Hey Stranger
(BELGIAN-GERMAN)
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Orf ... Vincent Rouche
Sarka ... Benedicte Loyen
Tania ... Hanna Schygulla
Major-domo ...William Hickey
Skolimowski ... Guy Trejan
Frans ... Jacques Seiler
Gabriel ... Philippe Van Kessel
German-born, Brussels-based Peter Woditsch pays laborious homage to Fassbinder with his ambitious debut feature, "Hey Stranger." Prague's old-world grandeur may seem the ideal fairy-tale setting, but this muddled, exasperating flight of fancy barely gets off the ground, despite polished production values.
Woditsch offhandedly brews a fey love story, concocts a mystery about a secret art treasure, comments on the dilemmas inherent in freedom following the demise of the Communist state, and lobs in some charmless musical whimsy -- without establishing a clear enough focus to bind these disparate strands together.
A tune whistled by sprightly nymph Sarka (Benedicte Loyen) as she skips about the city's rooftops strikes romance in the heart of Orf (Vincent Rouche). No sooner are the flames ignited than they are put on the back burner when Orf inherits his rich uncle's mansion. In it is a secret store of valuable erotic art, concealed over the years from the Nazis and the Red army, and now guarded by a wizened major-domo (William Hickey, speaking English for no apparent reason while everyone around him speaks French).
The major-domo is killed, and the paintings vanish. Orf tracks the missing artwork to Brussels, where other forces also after them frame him for murder. He gets a hand escaping from a pair of decadent musicians (Hanna Schygulla, Philippe Van Kessel) who help him smuggle the paintings back to Prague, where he rekindles his passion for Sarka.
Perfs are all respectable enough, but thesps like Schygulla and Hickey are squandered on formless characters. Tech expertise also is overshadowed by the incoherent plot.
Camera (color), Elfi Mikesch; editor, Ludo Troch; music, Marc Verhaegen; art direction, Pierre Decraen; costume design, Riccarda Merten Eicher; sound (Dolby), Henri Morelle; assistant director, Pierrot de Heusch. Reviewed at Turin Intl. Young Cinema Festival, Nov. 24, 1994. (Also in Thessaloniki fest.) Running time: 112 MIN.
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