DIE MITTAGSFRAU/ BLIND AT HEART

Germany, 2023, 136 minutes, Colour.

Mala Emde, Max von der Groeben, Thomas Prenn, Liliane Amuet, Laura Louisa Garde, Fabienne Elaine Hollwege.

Directed by Barbara Albert.

This film is based on the bestselling novel, Blindness of the Heart, by Julia Franck, translated into 37 languages and well acclaimed.

This adaptation, with the German title focusing on The Midday Woman, English title Blind at Heart, runs for 2 ¼ hours. In fact, it is almost like two films in one.

We are introduced to 2 sisters, other male relatives lost in World War I, the Jewish mother becoming demented. The younger sister, Helene, has ambitions to be a doctor. The older sister, Martha, is a nurse. They get the opportunity to go to Berlin in the 1920s to stay with their aunt, hostess with parties and guests, exuberance and decadence. The older sister succumbs to drugs and a relationship with a friend from home. Helene becomes a pharmacist, who is serious, working her way to be a doctor.

The first half of the film is Germany from the 1920s to the 1930s, growing power of the Nazis, anti-Semitism, and Helene falling in love with a charming literature student, Karl. But, tragedy strikes, at a demonstration outside the Reichstag.

The second part of the film moves from the 1930s into the 1940s, Helene in her grief not completing her exams for becoming a doctor, as a nurse, caring for her sister who goes into an institution, a sad visit to her mother, also in an institution, being examined by doctors to see if Jewish mental instability is hereditary. But, a German patient, helped by Helene is in love with her, she resisting and not telling him her story, his offer to find fake documents when she has been asked to produce Aryan identity. This is a sad part of her life, the brusque German patriarchal attitudes, the pregnancy, birth, difficulties with her little boy, Peter. The husband is away is important war commands, forbids his wife to work, then, finding she is not a virgin, despising her.

She becomes a nurse, efficient, going through the hardships of the war, then suddenly, peace.

The story is framed by Helene’s visit to the uncle of her husband to see her son whom she had abandoned at the end of the war.

This film is very much from a female perspective, novelist, the writers, and Barbara Albert, has a long reputation for serious films, as director.

1. Title of the novel? The title of the film? Blindness of heart? The story of The Midday Woman and her visits and people confiding in her, the consequences?
2. The scope of the film, the World War I period, Germany in the 1920s, decadent side, serious side, medicine, drugtaking, relationships, anti-Nazi attitudes? The situation of the Jews? The war period, sombre, family life, German military, hospitals? The musical score?
3. Introduction to Helene, after the war, travelling through the fields, the car, the encounter with the uncle, her looking for her son, the conversation? Then the flashbacks, some indications of her visit, The Midday Woman, the response of the uncle, the boy hiding? The ultimate resolution in the light of Peter’s father, patriarchal, demanding, fascist, mother’s neglect in love, abandoning him?
4. The family, the focus on the two sisters, Martha and her playful attitudes, sexual undertones, Helene and her seriousness, reading, wanting to be a doctor? The meals, served for the absent men, their mother’s mental condition, her collapse, the sisters surviving, and mother in institution, the going to Berlin, their aunt?
5. The aunt, her household, hostess, the guests, the dancing, sexual encounters, Helene and the shock, cocaine, Martha and drugtaking, discovering Leontine in Berlin, the relationship? Support of the aunt, anti-Semitism, the decision to go to Brazil, pawning her positions? Helene and her studies, serious, the introduction to the pharmacist, her serious work, Karl and his asking for medication, his returning, the invitation to the walk, Helene going, the bond between them, the relationship? And his personality, charm?
6. Helene pregnant, ill, talking with her sister, the arrangement of the abortion, not telling Kyle the truth, his shock? Yet bonding with her, his going to the demonstration at the Reichstag, the news of his death? The effect on Helene?
7. The transition in the film, Martha going to the institution, Helene and the documents and going to visit her mother, the doctors checking Jewish patients and hereditary, Helene and the documents, burning them? Being asked for Aryan identity? The shock of Karl’s death, and not completing her exams? Working as a nurse? diligence? The encounter with Wilhelm, helping him, his attraction, the approach to her, in love? His offer of getting the documents, her name as Alice, moving, his personality, the proposal, her acceptance, the wedding at his choose one uncle’s farm, the wedding night, the uncle’s bed, his blunt expectations of the sexual encounter, upset that Helene was not a virgin, emergence of his personality, Germanic, militaristic, that his wife would not work, housekeeping? Her pregnancy, his disdain?
8. Helene, growing older, at home, the housekeeping, the meals, her husband in his absence, his promotions? Pregnancy, his disdain? The difficulties of the birth? Naming the boy Peter? Going home, his continued crying? Her husband and his not wanting his son to be soft?
9. The years passing, her husband disowning her, her working as a nurse, the hardships during the war, the nurse questioning her identity? Her compassion, the woman to be sterilised and her refusing? Praise of her and her surgical skills? The sudden ending of the war, the doctor lamenting the death of Hitler, the friendly neighbour who looked after Peter hanging herself?
10. The relationship with Peter over the years, distant, his devotion to his mother, the discipline, in the fields, the Jewish refugee? Her decision, the train, leaving Peter with the suitcase at the station, her getting on the wagon with the refugees?
11. Years passing, her return, wanting to see her son, his reluctance? The uncle? Peter running past her, her chasing him, the ending and the future?