In Christian Petzold's film 'Yella', a young woman stalked by her husband after leaving him slowly rebuilds her life, and self-respect, through starting a relationship with a criminal businessman. But it's not clear how much of the story is real, and how much is the product of her traumatised mind. In its conclusion, the film resolves this question, and the answer is almost inevitably disappointing; the kick in the tail insufficiently surprising or satisfying. What is good, however, is most of what precedes the ending, as the viewer is drawn into a world intriguingly on the balance of normalcy and the sinister, as seen by a woman herself on the edge. It's nicely underplayed and there's scarcely a wasted scene; it's just a shame that the final resolution has little new to add.

Whilst there are some intelligent references towards the relationship between the former East and West regions of Germany, the film as a whole drags on far too long in what seems a never ending, repetitive cycle of tiresome and boring events. The dynamic and exciting world of business is transformed into a dull sequence of events, which constantly occur, highlighting the clear lack of ability in writing an enthralling script. The contrast in acting styles from Nina Hoss (Yella) are minimal, at several occasions looking as though it is too painful to smile. On the other hand David Striesow's (Phillip) performance attracts the attention of the viewer, and is highly commendable, in particular his swift changes in mood. However, when all is said and done Petzold's "Yella" is a film full of irrelevant references pinned under the title of "artistic licence", it would be better suited to a total running time of 30 minutes, rather than forcing the viewer to endure 86 minutes worth of scenes depicting the supposed ideals of the capitalist West. My advice is save your time and money, spend £15 on a documentary on capitalism - it'll probably be more interesting.

Films of the so-called "Berlin School" (Petzold,Arslan,Schanelec)in the last years frequently represented the German cinema at international festivals,and not with small success.Reactions were often similar:Accolades from the critics,especially those from France,while the non-professional spectators mostly were at a loss with the film because of the slow and fragmented storytelling,the long scenes without cutting,the concentration on close-ups and the staging of space.All that applies also to the new film "Yella" by Chr. Petzold,which for many was the favorite for the "Golden Bear" at the Berlinale 2007,but ended up only with a absolutely deserved "Silver Bear" for the fantastic Nina Hoss. "Yella" is some kind of finale to Petzold's "Geister-Trilogie",to which also belong "Die innere Sicherheit" and "Gespenster"; films,which are situated in a clearly outlined reality,but whose protagonists glide through their life like phantoms,unseizable and themselves unable to build a relation to the surrounding world.The story itself is quite simple and more or less superficial: Yella, living in East Germany and married to a man,whose business is near to bankruptcy, has applied for a job in West Germany and plans to leave her past life behind her.Her husband offers to drive her to the station and after having tried in vain to talk her into staying with him and starting their relationship new , he purposely drives the car through the railing of a bridge into the water.They both manage to get to the bank.Yella then disappears and takes the trip to the west.She doesn't get the promised job,but because of her knowledge of dealing with accounts and her appearance she gets the job of assistant to a specialist for venture capital.The film gives brilliant insights into the world of globalized capitalism dominated by greed, betrayal and blackmailing.Yella comes to enjoy the power and the success.It seems that she made it:A profitable job and a new man in her life.But she ruins it all by her own abnormal ambition fed by love.Well, then their is the end,which displeased so many spectators and was called pretentious, illogical or simply stuck on.But if one watches the film carefully and pays attention to all the visual and acoustic guiding themes the end is logic and convincing.A formally stern,deliberately cool and strangely mesmerizing lyrical film.By the way: It tells you more about today's German state of mind than a dozen statistical surveys.

Improbably dialogue, hammy acting, and a "twist" in the storyline which is neither clever nor original. Actually it just doesn't make any sense. What a waste of two hours. The reviews here in the UK were quite favourable, which makes me think that there was an exchange of brown envelopes off-screen as well as on-screen. Oh, and the subtitles were some of the worst I've seen, particularly in all the business-related discussions (Eigenkapital equity translated as "Personal Capital", Abschreibungen as "Deductions" etc.). Seeing as the whole plot revolves around these bits, you'd have thought they'd get someone to proof-read it who is familiar with these sort of terms.