洛特·艾斯纳的长假

Shalid Saless' 60-minute documentary mostly consists of medium long shots showing the 83 year old Lotte H. Eisner in her Paris apartment routinely talking about her biography as film critic in Germany until her escape from Berlin in 1933 and later staff member of Henri Langlois' Cinémathèque in Paris, France and -- at the end -- about the new German cinema of the 70's as well as her definition of expressionism in the arts. Shalid Saless' questions are not to be heard but shown as short intertitles. Additionally there are two sequences in the beginning where Saless uses voice-over text from Eisner's letters cut to archive footage of Nazi manifestations in Germany around '33. In another scene the movie shows a relaxed Sunday dinner at Eisner's place with some guests chatting in English, among them film critics Jene Moskowitz and David Overbey and actor Howard Wernon. If you have read Eisner's books you'll probably know most of the stories she tells in the movie. Do do not expect anything revelatory or excitingly new here. I nevertheless enjoyed the movie because of Eisner's calm and clear presence which is nicely brought to light by Saless' contained editing style and the relaxed and unagitated 16mm-black/white cinematography.