Berlinale film review | “With love, Your Hilde” – Between the gray of the dungeon and summer light
Sat 02/17/24 | 4:21 p.m. | By Fabian Wallmeier
© Frederic Batier / Pandora Film
Video: rbb24 Abendschau | 02/17/2024 | Petra Good | Image: © Frederic Batier / Pandora Film 02/17/24 | 4:21 p.m
In his film, Andreas Dresen tells the story of the communist resistance fighter Hilde Coppi. The first German competition entry is a good historical drama that only gets close to its main character towards the end. By Fabian Wallmeier
The Red Orchestra was a communist resistance group (so called by the Gestapo) during National Socialism. In East Germany it became school material like the White Rose in West Germany, but in the West it is not quite as present. The members distributed leaflets primarily in Berlin and Brandenburg and tried to transmit Hitler’s attack plans to the Soviets with radio messages.
Andreas Dresen makes one of them the main character of his new film “In Love, Your Hilde”, which entered the Berlinale competition on Saturday afternoon: Hilde Coppi was executed in Berlin-Plötzensee in 1943 along with other members of the group. While in prison, she gave birth to her son Hans, named after her husband, who was executed a few months before her.
Sommer am See
Dresen begins the thoroughly conventional film with Hilde’s (Liv Lisa Fries) arrest and breaks his story into two parts: On the one hand, Hilde’s time in custody up to the execution is told, including the birth of her son and the few months she spent with her him in this dark place. On the other hand, he tells in flashbacks how Hilde becomes part of the group and gets to know and love Hans (Johannes Hegemann). The film repeatedly returns to a summer lake where the group meets and makes plans, but also celebrates life.
No productive friction arises from this back and forth between the gray of the dungeon and the summer light. There is never even a hint of irritation, everything is clearly explained and presented in a bite-sized manner. The film doesn’t become astonishing or seriously moving when Dresen cuts back and forth in increasingly striking ways at the end. From the scaffold you go directly to the lake.
And it comes to the final little wannabe “Schindler’s List” moment. As a reminder: Spielberg’s drama switches to the present day with the real survivors and their descendants in a simple yet deeply moving way. With Dresen it’s all a few sizes smaller, even if the trick is the same: the real Hans Coppi Junior, Hilde’s son, now 80, tells us a little more about his life while the camera pans over the glittering lake and then back to it a happy celebration by Hilde and her friends.
Where is the love?
Perhaps the strangest thing about “In Love, Your Hilde” is how little of the love claimed in the title is felt, how pale the characters and their motivations remain. The Hans Fritz Günther parade of friends at the lake, for example, is completely interchangeable. The deep motives for their political actions, their courage and their fear remain largely obscure.
Above all, the film does not make tangible what Hilde and Hans have in common. There is no noticeable chemistry between Liv Lisa Fries and Johannes Hegemann. A few teasing scenes in which they gently tap each other’s bodies while practicing Morse code don’t help either. The decision not to arrange the flashbacks chronologically is also not very helpful here. You’re constantly wondering whether Hilde and Hands already know and love each other or not – and the answer to the question becomes increasingly irrelevant.
Maybe no more period films?
After all, Dresen’s new film is a step forward after the clumsy one-woman show “Rabiye Kurnaz against George W. Bush” from the 2022 competition. But with “In Love, Your Hilde” the impression is also solidified: the treatment of major political and historical issues Fabrics are not Dresen’s forte. And one thinks back wistfully to contemporary early social dramas such as “Half Stairs” and the casually light tone of “Summer in Front of the Balcony”.
Shortly before the end, “In Love, Your Hilde” gets a little closer to its main character. While talking to a priest (Alexander Scheer) before her execution, Hilde briefly loses her composure. While dictating a farewell letter to her mother, she briefly allows grief and despair before she composes herself again. Here Liv Lisa Fries can finally show a little of what she can do. The rest is good school material cinema.
Broadcast: rbb24 Abendschau, February 17, 2024, 7:30 p.m
Contribution by Fabian Wallmeier