Cracks in the Shell (2011)

Fine suffers from not being seen but she also does her best at not being noticed, even though she is an acting student. At night, when her mentally handicapped sister Jule cannot get to ... See full summary »

Director:

Christian Schwochow

Writers:

Heide Schwochow, Christian Schwochow

Stars:

Stine Fischer Christensen, Ulrich Noethen, Dagmar Manzel

7 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Stine Fischer Christensen	...	Josephine 'Fine' Lorenz
Ulrich Noethen	...	Kaspar Friedmann
Dagmar Manzel	...	Susanne Lorenz
Christina Drechsler	...	Jule Lorenz
Ronald Zehrfeld	...	Joachim
Anna Maria Mühe	...	Irina
Ulrich Matthes	...	Ben Kästner
Matthias Weidenhöfer	...	Christoph Werner
Gudrun Landgrebe	...	Vera
Corinna Harfouch	...	Nina
Annette Lober	...	Nadja
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Bernd-Christian Althoff	...	Olaf
Candy Dee	...	Monique
Nicole Ernst	...	Ria
Christian Gaul	...	Frank

Storyline

Fine suffers from not being seen but she also does her best at not being noticed, even though she is an acting student. At night, when her mentally handicapped sister Jule cannot get to sleep and stereotypically bangs her head against the wall, Fine turns the recorder on and gives a firework of singing, acting and dancing. However in the acting school she lacks self confidence to uninhibitedly storm the stage. After the well known director Kasper Friedemann invites Fine for an audition, she convinces him with her acting. But he also sees in Fine an injured being (vulnerable personality) that matches his vision of Camille, the main character in his next play. Fine gets her first big part that she in no way wants to lose. She slips into another identity. As Camille, she awakens to her femininity, but through Camille, Fine also loses her own strengths that she shows every day in dealing with her sister Jule. Because Camille is not only self-conscious and sexually active but at the same ...

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Plot Keywords:

theater | self destructiveness | downward spiral | audition | disabled girl | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Germany France

Language:

German Danish Chinese

Release Date:

9 February 2012 (Germany)

Also Known As:

Cracks in the Shell

Filming Locations:

Berlin, Germany

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$97,594

Company Credits

Production Co:

teamWorx Produktion für Kino und Fernsehen GmbH, Südwestrundfunk (SWR), ARTE

Technical Specs

Runtime:

113 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

User Reviews

this review has been censored

(This review has been deleted based on an anonymous abuse report. I find nothing in it that would justify such an action and therefore humbly ask to revert that decision. I'd otherwise feel prompted to withdraw my rather numerous contributions here. If someone doesn't like the opinions I express in this review, feel free to tell me so in a comment or mail. Do not suppress other people's opinions.)

If you should have the incredible misfortune of having to sit through this thoroughly unwatchable film, you may find a little comfort in its answering the question why so many German films are equally painful to watch. After all, it shows how acting classes in Germany work, and if you sit this one out, you will not only be immunized to terrible acting just about anywhere, you will also realize why many good German films feature actresses who were not (yet) professionally trained - for example, Franka Potente (Run Lola Run) and Nina Hoss (Barbara) were cast for their first feature films when they had only just begun acting school.

As for the story, it is typical for the projects realized in a film industry which depends on state subsidies and public broadcasting: dull acting student gets cast by a sexist experimental theater director to perform as the nymphomaniac lead in his latest play, and gradually loses her psychological balance while having to deal with her Down-syndromed sister at the same time. You know, the usual 'poor girl suffers and gets sexually exploited' shtick. A love affair, which she initiates using her daring stage persona, doesn't save her. The prospective partner is played by Ronald Zehrfeld, who is making the best of an otherwise ridiculous script written by director Christian Schwochow and his mother.

Some people seem to like this sort of thing, but if you're under 50 and more into Tom Tykwer than Oskar Roehler - whose films evoke the same tedious Freudian boredom - you know what you want to stay away from. It's so terrible that, as a German citizen, I feel an obligation to apologize to non-German audiences forced to watch this prime example for the degeneration of our movie industry. Fortunately, there are still German directors - like Andreas Dresen - who work in more creative ways.