Anne Høegh Krohn's Fremde Freundin (Unknown Friend, 1999) is curiously coy about its subject matter. Superficially a story of two female friends, there is little in any of the publicity to indicate that the friendship might be anything more than just that. In fact, Fremde Freundin is effused with a voyeuristic undercurrent of lesbianism. Yet the film neither lives up to being a work of sexploitation or a revealing (albeit coded) study of female homosexuality.
Ellen, fresh out of jail, picks up her dusty car and gets a job in a supermarket. Whilst driving, she hears the voice of Katrin (played by Inga Busch, an actor very much in the Sarah Bernhardt mould) on the radio, and stakes her out at the club where she is a DJ. Slowly the past is pieced together through a series of flashbacks and conversations between the two friends.
Ellen, it emerges, has been used by Katrin to create a bristly ménage à trois with Katrin's husband. When the husband and Katrin end up in a violent row and he tries to force himself on Ellen in a jealous, vindictive rage, Ellen understandably fends him off by hitting him over the head. After she leaves the room it is Katrin who gives him another bash on the bonce for good measure. Ellen, however, is left with the impression that the fatal blow was hers, and it is she that goes to jail for a crime she never committed but thinks she did.
Unexplained
Throughout the film there is a push and pull between Ellen's attraction to Katrin, and Katrin's own persistent denial of her sexuality. But the effect is far from credible. There is little explanation of why Ellen, an organised, self-assured, determined and very sexy character - short every dyke's dream vision - should fall for someone as egotistical, nasty and distasteful as Katrin.
Fremde Freundin engages you through the very attractiveness of Ellen, and the ultimate disappointment is that Katrin never gets her true comeuppance. More perverted members of the audience might be enticed along by the eroticisation of the relationship between the two women and the occassionally suggestive shots of cleavage. But even they will be disappointed, as the clothes stay firmly on and the closet door remains firmly locked.
Fremde Freundin is Høegh Krohn's graduation film and as such it is not without achievement. The script is driven by attention to how people speak in real life rather than using dialogue to solely push forward plot, and this gives the film a natural voice, aided by atmospheric close-in photography. However, overall it is a plot that drifts rather than grips and one that never manages to find its true identity.
Elke de Wit, 1 May 2000
Egon Günther's Die Braut |
Rolf Schübel's Ein Lied von Liebe und Tod |
Pepe Danquart's Heimspiel |
Rosa von Praunheim's Der Einstein des Sex |
Andreas Kleinert's Wege in die Nacht |
Veit Helmer's Tuvalu |
Sebastian Schipper's Absolute Giganten |
Frieder Schlaich's Otomo |
Bernd Eichinger's Der Große Bagarozy |
Thorsten Schmidt's Schnee In Der Neujahrsnacht |
Doris Dörrie's Erleuchtung Garantiert |
Leander Haußmann's Sonnenallee |
Maren-Kea Freese's Zoe |
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