12/02/2009

Rudolf Thome’s refreshing tale Pink [+see also:
trailer
film profile] – not the first film in which the German director has focused on women (after Paradiso: Seven Days with Seven Women, Venus Talking, and Woman Driving, Man Sleeping) – was unveiled to the press today at a special screening at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Once upon a time, there was a "wild punk poetess" named Pink (played by former Shooting Star Hannah Herzsprung, who was discovered in Four Minutes [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) who dressed in black despite her cheerful pen name. She avoided all contact whilst fearing solitude more than anything, was angry and yet aspired to marital bliss, and had three suitors.

The young woman – as capable of furious and spontaneous scribblings as of "procedure and logic" – decides to methodically establish which of the three lovers is fit to be her husband.

The first one she chooses (Guntram Brattia) is the most passionate, but also the most dramatic. The second (Florian Panzner) is quieter but not as discreet as he thinks in his indiscretions. The third (Cornelius Schwalm) – who lives in the country and dreams up ditties all day long whilst carrying out his daily tasks – wants nothing more than to welcome this wounded flower into his pretty garden.

During the course of the film, this young woman full of contradictions – who recognises that her poetry, which inspires her admirers, in fact expresses "nothing" – completes a personal journey. At the start, the turmoil of frustrated desires gives rise only to a feeling of emptiness. She takes the train from one city to another for book readings and signings but doesn’t know which is the right destination.

However, gradually she understands that happiness lies in simple things and ends up finding her paradise. Pink – whose young protagonist makes blackness her trademark – in the end offers a message full of optimism.

(Translated from French)