Film: Lovely Rita
Release date: 9th August 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 76 mins
Director: Jessica Hausner
Starring: Barbara Osika, Christoph Bauer, Peter Fiala, Wolfgang Kostal, Karina Brandlmayer
Genre: Drama
Studio: Artificial Eye
Format: DVD
Country: Austria/Germany
A portrait of claustrophobic adolescence within the confines of a bourgeois Catholic Austrian family, the ‘lovely Rita’ of the title appears to be a typical brooding teenager, but there are darker consequences to this seemingly everyday tale.
Rita is an only child who displays classic adolescent truculence in response to the strictures of her family and school. Her parents lead a life hidebound by convention and routine – socialising with the neighbours, shooting birds for sport, and repeatedly berating Rita for her sullen attitude. There is an uneasy imbalance of power within the family, where the father’s unpredictable temper creates an atmosphere of constant tension, and the mother seems to enforce the father’s tyrannies with a smile of twisted satisfaction.
School offers no respite for Rita. She is ostracized by her classmates, whose apparent good manners and piety provide an effective veneer for their maliciousness. Her only friend is one of the neighbour’s sons, Fexi, a boy of frail health several years younger than her. The scenes with Rita and Fexi provide the only real warmth in the film, as they give vent to the playfulness of youth or express their emotions in ironically theatrical dancing.
But Rita jeopardises this friendship when her sexual advances to Fexi are discovered by his family. With this avenue of affection closed to her, she develops an unhealthy interest in the local bus driver. Repeatedly feigning illness or inventing excuses to leave school to follow him, her overt attention eventually leads to a seedy encounter in the toilets of a nightclub.
The recklessness of Rita’s behaviour creates a growing sense of foreboding. When she kidnaps the seriously ill Fexi from hospital, her lack of empathy for the physical danger she is placing him in, despite his evident uneasiness and distrust, imply borderline psychosis rather than mere teenage rebellion. Rita’s destructiveness escalates to bring the film to its dramatic conclusion…
The seemingly everyday nature of the film’s subject and setting is reinforced by the way the film was made. Shot on digital video, the low production values and subject matter are reminiscent of educational films made for schools, while the drab ‘70s decor and clothes – even though the action is present day - lend an air of Abigail’s Party to the bourgeois social life of Rita’s parents. Director Jessica Hausner used a non-professional cast for the film, and on a superficial glance you might believe yourself to be watching a fly on the wall documentary, featuring unremarkable people in an amateurish piece of filming.
But the film’s lack of ‘filminess’ perversely reinforces the impact of the story. This is not a poetically beautiful depiction of teenage alienation. There is no soundtrack to ameliorate the darkness of the film’s themes. Rita, although pretty, is no poster girl for adolescent angst, with her permanently lank greasy hair. In the film’s bleak view of humanity, we aren’t given any explanation of the inner life of any of the characters, and there is a lack of understanding or communication between them.
The film’s amateur cast cope well with their task. Barbara Osika’s nuanced portrayal of taciturn misery is full of conviction, and Christopher Hauer, playing the young Fexi, gives a very naturalistic performance. The scene where they giggle and dance together is one of the best in the film, conveying a genuine feeling of warmth and pleasure in each other’s company. In contrast, the dark undercurrents of the relationships in Rita’s family are expressed in anger and unvoiced disappointment. Karina Brandlmeyer plays Rita’s mother with an almost robotic resignation to her family role. Wolfgang Kostal effectively conveys the steely grip of an emotional tyrant on his family, creating an atmosphere of trepidation as his wife and daughter watch and wait for the next outburst of irrational anger.
The most troubling aspect of the family dynamic is that, every time Rita does something which is genuinely disturbing – such as abducting Fexi from the hospital – her parents make no attempt to question her or reason with her. They merely lock her in her bedroom for this, but her father will shout at her for the terrible transgression of leaving the toilet lid up. Although silence is commonly the weapon of teenagers, a defence against being patronised or misunderstood, it’s also a weapon here for adults to maintain the status quo and retain control. A pessimistic picture is painted of the helplessness of adolescence within a society which is concerned with bourgeois family appearances, and which displays an empty and mechanical piety with no moral honesty or belief to underpin it.
The low tech production values create a surprisingly effective medium for this bleak exploration of family life. Not the most uplifting viewing experience, but an honest and brave approach at portraying the familiar theme of adolescent alienation in a harsh and realistic light. KR
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