Hilde / The Gift Horse

[pro-bassoonist]

Kai Wessel's Hilde comes out on October 2. Pic was screened at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year.

Variety:

Easy on the eyes but rarely going more than skin-deep, "Hilde" is the CliffsNotes version of German actress-chanteuse Hildegard Knef's career. In the role of a lifetime, actress Heike Makatsch gives a star turn that makes the pic an effortless sit. However, as the script dutifully checks every famous moment and quote, there's a sense of an opportunity lost for a really resonant film about the cultural icon and the way in which she mirrored West Germany's postwar history. Some red roses should rain on the mid-March local release, but offshore applause will be limited.

Bearing a reasonable resemblance to Knef herself, especially in the '50s and '60s periods, Makatsch here channels her sometimes wayward screen appeal into a remarkably cohesive performance, mimicking every physical mannerism and looking at home in period duds. Perf is not at the level of Marion Cotillard's scarily realistic re-creation of Edith Piaf, but then, neither is the movie at the level of "La Vie en rose."

Makatsch manages a convincing approximation of Knef's whisky-and-cigarettes voice. However, fans may reasonably gripe that two hours pass before a whole song is heard, and the pic ends just when Knef's singing career has started.

The script, by Swedish-born writer-director Maria von Heland, uses the framing device of Knef's 1966 concert at the Berlin Philharmonie, which marked her return to a city that had both feted and lambasted her over the years. Flashbacks begin in 1943 as the 17-year-old wannabe (Makatsch) applies for a job at Babelsberg Studios, where casting is run by Else Bongers (vet Monica Bleibtreu, quietly effective), who becomes her lifelong mentor.

Thanks to a letter from propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, Knef is signed up, and also falls in love with the Reich's top film manager, Ewald von Demandowsky (Anian Zollner). After the war, she's spotted onstage by famed prewar producer Erich Pommer (Hanns Zischler, excellent in a paternal role), who's in charge of rebuilding the country's movie industry.

Shrugging off (like the film itself) her apparent Nazi connections, Knef convinces Pommer to give her a chance. In 1946, history is made with her magnetic perf in "Murderers Among Us."

As it bounces from one key moment to another, the script clearly shows how Knef's up-and-down career was shaped as much by chance meetings with certain men as by her undoubted talent. Next up on the male front is U.S. lieutenant Kurt Hirsch (Trystan Puetter), whom she marries and takes to Hollywood when David O. Selznick offers a contract. After that leads nowhere, Knef returns to Germany, causes a scandal with a nude scene in "The Sinner," scoots back to the U.S., where she stars in "Silk Stockings" on Broadway, meets and marries actor David Cameron (Dan Stevens) back in Europe, and finally takes up a singing career.

It's only in the Cameron sections that the pic finally develops some emotional heft, with good chemistry between Makatsch and Stevens as their characters spat their way through one of Knef's most difficult periods.

What's missing throughout is any real demonstration of Knef at work. There's no attempt to recreate her stints in "Murderers," "The Sinner" or "Silk Stockings," let alone parts in '50s Hollywood movies like "The Snows of Kilimanjaro." Pic abruptly climaxes with a moving perf by Makatsch of Knef's signature song, "Red Roses," at the Philharmonie.

Physical production is handsome, led by Lucie Bates' period costumes and rich, widescreen lensing by Hagen Bogdanski ("The Lives of Others," "The Young Victoria"). Thomas Freudenthal's production design evokes the '40s, '50s and '60s with uncanny accuracy, but overdoses on kitschy color during the seg in Hollywood (shot in South Africa).

Camera (color, widescreen), Hagen Bogdanski; editor, Tina Freitag; music, Martin Todscharow; songs producer, Thomas Jost; production designer, Thomas Freudenthal; costume designer, Lucie Bates; sound (Dolby Digital), Erik Seifert, Stefan Korte; sound designer, Guido Zettier; consultant, Paul von Schell; casting, Nina Haun (Germany), Leo Davis, Lissy Holm (U.K.). Reviewed at Berlin Film Festival (Berlinale Special), Feb. 12, 2009. Running time: 137 MIN.

Pro-B