KIRSCH BLUTEN/HANAMI/CHERRY BLOSSOMS

Elmar Wepper, Hannelore Elsner.
Germany, 2007, 127 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Doris Dorrie.

I hope that many audiences find this a very moving film.

The subjects are ageing, the generations of families, tensions, differing cultures and, especially, death.

Doris Dorrie has made many popular films in Germany as well as documentaries. This film, with a small budget, a limited crew, and, working in Germany and Japan, experienced rugged conditions in process but has achieved great feeling and beauty.

The Japanese motif is in the title and in Trudi (a marvellous Hannelore Elsner) wanting to visit Japan where he favourite son works and to see the blossoms at Mt Fujiyama. But, her husband Rudi (Elmar Wepper, also very convincing) is a man of strict, even rigid habits, and does not like 'adventures'. However, they do go to visit two children in Berlin and find that the children find them a burden and are too preoccupied and busy to put themselves out for their parents though the son is glad to see them, the daughter not. In fact, it is her partner who is the most considerate. Trudi and Rudi go to the Baltic for a beach break.

An unexpected event changes the drama and the dynamic of the film and a transition to Japan. While the focus is on Rudi (and we miss Trudi very much while she is not on screen, as he does) and his transformation by Japanese culture and a Butoh dancer (Butoh is a 1960s development of dance and mime that expresses deep inner feelings), an art form that is dear to Trudi.

Doris Dorrie gave an interview on the film's release. She had visited Japan with her daughter and was charmed and fascinated. She made parts of two films there. Her husband was her cinematography. He husband died and she was grief-stricken but found comfort in Butoh dance which she first saw in a television program, especially Butoh's emotion in stylised form that indicated a re-enactment of the past, embodying a deep union between people who loved each other long and deeply. Her words enhance the experience of her film which brings all this together and more.

Doris Dorrie also acknowledges her debt to classical Japanese cinema, especially the films of Ozu and his Tokyo Story whose plot this film resembles.

Older audiences will identify with the characters and their situations. Younger audiences will identify with the children, even if they don't wish to.

1.The appeal of the film, to older audiences, to men, to women? The effect on younger audiences? Younger audiences identifying with the children? The critique?

2.The sensitivity of the film-making, on marriage, love, long companionship, tolerance between husband and wife, union and unity, illness, death, grief and coping?

3.The German sensibility? Understanding of and empathy for Japan? A female perspective? The arts, the Butoh style of mime and dancing? German perspective on life, marriage, work, children? The director and her experience of her husband’s death, the visits to Japan, Butoh dancing?

4.The German settings: the town, the mountains? Berlin and the city? The Baltic coast, the beaches, the hotel?

5.The contrast with Japan, the credits, the symbolic blossoms, the celebration of the blossoms, Mount Fuji?

6.Trudy, her voice-over, her desires for her life, to go to Japan, Mount Fuji? Her love for Rudy, her long marriage, the children? Her life in the town, the routine? Her husband and his arrival home, coat, slippers, meal? Her husband not wanting adventures? Her love for the dance, the photos of her, its meaning for her life, Rudy having no interest?

7.The doctor, his diagnosis, Trudy and her decision not to tell her husband, her concern, lying awake, alert to discussions and mentions of death?

8.Rudy at work, mundane, meticulous, the routine of going, the train, sharing the paper, consciousness of time, the sandwich, the apple a day, going home?

9.The visit to Berlin, the son and his wife, late at the airport, taking up the children’s rooms in the house, the grandmother and her love for the children, their being preoccupied with their computer games, the father and mother and their being busy? The meetings and inability to take the parents for drives?

10.Karolin, her relationship with her brother and sister-in-law, her anger at her parents, critique, their favouritism of Karl, her relationship to Franzie? Her lifestyle? The visit of the parents for tea?

11.Franzie, Karolin’s partner, pleasant, at the meal, her offering to drive them round, hospitality, taking Trudy to the Butoh dance, sharing the experience? The only one to come to the funeral?

12.Rudy and the Butoh, sitting outside? Trudy and her dancing? The Butoh, its style, its meanings, mime, demonstration of interior feelings?

13.The Baltic, the walks, the hotel, peace? The questions what if..? about death? Trudy’s death?

14.Rudy’s bewilderment, the children’s reaction, Karl coming from Japan, the minister at the funeral? The aftermath and their discussions?

15.Rudy and his grief, his desperate missing of Trudy (and the audience missing her as well)? His routines, packing up? Rediscovering his wife? The photos of her in the Butoh makeup?

16.His discovery, going to Japan, arrival, Karl meeting him, his being lost, Karl and his treatment, taking him to work, making him stay all day in the office, the meals, the pictures to help with his vocabulary, Karl and his drinking at the party, Rudy coping?

17.Rudy and the Japanese culture, walking around Tokyo, the various districts, the language, the experience, the strip club, the sauna? His reaction? Going back? Tying the handkerchiefs to mark his place?

18.His discovering of the young girl, meeting her, her performance in the park, the Butoh, the makeup, the mime, the movements, the telephone, her grief? Her explanation of her mother’s death? Rudy being able to pour out his own experience? Her response? Accompanying her to the subway, her making a difference in his life? His decision to follow, the discovery of the tent, her life in the tent, poverty, taking her to Karl’s apartment, the shower, Karl ousting her? His decision to travel to Mount Fuji and inviting her?

19.Mount Fuji, covered in clouds, the room, the hopes, Rudy’s impatience? His giving all his money to the girl?

20.Rudy's dreams, Trudy’s presence, his waking, the view of the mountain, the blossoms, going out, applying the makeup, with Trudy, the Butoh dance? His death?

21.The reactions, the family, their bewilderment? The young girl, her future? And audiences satisfied as experiencing real human beings, their relationship, the depth of love, death and grief?