"Das schreckliche Mädchen" or "The Nasty Girl" is one of the most known German films from the 1990s and the reason is probably that it was nominated for an Oscar, a Golden Globe and won a BAFTA. It had its 25th anniversary last year and stars Lena Stolze as the title character. She won a German Film Award for her portrayal of a young woman who takes a look into her town's history during World War II. Of course, this causes a lot of trouble as many people do not want the public to know about the ways in which they collaborated with the Nazis. And this includes high-profile people too. I personally enjoyed the watch here. The way the film develops was a bit surprising as it starts as a story about a girl crushing on her teacher and is pretty unpolitical for a long time early on.
I think this was a good idea as it certainly helped with writer and director Michael Verhoeven's idea to make this not too serious and there are light moments from start to finish in this 90-minute film that go very well together with the more serious historic parts. The only situation where it did not work out was the early classroom scene with all these sleazy references. That was a bit embarrassing and I am not sure what Verhoeven was thinking when he included this. This is just a minor criticism though. I believe the characters and the plot work nicely from start to finish otherwise. It is easy to like and feel for the protagonist, especially in her moments of weakness and sadness and also easy to admire her determination. And still, she is nobody who wants to hurt people, she says at the end that she almost feels sorry for her main antagonist when everything became public. But the film is not only about Stolze's character, it is much more about the people and their reactions to what she does. A pretty interesting character story and even if it does not end up as one of my favorite German films ever, I still recommend, especially to people with an interest in German politics. I personally felt the tone and style was sometimes similar to "Das weiße Band" or "Die Blechtrommel".
I think this was a good idea as it certainly helped with writer and director Michael Verhoeven's idea to make this not too serious and there are light moments from start to finish in this 90-minute film that go very well together with the more serious historic parts. The only situation where it did not work out was the early classroom scene with all these sleazy references. That was a bit embarrassing and I am not sure what Verhoeven was thinking when he included this. This is just a minor criticism though. I believe the characters and the plot work nicely from start to finish otherwise. It is easy to like and feel for the protagonist, especially in her moments of weakness and sadness and also easy to admire her determination. And still, she is nobody who wants to hurt people, she says at the end that she almost feels sorry for her main antagonist when everything became public. But the film is not only about Stolze's character, it is much more about the people and their reactions to what she does. A pretty interesting character story and even if it does not end up as one of my favorite German films ever, I still recommend, especially to people with an interest in German politics. I personally felt the tone and style was sometimes similar to "Das weiße Band" or "Die Blechtrommel".