‘Rose’ Review: Sandra Hüller Brings Her A-Game To A Thoughtful Study Of Gender Roles In 17th-Century Germany – Berlin Film Festival

Sandra Hüller was the Queen of Cannes in 2023, starring in two of the most acclaimed films in the Competition: Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest and Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall. Her return to the festival circuit is another remarkable piece of work, one that cements her reputation as a striking yet surprisingly […]

16 Feb, 12:08 — 16 Feb, 12:23

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Why this matters

This story matters as it highlights a new film featuring Sandra Hüller, an actress who gained significant acclaim in 2023 for her roles in critically acclaimed films like "The Zone of Interest" and "Anatomy of a Fall." Her continued strong performances, particularly in a film exploring complex themes of gender roles in historical settings, maintains her prominence in the cinematic landscape and offers audiences thoughtful, relevant narratives.

Key entitiesSandra Hüller Markus Schleinzer Rose Berlin Film Festival 17th-century Germany

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Moderate (32/100)

2 sources— more sources would strengthen this score15/33

Spectrum spread— 2/5 buckets covered8/33

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The Guardian

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Geographic diversity— 2 regions9/34

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The GuardianMostly Factual97d ago

Rose review – Sandra Hüller is outstanding in grimy examination of gender stereotypes

Austrian director Markus Schleinzer’s captivating film follows a woman passing herself off a man in 17th-century rural Germany Austrian director Markus Schleinzer brings a chill to his eerie new movie, a stark monochrome period drama set in rural southern Germany in the aftermath of the Thirty Years’ war. It is a film which, for all its grimness, is beautifully shot and as engrossing as a lurid soap opera. It’s a story of gender stereotypes, satirising the central mythic tenet of patriarchal Christianity and depicting humanity’s self-invention through violence and stealth. The chief influence is clearly Michael Haneke’s icy black-and-white film The White Ribbon from 2009, on which Schleinzer worked as casting director; Schleinzer shares with Haneke an interest in leaving the audience with an intractable, insoluble mystery: a problem that won’t tie up. The drama effectively conflates real-life cases of women passing themselves off as men in early modern Europe with the well-known case history of the French false claimant Martin Guerre. Sandra Hüller gives a superb performance as Rose, a young woman who has been posing as a man all her life and has been a soldier in this guise. She wears dour shapeless clothes, and has the brisk, brusque, economical physical movements of an old soldier; a livid scar that has transformed her face into a worldly and conveniently unfeminine grimace. She says it is the result of a bullet that she now wears around her neck on a cord, a kind of unlucky charm, a reminder of her survival. Continue reading...

By Peter Bradshaw

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deadlineMostly Factual97d ago