Jean’s life.
Kristen Stewart’s first-rate performance,
with Anthony Mackie and strong sup-
porting cast, holds audiences’ attention,
despite the film’s flaws. Best summed
up as misdirection, four storylines are
packed into 96-minutes: the Actress /
personal issues, the Good Agent / wife
angle, Black civil rights, and Voyeur-
ism, which effectively relegates each a
measure of muddling mundanity. Had
director Andrews concentrated on the
film’s direction and, with editor Pame-
la Martin, tightened its focus, Seberg
had the potential to be far better; Jed
Kurzel’s music and Rachel Morrison’s
cinematography is good. Clearly, Jean
Seberg’s death was mysterious in direct
proportion to FBI involvement. Just as,
Seberg clearly lived a generation, or
two, before her time, “If you can change
one mind, you can change the world.”
(Marinell Haegelin)
same name. The story of the deeply pious
and studious Narcissus and the turbulent
and fun-loving Goldmund takes place in
the Mariabronn monastery in medieval
Germany. The young Goldmund (Jan-
nis Niewöhner) is sent to the monas-
tery by his father. Meister Niklaus (Uwe
Ochsenknecht) asks Narzissus (Sabin
Tambrea) to take Goldmund under his
wing and to teach him the strict rules
of the monastery. A true and ambigu-
ous friendship develops between the
two, until Goldmund decides to leave
the monastery to search for his mother.
Narzissus decides to devote himself to
the ascetic monastic life, while Gold-
mund, in a journey full of adventures,
gets to try the bittersweet tastes of free-
dom, love and sex. Years later, Narzis-
sus and Goldmund meet again.
The choice of actors to interpret these
two opposite destinies is a tribute to
Hermann Hesse’s quest for beauty and
his aspiration to reconcile spirituality
and lust, intellect and craftmanship, aus-
terity and fun. Taking on the challenge
to adapt one of Hesse’s novels of ini-
tiation, Oscar-winning director Stefan
Ruzowitzky succeeds quite remarkably,
demonstrating the invincible forces of
faith and love. (Brigitte Bernard-Rau)
Odom Jr., Joe Alwyn, Janelle Monáe
English
The incredible story of Harriet Tubman,
the former slave from Maryland turned
abolitionist, was just waiting to be told
on the big screen.
Unfortunately, what could have been an
unforgettable film ends up falling flat.
Although co-writer and director Kasi
Lemmons does her best to capture Tub-
man’s tenacity and resilience in the face
of slavery, her long-awaited biopic, Har-
riet, feels more Lifetime-worthy than
Oscar®-worthy.
Don’t get me wrong. The solid perfor-
mance by English actress and Tony
award-winning Cynthia Erivo carries
the 125-minute film with quiet strength.
(It’s no surprise she was nominated for
both a Golden Globe® and Oscar®.)
Erivo’s acting chops, however, are over-
shadowed by a storyline that focuses
more on Tubman’s supposed “other-
worldly” premonitions that repeatedly
save the day, rather than her extraordi-
nary feat of bringing nearly 300 slaves
to freedom—not to mention that she
also served as a Union spy during the
American Civil War.
While Terence Blanchard’s musi-
cal score borders on the saccharine,
the supporting cast feels entirely one-
dimensional (most notably Harriet’s
coldhearted slave owner, played by the
boyish Joe Alwyn). Teeming with good
intentions, Harriet does illuminate Tub-
man’s harrowing and inspiring journey
but ultimately fails to leave any sort of
lasting impression. (Erin Huebscher)
NARZISS UND GOLDMUND ***1/2
Germany 2020
Opening March 12, 2020
Directed by: Stefan Ruzowitzky
Writing credits: Stefan Ruzowitzky,
Robert Gold
Principal actors: Jannis Niewöhner,
Sabin Tambrea, André Hennicke, Hen-
riette Confurius, Uwe Ochsenknecht,
Emilia Schüle Harriet (Der Weg In Die Freiheit) **
USA 2019
Opening Germany April 16, 2020
Narziss und Goldmund is the film adap-
tation of literature Nobel Prize winner
Hermann Hesse’s 1930 bestseller of the Directed by: Kasi Lemmons
Writing credits: Gregory Allen How-
ard, Kasi Lemmons
Principal actors: Cynthia Erivo, Leslie
www.awchamburg.org
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