Yella

At first, you think you know what’s happening and then it ends and you wonder what happened. Everything seems understated in this one from what happens to what’s said… and Yella says a lot more with looks than with words. I’d says it’s a suspense/thriller and though not much happens it moves along surprisingly fast and we found ourselves questioning it pretty much from beginning to end and when the end did come it was what we thought from the beginning… though we certainly weren’t sure. When you do a movie like this one casting is important and I think Nina was excellent as the lead.

I picked up the similarities pretty early and was not disappointed.

I love foreign thrillers but this one was a disappointment. I tried to watch and only make it through 2 episodes. Not for me.

A human struggle under hard conditions. Effect of separation and stress on family life.It was required viewing a university film class or I would not have watched it, but am glad I did.

Excellent

Nina Hoss plays Yella in Petzold's metaphysical thriller.The film seemed to allegorise aspects of therelationship between the failed East Germany and the successful WestGermany.About her ex partner,Ben(Schonemann),Yella says,"I don't love him any more because he's ruined...that's why I have a bad conscience".By leaving her husband whose business has failed in East Germany and crossing to Hanover for a new job in the West,she is selling her soul for worldly wealth.Her new lover,Philip(Streisow) who employs her in a series of shady business practices in venture capitalism is a fraud.Her ex who she sees after being stalked by him(or in hallucination) says the company destroyed their love,he's willing to become a plumber to hold onto their love. Philip said he doesn't want a conventional life of settling down in the suburbs with a wife and child and car. We see Yella's debasement via this embrace of ruthless big-business practices Petzold is not concerned with plot or character development.The cool, corporate world of capitalism is unreal and Hoss proves the cynosure of the film's weirder atmospherics, with a look of her eyes,a smile,and the anxiety-driven paranoia of what she's given up.She has premonitions about a businessman's suicide.This is a ruthless,cutthroat world,with something deeper and darker lurking beneath.We break into the dream-like world Yella inhabits through the sounds of running water,the wind in the trees,the cawing of crows,a broken glass on the floor.Her ex-husband is deranged and tries continually to get her back.The Elbe is the dividing line between the old world and the new life.A car that her ex drives her to the station in is driven by him off the bridge into the river.I liked the film but it's not satisfying nourishment as Petzold seems to drive it to a wrong ending and shows a failure of nerve in what could have been fantastic. Hoss's performance alone is reason to watch.Menacing and full of ill-omen.Is Yella only dreaming her escape from the lake into which her stalker ex-husband has plunged her?

This is no 1 star movie as another reviewer lamely gave it. Yella is a weird puzzling film, part thriller, part NOIR, part completely abstract, and by "abstract" I mean I didn't "get" the ending, or the hints that were building up to it.. Then again who understood the Beatles "I Am The Walrus"? Or countless other works of suggestive yet obscure art? This movie does make suggestions and perhaps there are answers to the inevitable "what did it mean?"I will say that for the 90 or so minutes that this movie runs, I was engrossed, intrigued and very much in awe of the performances all around. Nina Hoss (Yella) speaks volumes with her silences (with her voice as well) though for all the silences in this movie, there's water boiling beneath it, an edgy tension that keeps you hooked - the silence itself creates more suspense than any cinematic music could have. In jazz they say "Silence swings". In this movie it is also the empty places that give meaning to what is there, and lest anybody get the wrong idea, there is quite a bit of dialogue and it's as interesting as any good courtroom drama. The movie moves at a surprisingly quick pace. It is by no accounts boring. It is a thriller every bit as exciting as any novel by Grisham. Only it's obtuse ending and the complete bewilderment that it left me in at the end keep me from giving it 5 stars, although that may be shortsigtedness on my part. As I write, possible explanations for what the ending may have meant come drifting past like some faint scent that you sense you may almost recognize before it is gone. This movie would make an interesting forum for discussion.Yella: "You thought I slept with Schmitt-Ott to get that job."Philipp: "That doesn't matter to me."Yella: "That's not an answer."Philipp: "You're right."

Sometimes the line between art and garbage can be very fine. Some may find this movie very profound while some may think this is the most boring movie ever. I do not think like the latter, but I do not fault those who do either. I like the eerie quietness of this movie: there are no special effects, no elaborate Hollywood studio sets, everything is sparse and stark in this movie. However "you are not smart enough to get this" and "often the truth is very simple and clear" can go hand in hand. One thing for sure is Yella is not a simplistic film, so if you are looking for a crowd-pleaser you have to look elsewhere.

In his interview in the Special Features section on the DVD, director Christian Petzhold explains the origin of this film. It is based on a strong tradition of German legend and folklore. In such a story, the main character longs to escape from his or her stale and impoverished existence in a small town. In the same story, the person is always torn between staying and leaving.Thus what we see unfolding from the start is a tale of yearning and conflicting emotions. The director also takes the opportunity to take swipes at the world of private finance and the traditional style of German film-making.The film is beautifully made, while still being full of dramatic tension. The direction is very lean and tight, and hence Christian Petzhold is becoming a favourite director of mine. Nina Hoss plays her role with stunning intensity, placing herself at the very centre of the story, as a woman using all her strength and wit to fight against what life throws at her. The film is superbly edited to maintain the mystery right to the end, while emphasising its dreamlike quality.The Artificial Eye special features include a trailer, plus filmographies and interviews for both Pezthold and Hoss. I highly recommend 'Yella' and also the 2012 Petzhold/Hoss film 'Barbara'  Barbara [DVD ]. Barbara [DVD

Yella is about a young woman who leaves her small town to move to Hanover to work and make money. As the movie begins she is stalked by her ex-boyfriend with whom she ran a company that went down. We follow her to Hanover where she meets a man in the finance sector. More than that should not be said about the plot before watching it.The film creates a very cold and creepy atmosphere as almost no one is smiling. We see interiors of depersonalised spaces like offices, hotels and lounges, slick buildings and new cars. There is a tense feeling because money is at stake and people can obviously not be trusted. At the same time there is something dreamlike about certain scenes. I find Yella very thrilling psychologically speaking, cause the action is very limited. As a viewer I wondered about certain things all to the end, cause this film contains some mysteries. Also, the transfer of this AE DVD is very good. Recommended!

This is a film that keeps your attention all the time, not because it is action packed - it is not at all -but because there is a kind of eeriness and threat throughout. In some ways the film depicts the hum drum monotony of executive life and business on the road and nothing more, but the twist in the story is really memorable, particularly as it is hard to see a point in the film where the future twist becomes obvious, even once you know it. I find that very skillful and the fact that it stays in the mnd for so long after seeing the film is the sign of good storytelling.I think the amazon description of the film not as accurate as it could be as to me it implies something much faster moving and suggests the characters are 'winners' where in fact they are tragic losers.

Nina Hoss is Yella, a young East German woman who wants to leave both, her poor hometown and her husband. So she moves to Westgermany, starts to work for a private equity manager and begins a relationship with him. However, her husband keeps stalking her...The story is about a woman's dream which gets out of control. It shows how an East German woman tries to cope with West German reality. It is filmed in a cold and at the same time realistic, artistic and suspenseful way (reminded me a bit of Chabrol's films). The major characters are multifaceted and their motives cannot be easily pinned down. The acting is excellent (Nina Hoss won a Silver Bear on the Berlin Film Festival for her performance) and leaves room for interpretation. This film stands in the tradition of German 'author cinema'. It is not easy, mainstream entertainment, but if you are looking for something unusual and thought-provoking, this is your film. I certainly enjoyed it a lot.

"Yella" is definitely one of the better foreign language films that I have seen recently. The acting is particularly impressive, especially Nina Hoss's performance as Yella Fichte , a young German woman, just separated from her husband and moving to Hanover in search of a new career and a new start.Yella is icily attractive and intelligent and she gains employment working as an assistant for a well off financier.However her husband persists in stalking her as her attraction to her new employer grows. It would be inappropriate to label this gripping film a thriller; it is more of a film about relationships and avarice than anything else. The ending when it arrives is quite surprising -I didn't see it coming at all- and in my opinion wasn't the best of conclusions to an absorbing film.