Our two readings on Yella (2007) provide a compelling framework within which to view the film. Jaimey Fisher suggests that the entire film plays out as "a final fantasy of the expiring" (98). This emphasis on "fantasy" suggests that there is something desirable about the events as they happen and their outcomes, but I'll return to this idea later. Adding to our framework, Marco Abel poses the question, "What is the relation in contemporary Germany between subjective desires and the economic logic within which such desires find their expression?" With the connection between desire and economics in mind, fantasy - as Fisher conceives it - must also be part of the economic equation. Here, I'll examine this complex web as Christian Petzold creates in the film.
When Yella (Nina Hoss) returns to Philipp (Devid Striesow) in the motel after committing a 200,000 euro act of blackmail, Philipp mutters that he didn't think she would come back. The implication is that Yella could have just as easily ran off when Philipp asked her to do something so ethically (and perhaps legally) questionable. Alternately, she could have gone through with it and taken the money for herself instead of giving it to Philipp for the investment in Ireland. Her response to Philipp's doubt is, "I love you." Evidently, love is the reason she didn't duck out of the plan or go through with it but keep the money for herself. Her desire to be with Philipp romantically is proven through economic means. After all, the two were business partners before they were lovers. Their joint moneymaking may have simply helped ignite their romantic bond.
The following scene is one of my favorites in the film, as it demonstrates the interchangeability of love and money. During the business meeting - while the man tries to contact his blackmailed associate -, there is a close up of Yella holding Philipp's hand. It's one of the most intimate shots in the film, and seems in some ways out of place in a business environment. The act that happens next - Philipp leaning over to whisper something in Yella's ear - is one that echoes previous moments in the film. When Philipp first introduced this act as a business strategy to Yella, he told her that whatever she whispered didn't really matter; it was only the fact that it would throw the other negotiators off that meant something. When the businessmen use this strategy later in the film, Yella and Philipp simply laugh, seeing it as posturing. Thus, we're called to question whether Philipp's "I love you" actually meant something or whether it was a playful posture to use against inferior business people who have essentially already lost. The fact that these business people seem distracted on the phone suggests that the gesture wasn't intended for them, which would make Philipp's sincerity more probable. The close up of the hands earlier - also presumably not seen by the other business people - seems to lend legitimacy to Philipp and Yella's love.
Still, the question remains: is it their complicity in ethically questionable but successful economic activities that seals their love? Or is their love founded on something beyond just money? I don't know that I have an answer.
In any case, I'd like to return once more to Fisher's assertion that the film is Yella's "fantasy." Certain elements of it are appealing, from finding a different and much less abusive romantic partner to getting rich quick. But other elements, such as being stalked by Ben (Hinnerk Schoenemann) and indirectly causing a man's suicide, are distinctly nightmarish. Fisher even acknowledges the film's use of horror genre elements (104). Given the businessman suicide ending, I'd consider the film more of a nightmare than a fantasy. Petzold is not out to glamorize venture capitalism and blackmail.
While it is possible that P told Y to blackmail there is no evidence in the film—we don’t hear him say so etc. Indeed, I’d argue it is HER making this decision on her own, and that decision shows that she reverts back to an old economy logic….
“Petzold is not out to glamorize venture capitalism and blackmail.” Agreed, and JF would do so too. Calling this a “fantasy” doesn’t mean it’s “good” or “positive.” It’s a fantasy gone wrong, so to speak—and the film shows why it does, without, however, denouncing the manifest desires as such. CP is taking seriously the fact that capitalism in its current form is “sexy” (his word).
When watching the film Yella, it was first obvious to see where director Christian Petzold drew his inspiration from. There were scenes in the movie where the dialog seemed to be taken word for word from the documentary we watched prior about german capitalism. However I believe that Petzold is making a very distinct message in his film about capitalism and money. The first glimpse we see of this is in the film is in the relationship between Yella and Ben. Ben is upset that they are split up and part of this is because of their joint venture company going to pieces and the loss of money. We then see Petzold paint Phillip the VC in a bad light when it is shown that he is stealing money from the people he is actually loaning the money to. The cherry on top however, is when Yella black mails the man into selling his house to get funding. The man actually ends up committing suicide. Now as we come to find out, this is all actually a dream of a dying girl and none of it is actually real. But why would she dream this way if she did not subconsciously believe that money and capitalism are inherently evil. Or perhaps she believes that the contemporary German economy is broken. I do not know enough about German history to shed light on this, however Abel does state in his writing that this is a movie made of Contemporary Germany. So perhaps the in this Germany, money has become to big and important for people to create relationships without it. That again ties up the question, can love exist without money? Well we see that it cannot. Ben and Yella are proof of that. But we also see the lengths that people will go to get money, and it makes you wonder if anything is moral anymore.
“But why would she dream this way if she did not subconsciously believe that money and capitalism are inherently evil” I’m not sure the film suggests money and capitalism are evil, inherently or not. But the question is a good one. Arguably, what the film does suggest is that capitalist desire has infiltrated our unconscious. And, devastatingly, even in our dreams we cannot dream a version of capitalism and its desires that does not end up in catastrophe….
Yella, or A Woman Wears a Red Blouse Way Too Damn Often, by Christian Petzold, is, as Fisher pointed out, somewhat of a horror film, but it isn’t the one with the surprise ending. Most audience members likely conclude that Yella is dead/doomed/dreaming throughout the entire film based on her red blouse alone. However, as Fisher described, the film has horror aspects as Yella is often viewed through the eyes of someone victimizing her, as horror movies so often do. A small thing I found particularly interesting was when Fisher described Yella and Philip’s last hotel as similar to the Bates Motel, because the Lisa-in-the-chair scene in Boarding Gate also reminded me of Hitchcock’s masterpiece.
Anyway, today we saw two films, one of which I was particularly surprised to find entertaining – for the most part. Harun Farocki’s Nothing Ventured was (duh, documentary) a more overt picture of contemporary capitalist business practices that Petzold brilliantly folded into his film Yella. Nothing Ventured also showed me that many business meeting scenes in cinema are, in fact, somewhat accurate, as I (as I am guessing many audience members) had thought were dramatized in order to create interest.
The first ten minutes of Yella narrates the decline of Yella and Ben’s marriage, even if only vaguely. Yella left Ben when business busted, although it is never overtly stated whether this is actually the case. One might assume that she fell out of love with him because he’s a stalker and an abuser, but Yella (and Petzold) give audiences the sense that a financial situation contributed to the disintegration of the marriage. She left after the financial collapse, and perhaps Ben’s aggression originated in his frustration that she no longer loved him when he was worth nothing (monetarily).
However, when Yella meets Philip (in a dream world), she chooses to stay with him even after he is dismissed from his job for stealing from companies. Philip may be her opportunity to right what happened between her and Ben; in this situation, she does what most would deem the “right” thing.
All signs point to the conclusion that love necessitates money in this film, however. Yella only stays with Philip because she seems to realize that none of the situation is real; Yella leaves Ben when he no longer has any money; and a man drowns himself when Yella puts him in a situation where he would have to sell his wife’s house in order to keep his company afloat.
I found this film particularly interesting after our discussion about the lateral movement of the modern world, as everything past the first ten minutes or so was completely lateral. Yella dreamed an entire situation that seemingly drove her story along, but, in reality, everything she imagined, even (secondhandedly) killing a man gave her no more or less power than she had at the beginning.
One caveat to watching these films completely blind, meaning without having done any research, read any critical analyses, or given any sort of context is that when I do eventually do all those things I feel as though I was watching the film with a completely inappropriate or narrow lens. I don’t mean that negatively at all; in fact, it’s extremely interesting for me to discover, especially when watching foreign films, that I am largely ignorant during my initial viewing of the relatively narrow, very American lens through which I attempt to form critiques about or derive meaning from these films.
Petzold’s Yella (2007), prior to going through our assigned readings, was a film that for me was once again grappling with economic anxieties in a constantly changing, globalized world. I was still very much in the mindset of thinking about Assayas films, which are set all over the world, use multiple languages, and involve business networks that, as we discussed, are arranged laterally, constantly evolving, and contain virtually no single “leadership” body in a traditional sense. And, in many senses, Yella is similar to these films in its exploration of the effects of a global, constantly changing economy and its themes of constant movement and transition (hotels, cars, jobs, etc.). Those aspects of the film are accessible to me. What is not immediately accessible to me is the film’s portrayal and discussion of the “post-reunification reality” (Abel) that complicates present day Germany socioeconomically and socioculturally. I never once have thought about the implications of modern Germany being only twenty years in the making, and being able to gain some level of knowledge of that discussion, however brief, through the readings gives Petzold’s work an entirely different lens for me to see it through.
Petzold once again works in the more rural, less mythically glamorous setting of eastern Germany, and makes us of its expansive, empy spaces to accentuate the unsure wandering of his main characters, a device he uses in Jerichow (2008) to very similar ends. The disproportionate way in which Eastern Germany was unable to grow and advance as the former Western Germany did makes it a very effective setting for a film that explores, again, a character whom we meet in the middle of economic and financial desperation and transition (Fisher 101) in a way that still draws attention to the larger problems that have stemmed from economic disparity between regions of a country. Once again, Petzold explores the relationship between economics and love, as Yella has just gotten out of a relationship with a man whose business ventures have failed and rendered him broke (among the other issues he has), and eventually falls into a relationship with her coworker, ostensibly a financially stable move that breeds an ostensibly positive relationship. So, again, we are left with a compelling narrative form of showing that, despite what we may like to believe, it’s hard to refute an argument for love and money being deeply intertwined.
The film Yella was my favorite film so far; it had the right amount of suspense, boardroom banters and mystery to keep me interested. When thinking about this film and the overall question about love and its relationship to money it can be hard to find. I would like to talk about the daydream sequence as a whole. In real life Yella is not in love with Ben and it sounds like they had a real falling out once Ben’s business started to lose all of its money. Ben says in the movie that she left when times got hard and abandoned him. Once Yella found out there was no more money she went and earned her self a job that in the end we find she only got for her good looks. This also gives a good example to the liquidity aspect as a theme we have previously explored. Yella doesn’t stick around when times are hard she leaves and moves on, not trying to find a solution and maybe mend their relationship. All this dialogue happens in the dreams, which makes me think does she subconsciously feel bad for leaving ben? Once we start to find some empathy for Ben we slowly lose it with the fact that he kills himself and Yella. I don’t think Yella uses her sexuality as an asset to find work, but that she falls victim to the self perceive notion that women in the business world are just a pretty face. When Yella figures out that Alpha wings only hired her because she was pretty, she doesn’t take the job that is offered to her she simply backs her bag giving us the notion she was leaving. I would also like to point out how much of a resemblance Ben resembles Philip. They may look the same but they are different. One is a successful businessman for the most part but is stealing and dishonest. Philip has genuine feelings and is a likeable character. On the other hand Ben is crazy for the affection of Yella, is a bad businessman and also a liar. I think that Philip is who Yella hoped ben could have been, but in the end she comes to realize that in the world of love and business, you never know who is in control or who to trust.
“Once Yella found out there was no more money she went and earned her self a job that in the end we find she only got for her good looks.” It IS possible that the guy who was evicted from the corporate building did not care about her skills but we also know that she DOES have serious accounting skills.
“Yella doesn’t stick around when times are hard she leaves and moves on, not trying to find a solution and maybe mend their relationship.” Possibly so. But consider that asserting this also means we accept Ben’s claims/point of view. Can we trust him? If so, why? If not, why not?
“When Yella figures out that Alpha wings only hired her because she was pretty, she doesn’t take the job that is offered to her she simply backs her bag giving us the notion she was leaving.” Well, that company went out of business, as we see all their property being confiscated. So she literally has no job…there’s no job for her to take. The job that guy claims she could have in Hamburg is, we are lead to believe (and Yella understands this), also non-existent. The guy who offers it to her is done—the film suggests he engaged in illegal activities and may very well have to go to prison (that’s not sth spelled out but implied in the film)
“Ben resembles Philip” Yes, he does. If what we are witnessing is Yella’s “dream” as she lays dying then this makes a fair amount of “sense” insofar that we are witnessing dream work: the work that dreams do and how they do this: careful analysis would should that in her dream that very dream reboots a few times, rebuilding the dream with the elements from reality and those of the previous dream(s), refining the dream ever more. P is the refined dream work version of B, but with differences, and those differences come directly out of who the real B is and what Y’s experience with him was.
With the subject matter relating to power, desire, and dreams, Petzold's Yella (2007) felt almost David Lynch-esque. I was anxious while watching the film, from start to finish, and I sense my anxiety really stemmed from Yella's capitalist-focused dream. With a primary focus on venture capitalism and corporate power in present day Germany, it is very easy to tie in Yella with our course's overall theme of loving with/without money.
In her dream (and quite possibly in the real world, too), Yella is very good with her job skills. By being skilled, she goes after her desire to play in a capitalistic game with Phillipp, in which the two fall in love. She falls for him because they both share desires relating to venture capitalism, as Abel states with, "[...]what 'sells' Yella on Philipp is the fact that his desires are desires for the game of venture capitalism itself[...]" Things seem to be going smoothly because both characters have similar desires with the venture capitalism game that they have decided to play.
However, the second something goes wrong with either the money or the power involved in their partnership and in the venture capitalism game, Phillipp snaps at Yella, causing a palpable fissure in their relationship. This break might not be as severe as the one between Yella and Ben, but when the money or the power is /threatened/ between Yella and Phillipp, the situation certainly gets very intense. This is a weird money/love relationship, as it does not match up with our previous films. In previous films, the relationship has always been a transaction or a representation of replacement. In Yella, however, money runs side by side with love-- when money stops for a moment, so does love.
I really enjoyed this movie, but I can't clearly explain why. It might have been the fact that the movie really was just a dream of a dying woman, or it could have been the fact that this money/love relationship felt much more intimate than the previous films. Either way, I would love to watch this film again in an attempt to analyze it even more.
“This is a weird money/love relationship, as it does not match up with our previous films. In previous films, the relationship has always been a transaction or a representation of replacement. In Yella, however, money runs side by side with love-- when money stops for a moment, so does love.” This is interesting. Say more about this.
“Either way, I would love to watch this film again in an attempt to analyze it even more.” I think it is available on fandor.com streaming (Netflix might also have it, tho I don’t know for sure).
Petzold’s Yella, mixes together a classic ghost movie with the idea of capitalism to create a character whose “most intimate desires, dreams, and fantasies are consistently interwoven with the economic” (Fisher 98). All of this fits in seamlessly with our big question within the class: “can love exist without money.” Petzold once again relates capitalism and love, just as he did in Jerichow. By finding a job, both main characters are able to find love once again. For Yella, she insinuates that she fell out of love with Ben, because of their failed business; the loss of money helped to end their relationship. But, once she gets a job with Phillip, it was easy for her to fall for him. She literally runs towards money as she tries to get away from Ben by going to Phillip’s room. What I found interesting about this film was how eerily similar her dreams were to her life before her and her husband separated. While she was with her husband, you can assume how happy she was with him before their business failed. Once she is a ghost, she falls in love with someone who looks very similar to Ben. I even had a hard time distinguishing between Phillip and Ben in the beginning. Yella and Phillip also go into business together, just like she and Ben did. Both times, they were business partners turned lovers. Some scenes in the beginning of the film were similar to later scenes. An example of this is when Yella is in the car with Ben and Phillip. In these scenes, both end up in a disagreement where the car stops. However, the first scene ends up in the lake, while the other scene ends up near a lake, still alluding to the life Yella wished she could have had. Petzold also does a great job subtly showing how Yella’s life, after the car fell into the lake, is not real. He does this by always bringing Yella to places near water and continually referencing the crash with ringing, crows, and trees like she heard when she first got out of the lake. When Ben finds her, as she is driving, and when she finds the dead CEO, they all end up near some type of water. A lot of times, when she is by water, Yella goes through everything she went through when she got out of the lake after the crash. This all tries to convey to the audience that she is still by the lake the car fell into, and that she couldn’t escape from the water like we were made to believe in the beginning. Throughout the film, I also wondered why she was wearing the same outfit every single day, and how Ben was able to find her. After seeing the ending of how she actually died with Ben in the crash, everything made sense. The same clothes symbolized how the crash marked her last day, and Ben’s ability to always find her let us know that he died right by beside her.
“Some scenes in the beginning of the film were similar to later scenes” Yes, see my response above to Nils’ post.
Factual correction: the car crashes into the river Elbe, one of the larger rivers in Germany that comes from the Czech Republic, traverses East Germany before eventually moving into the North Sea via Hamburg.
“subtly showing how Yella’s life, after the car fell into the lake, is not real.” Good quick cinematic analysis follows this topic statement.
The film Yella (2007) uses the spacious movement in the opening transition. The camera work uses tracking shots in the movement of Yella (Nina Hoss) walking down the sidewalk. The use of windows, from the car, establishes an original sequence to catch the audience attention. The sound reflects the tempo and rhythm of the framework in each scene. The repetitive sounds that illustrate liquid, crow noises, lashing leaves, and birds chippering compare the slow motion of the sequences. As the tempo slows down, longer shots are made, and the sense of disturbance creates the site. Yella is shown to lose herself in the moment of slowing down, like spacing out, not noticing the people in her surrounding. The scene of the office with Philipp and the other businesspeople, as they look at her, for numbers and negotiation purposes but she exposes the real perspective of how the work wouldn’t be profiting their company. The structure of a real family is intriguing to Yella, for all she wants a normal life. Yella is shown looking at a family through a point of view shot. Yella thrives on making money to support her ideals. The scenic route of actions, by Ben (Hinnerk Schoneman), displays that relationships will drive a person mad. In the film, Ben is driven to be with Yella and doesn’t want to let her go; psychotic intentions are an influence to the affection of love he has for Yella. Yella characterizes one can not love without money by believing that she is not in love with her husband because he is poor, and is why she left him. It was engraved in her head when Ben is continually saying it. More or so; Yella wants a better life because she doesn’t want to struggle. The forlornness of the situation is that the man can’t provide for the women, so she moves with another man. In the sense of evil, consciousness is made to be true. Ben blames the company ruined there love, Yella seeks to move on with life getting with Phillipp and working along his side because they make a real connection. The scene where Ben is in her hotel room, Yella quickly sprints out to Phillipp’s room and feels protected to be in held by him. The film allows Phillipp to instruct Yella that he contain different view. Phillipp tells Yella not to get caught up in trying to make a life with him because he stands in no position of that kind of lifestyle. Phillip is eventually fire because Yella does a better job. Phillipp issues that she should be with him anymore because he won’t make any money but Yella comes out saying she love him. Fisher describes the film to set in "five business meetings, each of which is kept quite short, but together they offer the plot an overarching structure." (110) Then goes into talking about how fantasy plays a role in the structure of each meeting. The end scene makes the film to seem a bit of fantasy, was it all just a dream? With the death illustrate at the end, it completes the sense of dreams in the film.
Our two readings on Yella (2007) provide a compelling framework within which to view the film. Jaimey Fisher suggests that the entire film plays out as "a final fantasy of the expiring" (98). This emphasis on "fantasy" suggests that there is something desirable about the events as they happen and their outcomes, but I'll return to this idea later. Adding to our framework, Marco Abel poses the question, "What is the relation in contemporary Germany between subjective desires and the economic logic within which such desires find their expression?" With the connection between desire and economics in mind, fantasy - as Fisher conceives it - must also be part of the economic equation. Here, I'll examine this complex web as Christian Petzold creates in the film.
ReplyDeleteWhen Yella (Nina Hoss) returns to Philipp (Devid Striesow) in the motel after committing a 200,000 euro act of blackmail, Philipp mutters that he didn't think she would come back. The implication is that Yella could have just as easily ran off when Philipp asked her to do something so ethically (and perhaps legally) questionable. Alternately, she could have gone through with it and taken the money for herself instead of giving it to Philipp for the investment in Ireland. Her response to Philipp's doubt is, "I love you." Evidently, love is the reason she didn't duck out of the plan or go through with it but keep the money for herself. Her desire to be with Philipp romantically is proven through economic means. After all, the two were business partners before they were lovers. Their joint moneymaking may have simply helped ignite their romantic bond.
The following scene is one of my favorites in the film, as it demonstrates the interchangeability of love and money. During the business meeting - while the man tries to contact his blackmailed associate -, there is a close up of Yella holding Philipp's hand. It's one of the most intimate shots in the film, and seems in some ways out of place in a business environment. The act that happens next - Philipp leaning over to whisper something in Yella's ear - is one that echoes previous moments in the film. When Philipp first introduced this act as a business strategy to Yella, he told her that whatever she whispered didn't really matter; it was only the fact that it would throw the other negotiators off that meant something. When the businessmen use this strategy later in the film, Yella and Philipp simply laugh, seeing it as posturing. Thus, we're called to question whether Philipp's "I love you" actually meant something or whether it was a playful posture to use against inferior business people who have essentially already lost. The fact that these business people seem distracted on the phone suggests that the gesture wasn't intended for them, which would make Philipp's sincerity more probable. The close up of the hands earlier - also presumably not seen by the other business people - seems to lend legitimacy to Philipp and Yella's love.
Still, the question remains: is it their complicity in ethically questionable but successful economic activities that seals their love? Or is their love founded on something beyond just money? I don't know that I have an answer.
In any case, I'd like to return once more to Fisher's assertion that the film is Yella's "fantasy." Certain elements of it are appealing, from finding a different and much less abusive romantic partner to getting rich quick. But other elements, such as being stalked by Ben (Hinnerk Schoenemann) and indirectly causing a man's suicide, are distinctly nightmarish. Fisher even acknowledges the film's use of horror genre elements (104). Given the businessman suicide ending, I'd consider the film more of a nightmare than a fantasy. Petzold is not out to glamorize venture capitalism and blackmail.
While it is possible that P told Y to blackmail there is no evidence in the film—we don’t hear him say so etc. Indeed, I’d argue it is HER making this decision on her own, and that decision shows that she reverts back to an old economy logic….
Delete“Petzold is not out to glamorize venture capitalism and blackmail.” Agreed, and JF would do so too. Calling this a “fantasy” doesn’t mean it’s “good” or “positive.” It’s a fantasy gone wrong, so to speak—and the film shows why it does, without, however, denouncing the manifest desires as such. CP is taking seriously the fact that capitalism in its current form is “sexy” (his word).
When watching the film Yella, it was first obvious to see where director Christian Petzold drew his inspiration from. There were scenes in the movie where the dialog seemed to be taken word for word from the documentary we watched prior about german capitalism. However I believe that Petzold is making a very distinct message in his film about capitalism and money. The first glimpse we see of this is in the film is in the relationship between Yella and Ben. Ben is upset that they are split up and part of this is because of their joint venture company going to pieces and the loss of money. We then see Petzold paint Phillip the VC in a bad light when it is shown that he is stealing money from the people he is actually loaning the money to. The cherry on top however, is when Yella black mails the man into selling his house to get funding. The man actually ends up committing suicide. Now as we come to find out, this is all actually a dream of a dying girl and none of it is actually real. But why would she dream this way if she did not subconsciously believe that money and capitalism are inherently evil. Or perhaps she believes that the contemporary German economy is broken. I do not know enough about German history to shed light on this, however Abel does state in his writing that this is a movie made of Contemporary Germany. So perhaps the in this Germany, money has become to big and important for people to create relationships without it. That again ties up the question, can love exist without money? Well we see that it cannot. Ben and Yella are proof of that. But we also see the lengths that people will go to get money, and it makes you wonder if anything is moral anymore.
ReplyDelete“But why would she dream this way if she did not subconsciously believe that money and capitalism are inherently evil” I’m not sure the film suggests money and capitalism are evil, inherently or not. But the question is a good one. Arguably, what the film does suggest is that capitalist desire has infiltrated our unconscious. And, devastatingly, even in our dreams we cannot dream a version of capitalism and its desires that does not end up in catastrophe….
DeleteYella, or A Woman Wears a Red Blouse Way Too Damn Often, by Christian Petzold, is, as Fisher pointed out, somewhat of a horror film, but it isn’t the one with the surprise ending. Most audience members likely conclude that Yella is dead/doomed/dreaming throughout the entire film based on her red blouse alone. However, as Fisher described, the film has horror aspects as Yella is often viewed through the eyes of someone victimizing her, as horror movies so often do. A small thing I found particularly interesting was when Fisher described Yella and Philip’s last hotel as similar to the Bates Motel, because the Lisa-in-the-chair scene in Boarding Gate also reminded me of Hitchcock’s masterpiece.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, today we saw two films, one of which I was particularly surprised to find entertaining – for the most part. Harun Farocki’s Nothing Ventured was (duh, documentary) a more overt picture of contemporary capitalist business practices that Petzold brilliantly folded into his film Yella. Nothing Ventured also showed me that many business meeting scenes in cinema are, in fact, somewhat accurate, as I (as I am guessing many audience members) had thought were dramatized in order to create interest.
The first ten minutes of Yella narrates the decline of Yella and Ben’s marriage, even if only vaguely. Yella left Ben when business busted, although it is never overtly stated whether this is actually the case. One might assume that she fell out of love with him because he’s a stalker and an abuser, but Yella (and Petzold) give audiences the sense that a financial situation contributed to the disintegration of the marriage. She left after the financial collapse, and perhaps Ben’s aggression originated in his frustration that she no longer loved him when he was worth nothing (monetarily).
However, when Yella meets Philip (in a dream world), she chooses to stay with him even after he is dismissed from his job for stealing from companies. Philip may be her opportunity to right what happened between her and Ben; in this situation, she does what most would deem the “right” thing.
All signs point to the conclusion that love necessitates money in this film, however. Yella only stays with Philip because she seems to realize that none of the situation is real; Yella leaves Ben when he no longer has any money; and a man drowns himself when Yella puts him in a situation where he would have to sell his wife’s house in order to keep his company afloat.
I found this film particularly interesting after our discussion about the lateral movement of the modern world, as everything past the first ten minutes or so was completely lateral. Yella dreamed an entire situation that seemingly drove her story along, but, in reality, everything she imagined, even (secondhandedly) killing a man gave her no more or less power than she had at the beginning.
One caveat to watching these films completely blind, meaning without having done any research, read any critical analyses, or given any sort of context is that when I do eventually do all those things I feel as though I was watching the film with a completely inappropriate or narrow lens. I don’t mean that negatively at all; in fact, it’s extremely interesting for me to discover, especially when watching foreign films, that I am largely ignorant during my initial viewing of the relatively narrow, very American lens through which I attempt to form critiques about or derive meaning from these films.
ReplyDeletePetzold’s Yella (2007), prior to going through our assigned readings, was a film that for me was once again grappling with economic anxieties in a constantly changing, globalized world. I was still very much in the mindset of thinking about Assayas films, which are set all over the world, use multiple languages, and involve business networks that, as we discussed, are arranged laterally, constantly evolving, and contain virtually no single “leadership” body in a traditional sense. And, in many senses, Yella is similar to these films in its exploration of the effects of a global, constantly changing economy and its themes of constant movement and transition (hotels, cars, jobs, etc.). Those aspects of the film are accessible to me. What is not immediately accessible to me is the film’s portrayal and discussion of the “post-reunification reality” (Abel) that complicates present day Germany socioeconomically and socioculturally. I never once have thought about the implications of modern Germany being only twenty years in the making, and being able to gain some level of knowledge of that discussion, however brief, through the readings gives Petzold’s work an entirely different lens for me to see it through.
Petzold once again works in the more rural, less mythically glamorous setting of eastern Germany, and makes us of its expansive, empy spaces to accentuate the unsure wandering of his main characters, a device he uses in Jerichow (2008) to very similar ends. The disproportionate way in which Eastern Germany was unable to grow and advance as the former Western Germany did makes it a very effective setting for a film that explores, again, a character whom we meet in the middle of economic and financial desperation and transition (Fisher 101) in a way that still draws attention to the larger problems that have stemmed from economic disparity between regions of a country. Once again, Petzold explores the relationship between economics and love, as Yella has just gotten out of a relationship with a man whose business ventures have failed and rendered him broke (among the other issues he has), and eventually falls into a relationship with her coworker, ostensibly a financially stable move that breeds an ostensibly positive relationship. So, again, we are left with a compelling narrative form of showing that, despite what we may like to believe, it’s hard to refute an argument for love and money being deeply intertwined.
The film Yella was my favorite film so far; it had the right amount of suspense, boardroom banters and mystery to keep me interested. When thinking about this film and the overall question about love and its relationship to money it can be hard to find. I would like to talk about the daydream sequence as a whole. In real life Yella is not in love with Ben and it sounds like they had a real falling out once Ben’s business started to lose all of its money. Ben says in the movie that she left when times got hard and abandoned him. Once Yella found out there was no more money she went and earned her self a job that in the end we find she only got for her good looks. This also gives a good example to the liquidity aspect as a theme we have previously explored. Yella doesn’t stick around when times are hard she leaves and moves on, not trying to find a solution and maybe mend their relationship.
ReplyDeleteAll this dialogue happens in the dreams, which makes me think does she subconsciously feel bad for leaving ben? Once we start to find some empathy for Ben we slowly lose it with the fact that he kills himself and Yella. I don’t think Yella uses her sexuality as an asset to find work, but that she falls victim to the self perceive notion that women in the business world are just a pretty face. When Yella figures out that Alpha wings only hired her because she was pretty, she doesn’t take the job that is offered to her she simply backs her bag giving us the notion she was leaving. I would also like to point out how much of a resemblance Ben resembles Philip. They may look the same but they are different. One is a successful businessman for the most part but is stealing and dishonest. Philip has genuine feelings and is a likeable character. On the other hand Ben is crazy for the affection of Yella, is a bad businessman and also a liar. I think that Philip is who Yella hoped ben could have been, but in the end she comes to realize that in the world of love and business, you never know who is in control or who to trust.
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Delete“Once Yella found out there was no more money she went and earned her self a job that in the end we find she only got for her good looks.” It IS possible that the guy who was evicted from the corporate building did not care about her skills but we also know that she DOES have serious accounting skills.
Delete“Yella doesn’t stick around when times are hard she leaves and moves on, not trying to find a solution and maybe mend their relationship.” Possibly so. But consider that asserting this also means we accept Ben’s claims/point of view. Can we trust him? If so, why? If not, why not?
“When Yella figures out that Alpha wings only hired her because she was pretty, she doesn’t take the job that is offered to her she simply backs her bag giving us the notion she was leaving.” Well, that company went out of business, as we see all their property being confiscated. So she literally has no job…there’s no job for her to take. The job that guy claims she could have in Hamburg is, we are lead to believe (and Yella understands this), also non-existent. The guy who offers it to her is done—the film suggests he engaged in illegal activities and may very well have to go to prison (that’s not sth spelled out but implied in the film)
“Ben resembles Philip” Yes, he does. If what we are witnessing is Yella’s “dream” as she lays dying then this makes a fair amount of “sense” insofar that we are witnessing dream work: the work that dreams do and how they do this: careful analysis would should that in her dream that very dream reboots a few times, rebuilding the dream with the elements from reality and those of the previous dream(s), refining the dream ever more. P is the refined dream work version of B, but with differences, and those differences come directly out of who the real B is and what Y’s experience with him was.
With the subject matter relating to power, desire, and dreams, Petzold's Yella (2007) felt almost David Lynch-esque. I was anxious while watching the film, from start to finish, and I sense my anxiety really stemmed from Yella's capitalist-focused dream. With a primary focus on venture capitalism and corporate power in present day Germany, it is very easy to tie in Yella with our course's overall theme of loving with/without money.
ReplyDeleteIn her dream (and quite possibly in the real world, too), Yella is very good with her job skills. By being skilled, she goes after her desire to play in a capitalistic game with Phillipp, in which the two fall in love. She falls for him because they both share desires relating to venture capitalism, as Abel states with, "[...]what 'sells' Yella on Philipp is the fact that his desires are desires for the game of venture capitalism itself[...]" Things seem to be going smoothly because both characters have similar desires with the venture capitalism game that they have decided to play.
However, the second something goes wrong with either the money or the power involved in their partnership and in the venture capitalism game, Phillipp snaps at Yella, causing a palpable fissure in their relationship. This break might not be as severe as the one between Yella and Ben, but when the money or the power is /threatened/ between Yella and Phillipp, the situation certainly gets very intense. This is a weird money/love relationship, as it does not match up with our previous films. In previous films, the relationship has always been a transaction or a representation of replacement. In Yella, however, money runs side by side with love-- when money stops for a moment, so does love.
I really enjoyed this movie, but I can't clearly explain why. It might have been the fact that the movie really was just a dream of a dying woman, or it could have been the fact that this money/love relationship felt much more intimate than the previous films. Either way, I would love to watch this film again in an attempt to analyze it even more.
“This is a weird money/love relationship, as it does not match up with our previous films. In previous films, the relationship has always been a transaction or a representation of replacement. In Yella, however, money runs side by side with love-- when money stops for a moment, so does love.” This is interesting. Say more about this.
Delete“Either way, I would love to watch this film again in an attempt to analyze it even more.” I think it is available on fandor.com streaming (Netflix might also have it, tho I don’t know for sure).
Petzold’s Yella, mixes together a classic ghost movie with the idea of capitalism to create a character whose “most intimate desires, dreams, and fantasies are consistently interwoven with the economic” (Fisher 98). All of this fits in seamlessly with our big question within the class: “can love exist without money.” Petzold once again relates capitalism and love, just as he did in Jerichow. By finding a job, both main characters are able to find love once again. For Yella, she insinuates that she fell out of love with Ben, because of their failed business; the loss of money helped to end their relationship. But, once she gets a job with Phillip, it was easy for her to fall for him. She literally runs towards money as she tries to get away from Ben by going to Phillip’s room. What I found interesting about this film was how eerily similar her dreams were to her life before her and her husband separated. While she was with her husband, you can assume how happy she was with him before their business failed. Once she is a ghost, she falls in love with someone who looks very similar to Ben. I even had a hard time distinguishing between Phillip and Ben in the beginning. Yella and Phillip also go into business together, just like she and Ben did. Both times, they were business partners turned lovers. Some scenes in the beginning of the film were similar to later scenes. An example of this is when Yella is in the car with Ben and Phillip. In these scenes, both end up in a disagreement where the car stops. However, the first scene ends up in the lake, while the other scene ends up near a lake, still alluding to the life Yella wished she could have had.
ReplyDeletePetzold also does a great job subtly showing how Yella’s life, after the car fell into the lake, is not real. He does this by always bringing Yella to places near water and continually referencing the crash with ringing, crows, and trees like she heard when she first got out of the lake. When Ben finds her, as she is driving, and when she finds the dead CEO, they all end up near some type of water. A lot of times, when she is by water, Yella goes through everything she went through when she got out of the lake after the crash. This all tries to convey to the audience that she is still by the lake the car fell into, and that she couldn’t escape from the water like we were made to believe in the beginning. Throughout the film, I also wondered why she was wearing the same outfit every single day, and how Ben was able to find her. After seeing the ending of how she actually died with Ben in the crash, everything made sense. The same clothes symbolized how the crash marked her last day, and Ben’s ability to always find her let us know that he died right by beside her.
“Some scenes in the beginning of the film were similar to later scenes” Yes, see my response above to Nils’ post.
DeleteFactual correction: the car crashes into the river Elbe, one of the larger rivers in Germany that comes from the Czech Republic, traverses East Germany before eventually moving into the North Sea via Hamburg.
“subtly showing how Yella’s life, after the car fell into the lake, is not real.” Good quick cinematic analysis follows this topic statement.
The film Yella (2007) uses the spacious movement in the opening transition. The camera work uses tracking shots in the movement of Yella (Nina Hoss) walking down the sidewalk. The use of windows, from the car, establishes an original sequence to catch the audience attention. The sound reflects the tempo and rhythm of the framework in each scene. The repetitive sounds that illustrate liquid, crow noises, lashing leaves, and birds chippering compare the slow motion of the sequences. As the tempo slows down, longer shots are made, and the sense of disturbance creates the site. Yella is shown to lose herself in the moment of slowing down, like spacing out, not noticing the people in her surrounding. The scene of the office with Philipp and the other businesspeople, as they look at her, for numbers and negotiation purposes but she exposes the real perspective of how the work wouldn’t be profiting their company.
ReplyDeleteThe structure of a real family is intriguing to Yella, for all she wants a normal life. Yella is shown looking at a family through a point of view shot. Yella thrives on making money to support her ideals. The scenic route of actions, by Ben (Hinnerk Schoneman), displays that relationships will drive a person mad. In the film, Ben is driven to be with Yella and doesn’t want to let her go; psychotic intentions are an influence to the affection of love he has for Yella. Yella characterizes one can not love without money by believing that she is not in love with her husband because he is poor, and is why she left him. It was engraved in her head when Ben is continually saying it. More or so; Yella wants a better life because she doesn’t want to struggle. The forlornness of the situation is that the man can’t provide for the women, so she moves with another man. In the sense of evil, consciousness is made to be true. Ben blames the company ruined there love, Yella seeks to move on with life getting with Phillipp and working along his side because they make a real connection. The scene where Ben is in her hotel room, Yella quickly sprints out to Phillipp’s room and feels protected to be in held by him. The film allows Phillipp to instruct Yella that he contain different view. Phillipp tells Yella not to get caught up in trying to make a life with him because he stands in no position of that kind of lifestyle. Phillip is eventually fire because Yella does a better job. Phillipp issues that she should be with him anymore because he won’t make any money but Yella comes out saying she love him. Fisher describes the film to set in "five business meetings, each of which is kept quite short, but together they offer the plot an overarching structure." (110) Then goes into talking about how fantasy plays a role in the structure of each meeting. The end scene makes the film to seem a bit of fantasy, was it all just a dream? With the death illustrate at the end, it completes the sense of dreams in the film.