My Heart Is Mine Alone

My Heart Is Mine Alone (German: Mein Herz – niemandem!) is a 1997 German experimental drama film directed by Helma Sanders-Brahms. A 1997 issue of Jewish Currents wrote that the film is "a kind of German movie that usually requires more than one screening to decipher and is made for avant-garde devotees."[1]

My Heart Is Mine Alone
DVD cover
Directed byHelma Sanders-Brahms
Written byHelma Sanders-Brahms
Produced byHelma Sanders-Brahms
Christhart Burgmann
Ute Casper
CinematographyRoland Dressel
Edited byNadine Schulze
Monika Schindler
Helma Sanders-Brahms
Music byAngelika Flacke
Eckard Koltermann
Peter Kowald
Production
companies
Helma Sanders-Brahms Filmproduktion GmbH
Arte G.E.I.E.
Westdeutscher Rundfunk
Distributed byFreunde der Deutschen Kinemathek e.V.
Release date
17 September 1997
Running time
105 minutes
CountryGermany
LanguageGerman

Plot

The story of the real-life love affair between Jewish poet Else Lasker-Schüler and Nazi poet Gottfried Benn is told largely through their poetry throughout the film. Lasker-Schüler is forced to leave the country because of the very ideology Benn espouses, and while she drifts from country to country en route to Jerusalem, he eventually realizes his mistake when the Nazis condemn his artistic school.

Cast

Release

The film was released on DVD by Facets Multi-Media in 2008.[2]

Reception

Critical opinion has been largely positive. The film was screened out of competition at the 1997 Berlin International Film Festival[3] and was nominated for the Maverick Spirit Award at the Cinequest Film Festival in 1998 as well as for the Emden Film Award at the International Filmfest Emden in 1997. Variety, although opining that the film was "flat," nevertheless praised the leading actress' "charm and energy,"[4] as did Metro Silicon Valley critic Richard von Busack, who wrote that "[d]ark, pocket-size and intense, Stolze has the magnetism to prove why men thought of Lasker-Schüler as an Expressionist vampire,"[5] and critic Ed Soohoo, who wrote that it is "wonderful to see" Lena Stolze "once again on screen as she brings life to Else."[6] Critic Peter Nellhaus has praised the film's "expressionist collage of conventional biographical re-enactment, stylized staging, and documentary" and wrote that he regards it as a "truthful film."[7]

References
  1. Jewish Currents, Volume 51, 1997. p. 33.
  2. Helma Sanders-Brahms (2008). My Heart Is Mine Alone (DVD). Facets Multi-Media. ISBN 9781565808157. OCLC 276949152. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
  3. "Programme 1997". Berlin International Film Festival. February 1997. Retrieved 31 December 2013.
  4. Elley, Derek (22 March 1997). "Review: My Heart Is Mine Alone". Variety. Retrieved 31 December 2013.
  5. von Busack, Richard (21 January 2009). "My Heart Is Mine Alone". Metro Silicon Valley. Retrieved 31 December 2013.
  6. Soohoo, Ed. "My Heart Is Mine Alone". Cinequest Film Festival. Retrieved 10 January 2014.
  7. Nellhaus, Peter (14 April 2009). "Fucking Nazis". Coffee, Coffee, and More Coffee: Coming to a Cinema near You. Retrieved 31 December 2013.
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