{"id":5956,"date":"2013-01-01T01:27:02","date_gmt":"2013-01-01T06:27:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=5956"},"modified":"2013-01-01T01:27:02","modified_gmt":"2013-01-01T06:27:02","slug":"dvd-yella-2007","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=5956","title":{"rendered":"DVD: Yella (2007)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"\"<\/a>Film: Good\/ DVD Transfer: Very Good\/ DVD Extras: Good<\/p>\n

Label: New Yorker Video\/ Region: 1 (NTSC) \/\u00a0Released: March 17, 2009<\/p>\n

Genre: Drama \/ Mystery<\/p>\n

Synopsis: After fleeing from her abusive ex-husband, a young woman forges a strange alliance as she enters the cut and dry world of venture capitalism.<\/p>\n

Special Features: Harun Farocki’s documentary Nothing Ventured (Nicht ohne Risiko) (52:09) \/ Theatrical trailer<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

Warning: Total plot spoilers!<\/p>\n

Christian Petzold\u2019s Yella<\/strong> (2007) consists of a shell of a surreal film noir thriller that\u2019s been filled in with the director\u2019s own dream-like imagery and emotionally numbed characters, and once in a while the remains of genre conventions pop up, like titular character Yella (Petzold regular Nina Hoss) paying off abusive ex-husband\/perpetual stalker Ben (Hinnerk Sch\u00f6nemann) using bribery funds taken from duplicitous business mentor\/lover Philipp (Devid Stresow).<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s the film\u2019s twist finale that\u2019s an unsubtle riff on Carnival of Souls<\/strong> (except with interactive venture capitalists) and Ambrose Bierce\u2019s classic short story \u201cAn Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.\u201d Throughout the film, Yella hears murky river sounds and a persistent crow – sonic vestiges from the car accident with nutbar Ben that ignites the film\u2019s eerie first act \u2013 and it\u2019s hardly surprising when the final scene brings Yella to a brook, and she\u2019s hit with a bright memory flash that drops her back in the car with Ben, moments before he turns the wheel and drives the car over the bridge.<\/p>\n

The trick finale is old hat, and one assumes Petzold\u2019s usage is more perfunctory; as intriguing as the surreal midsection is, he doesn\u2019t drive it to some amusing conclusion (much in the way Carl Colpaert played with the noir\/crime genre in Delusion<\/strong> with its doubly amusing finales). Yella<\/strong> could\u2019ve been a memorable surreal experience much in the way Buffet froid<\/strong> \/ Cold Cuts<\/strong> or After Hours<\/strong> messed with our expectations by propelling characters towards increasingly weird adventures, but in settling for a quick wrap-up, he\u2019s cheated us by shutting the door on whatever social, urban, and business statements he was setting up for almost an hour.<\/p>\n

In the opening crash, Yella grabs the wheel in a moment of urgent self-preservation, but in the finale, she sits in bizarre resignation, as though her dream\/nightmare was so traumatic that there was no hope of survival. And yet if what we\u2019re watching for the first 70 minutes is Yella\u2019s flash-forward of the future, which includes Yella waking up on the river\u2019s edge beside an unconscious Ben, then it doesn\u2019t matter whether she grabs the steering wheel, because the car still goes over the bridge; and if that\u2019s part of her future, then she and Ben shouldn\u2019t end up as cadavers in the film\u2019s final shot.<\/p>\n

Petzold is aiming for some irony, and a bit of poetry about colliding alternate futures, but it\u2019s all muddy and vague, and the ambiguous nature of the bookend car-crashes means the director was more interested in the film\u2019s midsection, wherein he applies some distinct personal style.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an emphasis on unnerving quiet and sterile office sounds (very little source and score music is used); the visual focus is on fringe material \u2013 the ends of roads and edges of highways, the front entrances of offices and hotels \u2013 as well as banal interiors that convey neither luxury, poverty, nor a sense of history. While it\u2019s clear Yella is travelling from a former East German industrial town to a west German economic hub (Hanover), we\u2019re never shown any unique architecture, monuments or aerial shots of either locale. Petzold denies the viewer of any past or future history, and keeps the camera\u2019s eye on almost generic locales and interiors.<\/p>\n

Yella herself is a compelling character: she\u2019s a young woman hurrying to Hanover to prove her mettle in the business world, help her impoverished father (Tattoo<\/strong>\u2019s Christian Redl), and avoid further harassment from Ben. She starts off and remains sympathetic; she\u2019s repeatedly victimized by men, and her blackmail scheme at the end is part of the hazing routine she instigates to ensure she will continue to progress in the harsh world of venture capitalism.<\/p>\n

Yella<\/strong> is worth a peek, but by filling in the cadaver of a hollowed out genre with his own chilly fetishes and heavy focus on venture capital negotiations, Petzold lost the opportunity to craft a more original and dramatically satisfying tale.<\/p>\n

Marco Abel\u2019s lengthy film essay in the DVD booklet provides an excellent (if not too florid) background on the Berlin School of city-based or city-trained filmmakers whose views on Germany are primarily focused on contemporary issues and theur current affect on society.<\/p>\n

Abel singles out the nuances and fetishes that distinguish Petzold from his colleagues, but the author\u2019s claim that Yella<\/strong> is a masterpiece might be too rich to digest; Abel clarifies the film\u2019s weird mood and visual emphasis on clean but banal architecture, but perhaps to side with Abel\u2019s admiration for Petzold mandates viewing the director\u2019s prior work, little of which currently exists on Region 1 DVDs (although Petzold\u2019s recent spin on James M. Cain\u2019s The Postman Always Rings Twice<\/strong> \u2013 Jerichow<\/strong> (2008) \u2013 will surely be intriguing.<\/p>\n

Another worthwhile bonus is Harun Farocki\u2019s hour-long documentary, Nothing Ventured<\/strong> \/ Nicht ohne Risiko<\/strong>, which initially seems like an odd choice. Farocki served as Yella<\/strong>\u2019s script supervisor, and Petzold drew extensively from the behaviour and language in Farocki\u2019s film which covers actual negotiation sessions between a small but emerging firm in need of venture capital after unsuccessful efforts to negotiate lending from local banks.<\/p>\n

The negotiations have their own dramatic high points in spite of the players maintaining formal business demeanours, and perhaps the most engaging aspects are the efforts in which both parties maintain professional business d\u00e9cor and supplant volatile, gut-level frustrations .<\/p>\n

Christian Petzold\u2019s work includes Das Warme geld<\/strong> (1992), Pilotinnen<\/strong> (1995), Cuba Libre<\/strong> (1996), Die beischlafdiebin <\/strong>(1998), Die Innere Sicherheit<\/strong> \/ The State I Am In <\/strong>(2000), Toter Mann<\/strong> \/ Something to Remind Me <\/strong>(2001), Wolfburg<\/a><\/strong> [M<\/a>] (2003), Gespenster<\/a><\/strong> \/ Ghosts<\/strong><\/a> [M<\/a>] (2005) Yella <\/strong>(2007), Jerichow<\/strong> (2008), Etwas Besseres als den Tod<\/strong> \/ Beats Being Dead<\/strong> (2011), and Barbara<\/a><\/strong> [M<\/a>] (2012).<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2012 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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External References<\/em>:<\/p>\n

IMDB <\/a>— Soundtrack Album<\/a> — Composer Filmography<\/a><\/p>\n

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