THE SECOND AWAKENING OF CHRISTA KLAGES

Germany, 1978, 92 minutes, Colour.
Tina Engel, Sylvie Reisz.
Directed by Margarethe Von Trotte.

The Second Awakening of Christa Klages is an early film written and directed by Margarethe von Trotta, the wife of director Volker Schlondorff. She had appeared in several of her husband's films including The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum. She later made the very moving tragedy Sisters. This film is more straightforward - a portrait of a woman with a cause who is involved in a bank robbery and who flees justice but is forced more and more to survive. She feels betrayed, the need to rest, even to give up, but who is unexpectedly freed by a compassionate witness who testifies that she is innocent of the crime. She was to make the very moving Sisters and Dark Times.

The film is a character study of an intense woman, concerned about society and her son but victimised by society. She turns (in the American tradition) to bank robbery and a life on the run. This transferring of American style to the West German situation is curious and raises audience interest in the character and her tensions.

The film works well at a narrative level but is an interesting exploration of the character of Christa, played very sympathetically by Tina Engel (who appeared in the moving Swiss film The Boat is Full). The film is a comment on German values and lifestyle in the '70s.

1. The film as a character study? Critique of German society? The importance of the feminine point of view - writing, directing? The central performance?

2. Colour, photography, use of locations, the atmosphere of West Germany in the '70s? The contrast with the use of Portuguese locations? Atmosphere of realism? An interpretation of West German society?

3. The focus on Christa: her story, reflections, flashbacks? Initial sympathy? The robbery? Her friends, the reasons for the robbery, her hiding, her exile in Portugal, the motivation for her return? The irony of the witness - providing the second awakening? The significance of the title and its focus?

4. The robbery and its impact? Werner and Wolff and their participation? Wolff's capture and his giving information? Audience response to the fact? Later discovery of the motives? Christa's concern? The importance of the robbery as the symbol for discontent and desperation? Her needs, desperation, her daughter? The squalor of the home for the children? The critique of society which allows charity to be turned out of house for the setting up of a sex shop?

5. Christa's attempt to escape? Was it inevitable that she would be pursued and have to give herself up? The train trip? The decision to go to Hans for help? His supporting her? His allowing her to stay? Their discussions? The religious background and the film's comment on religion's answer to social needs? Hans helping her to disguise, to leave for Portugal? Her sense of alienation in Portugal - language, work, climate? Her work, singing German songs, her capacity for relating to people? Her desperate loneliness? Concern about her daughter? The importance of her friendship with Flo and her helping her, Flo's visit to Portugal? The return? Her daring to return. to live an ordinary life? Her being caught?

6. The range of experiences in terms of realism, in terms of symbolism? Her cause, her faith, her past, her coping with Werner's death, her disguise, exile, loneliness, desperation, arrest and recognition? Her being saved - her second awakening?

7. The sketch of Wolff, his background, participation in the robbery, his arrest, his being scared? Werner and his style, background, participation in the robbery, friendship with Christa, travelling with her, his behaviour in the minister's house, his going out for social life, death? The contrast with Hans and his religious background, his mother, sermons, official religious views, faced with the reality of Christa's plight, help, the law, money?

8. Flo and her friendship? Her relationship with her husband? Her background? Her decision to help - initially tentative, the visit to Portugal, supporting Christa on her return? The film's strong emphasis on the bonds of genuine feminine friendship?

9. The refuge and the girl in charge, her care for the children, the clash with the owner and the building of the sex shop?

10. The film's emphasis on the teller in the bank? Her appearance, her wide-eyed looking at Christa? Her decision to investigate Christa's background? Her investigations, questions, discovery about the refuge? Her earnest interest in him? The arrest? Her decision not to name Christa and in fact to emphatically deny that she was the robber? The enigmatic characterisation? The values behind her search, decision?

11. How effective as a story and character study? As a fable about oppression? As an insight into the emerging role of women in the '70s? As a fable about German society?