Transit - Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film

Country: france, germany

Year: 2019

Running time: 101

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6675244/reference

Chris says: “It’s a canny move to set the 1942 source material in the present day, and shrewder still for director Christian Petzold (PHOENIX) to indulge in stylistic motifs that one would find in a film from that era (most notably, the classic-sounding score.) Alas, the narration is a major distraction, Franz Rogowski is a more competent than necessarily engaging lead, and the ironic use of a certain 1980s song at the end feels off (it honestly worked better via its brief, jokey appearance in REALITY BITES.) 3 cats”

Martin responds: “I agree with Chris. I had a special interest in this movie – I read the book a long time ago as part of a university class on East German dissident writing. The ending song was just plain wrong. 3.5 cats”

Chris responds: “And I actually love that song, but it just didn’t work as an ending for this film.”

Michael says: “After viewing UNDINE, part of last year’s IFFBoston Fall Focus, and reading some reviews for Petzold’s earlier films, I decided to take a look at them for myself. I already enjoyed PHOENIX, a historic drama crossed with Hitchcock’s VERTIGO, and decided TRANSIT would be next up. I was particularly intrigued with this film because I couldn’t tell from the reviews if it was another historic drama, or a slice of speculative fiction; in addition, the stars of TRANSIT also happened to be the stars of UNDINE, Franz Rogowski and Paula Beer, both of whom I enjoyed greatly.

“TRANSIT takes place in the French coastal city, Marseilles, in an undetermined time period. Cars are present-day, but there is a noticeable absence of modern-day conveniences like cell-phones. Occupying forces, presumably German, are slowly overtaking France, and there is a desperate, yet at the same time frustratingly slow urgency of refugees trying to escape the country through this port city. When Georg (Rogowski) gets inadvertently caught up in a case of mistaken identity, that leaves him with the coveted transit documents that might provide him transport out of Europe to the Americas, he bides his time, waiting for the forthcoming departure of his ship. In the meantime, he befriends a young boy whose mother is deaf; the also desperately looking for a way out. He also becomes entangled with Marie (Beer) a woman whose husband’s identity Georg has assumed. Marie doesn’t know that her husband is dead, nor does she know that Georg is using his identity to escape the country. To complicate matters, Georg falls in love with Marie, and that’s when things start to get really complicated.

“It’s a fascinating adaptation, actually a complete reworking of a semi-autobiographical novel written in 1942 by Anna Seghers, who was exiled in France while her husband was in a prison camp. From that experience, German director Christian Petzold wove a complex, slow-burn suspense based on both history, and today’s plight around refugees. Petzold is an adept storyteller, with strong directorial chops and a string of fascinating films. It’s so interesting in retrospect to see the thematic leap he took with his latest film, UNDINE, which will be getting a domestic release soon. 4 cats“

Transit

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