An experimental art film that is sure to only appeal to the more adventurous viewer who is a fan of opaque and mysterious works of art, Werner Schroeter’s Death of Maria Malibran provides little conclusions through its running time but never-the-less it's a harrowing portrait that challenges the fundamental ideals of what cinema can be. The film is a fever dream of emotion and subtle energy, being dreamlike as it uses a vibrant orchestral score and operatic performance art to deliver an expressionistic art piece that confounds as much as it intrigues. The film is simply stunning, with cinematography, art direction, and lighting which combine to create an intoxicating experience that feels very much like an operatic stage play while still giving off an almost supernatural vibe of mystery and intrigue. The film starts off full of Romanticism but as it progresses it becomes clear The Death of Maria Malibran is one of ironic romanticism and subversive style, routinely having sound and image intentionally out of sync which creates a playful perversion, something that becomes darker and darker as the film progresses, dehumanizing these romanticized, picturesque woman of bourgeois society. While trying to easily define Schroeter's film in any easily discernible way feels like a fools errand, The Death of Maria Maliban is a film which uses opera as a device to expose the ugliness and cruelty that exists in bourgeouis society, one that is driven by status and the collective ideals. Characters routinely speak in a way that makes little sense and many of the characters become undifferentiable as the film progresses, as if to suggest that language itself has little meaning, as one's actions are the deriving force of morality and personal characters. Schroeter routinely injects the film with upbeat, vapid pop-style songs throughout, another bizarre but expressionistic decision which speaks to the vapid nature of society. While many of these observations could be completely off-base, The Death of Maria Maliban as a whole feels like an indictment on the selfish, abusive constructs which society as a whole can create, one which routinely tears down the individual for the sake of the collective. Conformity and lack of individuality feel like a major aspect of this film, with the bourgeois characters essentially attempting to destroy the young Maria Maliban for having a different perspective than their overall ideals. Featuring so much to think about, consider, and attempt to deconstruct, Werner Schroeter's The Death of Maria Maliban is a film you experience more than attempt to define, being an expressionistic fever dream that is not quite like anything I've ever seen.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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