Transit (2018) is the third film I’ve watched of German director Christian Petzold and at this point, I have to say that I’m a fan. There is something very direct about Petzold’s filmmaking style, it is not too showy or over-the-top; there’s a degree of elegance, though for some it might also be close to being prosaic. What Petzold and his collaborators have pulled off in Transit seems straight forward but is actually something of a magic trick, particularly the ways in which it could have failed or been overstated. Adapting Anna Seghers 1934 novel about refugees in hiding during German occupation of France in World War II, the specifics of people trying to escape Marseilles as the German army invades has been reasserted into a contemporary context. There is no unnecessary detail or parallel universe details here. The costuming and hairstyling at certain points may refer back to the 1940s context of the novel, but the events in the world of the film transpire in today’s world; the signifying threat being metro Police in modern day tactical gear. One inspiration I’ve read Petzold cite was Chantal Akerman’s Portrait Of A Young Girl, and telling a 1969 story within the clearly visible 1990s location shooting. Here, the plight of war and the refugee experience blurs the past and the present. All of this takes place in the background while the story is centred around its characters. Our major entry point is Georg (Franz Rogowoski) who is in hiding and relies on a support network who all live in fear with the encroaching “spring cleaning”. When Georg is tasked to deliver letters to a famous writer, Franz Wiedel, in a hotel, he discovers that the writer has killed themselves. Smuggling himself to Marseilles in the hope of obtaining a “transit” to Mexico, Georg takes the writer’s belongings and inevitably takes over his identity when an opportunity of passage due to the writer’s status presents itself. While in Marseilles, Georg’s loneliness finds himself drawn to a make-shift family unit – the wife and child of a dead comrade – who he becomes friends with, and the wandering figure of the writer’s wife, Marie (Paula Beer), unaware that the husband who she left is dead and that Georg is now using his identity. There are thematic parallels to a previous Petzold movie I’ve watched, Phoenix, and this film also takes in people’s movements and their presence against space, often in daylight. I became quite absorbed by Transit, particularly due to Rogowoski’s soulful performance in the lead, and the connection he has with Beer (they also starred as lovers in Petzold’s next film, Undine). I also responded to the use of narration by an outside observer (Matthias Brandt) and the plaintive score is provided by Stefan Will. Available to stream on Mubi and iTunes. Recommended.
VHS Tracking 