FLIGHT TO BERLIN

UK, 1984, 90 minutes, Colour.
Tusse Silberg, Paul Freeman, Lisa Kreuzer, Jean- Francois Sevenin. Eddie Constantine.
Directed by Christopher Pettit.

Flight to Berlin is the third feature by former critic and film theoretician Christopher Pettit. He wrote and directed the road film Radio On and the thriller An Unsuitable Job for a Woman. This film is an adaptation of a novel by Jennifer Potter.

As a thriller, the film is rather 'existential'. There is a death, there is a flight to Berlin, there are gangsters. However, the incidents are treated rather cerebrally - an analysis of an alienated character in difficult situations in Berlin rather than a focus on incident, action or suspense. There are many film references for film buffs (especially with the introduction of American character actor Eddie Constantine as himself - discussing his career and his treatment of heroines in films). The film would appeal to film theorists rather than the popular audience.

1. An existential thriller? A focus on meaning rather than action? Philosophy rather than emotional involvement?

2. The work of the writer-director as film theorist. critic? His eye on a non-commercial audience? The relative importance of event and meaning? Character and character analysis? Straightforward plot and intricate pieces of plot? Atmosphere of alienation? Germany as a vocation for escape? Berlin as a strange city?

3. Production values: the use of the city of Berlin. locations? Musical score. songs? The structure: the focus on Susanna, the interrogation, the flashbacks, her point about being asked the right questions rather than the wrong ones?

4. The ingredients of the thriller: a death, flight, photo in papers, change of identity and name, gangsters, relationships, the police and interrogations? Audience expectations - and their being dashed?

5. How effective the film as a character study? The focus on Susanna, her situation, moods, actions? A puzzle to herself? Memories, hopes? The significance of the voice-over? The metaphorical touch? Existential touch? Accusations of pretentiousness?

6. The picture of society: Britain as escaped from? Berlin and the flight to? A city of transition, alienation, danger, resolution? Escape to ... ?

7. The title and the significance of 'flight'? The air flight, flight as in escape from? Escape to?

8. The portrait of Susanna: the arrest, the initial police interrogation, her reaction? Non-co-operation, the questions? The voice-over? Her experience in England, the dying woman and the fall. Susanna having to catch her, the woman seeming to fling herself, blaming Susanna for her life? Susanna's reaction to the blame? The flight from England, the plane, Eddie Constantine on the plane and at the airport? Arrival in Berlin? The newspaper with her photo and identity? The relationship with Nicholas, his eye troubles, their not communicating for years? Susanna evading him? Seeking out Julie? The sisterly relationship and yet the separation of culture and education? The bond between the two? The encounters, Susanna losing the photo in the wind? Using Julie? The encounter with Edouard, the apartment, his seeming to hang himself, the discussions, the button, watching him through the window? The irony that he was Julie's husband? The party? Relying on Edouard? The encounter with Jack. sexual liaisons, use of Edouard's apartment? Suspicions of his background? Meeting Eddie Constantine: the plane, the restaurant, his courtesy, his discussion about his roles in films? Susanna wandering the city, her moods, alienation, relationships. Alone, bathing, sleeping, the party? Seeing Nicholas? Her rushing away, the interrogation? her being let go? Her final escape at the border? Her changing her identity and name?

9. The contrast with Julie, her work, her comments about her ineffective husband, her joke? Relationship with Susanna, the photo and losing it? Jack and his callow attitude, the meeting in the park (and the echoes of Blow Up with the characters in the photographs)? Julie and her photography, photographing Edouard and Susanna embracing? Susanna in difficulties, the apartment, the party? An alternative to Susanna's character?

10. Jack, callow, picking up Susanna, not telling her the truth, sexual liaison, using Edouard's apartment, the criminal associations?

11. Edouard, the apartment, being seen by Susanna, the hanging sequence, the button? Squiring Susanna? The web of intrigue and deals? Police suspicions?

12. Eddie Constantine as a star of European films, his American background, success in Europe, gangsters, the tough man, his hat on, courtesy? How he treated the girls in the films? Talk about directors he had worked with? The evocation of continental films e. g. Jean- Luc Godard?

13. The police, the interrogation? Enigmatic?

14. The gradual revelation of the intricate web. the connecting of the strands? The background being more normal? Explanations? But an individual within this web?