52 Films by Women Vol 4. 41. AREN'T YOU HAPPY? (Das Melancholische Mädchen) (Director: Susanne Heinrich)
Recently, one of my reviews was re-tweeted with the words ‘spoiler alert’. A film review in the proper sense is a re-watching of the film in the head of the reviewer - in other words, an act of memory - with some commentary. Other forms of writing are consumer advice. I do reviews. I don’t offer consumer advice. The purpose of the review is to draw links from the film I have watched to other movies and to representations of life in general, hopefully with some humour. Many of the films I describe won’t be seen by users of the platform Bitlanders, so I am to some extent describing a foreign culture. The words ‘spoiler alert’ sting because they refer to a corrupted form of film reviewing, one frequently prone to superlatives offered without adequate evidence. Most reviewers talk up films, I just talk about them. German writer-director Susanne Heinrich has crafted a film, Das Melancholische Mädchen , translated into English as ‘ Aren’t You Happy? ’ which is a commentary of the rep...