Showtimes & Tickets Enter Zip Code:

YELLA
Written & Directed by Christian Petzold
Produced by Florian Koerner von Gustorf & Michael Weber
Director of Photography, Hans Fromm
Edited by Bettina Böhler
Released by Cinema Guild
German with English subtitles
Germany. 89 min. Not Rated
With Nina Hoss, Devid Striesow & Hinnerk Schönemann

If you’ve never had a lucid dream, Yella is as close as you may get to that unique experience of disquiet and doubt. Steeped in an eerie atmosphere, this film teeters on the cusp of the supernatural but never quite falls in, masterfully leaving both audience and protagonist to wonder what side of reality they’re on.

That protagonist is Yella (Nina Hoss), a somber young woman from a provincial East German town who is leaving her beloved papa for an accounting job in West Germany. She’s also separating from her financially ruined husband, Ben (Hinnerk Schönemann), who blames his insolvency for their breakup and desperately tries to win her back. After his attempted murder/suicide (the scenario snagged straight from Vanilla Sky), Yella pulls herself from the crashed car driven by Ben, walks out of the river, and uncannily makes her train to Hanover. It’s here that the film starts to bleed into the surreal.

When her promised position turns out to be a mirage, Yella becomes ensnared in the hauntingly quiet landscape of her hotel and its bleak surroundings. One of the few splashes of life to warm the screen is Philipp (Devid Striesow), a pleasant but demanding executive who instinctually hires Yella as his assistant. The rest of the film and their entire relationship play out against the backdrop of dull corporate meetings and the open road, as if all civilization beyond big business were swallowed up in a nuclear holocaust and forgotten. Perhaps this is commentary on West Germany, or even on the West itself, but Yella, otherwise menaced by bad memories, grows strong and comfortable in her executive suit. Well, a figurative suit, because she is always seen in the same bright red blouse – one of the many hair-raising glitches in her world.

Not quite as obvious as Michel Gondry’s take on dreaming and not really about dreams at all, director Christian Petzold’s unusual project is almost more art installation than cinema. If it were hung in a gallery, it would be titled “A Meditation on the Intersection of Cold Corporate Finance and Metaphysics,” and it would be beautiful. The cinematography is rigidly composed, with many shots worthy of stand-alone photographs. Rhythmically paced, the plot is tight and the twist is clean and sharp, though not quite unexpected. But that’s OK. Yella is not about surprise. It’s a mesmerizing and steely visualization of elegant ideas – the power of guilt, the face of penitence, and the hypothesized nature of the subconscious. Yana Litovsky
May 21, 2008