"Das zweite Erwachen der Christa Klages" is a West German German-language film from 1978, so two more years and this one will have its 40th anniversary. The writer and director is Margarethe von Trotta and at this point she was still married to Volker Schlöndorff. If you know a bit about German filmmaking from the 1970s, you will easily see that the title is clearly inspired by the work of Rainer Fassbinder and maybe the film as well, to some extent. This 90-minute live action movie was awarded as one of the best films from that year (the big prize went to "Die gläserne Zelle") at the German Film Awards and it won lead actress for the fairly young Tina Engel in her 20s, the biggest triumph of her career. Still I must admit that I am not familiar at all with her today anymore and there are two cast members that are much more famous here in Germany. The first would be Katharina Thalbach ("Tin Drum") and the second would be Mariua Müller-Westernhagen, even if in his case it is mostly for his music career. The center of the film is (apart from Christa) a bank robbery that got wrong and resulted in one of the trio being arrested. The other two are searched for by the police and on the run. Will they get away? The title already tells you that, at least for Christa, a happy end may be possible. The problem is just that there is a witness and you never know what she will do or how much she knows. Will she identify the title character? Watch for yourself. Or don't as I found this a fairly forgettable movie and I cannot really share the praise this movie may have received, neither for Engel nor for the final overall outcome. It is certainly not a failure, but it is also nowhere near the best 10 or 20 films from 1970's Germany which some people may consider it to be a part of. Thumbs down from me. Not recommended. von Trotta really does not seem to be my kind of preferred filmmaker. I was underwhelmed by pretty much everything I have seen from her.
