Devotion (2003) User Reviews

Pointless sex and violence piece.

[Mozjoukine · 29 August 2003]

What this piece of Sado masochistic twaddle is doing in a National Film festival takes some explaining. Must be a slow year for German cinema. It's competently made and the leads are well built and uninhibited which does work up interest when they get it on briefly but the pointlessly enigmatic complications make attention wander - the Arabian Nights of a maybe whore and a metal sculptor who just happens to have a bondage chair and straight razor.

Played largely in a single setting in square on close-ups this format would take more talent than is wielded here. I didn't like it all that much when Susan Sontag pretended she was a film director with DUET FOR CANNIBALS.

Tries to be so controversial and important, but completely fails

[Horst_In_Translation · 2/10 · 19 July 2015]

"Devot" is the third film by writer and director Igor Zaritzky and it was made 12 years ago. He also took a 10-year-break after making his 4th film afterward and looking at this film here, maybe he should not have made any other film at all. Then again the reason that "Devot" is such a failure is mostly because of the embarrassingly bad performances by Annett Renneberg and Simon Böer. It also says a lot that Renneberg is mostly known for her performances in the weak crime television series by Donna Leon. Okay, but back to this one here. A man finds a woman on a bridge and saves her apparently from suicide. For the rest of this almost 90-minute film the two are in the man's apartment and humiliate each other, mostly emotionally, occasionally also physically. There's talk about suicide, murder, rape etc. the full program. Graphical sex scenes and also the man being very violent towards the woman. She of course is a masochist and he is a sadist, so he loves this. This film is basically the perfect example of how not to make a film. Two weak lead actors, a terrible script which is full of itself, but has no substance at all and finally editing that is all over the place. If you want to see an actually good film on the subject, I recommend Fassbinder's "Martha". It's actually pretty funny how "Devot" attempts to be edgy and relevant, but the weak production values in pretty much every area destroy these from start to finish. And the ending... well. I guess Zaritzky wanted to show us how self-destructive they were, but it's just a great failure from start to finish. He really needs a lesson on subtlety. What is especially bad is that this is not even his first movie. Highly not recommended.

When suspense and art meet each other...

[uf36 · 9/10 · 14 August 2006]

The movie is an intimate play with only two actors. (Tomek Piotrowski appears only for a few seconds). What we see is a dangerous cat-and-mouse play between a girl and a man. He met her at night on a bridge. Did she want to jump? He stops his car and she pretends to be a whore. He takes her with him. What happens is an inscrutable game of violence, sex, dominance and submission. Annett Renneberg and Simon Boer do a superb job. They are convincing in a story which has a surreal touch. The movie claims to be a psycho thriller and it is indeed thrilling right to the end. Well, the end actually is the weakest part of the story but this film still is highly recommendable.