Film “Beautiful” in the cinema: Slapstick with a breast pump – culture

Too fat, too thin, too old or too wobbly – women are almost never satisfied with their appearance. The montage at the beginning of “Wonderful” seems like a catalog of female “problem areas”: Frauke (Martina Gedeck) is in her late fifties and examines herself critically in the mirror to understand why her Schluffi husband Wolfi (Joachim Król) no longer sees her looks at You can see Sonja (Karoline Herfurth) having two pregnancies and the sleepless nights with babies and toddlers. The student Leyla (Dilara Aylin Ziem) is fat. Only model Julie (Emilia Schuele) is normal. You can see her in a commercial: “We’re just ourselves,” the young women claim and laugh at the camera. “We make our own rules. We don’t care what other people think of us.” At home, Julie bites into a croissant, takes a picture of it and feeds her Insta channel with the picture – but spits the croissant out again. Are we just ourselves? Are you kidding me? Are you serious when you say that.

Appearance has never been as central as it is in our body-fixated present with its constant demand for self-optimization. Even the body positivity movement, with its postulate that every body is beautiful, offers no way out, especially since advertising has long since appropriated it: the spot in which Julie appears flirts with female emancipation efforts, only to see her with young, thin models all the more nasty to undermine: women should not only look good, but should not let the effort that it takes be seen.

“Wonderful” is the third directorial work for actress Karoline Herfurth, after the romantic comedy “SMS für dich” (2016). and the women’s buddy movie “Sweethearts” (2019). She has acted in various comedies herself, from “Girls, Girls” to “Fack ju Göthe”, and made a light film out of her big subject: with sharp dialogues, a good feeling for punchlines and timing. And with great actresses who fill the clichés they embody with life. The director also plays in it herself. As she explains, she gained ten kilos specifically to embody the young mother Sonja.

Julie is struggling to the point of utter exhaustion to look “right”.

She fearlessly flaunts her sagging stomach (albeit in a very short shot). Her portrayal of the constantly stressed mother struggling with her figure is pretty much over the top. For example, when Sonja tries to put on pants that fitted her before she was pregnant, it becomes slapstick. And a scene in a women’s toilet, when Sonja sits on the toilet in a business suit with her top open, mobile phone to her ear and sandwich in hand, while the attachments of a breast pump are stuck to both breasts, is as grotesque as the double and triple strain of younger women often is.

Herfurth, with her apricot-colored hair and freckled alabaster skin, is such an exceptional phenomenon that even ten kilos of bacon doesn’t make her an average mom. The difference between actors and their roles is particularly striking in this film, as the attractiveness of the actresses almost undermines the film’s message. The fact that Frauke is in her late fifties and is invisible to her husband as an erotic counterpart is at least half claimed because Martina Gedeck plays her. Of course there are creases, and the costume department and the lighting guys did a lot to give her a timeless beige-brown look. But Martina Gedeck was the waitress Serafina in “Rossini” or “Bella Martha”, she is in any case so present as an actress of beautiful women that the viewer never sees her as just a middle-aged woman.

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“Wonderful” is not an Andreas Dresen film, but a comedy. The film is fun and just loves its characters too much not to wish them the best – despite the various possibilities for tragedy. Fat Leyla (young actress Dilara Aylin Ziem is a discovery!) discovers that with her strong shoulders she can hit a baseball insanely far. Frauke takes a dance class and gets Wolfi up to speed, and Sonja applies for a job and leaves the children to the career man. Only Julie works herself to the point of total exhaustion to look “right”.

Trailer for the film:

Herfurth wrote the screenplay together with Monika Fässler and Lena Stahl, they connect the life stories of the women by making them friends and family members. The way it is constructed, the episode structure fits the film’s demand for diversity: art teacher Vicky (Nora Tschirner) formulates it in front of her class on behalf of the director. More than the other women, Vicky is an artificial character who, because she is played by Nora Tschirner, but funny, snotty and not too “made up” seems. She teaches her students that people have many different qualities and talents and that a fixed gaze on physical beauty and the expectations of others only gets in the way of expressing one’s personality. That sounds more instructive than it is in the film. And isn’t Vicky right? It’s about time that thick or thin, old or wrinkled become a little less important.

Beautiful, D 2021 – Director: Karoline Herfurth. Book: K. Herfurth, Lena Stahl, Monika Fäßler. Camera: Daniel Gottschalk. With: Martina Gedeck, Joachim Król, Karoline Herfurt, Emilia Schüle, Nora Tschirner, Dilara Aylin Ziem. Warner, 132 minutes. Theatrical release: February 3, 2022.