Diagonaldi Very well executed

Titreenp SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

paul2001sw-1 In Christian Petzold's film 'Yella', a young woman stalked by her husband after leaving him slowly rebuilds her life, and self-respect, through starting a relationship with a criminal businessman. But it's not clear how much of the story is real, and how much is the product of her traumatised mind. In its conclusion, the film resolves this question, and the answer is almost inevitably disappointing; the kick in the tail insufficiently surprising or satisfying. What is good, however, is most of what precedes the ending, as the viewer is drawn into a world intriguingly on the balance of normalcy and the sinister, as seen by a woman herself on the edge. It's nicely underplayed and there's scarcely a wasted scene; it's just a shame that the final resolution has little new to add.

Rolf Peters This might have been a very intriguing movie but for the lacklustre plot.To write a movie script for a film like this needs the kind of intuition and knowledge one finds in Tarkovsky, Alain Renais or Luis Buñuel.This is a slight movie in which the director Christian Petzold should have been able to carry off.There is some intertextuality nudging in the direction of Tarkovsky (verdant tree swaying leitmotivs)but the movie never really gets airborne. It's dogged by repetitive mis en scene and dull dialogue and the script never exploits the possibilities of the plot.This is certainly not a bad movie, it just can't live up to the aspiration of its essential donnee and "surprise" if tacked on denouement.

horn-supremacy Whilst there are some intelligent references towards the relationship between the former East and West regions of Germany, the film as a whole drags on far too long in what seems a never ending, repetitive cycle of tiresome and boring events. The dynamic and exciting world of business is transformed into a dull sequence of events, which constantly occur, highlighting the clear lack of ability in writing an enthralling script. The contrast in acting styles from Nina Hoss (Yella) are minimal, at several occasions looking as though it is too painful to smile. On the other hand David Striesow's (Phillip) performance attracts the attention of the viewer, and is highly commendable, in particular his swift changes in mood. However, when all is said and done Petzold's "Yella" is a film full of irrelevant references pinned under the title of "artistic licence", it would be better suited to a total running time of 30 minutes, rather than forcing the viewer to endure 86 minutes worth of scenes depicting the supposed ideals of the capitalist West. My advice is save your time and money, spend £15 on a documentary on capitalism - it'll probably be more interesting.

viljar-1 The movie is well-shot, but in no way does that compensate for a future story. The problem is that there is no good direction in the film. We don't know why Yella separates from her husband, and as such we don't know what she's running away from, nor do we know where she is heading. Usually, not knowing where the film is going is something I enjoy, but here, it all seems pointless, as we don't even know where the character is coming from.The opening sequence, where Ben follows Yella in his car does set a tone, but I think it does not satisfactorily explain why Yella wants to move away from him. To some extent, it doesn't even seem like Yella wants to lose him: at two points Ben breaks into her hotel room, and Yella seems far too acquiescent. One plot hole, at least to me, was how on earth did he manage to get into her hotel room?!? I doubt he just walked up to the reception and asked for the key. Afterwards, Yella doesn't seem to do anything further about it: she doesn't ask for her room to be changed, or even seek advice from anyone.Yella's 'dodgy job' isn't explained well either, all we know is that there are negotiations, and envelopes of money are exchanged. To some extent, this is acceptable, because Yella isn't given any good explanation of what's happening, and so, we can also be left in the dark. But, considering how much of the film seems to take place in fancy boardrooms, some slight revelation, in due time, of what is actually going on would've been appreciated.The two lead characters live in a hotel, and what struck me is that neither of them ever close their doors. This is puzzling, especially considering that Yella is, it would seem, attempting to leave her stalker ex. Even more so when the ex has proved that he is capable of entering her room, even when the door is closed. These hotel doors left ajar did provide for one point where I thought 'now the fun begins', and that is when Yella leaves her room and seeks out her companion. Finally it seemed that she took some initiative and would be in charge of her own life, and not drift around being controlled by others. (To that point, it had always been her companion seeking her out.) Yet, what followed was just a parade of new board rooms, with Yella playing second fiddle.When Yella proclaims her love to her new-found companion, I lost any sympathy I had for her, because it is obvious that she is the typical weak female, falling for 'the bad guy', and she doesn't even try to change her fate. After leaving the stalker bad guy, she falls for the bad guy who steals money from his employer, and seems to hope that all of a sudden life will become better.