The plot appears to have all the ingredients of the archetypical chlichéd Swiss movie: Take a poor, innocent, hard working immigrant (=the victim) in a hostile, evil country, add some lesbian love impeded by a strict and misogynous society (=the inhabitants of the evil country) and mix it well.
I just hope the movie's better than the plot description. But even if it isn't, who cares. The evil guys already paid the filmmaker's bills...
Never judge a book by his cover! You haven't seen the movie yet (it's still in production). But you're right: The plots of most Swiss movies are completely clichéd and anything but innovative. But it's probably just economical thinking by the producers of "Das Fräulein".
The people who decide on financing from the "Bundesamt für Kultur" are the filmmakers of the past who made movies with the same plots. Guess which kind of script gets all the money...
I'm afraid I can't agree with you. Have you seen "Das gefrorene Herz" from Xavier Koller, or "Schweizermacher" from Rolf Lyssy, or "Das Boot ist voll" from Markus Imhof, to name just few of many excellent Swiss films? In fact it is a cliché to label the Swiss films in general like you do.
On the other hand, I agree: "Das Fräulein" is full of clichés, shallow and the story is overloaded with tragedies, which do not match alltogether. The title is borrowed from the Yugoslav writer and Nobel-Price winner Ivo Andric ("Gospodjica"), although there is no relationship evident to this masterpiece.
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An excellent movie and portrait of three former Yugoslav women, each of different ethnic group, and their warm relationship with each other in spite of being from different sides in the Balkan conflict. The cafeteria owner who is a Serb, the young girl who is a Bosnian, and the older lady, a Croat. These women reflect how they can overcome the ethnic hatreds of their native country and form a bond. There is no lesbianism reflected in the movie at all.
shareSorry to disappoint you, but there was no lesbian love in this film, it wasn't even hinted at. I don't know what evil country you are talking about.....I saw none of that here, either.
Nothing disappointing or cliched about this movie to me. The subtitles told me what was going on, the acting that went with them was in sync and believable. I'm not fluent in German but it sounded more than passable to my ears, so it was a bit of a surprise to learn that the 3 leading women had very little command or understanding of the language and had to do their scenes in small parts with the German speaking lines memorized but with practically no understanding of what they were saying.
I applaud the film-maker for presenting us with a film that will remain for quite some time in the memory - at least, in mine. I don't understand the negative comments and criticisms. Given the "lost-in-translation" issues (how the spoken lines were often delivered), I think the film-maker created a wonderful film.
Admittedly, I'm not overly familiar with Swiss cinematic themes, but this movie doesn't at all fit what you describe. It was about 3 women immigrants and the lives they have chosen to lead. One is dying and living life to the fullest. She teaches one who has been "dead" for thirty years how to live again. The third learns to be content with the life she has instead of wishing for another.
Very little is shown about the society of the "evil country", misogynous or otherwise. If it weren't for the language and a few panoramic shots, they could be anywhere in the world.
Most importantly there's no lesbianism here. Both women obviously very much enjoy the attentions of men and are repeatedly shown doing so.
“If they let Jack do it his way the show would be just 12” – snorgtees.com
I haven't seen enough Swiss films to say anything about this movie's themes, but despite the rather common story scenario, I thought the film was done quite well. Very carefully drawn and not at all sentimental.
Anyway, I don't think there was a lesbian relationship. Furthermore, lesbian relationships aren't common in mainstream movies at all (especially compared to gay ones, I think).