In many ways the review from 2018 (1 star) has a point...but perhaps some level of context is worthwhile.
Firstly this film should be considered within not just the "New German Cinema movement" but also with respect to German cultural tendencies...here I'm considering the tendency to deep reflection and also romantic emotional gesture(which suits the operatic score).
Secondly clearly there is an element of experimentation here...a somewhat freestyle association of plot and cultural reference(dark noir foreboding in a midwestern hotel,Marilyn Monroe,Greek archetypes...and even a James Dean character looking to release the tension...)Such film making is ambitious but doesn't always hit the right note.
Thirdly the director's remarkable eye for a shot aligned to an intense ability to encapsulate beauty...few films offer such such fleeting vital imagery.
...A final thought concerns the last shot where the chief protagonist strays out into the desert,an archetype of destruction forever present in the landscape...similar to Herzog's Harker at the end of Nospheratu riding out?
Syberberg,Herzog,Wenders,Fassbinder and others (including this director) have produced some of the most remarkable and engaging reflections on morality... both personal and national.
We may never see the like again.
Firstly this film should be considered within not just the "New German Cinema movement" but also with respect to German cultural tendencies...here I'm considering the tendency to deep reflection and also romantic emotional gesture(which suits the operatic score).
Secondly clearly there is an element of experimentation here...a somewhat freestyle association of plot and cultural reference(dark noir foreboding in a midwestern hotel,Marilyn Monroe,Greek archetypes...and even a James Dean character looking to release the tension...)Such film making is ambitious but doesn't always hit the right note.
Thirdly the director's remarkable eye for a shot aligned to an intense ability to encapsulate beauty...few films offer such such fleeting vital imagery.
...A final thought concerns the last shot where the chief protagonist strays out into the desert,an archetype of destruction forever present in the landscape...similar to Herzog's Harker at the end of Nospheratu riding out?
Syberberg,Herzog,Wenders,Fassbinder and others (including this director) have produced some of the most remarkable and engaging reflections on morality... both personal and national.
We may never see the like again.