacks,
the same quietly beauti
ful images.
The fecus of Marianne
and Juliane Is politics,
and a comparison bet
ween mainstream and vio
lent strategies in the Jxft
is powerfully explored
through the confrontat
ion of Marianne and Juli
ane. The film showed Sun
day and Monday in the
Sheldon Film Theater as
part of UPC's Foreign
Film Series.'
Juliane, the main char
acter played by Jutta
Laropc, and Marianne, play
ed by Barbara. Sukowa
(who is also in the 14
part Fassbinder film Ber
lin Alexanderplatz play
ing this week at the Shel
don) have a more intense
relation as sisters than
they will ever have with
other people. "We always
buttoned each other's
shirts, even when we
hated each other," Mari
anne tells her sister,
which neatly expresses
the commitment and am
biguities of their relation
ship. . - Juliane is a feminist jour
nalist, and Marianne is a
terrorist. There are indi
cations that Marianne has
become a terrorist in part
to out do her rebellious
sister; many of their act
ions are made in clear or
implicit competition with
each other. But none of
their conflicts can keep
them from feeling the
greatest and sometimes
involuntary concern. In
the end, Juliane's lover,
played by Rudiger Vogler,
is ready to leave her be
cause she will not be rid
of her obsession with Mar
ianne's death.
The center of the film,
the short interviews bet
ween the sisters, are mom
ents which von Trotta is
able to fill with an almost
breathless interest. At the
first, Juliane walks past a .
towering row of statues,
past a fence of iron bars
and is not daunted by the
reminders of male and
martial authority. "At
last!" Marianne says dra
matically, although Juli
ane has supposedly been
the one searching for her
fugitive sister.
Von Trotta rarely em
braces or condemns en
tirely or unreservedly.
While Marianne is a com
pelling character and
a mightily articulate speak-,
er, this does not mean
the film embraces her ter
rorism. What seems to
emerge instead is a strong
challenge which liberals
like Juliane must face
and Marianne's life of act
ion and martyrdom be
comes the structure that
Juliane embellishes or
perhaps understands and
explains with her
thoughts and words.
Marianne's decision to
engage in violence has
both purified her will and
purpose and cut her
off from the sources of
humanity and peace for
which she must ultimate
ly aim. "I've no time to cry
over the death of a neu
rotic intellectual," she
says when she hears of
her former husband's sui
cideThird world child
ren die every day," she
says in response to her
own and her sister's quest
ions about letting her son
Jan go into a foster home.
Some comprehension
of Marianne's sense of pur
pose comes through a
flashback of her days in a
revolutionary movement
called El Fath. With her
jubilant and serious let
ters as a voice-over, she
speaks of the people's
faith and the frame fills
with children.
When Marianne is cap
tured and put in prison,
she at first refuses to see
her sister but when
Juliane writes that she
wants to help, they are
able to meet in the same
room, with several guards
present, for small amounts
of time. The first time
goes badly. Marianne sits
in the Ir'ht, Juliane in
shadow and Juliane
shouts her rejection of
terrorism "Your bombs
spoiled it all you over
simplified things!"
Then corner a flash
back: the sisters watch a
documentary about the
Nazis, including the hor
rifying image of a bull- (
dozer pushing emaciated
corpses into a pit. Both
girls leave, Juliane vomits
and Marianne weeps.
This documentary is lat
er balanced with one
which Juliane and her
f emin 1st coworkers watch
with the same helpless
horror.
Juliane. comes to feel
ever more strongly her
sister's desperation: "I see
no one but you and my
lawyer once a month. I
live in utter silence and
complete isolation. I can't
sfeep with that light, that
silence." And the rest of
the film is Juliane's at
tempt to understand and
to explicate that silence
and horror through
her writing, through force
feeding herself to see
what it's like, through put
ting a cord around her
own neck in a shocking
emulation, through try
ing to explain Marianne
to Marianne's son. A love
ly image has Marianne
and Juliane communicate
across a separation of
prison glass. "Your hands
are cold," Marianne says
with the old ironic smi
Ic.and the matching of
their reflections in the
glass is breathtaking film
ing and even more sensi
tive artisty.
I 1.1 I f I I I
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