"Die Habenichtse" is a German/English theatrical movie from 2016, so this one will have its fifth anniversary later this year. It is based on a novel by Katharina Hacker and according to imdb this is her only work that got turned into a movie. I have not read said book that is the basis for this film, so I cannot really make any comparisons here, if the book is better or the movie, but I am pretty positive the book is at least not worse because this film really hasn't been a revelation I must say. Mona Kino adapted the book into the screenplay here and she is one with a somewhat different body of work. She only wrote one other screenplay before this film here and that was over a decade earlier, also no screenplays since 2016 as of now. Instead, she worked in all kinds of other production areas in the 90s and early 2000s, also for the pretty famous German film "Soloalbum" of course. I have a feeling she is more known in other fields than film, but I could be wrong and honestly I don't care too much, so I am not gonna look it up. Let me say though that her name also sounds interesting. Kinda curious if it's real or an alias. The director is Florian Hoffmeister and he had his 50th birthday last year. He is also fairly interesting and, just like with his writer, directing is not his main profession. Actually he has won an Emmy for his work as a cinematographer and also been nominated for another. You can definitely say that he managed a pretty big breakthrough in America with his cinematographies, so it feels understandable that this is the area that he seems to focus on now. This is where the money's at. However, with the outcome here, I also cannot really say I am disappointed that it's probably gonna be at least a few more years until he directs another film where he is the man in charge. Makes sense if you get hired as a cinematographer for films that star Johnny Depp for example. Maybe an Oscar nomination is possible at some point. We'll see. Back to this one here: The cast includes a handful familiar names and faces. I personally know the women in here more than the men. Take Julia Jentsch who you see on the photo here on imdb and she is the biggest lead in this film, even if probably not the only one. A bit strange that she is only credited in the fifth spot here on imdb and some people are above her that really do not have a lot of screen time. This list needs better order. Anyway, Jentsch is of course still known for her portrayal of the title character in the Oscar-nominated Sophie Scholl movie. That one is from 2005, so over fifteen years old now and more than ten years before this film here, but it is probably the film people will still remember Jentsch for, even when she is 60. Let's just hope she will be in better films then than Lena Stolze is now. Another actress in here that is always easy to recognize is Bibiana Beglau. Must say I am not a fan and she did not do anything in here for me to change this perception in this film we have here. Always found her pretty overrated and did not see much talent or versatility in her to be honest, even if I cannot deny that she has recognition values, but that does not change my thoughts that she has a tendency to always play the same character(s). As for the guys, Stadelmann sounds somewhat familiar, but that's it. Even Sebastian Zimmler, the male lead, is one I did not know at all and I probably also won't remember him once I watch another movie with him. He did nothing that stood out. By the way, here on imdb, it says that this film is both in black-and-white and in color and that is not true. It is only in black-and-white. Also, I mentioned very early on that this is a British co-production we have here. The reason is that a lot of the movie is set in London. And there are many English characters in here played by British actors and they did not go for the path where they would have dubbed the dialogues, but instead had the German protagonist(s) speak English with those, so way more than a few sentences in English in here, especially in the second half when Jentsch's character has a (for the film) crucial relationship with an English guy. This means that, if you are not fluent in either German or English, you should get a good set of subtitles because it is not just two or three sentences that can be ignored. German is still the language in here that is spoken most frequently. All the English kinda fits though because this film feels fairly pretentious at times and this just adds to it even further, even if it is not French.
Okay, now a few words on the story and some specific plot inclusions. I must say that the longer the movie went, the less I enjoyed it. It was still tolerable early on, but eventually it very much felt style over substance. Disappointing. There are probably a hundred examples here where they were going for deep and meaningful symbolisms, metaphors and parallels, but those that I spotted at least felt really for the sake of it and not like authentic inclusions. And as this film still feels as if they were really trying to take the route where not too much happens, but it's all about realism, the death through this world-famous terrorist attack already could have been enough that he is inside the building that very day. Anyway, I shall just mention some stuff that made little of an impact for me. Take the scene(s) with the cat and young girl and how those two even end up on the apartment wall of Jentsch's character. Come on. Or the song that played at the very end. Or the black-and-white component. I mean I usually like black-and-white choices for artistic reasons, for example I think Haneke's "Das weiße Band" is a truly extraordinary movie that deserves to be seen many times, but here it added nothing except futher pretense. This was such a stylized film from beginning to end that it wasn't funny anymore. Probably a good thing that Hoffmeister sticks with cinematography now. What else stayed in the mind. Oh yes, the scene with the broken glass and the sherds on the floor, perhaps bleeding feet as a consequence. Or when the guy ran outside and tried to chase down another fella. But it was not just the small moments here that did almost nothing for me, it was also the key plot. The idea of guilt getting in the way of these protagonists and their blossoming relationship because of what happened to the other man early on, the one who suggested that Zimmler's character should try his luck with Jentsch's character, also was not portrayed in a way with which they really won me over. The opposite was the case really. I felt that it needed much better elaboration on why they (especially the man) felt said guilt because from a neutral viewer's perspective here there is nothing that remotely justifies this background being a vital part of the film. Now I really wonder if the book and the original writer handled this crucial inclusion just as poorly. I kinda doubt it, but who knows. I could certainly go on and talk about a dozen other scenes that felt only for the sake of it and did not deliver half the artistic touch they (the people behind it) wanted them to deliver, but you get the message anyway I would say. So whet else could I add here? The title is pretty difficult to translate honestly. It's a word (in the singular form) that is not really used in the German language (anymore). I am not even entirely sure of its meaning, but literally translated it means "those who have nothing", although in a more colloquial sense you can also say "almost nothing". It's not meant to be understood verbally. Only that they are definitely not rich. But this idea of nihilism here is that allso fits the approach the filmmakers took here. They wanted to evoke great emotions by being not obvious at all. I don't think it worked out at all. On the contrary, this film dragged a lot here and there and I must say I did not care one bit what would happen to the characters. I mean I don#t have to identify with them, but I was really indifferent. There were moments where I even considered giving this a lower rating. I certainly hoped this could be better because I like Jentsch some I think and I also don't need big name actors if the quality is convincing and there are many films where I like the very essential approach. This is not one of them. And also when they went for the opposite, like the guy hitting on the protagonist at the bar or also the massive fight at the very end, I was not glad that finally some movement came in, but it felt equally uninspired. By the way, when the woman makes the phone call after this fight I just mentioned, there is also a parallel between her and the little girl with the cat if you look exactly at what she says to the operator. So, as I stated earlier, this is really a movie where you can write ten pages of interpretation with all the stylistic devices used in here, but those do not make it a better movie at all because at its core it feels really empty. I wonder what the writer thinks about the outcome here. That's it overall. Moments of failure are rare. Moments of true quality are almost nonexistent. This movie gets a thumbs-down from me. Watch something else instead.
Okay, now a few words on the story and some specific plot inclusions. I must say that the longer the movie went, the less I enjoyed it. It was still tolerable early on, but eventually it very much felt style over substance. Disappointing. There are probably a hundred examples here where they were going for deep and meaningful symbolisms, metaphors and parallels, but those that I spotted at least felt really for the sake of it and not like authentic inclusions. And as this film still feels as if they were really trying to take the route where not too much happens, but it's all about realism, the death through this world-famous terrorist attack already could have been enough that he is inside the building that very day. Anyway, I shall just mention some stuff that made little of an impact for me. Take the scene(s) with the cat and young girl and how those two even end up on the apartment wall of Jentsch's character. Come on. Or the song that played at the very end. Or the black-and-white component. I mean I usually like black-and-white choices for artistic reasons, for example I think Haneke's "Das weiße Band" is a truly extraordinary movie that deserves to be seen many times, but here it added nothing except futher pretense. This was such a stylized film from beginning to end that it wasn't funny anymore. Probably a good thing that Hoffmeister sticks with cinematography now. What else stayed in the mind. Oh yes, the scene with the broken glass and the sherds on the floor, perhaps bleeding feet as a consequence. Or when the guy ran outside and tried to chase down another fella. But it was not just the small moments here that did almost nothing for me, it was also the key plot. The idea of guilt getting in the way of these protagonists and their blossoming relationship because of what happened to the other man early on, the one who suggested that Zimmler's character should try his luck with Jentsch's character, also was not portrayed in a way with which they really won me over. The opposite was the case really. I felt that it needed much better elaboration on why they (especially the man) felt said guilt because from a neutral viewer's perspective here there is nothing that remotely justifies this background being a vital part of the film. Now I really wonder if the book and the original writer handled this crucial inclusion just as poorly. I kinda doubt it, but who knows. I could certainly go on and talk about a dozen other scenes that felt only for the sake of it and did not deliver half the artistic touch they (the people behind it) wanted them to deliver, but you get the message anyway I would say. So whet else could I add here? The title is pretty difficult to translate honestly. It's a word (in the singular form) that is not really used in the German language (anymore). I am not even entirely sure of its meaning, but literally translated it means "those who have nothing", although in a more colloquial sense you can also say "almost nothing". It's not meant to be understood verbally. Only that they are definitely not rich. But this idea of nihilism here is that allso fits the approach the filmmakers took here. They wanted to evoke great emotions by being not obvious at all. I don't think it worked out at all. On the contrary, this film dragged a lot here and there and I must say I did not care one bit what would happen to the characters. I mean I don#t have to identify with them, but I was really indifferent. There were moments where I even considered giving this a lower rating. I certainly hoped this could be better because I like Jentsch some I think and I also don't need big name actors if the quality is convincing and there are many films where I like the very essential approach. This is not one of them. And also when they went for the opposite, like the guy hitting on the protagonist at the bar or also the massive fight at the very end, I was not glad that finally some movement came in, but it felt equally uninspired. By the way, when the woman makes the phone call after this fight I just mentioned, there is also a parallel between her and the little girl with the cat if you look exactly at what she says to the operator. So, as I stated earlier, this is really a movie where you can write ten pages of interpretation with all the stylistic devices used in here, but those do not make it a better movie at all because at its core it feels really empty. I wonder what the writer thinks about the outcome here. That's it overall. Moments of failure are rare. Moments of true quality are almost nonexistent. This movie gets a thumbs-down from me. Watch something else instead.
