Valerie (2006)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Valerie |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 2006 |
| length | 84 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Birgit Möller |
| script |
Milena Baisch , Ilja Haller , Birgit Möller , Ruth Rehmet , Elke Sudmann |
| production |
Susann Schimk Jörg Trentmann |
| music | Christian Conrad |
| camera | Kolja Raschke |
| cut | Piet Schmelz |
| occupation | |
| |
Valerie is the debut film by German director Birgit Möller from 2006.
action
The Model Valerie rents just before Christmas a room at the exclusive Hotel Grand Hyatt in Berlin. But actually she's broke. She hardly gets any more orders, her credit card is overdrawn and blocked, she has given up her apartment in Paris and everything she still owns is in her car. But the Polish woman does not want to admit that her career as a model is over at 29.
At the hotel reception, however, she was asked more and more urgently to finally show her credit card. Thereupon she finally leaves the hotel and can avoid discovering her insolvency while pretending to be an urgent appointment, since the staff is satisfied with her former address in Paris as the billing address. When she wants to leave the hotel's underground car park, however, she also lacks the money for the parking ticket. At first she appears very arrogant towards the parking attendant André. But she cannot persuade him to open the barrier anyway. Valerie asks the photographer Jaro to take some pictures of her. After the shoot, she lies in bed with him. Jaro talks about children; suddenly his current girlfriend is at the door. Valerie leaves the studio, disappointed in the libertine. Since she cannot find a place to stay overnight, she ultimately sleeps in her car in the parking garage, where André tolerates her after initial disapproval. In the days that followed, Valerie kept trying to stay with friends - but without telling them about her situation. In the hotel bar she meets a man and goes into his apartment. He offers her money for sex. Valerie's attempt to prostitute herself is quickly over. She laughs at her awkwardness and the cramped situation. The man is upset and throws her out. Because she left her handbag with the car key in the apartment, her colleague Andrés opens the car door. As a thank you, she celebrates Christmas with the two park guards in the guard room. André later offers Valerie to sleep with him - an offer she accepts for one night. When Andrés ex-wife and daughter appear the next morning, Valerie hastily leaves Andrés apartment. The next night another porter works in the underground car park, which is why Valerie cannot spend the night in her car. At first she wanders around and then sleeps in an ATM room. She slowly realizes how serious her situation is. When she goes back to the underground car park, her car has been towed and two hotel security guards handed her over to the police. She is accused of trespassing, theft, fraudulent services and illegal prostitution. When the policeman asks her where she is staying and tells her that she must remain in police custody as a homeless person, she says she lives with André. The policeman calls André and he confirms Valerie's information. She is then allowed to leave the police station.
Reviews
“It could easily have been a reverse Sterntaler story. From the starving girl in noble rags who stretched her hands into the snowing Berlin sky to finally catch a few thalers and a little starry shine. Powdery and bitter. And with chic high-gloss martyrdom, from bulimia to coking up to wild orgies. But Birgit Möller is smart enough to keep her hands off that. So she tells the story of her heroine as a fairy tale about the loneliness in big cities, unpathetic and unaffected by all the self-presentation and all the fanfare of the industry. "
“A wonderfully laconic staged film, convincingly played in the main role, which outlines a revealing image of society. Beyond the individual fate, he tells a lot about inner poverty and general sensitivities. "
“Birgit Möller doesn't manage to hide the overly conventional construction in which Valerie gets into increasingly difficult situations, like on an obstacle course. The choice of using the story of a “shadow woman” as a starting point serves the director merely as a hook for a comparatively simple love story. It quickly becomes clear that the initial detachment between the night watchman André and Valerie has to become more. "
price
- 2006. Best director at NEFF (New European Film Festival), Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain)
Web links
- Valerie in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Valerie at filmportal.de
- Official page for the film
Individual evidence
- ↑ Birgit Glombitza: Poor wind-up girl. Model drama "Valerie". Spiegel Online, April 26, 2007, accessed July 20, 2012 .
- ^ Journal film-dienst and Catholic Film Commission for Germany (eds.), Horst Peter Koll and Hans Messias (ed.): Lexikon des Internationale Films - Filmjahr 2007 . Schüren Verlag, Marburg 2008. ISBN 978-3-89472-624-9
- ^ Hannes Brühwiler: Valerie. critic.de - the film page, April 24, 2007, accessed on April 22, 2013 .