We have to get a petition going and submit it to Criterion or something. Does anyone know whether this flick is currently in distribution hell? Sometimes that's the reason no one gets to see something brilliant; a disinterested company owns the rights (Four Flies on Grey Velvet).
Any takers? There have to be more Huppert/Bachmann fans than this.
Yes, I felt the same way about this.
I was thinking about writing the Criterion Collection, and possibly asking them to do a set of her rare unreleased films.
I did find Malina online. Downloaded it, and have the version with English subtitles.
It is really amazing. She is beyond words in it.
I saw it as well recently -- an amazing work.
Now I'd like to be able to support its release by purchasing it, along with Michael Powell's film, Bluebeard's Castle (an adaptation of the opera by Bela Bartok).
Be sure to go to the New York Times site and comment on the shallow review of Malina. Most people who search for the film get as far as that page and need to hear other points of view.
The Times critic pans the film and dismisses Bachmann as a kind of self-indulgent Lower East Side cutter, yet Bachmann's excellence is never questioned by anyone else. Her literary and academic achievements far outweigh those of her contemporary, Sylvia Plath, to whom she's sometimes compared in the States.
Ingeborg Bachmann and Paul Celan are credited throughout the world with resurrecting the expressive power of the German language and rescuing it from the generalizing of the Nazis and the theoretical equivocations of Heidegger. Only in America would a respected reviewer dismiss Bachmann without ever bothering to read her.
(Now to see the young Huppert as Madame Bovary. I expect she'll be perfect.)
I’m participating in a discussion on one of the discussion boards on this film. Please join us. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the film!
Best,
Samuel
PS. YES: we do need to petition Criterion to release it. Maybe do a set of this director’s work.