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Century 1979: Die Patriotin

Die Patriotin. Alexander Kluge. 1979.

In a weird way, what this film reminds me most of is The Last of England by Derek Jarman. They are stylistically very far apart, but there’s something in the punk approach to talking about larger issues that seems to connect them.

Jarman’s film is mesmerising; this isn’t up there at all, but it’s still kinda fascinating. And funny in places. But after the first fifteen minutes or so, it gets bogged down in longer scenes that mostly aren’t very interesting.

This is the sequel to Deutschland im Herbst, which three years ago but has no recollection of.

The highest-rated imdb review says:

Anything profound and informative that the film attempts to convey is lost due to the simple reason that it is so mind numbingly boring that you will be thinking about your dinner before you start questioning the subject of German history. The boredom is then accompanied by confusion.

Tee hee.

If you are actually on board when the film presents a still shot of a woman inside a cow, then I salute you….but most of us normal folk will be lost. You leave the film scratching your head, wondering where the last two hours of your life have gone.

But… but… that’s the Pasiphaë/Minotaur thing, right?

ImDb Is sTuPiD.

Anyway.

I think there are brilliant, riveting sequences here, but there are also bits that are just… there… So I’m intrigued by the film-maker, but the dice just refused to roll higher.

This blog post is part of the Century series.

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