Feuchtgebiete (2013) Reviews

• A delicate balance of a trash art and character study

  StevePulaski2015-01-15

  Wetlands is a film that prides itself on being gross, unsavory, and not for the faint of heart, but does so in such a candy-colored manner that also masquerades as an attempt at sensory overload that it forbids you from looking away at all its grossness. It gives us a lot to zero-in on with every scene, from unadulterated narration, vibrantly-colored visuals, and explicitly-detailed fetishes carried out in a manner that make the film equal parts stomach turning (for some) and irresistible for others (like myself). If you're one of the people who thought that tampon-sharing and anal fissures were underexplored topics in contemporary cinema, or cinema in general, here's a film that gives you a nod and a thumbs up. The film stars Carla Juri in a fearless role, especially for an actress so young and so inexperienced. She plays eighteen-year-old Helen Memel, a young woman obsessed with filth and depravity, so much so that she actively exposes her vagina to some of the most unclean places in society, like public bathrooms. She believes body hygiene, especially the cleanliness of the genitals, is hugely overrated, and relishes the thought of sexual pleasure through the use of vegetables. Helen's mom (Meret Becker) is a hygiene-obsessed, religious soul, constantly changing her religions and working to protect her daughter from a filthy society, and her father (Axel Milberg) is a cold, unfeeling soul who spends little time associating with her on a level that could be considered very loving. Helen is often left to look towards Corinna (Marlen Kruse), her best friend who engages in the same kind of depravity that she adores so much. One thing Helen detests with all her heart is shaving, so naturally, she tries to conduct the act in the fastest manner possible. In the middle of shaving her buttocks, she gives herself an anal fissure, and winds up in the hospital in searing pain with a bulging blister. In the hospital, Helen recounts a lot of her parents' marriage to us, and establishes relationships with the nurses and such, making for a film that is equal parts devoted in showing the pasts of these characters as well as the present. With that, we also see the relationship between Helen and Corinna go beyond innocuous discussions of sex between one another to the point of the actual practice of sex and masturbation. Writer/director David Wnendt and co-writer Claus Falkenberg do their best to balance Wetlands, making it equal parts a story filled with shock and gross-out gags but also an intense, unusual character study in the most rewarding sense. Wetlands isn't a film you necessarily watch, but feel; feel as it crawls underneath your skin, making even the most hardened, fearless film-watcher wince with its perversions and its depictions of sexual liberation and hygienic carelessness. Juri plays a character so in love with the idea of being unclean and unabashedly disgusting that she owns her role, and is fiercely watchable throughout the entire film. Make no mistake, however, as Wetlands is a filthy film, arguably the filthiest released last year. Punk-rock in its attempt to destroy our social norms and trashy in the best sense, its desire to depict a variety of perversions, fetishes, and disregard for personal hygiene in explicit detail makes it one of the most daring and awe-inspiring pieces of work in quite sometime. I'm hesitant to bill it as satire, being that it seems to fully embrace this kind of deviant counterculture, however, I employ the rule of them I use in detecting and recommending satire with this film, and that is to see it because by fearing or condemning it without seeing it, you're only proving it correct. Starring: Carla Juri, Marlen Kruse, Meret Becker, and Axel Milberg. Directed by: David Wnendt.

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• Not for Everyone, but a Great Comedy With Depth

  ilikemoviesdude2014-03-22

  As stated in the Summary this is not a film for everyone. First off, be prepared if you are going to watch this to see a lot of nudity of both male and females. To me, I did not believe the nudity to be gratuitous, only real to the stories being told in the movie and to real life (we are all naked underneath our clothes, right?). If you are the type of person that will be able to look past the nudity you may be able to relate, in ways, to the main character in the movie. Yes, much of the movie's comedy is driven by the characters philosophy toward sexual hygiene...or lack thereof. BUT, if you can be truthful to yourself while watching the movie, you may find that at points during the film you are able to relate and commiserate with the main character (sometimes embarrassingly), as she narrates her sexual fetishes seamlessly alongside her narration of the state of her broken family. This film is not for the faint, or those that have a hard time with bodily fluids... BUT it is for those that want to live freely through an open minded main character. As society and norms have made people question their sanity, and the "normal-ness" of what they choose to do behind closed doors, it is refreshing, exciting, and comedic to watch a film where the main character is unforgiving, open, and truthful about her sexuality and views toward life and the world.

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• Gross but totally worthwhile

  zetes2015-02-01

  One of the grossest films I've ever seen, delving into mysteries of the female anatomy that, as a man, I might rather have left a mystery, but it's wild and original and smart. If you have a strong stomach, it's well worth attempting. Carla Juri plays a horndog 18 year-old girl with a bad case of hemorrhoids. The problem is exacerbated when she badly cuts herself shaving her butthole. She quickly enters the hospital for surgery. During the recuperation, she starts a flirtatious relationship with a cute male nurse (Christoph Letkowski) and attempts to use her hospital stay to reunite her divorced parents (Meret Becker and Axel Milberg). The butt stuff is not nearly the most disturbing part of this movie, but it manages to be quite funny and charming even while it's at is most horrifying. Unfortunately, when it arrives at a more dramatic climax, it doesn't really feel earned, so the whole film deflates a bit. Juri is absolutely amazing, giving one of my favorite performances of recent times. I was a bit disappointed that the film was directed by a man, given that it has a refreshing female point of view, but the original novel was written by a woman (Charlotte Roche), and at least one of the screenwriters was female, as well.

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• Body Language

  vanwilgen2015-02-15

  I am a student and admirer of the works Antoine Artaud and am very pleased to see a movie breathing the spirit of my second favorite insane Frenchman. This movie is aimed at the idiots who think they have to bear children. The body fluids and bleeding assholes are metaphors for what happens in the minds of children of infantile parents. I'm not big on symbolism in movies, but this thing a Bosch puzzle, it just goes on an on.. Four guys jerking off in a pizza, I think it's brilliant, think about it, what do these parents feed their kids spiritually? Crap topped with crap. It is no wonder says she has had herself sterilized because she doesn't want any kids. The sad and also - in a perverted way - beauty of the end is that, life repeats itself. The asshole represents the circle of life. This is what Fassbinder would make if he would be alive. Have you paid attention to the face lines of this woman? It's very similar to Fassbinder's heroins. Life is good in Germany, you can tell by movies like this. No freedom for an honest movie here in the US.

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• The German Amélie

  hotemeile2014-10-16

  This movie is certainly not for everyone. If thinking of a oozing zit makes you gag, if you get queasy at the sight of blood, if you suffer from nosocomephobia, or tomophobia, or if any mention of bodily fluids instantly offends your sensitivity, i'm sorry to say you'll never get to enjoy this beautiful little movie. If, on the other hand, you're one of those people who, like me, see Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings as a bittersweet shift from a brilliant career in gore (Braindead, Bad Taste, Meet the Feebles); if you share a morbid fascination for human anatomy (in all its scatological glory), or simply find the cultural taboos surrounding it ridiculously irrational; you'll absolutely love this movie. Trying to describe Wetlands, to me, instantly evokes Jeunet's Amélie (as weird as that may sound). They are of course two very different movies, but in the same way, i think, as the modern tale of Sleeping Beauty is so prudishly different from the original Grimm's tale. Both movies essentially revolve around a quirky and naive young woman with family issues striving to find love and meaning in her life through the weirdest and most hare-brained schemes imaginable. And, in that regard, Carla Juni's prodigious embodiment of her character perfectly rivals Audrey Tatou's equally spectacular performance. If you can only find the same charm in Helen's quirkiness as you did in Amélie's, and get past all the visceral lewdness, you'll find Wetlands doesn't really aim to offend or disgust, as some critics would claim. The fact is, those who could only point at that aspect of this movie, were just sadly incapable of braking through that moral wall and seeing beyond it. Some people, of course, will never be able to appreciate the beauty of a garden, because they're too repulsed by the smell of manure...

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