MARTHA AND I
A film review by James Berardinelli
Copyright 1995 James Berardinelli
RATING (0 TO 10): 6.0
Germany, 1990 U.S. Availability: varies (1994-5) Running Length: 1:47 MPAA Classification: No MPAA Rating (Mature themes, nudity) Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Cast: Marianne Saegebrecht, Michel Piccoli, Vaclav Chalupa,
Ondrej Vetchy, Bozidara Turzonova
Director: Jiri Weiss
Producers: Marius Schwartz and Sabine Tettenborn
Screenplay: Jiri Weiss
Cinematography: Viktor Ruzicka
Music: Jiri Stivin
U.S. Distributor: Cinema Four Inc.
In German with subtitles
MARTHA AND I, a tale about living in the Sudeten region of Czechoslovakia at the dawn of Nazi occupation, is a confused motion picture that doesn't know whether it wants to be a coming-of-age story, an offbeat romance, or a statement against prejudice. Although poorly edited with a jumpy narrative, MARTHA AND I has a number of affecting moments, but the film doesn't tell enough of any of its three stories for the conclusion, which weaves them together, to have much impact.
The movie begins in 1935 in the household of Emil (Vaclav Chalupa), a Jewish boy who lives with his mother (the father deserts the family in an opening scene). When some innocent groping with the housemaid comes to light, Emil is sent to live with his Uncle Ernst (Michel Piccoli), a wealthy gynecologist with sophisticated views on birth control, abortion, and the non-exploitation of workers. Ernst is having marital troubles, and after discovering his young Hungarian wife in bed with another man, he divorces her and asks his housekeeper, Martha (Marianne Saegebrecht, from BAGDAD CAFE) to marry him. Ernst's four sisters object strenuously, seeing the portly, middle-aged German woman as a gold-digger. Martha's brothers, stout supporters of Hitler, are equally outraged. But, defying both sides of the family, the two carry out their matrimonial plans, supported only by Emil (who has aged and is now played by Ondrej Vetchy).
MARTHA AND I opens as a coming-of-age drama following the adolescent exploits of Emil as he learns about sex, violence, and life. These sequences, directed with all the authenticity of someone recalling his own childhood, work well, exposing the uncertainties of this troubled time through the eyes of a boy. However, somewhat inexplicably, film maker Jiri Weiss shifts not only the focus of the story, but the point-of-view as well. Emil becomes an incidental character (barring the epilogue, he's not in the final quarter of the film), as the marriage between Ernst and Martha takes center stage.
What follows is an uneven melding of love (between the married couple) and hate (towards them from outside forces). One of the reasons MARTHA AND I often fails to hit the right notes is that it skips around. With the exception of the three principals, none of the characters is more than half-developed. Also, while the plight of the Jews under Hitler's anti-Semitic onslaught is never trivialized, it is presented in an insulated context. The closest we ever come to seeing a concrete example of anti-Jewish feeling is when Ernst is fired from his clinic.
It's never clear who the "I" is in MARTHA AND I, and that's a central problem. If it's Ernst, why is the first half of the film told from Emil's point-of-view, and why is he employed as the narrator? And if it's Emil, why does his character fade into obscurity just when his story is really beginning to interest us? MARTHA AND I might have been more successful if developed as two separate films. In this configuration, it never finds the stable tone necessary to draw the audience in. The result is a picture more interesting for its historical perspective than for the plight of its characters.
- James Berardinelli (jberardinell@delphi.com)
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