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Last of the pre-written reviews. Next time I write a new one I'll make sure to share it right away!
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS THROUGHOUT.
Original publishing date: February 2, 2024
Stella. A Life.
Stella is a girl with big dreams. She wants to be a jazz singer and perform at Broadway. And for one short moment it all seems possible. But sometimes fate has an ugly surprise in store...
This movie lives and dies on the shoulders of Paula Beer. Not that it isn't wellmade and written in general, but Stella is objectively a difficult character to portray. A Jew who turned into an informant for the nazi? How do you keep the audience from not only getting too weirded out, but also finding the humanity in an individual who you'd justifiably see as a victim, but also understandly view like a monster?
Well, Beer succeeds. You get to experience everything through her acting. The small glimpses of hope, the rousing excitement of forbidden passion, the misery and stress of not being able to live a fully honest life, the ruse as you find yourself in a high position after getting kicked down one too many times... She turns Stella into a fully well-rounded human being. Even as you feel disgusted and appalled by her actions, she never becomes one-dimensional or nothing more than a stone-cold villain. If anything the evilness of her deeds adds to the tragedy, since you've seen beforehand this is not who Stella was. She was passionate, full of life and showed great empathy for others. Absolutely not without flaws, but certainly not even close to the infamous figure you'd imagine she would be known as.
Adding to the complicated morality is the fact that her unrelenting love for her parents never dies. Hell, she even refuses to give up her friend Aaron and spares him from potentially being escorted to Auschwitz, after already giving up hundreds of other Jews. So is Stella truly a different person after her actions or is she still that hopeful little jazz singer inside who never got to spread her wings?
Like all the best bio pics as well, you don't think about the fact that you're seeing bits and pieces of a story as much as just getting absorbed into what's being unraveled. Some of the violence is legitimately gutwrenching, one particularly harrowing moment being when Stella hides from the nazis and has to witness a friend getting executed right in front of her eyes. I also struggled watching Stella get beaten to a bloody pulp in the interrogation room, which is even sadder now knowing it's what pushed her in the direction of helping commit evil deeds in order to escape an even worse outcome.
And at the end of the picture, the loneliness, trauma and irreversible condemnable actions has left this once playful and happy woman empty. And I kinda felt an emptiness myself as I realized although she survived the war, her soul also died in the process.
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS THROUGHOUT.
Original publishing date: February 2, 2024
Stella. A Life.
Stella is a girl with big dreams. She wants to be a jazz singer and perform at Broadway. And for one short moment it all seems possible. But sometimes fate has an ugly surprise in store...
This movie lives and dies on the shoulders of Paula Beer. Not that it isn't wellmade and written in general, but Stella is objectively a difficult character to portray. A Jew who turned into an informant for the nazi? How do you keep the audience from not only getting too weirded out, but also finding the humanity in an individual who you'd justifiably see as a victim, but also understandly view like a monster?
Well, Beer succeeds. You get to experience everything through her acting. The small glimpses of hope, the rousing excitement of forbidden passion, the misery and stress of not being able to live a fully honest life, the ruse as you find yourself in a high position after getting kicked down one too many times... She turns Stella into a fully well-rounded human being. Even as you feel disgusted and appalled by her actions, she never becomes one-dimensional or nothing more than a stone-cold villain. If anything the evilness of her deeds adds to the tragedy, since you've seen beforehand this is not who Stella was. She was passionate, full of life and showed great empathy for others. Absolutely not without flaws, but certainly not even close to the infamous figure you'd imagine she would be known as.
Adding to the complicated morality is the fact that her unrelenting love for her parents never dies. Hell, she even refuses to give up her friend Aaron and spares him from potentially being escorted to Auschwitz, after already giving up hundreds of other Jews. So is Stella truly a different person after her actions or is she still that hopeful little jazz singer inside who never got to spread her wings?
Like all the best bio pics as well, you don't think about the fact that you're seeing bits and pieces of a story as much as just getting absorbed into what's being unraveled. Some of the violence is legitimately gutwrenching, one particularly harrowing moment being when Stella hides from the nazis and has to witness a friend getting executed right in front of her eyes. I also struggled watching Stella get beaten to a bloody pulp in the interrogation room, which is even sadder now knowing it's what pushed her in the direction of helping commit evil deeds in order to escape an even worse outcome.
And at the end of the picture, the loneliness, trauma and irreversible condemnable actions has left this once playful and happy woman empty. And I kinda felt an emptiness myself as I realized although she survived the war, her soul also died in the process.