Transit

Name: Transit
Genre: Drama
Released: March 1, 2019
Duration: 101 min
Rating: 82
Cast: Antoine Oppenheim, Barbara Auer, Emilie de Preissac, Franz Rogowski, Godehard Giese

2019

METASCORE

Universal acclaim based on 31 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 45 Ratings

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6.6

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6.6	Your Score
6.6	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 45 Ratings

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Transit (US Trailer 1)

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Movie Details & Credits

Music Box Films | Release Date: March 1, 2019 | Not Rated

Starring: Antoine Oppenheim, Barbara Auer, Emilie de Preissac, Franz Rogowski, Godehard Giese, Lilien Batman, Maryam Zaree, Matthias Brandt, Paula Beer, Sebastian Hülk

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).

Director: Christian Petzold

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 101 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Joe Morgenstern

Mar 8, 2019

The result is provocative, even startling, and more edifying than you might expect. Read full review

100

Kate Taylor

Nov 8, 2018

Both leads fit their performances seamlessly into this destabilizing scheme, providing a provocative timelessness to the characters. Read full review

David Edelstein

Feb 21, 2019

It’s worth shaking off the incongruities and getting on the movie’s wavelength. Once Transit’s bitterly ironic vision takes hold, it eats into the mind. Read full review

The Film Stage Ed Frankl

This is a richly rewarding film, packed with ideas and riddles, that will surely benefit from repeat viewings. Read full review

Justin Chang

Mar 6, 2019

Transit touchingly illuminates the close bonds that can form within migrant communities, even as it refuses to harbor any illusions about how easily those bonds can be broken. Read full review

Walter Addiego

Mar 19, 2019

Transit has a hint of science fiction, and more than a hint of Kafka. And despite the story’s link to World War II, it’s clear that Petzold wants it to resonate with today’s immigration problems. Read full review

Patrick Gamble

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. Read full review

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User Reviews

GinaK

Mar 19, 2019

A haunted and haunting film about characters trapped in a “state” which they do not quite understand nor did I. It’s a film I want to see again, perhaps on DVD. The film is Kafkaesque in mood, but not in style. It seems like a “normal” movie, but very little is normal. The characters areA haunted and haunting film about characters trapped in a “state” which they do not quite understand nor did I. It’s a film I want to see again, perhaps on DVD. The film is Kafkaesque in mood, but not in style. It seems like a “normal” movie, but very little is normal. The characters are trapped and so is the audience. Franz Rogowski does an excellent job of bringing the director’s vision to “life.”… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

amheretojudge

Mar 20, 2019

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; theMourn 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.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

The3AcademySins

Mar 21, 2019

Transit asks a lot for it's audience to believe, but if you can believe that the Nazi 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,Transit asks a lot for it's audience to believe, but if you can believe that the Nazi 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.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

Bertaut1

Aug 26, 2019

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 builtBuilt 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 Nazis, 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.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

TVJerry

Mar 26, 2019

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 aA 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.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Brent_Marchant

Mar 17, 2019

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 Nazi occupation of France retells this historic saga in a contemporary time frame, aDirector 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 Nazi 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.… Expand

2 of 3 users found this helpful21

DocRock

May 3, 2019

Inane, confusing, senseless, too much happenstance. This move is not redeemable.

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

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42	#42 Best Movie of 2019
99	#99 Most Shared Movie of 2019