X
- 2019
- Not Rated
- Music Box Films
- 1 h 41 m
- 2019
- Not Rated
- Music Box Films
- 1 h 41 m
Summary Georg, a German refugee (Franz Rogowski), flees to Marseille assuming the identity of a recently deceased writer whose papers he is carrying. There he delves into the delicate and complex culture of the refugee community, becoming enmeshed in the lives of a young mother and son and falling for a mysterious woman named Marie (Paula Beer).
Directed By: Christian Petzold
Written By: Anna Seghers, Christian Petzold
- 2019
- Not Rated
- Music Box Films
- 1 h 41 m
- 2019
- Not Rated
- Music Box Films
- 1 h 41 m
Transit
6.8
Where to Watch
Summary Georg, a German refugee (Franz Rogowski), flees to Marseille assuming the identity of a recently deceased writer whose papers he is carrying. There he delves into the delicate and complex culture of the refugee community, becoming enmeshed in the lives of a young mother and son and falling for a mysterious woman named Marie (Paula Beer).
Directed By: Christian Petzold
Written By: Anna Seghers, Christian Petzold
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 31 Critic Reviews
82
90% Positive
28 Reviews
28 Reviews
10% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 31 Critic Reviews
82
90% Positive
28 Reviews
28 Reviews
10% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
The result is provocative, even startling, and more edifying than you might expect.
With so many layers to unpack, this one stays with you.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 48 User Ratings
6.8
71% Positive
34 Ratings
34 Ratings
15% Mixed
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
15% Negative
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 48 User Ratings
6.8
71% Positive
34 Ratings
34 Ratings
15% Mixed
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
15% Negative
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
Maybe there's a point where it can be said that the melodrama this film presents comes to seem a bit overloaded, but Transit stands out for the simple reason that it doesn't use it to manipulate the viewers, and that's very difficult when you're using it as a narrative vehicle.
The plot follows a European refugee who is fleeing from German authorities occupying various parts of France. Basically a scenario taken from WWII. Although the film is set in the present day.
That scenario is not explored, but it's not necessary for the film to do so.
That plot deals with someone trying to escape, but the story takes a turn that involves the melodramatic charge I mentioned, but as I also said, the director prevents that from being what defines everything that follows.
I mean it's an important part of it, but the different characteristics that goes from the reckless to the passionate evoke a more satisfying result than I was expecting in the first place.
The only thing I really hated is the voiceover. Incredibly infuriating.
Report
Transit asks a lot for it's audience to believe, but if you can believe that the **** invasion of France is a contemporary event, and that phones and the internet do not exist, than you will find a lot of rewarding material within the confines of this world. The cinematography is immaculate, and Christian Petzold's direction is masterful. Most powerful, are the performances of Franz Rogowski and Paula Beer. Their chemistry will break your heart, guaranteed. While maybe not politically as impactful of a script as Transit tries to be, it is without a doubt very emotionally powerful.
Report
The film’s empathy for the unwanted, its frustration at the system, and its uncompromising depiction of people trying to do the right thing when fate clearly has other plans, registers with real power.
This is a richly rewarding film, packed with ideas and riddles, that will surely benefit from repeat viewings.
There is no denying that, initially, Transit’s story might feel excessively oblique. But as the film slowly puts its formalistic and thematic cards on the table, it becomes clear that its storytelling technique is really just a reflection of its core themes.
Sitting through Transit is like watching an anti-“Casablanca,” so diligent is Petzold in the draining of romantic hopes, and there were times when I dreamed that Claude Rains would stroll in and order a champagne cocktail. What sustains this highly unusual film, and lends it an ominous momentum, is the figure of Rogowski, as Georg.
Petzold struggles to keep hold of the reigns, wielding the effects of melodrama with little to no precision or psychological acuity, and leaving the essential romance at the heart of the story to be rendered almost entirely unbelievable.
Mourn For The Greater Good.
Transit
Petzold works on the vibes of the film. He is very careful about the fact of how the entire thread comes off to the audience. There is catharsis in your lungs when the air turns into navel-gazy nail-biting drama. This is where Christian Petzold; the director's, target lies. He feeds off on this energy and so does their character. Personally what appealed to me the most from the film is the calmness it conjures on the screen despite of the high stakes threats ticking behind these characters.
The protagonist, when alone, is always on the run, initially physically and latter in the film from his thoughts. But when he shares his screen with a boy having a catch or two, or having a cup of coffee in the cafe with a fellow being, there is a soothing humble look in his eyes where you find yourself sinking peacefully, a bit wounded, but satisfied. This mirror-like trajectory to Michael Curtiz's Casablanca rebooted with a style that matches the comparison it comes with.
The novel by Anna Seghers from which Petzold adapted the film, has had the essence of triggering impactful drama within a snap and Petzold has definitely encouraged that in here, from deriving the first meeting by iterating the scenario variously to bonding over a quick game that creates a heartwarming equation within a snap. Georg (Franz Rogowski) our host is pretty much reading someone else's diary throughout this journey, he is always the third person in the room that allows us to welcome him with open arms as he shares the same stage with us, while the other supporting cast does a decent work on advancing the storytelling. Transit is neither a romance nor a thriller, it is a typical drama that works it's way up the ladder through empathy and not manipulation.
Report
Built upon a fascinating temporal dissonance that works well, but the narrative is painfully dull and the characters taciturn Based on Anna Segher's 1942 novel of the same name about a German concentration camp survivor seeking passage from Vichy Marseilles to North Africa, Transit is built upon a fascinating structural conceit – although it tells the same story, it is set in the here and now. Well, parts of the milieu are from the here and now. So, although cars, weaponry, and police uniforms are contemporary, there are no mobile phones or computers, and people still use typewriters. This means that the film is set neither entirely in 1942 nor entirely in 2019, but in a temporal halfway-house, and this works well, as Petzold doesn't suggest that history is repeating itself, but rather that there's no difference between then and now. Unfortunately, aside from this aesthetic gambit, not much else worked for me.
In Paris, Georg (Franz Rogowski) is entrusted with delivering some papers to George Weidel, a communist author. However, he finds Weidel dead, having committed suicide. Taking a manuscript, two letters from Weidel to his wife Marie, and Weidel's transit visa to Mexico, Georg travels to Marseilles. When he goes to the Mexican consulate to return the belongings, he is mistaken for Weidel, and he realises he has a chance to escape, with Weidel booked on a ship sailing in a few days. As Georg waits, he has several encounters with a woman, who, it is soon revealed is Marie Weidel (Paula Beer), who is waiting for word from her husband. Not telling her that Weidel is dead, Georg finds himself falling for her.
In terms of cultural signifiers, Petzold keeps it vague, although there is a reference to Dawn of the Dead (1978), with the closing credits featuring "Road to Nowhere" (1982). However, for everything that locates the film in the 21st century, there's something to locate it in the 1940s. Along the same lines, Petzold keeps the politics generalised, with no mention of ****, concentration camps, or the Holocaust.
The combination of liminal elements of modernity and period-specific history sets up a temporal/cognitive dissonance which forces the audience to move beyond the abstract notion that what once happened could happen again. Instead, we are made to recognise that the difference between past and present is a semantic distinction only, and that that which once happened never stopped happening.
The other important aesthetic element is voiceover narration. Introduced as Georg begins reading Weidel's manuscript, there's no initial indication as to the narrator's identity or when the narration is taking place. Additionally, he's unreliable, as he often describes something differently to how we see it. The narration also "interacts" with the dialogue at one point – in a scene between Georg and Marie, their dialogue alternates with the VO; they get one part of a sentence and the VO completes it, or vice versa.
However, although I liked the temporal dissonance, the VO didn't work, pulling me out of the film as I tied to answer questions such as where and when is the voice coming from, are we hearing a character speak or someone outside the fabula, how can the narrator have access to Georg's innermost thoughts at some points but not at others, etc?
But the film has more problems than just the VO. To suggest the disenfranchised nature of what it is to be a refugee, Georg is a non-person; he's passive, less a protagonist than a witness. This passivity combines with a dearth of backstory and character development, whilst Rogowski plays the part without a hint of interiority. Easily the most successful scenes in the film are those showing his friendship with a young boy, Driss (Lilien Batman), because they're the only moments where he seems like a person rather than a narrative construct, they're the only scenes that ring emotionally true.
In relation to the lack of forward narrative momentum, I understand that Petzold is trying to stay true to the experience, that the life of a refugee involves a lot of waiting, repetition, and frustration. But it's the extent to which the film goes to suggest this. Yes, inertia is part of the theme, but it doesn't follow that the film needs to be so unrelentingly dull.
Easily the most egregious problem is one that arises from a combination of these issues – it's impossible to care about any of the characters. There's no pathos; none of them have any psychological verisimilitude or interiority, and they simply never come alive as people.
An intellectual film rather than an emotional one, Transit is cold and distant. The temporal dissonance works well, but it's really all the film has going for it. Petzold says some interesting things regarding the experience of refugees in the 21st century vis-à-vis refugees of World War II, and the mirror he holds up to society isn't especially flattering. If only we could care about someone on screen. Anyone.
Report
A lot about this narrative is never explained. For starters, an invading nation is occupying cities in France, but it's modern day (more or less, there are no cell phones or computers). A man is tasked with carrying papers by an acclaimed writer to Marseille, but he becomes involved in a confusing and contrived combination of relationships. Even with the questions, I was willing to see where it went, but the plot kept folding in on itself. Then, there are elements (like a narration) that make it even more obtuse. Some might be up for deciphering the layers of mystery, but I just found it weird and unfulfilling. In German and French with subtitles.
Report
Director Christian Petzold’s meandering, pretentious, inarticulate screen adaptation of Anna Seghers’ novel is a mess almost from the outset. This tale of refugees trapped in Marseilles trying to flee the **** occupation of France retells this historic saga in a contemporary time frame, a half-baked attempt at commenting on Germany having to come to terms with its past while simultaneously speaking to the current European refugee crisis. One could say that it’s attempting to be “Casablanca” (1942) for the 21st Century. Unfortunately, the film’s convoluted mishmash of plot lines and undeveloped characters is presented with virtually no back story, jumping into its narrative without any context, meaningful character identification or hints about the confusingly anachronistic elements intertwined here. All in all, a poorly conceived offering feebly attempting to pass itself off as lofty arthouse cinema. Skip it.
Report
Production Company
Schramm Film,
Neon Productions,
Arte France Cinéma,
ZDF/Arte,
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg,
Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (BKM),
Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA),
Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC),
Région Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Release Date Mar 1, 2019
Duration 1 h 41 m
Rating Not Rated
Tagline The New Masterwork from the Director of Phoenix and Barbara
Awards
International Online Cinema Awards (INOCA)
• 1 Win & 4 Nominations
International Cinephile Society Awards
• 2 Wins & 3 Nominations
German Film Critics Association Awards
• 2 Nominations
