Les Années de plomb

Margarethe von Trotta is co-author of the film The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum and in Marianne and Juliane, she applies the same method of seeing, identical value hierarchy, the same mistakes and distortions. The Baader Meinhof Komplex impressed me at the time as a revelation for its effort towards maximum objectivity and remarkably precise analysis of the social phenomena of that time period. Marianne and Juliane is the exact opposite. It is characterized by a markedly ideological perception of the world. It stands for a completely different leftism than the one subtly but effectively expressed in Forman's American films. This film is intense, uncompromising, and combative. Margarethe von Trotta cannot deny the terrorist past of her protagonist, but wherever possible, she diverts attention elsewhere, and attacks the German state and society as a whole, repeatedly emphasizing their murky past. It is not that she is incapable of hitting a nerve here and there, but the overall bias is clearly evident and devalues an otherwise high-quality cast and decent craftsmanship. Portraying the former actors in the process of the RAF and their leaders as victims of the German judicial system is unbelievable audacity. The decent prison would have been immensely envied (especially considering the demons they managed to unleash and the number of deaths they are responsible for) by the adversaries of Latin American dictatorships, dissidents from Eastern Europe, and in fact, prisoners from the vast majority of the world at that time. Overall impression: 40%. (16/04/2018)