Die Macht der Gefühle (1983) User Reviews

A Beautiful and Weird Mosaic of Images Associated to Music and Feelings

[claudio_carvalho · 5/10 · 14 December 2014]

"Die Macht der Gefühle", a.k.a. "The Power of Emotions", is a beautiful and weird movie with a mosaic of images, most of them footages, associated to music and feelings. This is the first work of the German director Alexander Kluge that I see and it is impressive his culture in opera in most of his excerpts from operas.

He is also ironic, with the short story of a woman that is left by her lover and decides to commit suicide swallowing many pills. A traveling seller sees her dying in her car and helps her to vomit. Then he rapes her, but he is arrested by the police. In the court, the woman does not accuse her rapist telling that she had not felt anything but the rejection of her lover. There is also another unfinished story of the prostitute Betty that is sold to the burglar Kurt Schleich and they are connected when they work together for four weeks to save the life of a foreigner traveling seller that was attacked by Schleich's partner. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "O Poder dos Sentimentos" ("The Power of the Feelings")

I did not feel much watching this one

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 23 January 2018]

"Die Macht der Gefühle" or "The Power of Emotion" (literally "The Power of Feelings") is a West German German-language film from 1983, so this one has its 35th anniversary this year and it was released briefly before I was born. It runs for 110 minutes and was written by Alexander Kluge, one of Germany's more known filmmakers from his time. Then again, today in his mid-80s he is still making movies. This was the first time I think I watched this one and I must say I generally find it difficult to really make a connection with Kluge's works and this one here is no difference. The cast includes quite a few actors and actresses who are fairly known in Germany still today like von Borsody, Wennemann, Hoger, Auer and others including Kluge's recently deceased sister Alexandra. Here on imdb it says this one here is a documentary, but I don't think I would really agree. There is a documentary element to all of Kluge's works I have seen so far, but it is not heavier or more frequent in this one here. Like the director's other works, there is always a really severe deal of bleakness included during the screening and this hurts this movie here especially as it says it is about emotions, but the way scenes are depicted in here, it is tough for the audience, or at least the majority of the audience, to feel something at all really and the negative consequence is that it really drags on quite a few occasions. Also like other films from him, there is a mix of black-and-white and color parts. So yes this was a very sobering work for sure, felt very sterile to me too and I must say I have no interest to see it (ever?) again or see anything other by Kluge soon. I do believe though that if you appreciate some other stuff from him, and chances are high you have seen some if you consider watching this one here, then probably you will like this one too. It''s a film that and filmmaker that is not for many, but for a very distinct circle of viewers perhaps who can see the art and quality in his approach. I am not one of these, so I give the film (not one of Kluge's most or least known I guess) a thumbs-down and don't recommend checking it out. Watch something else instead.