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VIVERE Send This Review to a Friend
There is a strange sort of female bonding in “Vivere,” a German import written and directed by Angelina Maccarone. The setting on Christmas Eve veers from a Cologne suburb to Rotterdam in Holland, and the three women whom we first meet as they dreamily look at the sky and comment are very different. As the story flashes back and unfolds from different viewpoints we get to know them. How worth knowing they are is another matter.
Esther Zimmering plays Francesca, who drives a taxi and tries to take care of her restless teenage sister Antonietta (Kim Schnitzer). They live with their father, who is more a burden than a help. When Antonietta runs away with her rock musician boyfriend, Francesca sets out for Rotterdam to find her.
En route Francesca encounters a car wreck with the injured, world-weary Gerlinde (Hannelore Elsner). She is in an unhappy, stressful lesbian relationship with a married woman, and Francesca takes her along on the trip. There is an unrequited sexual flirtation between the two. The film also shows a connection between Gerlinda and Antonietta. Eventually all three are together, which is where we came in.
The film is shot in a restrained bleak manner, and there is some palaver in the script about the importance of living, destiny, other planets and earth as the truly odd place. The actresses are more compelling than the script and Maccarone’s dime story philosophizing. A Regent Releasing and here! Films release.
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