It is the best German made-for-TV movie that I know. In Germany, there is a firm rule: German TV-movies are bad.
Usually our TV-plays have only three values or reasons to exist:
1.) you can make fun of them (as long as they are no comedies. Comedies are not funny)
2.) you can learn how a bad movie looks like.
3.) they serve as examples for films that try to imitate a real movie, but they fail.
"Vergewaltigt..." is an exception. Better acting, more tension, more depth. The central dialogue, sort of an intellectual duel with the devil, builds up more tension than any other killer/ thriller/suspense/crime movie's dialogue ever. It is kept until the end.
WARNING: SPOILER !!! THE STORY !! SPOILER *** THE MAIN STORY IS:
When the rapist enters apartment #3, tension and your grade of identification are hard to stand. The victim #3 tries to talk herself out of it - afterwards she tries to survive - then she takes revenge - then she, the victim, is accused. During all these steps, the tension is kept. You can't escape, can't avoid to react. The scenes go into more detail than anything else in "realistic" television (except some films by Ingmar Bergman); at first viewing, they - the torture - seem to last eternal.
The actors are responsible for the quality. They are excellent, especially Katja Studt, who is sensational, and the rapist. And, of course, the well-researched and thoroughly-written script. It's an daring exception to go into such detail.
Notes: - Warning: it is definitely hard to stand. Usually in cinema, killing and raping are designed to give us a good time. Not in this case. In comparison, ACCUSED / ANGEKLAGT (with Jodie Foster) stays at the surface and is more fun.
Usually our TV-plays have only three values or reasons to exist:
1.) you can make fun of them (as long as they are no comedies. Comedies are not funny)
2.) you can learn how a bad movie looks like.
3.) they serve as examples for films that try to imitate a real movie, but they fail.
"Vergewaltigt..." is an exception. Better acting, more tension, more depth. The central dialogue, sort of an intellectual duel with the devil, builds up more tension than any other killer/ thriller/suspense/crime movie's dialogue ever. It is kept until the end.
WARNING: SPOILER !!! THE STORY !! SPOILER *** THE MAIN STORY IS:
- First rape. Reactions.
- Second rape. Reactions.
- Third rape. Including central dialogue.
- How the assaults changed the women's life.
- Victim no. 3 prepares to strike back.
- Successfully. Rapist is killed.
- Victim no. 3 in court. Trial.
When the rapist enters apartment #3, tension and your grade of identification are hard to stand. The victim #3 tries to talk herself out of it - afterwards she tries to survive - then she takes revenge - then she, the victim, is accused. During all these steps, the tension is kept. You can't escape, can't avoid to react. The scenes go into more detail than anything else in "realistic" television (except some films by Ingmar Bergman); at first viewing, they - the torture - seem to last eternal.
The actors are responsible for the quality. They are excellent, especially Katja Studt, who is sensational, and the rapist. And, of course, the well-researched and thoroughly-written script. It's an daring exception to go into such detail.
Notes: - Warning: it is definitely hard to stand. Usually in cinema, killing and raping are designed to give us a good time. Not in this case. In comparison, ACCUSED / ANGEKLAGT (with Jodie Foster) stays at the surface and is more fun.
- Avoid Martin Enlen's latest "DIE KATZENFRAU" (2001). This l'amour fou-story is an example for the > > mentioned bad German TV-movies (see points 1,2,3 at the beginning. It also includes: AWFUL ACTING !). It is only interesting, because the rapist in "VERGEWALTIGT..." and the husband in "KATZENFRAU" live in same circumstances, their houses and wives appear the same, and both husbands try to escape their stupid middle-class lives. In "KATZENFRAU", it was the Italian WOMAN, who RAPED (no, sorry, seduced) the harmless husband, who finally returns to his wife. In the last scene he is fixing a satellite disc on his roof...