By: Henry J. Fromage (A Toast) –
Christian Petzold checks all the boxes of a particular brand of arthouse film lover- the kind that enjoys classical style melded with modern technique, the kind who feel like nobody talks about the Berlinale Film Festival as much as they should.
It’s not all Wes Anderson, folks.
Transit follows Georg (Franz Rogowski) as he sits in limbo in a French city as the Germans encroach and paths of escape narrow. He takes on the identity of a dead author, but soon finds himself crossings paths with a woman in search of her own missing husband.
A Toast
Like his earlier films Phoenix and Barbara, Petzold has a great affinity for updating old genre films with modern style and performance. Those were true period pieces, however. As we begin Transit, it feels like this is yet another. The buzz in the Marseille cafes is that the German cordon is tightening and that they will soon be here. Pencils, paper, and human conversation predominate, but when Franz steps outside, what is that? A Prius?
This is not the 1940s.
It’s clever, really, making this film timeless by force of will. The conceit works so well- it’s incredible, really, how well it tracks. The real triumph of this film, though, is its romance and heartbreak, all writ large over Rogowski’s taciturn, surprisingly Joaquin Phoenix-like features. Petzold piles on tragic irony after tragic irony, crafting a movie of loss and fear but also above all humanity. The point is, it doesn’t matter what time or place this story is set in. It could happen anywhere.
Verdict
Christian Petzold has been on the rise for some time, but with Transit, he crafts his Casablanca, a film every bit as romantic and tragic as that makes it sound.
Transit (2019) Drinking Game
Take a Drink: whenever anybody visits the visa office
Take a Drink: every time somebody misrepresents their identity
Take a Drink: every time the German threat is mentioned
Do a Shot: for ice cream
