This German film has appeared recently on MUBI. It is also on Amazon and BFI Player in the UK. I was attracted to it by the presence of Vicky Krieps who plays the titular character. Ms Krieps speaks several languages and has appeared in films in English, French and German since 2009. The film offers a simple narrative but the subject matter seems to divide audiences.
Lynn has just left a clinic which she voluntarily entered for mental health reasons. She returns to work as a chambermaid in the Hotel Eden in an unspecified German city. It may be that her mental health problem is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) as we see that she spends a long time cleaning hotel rooms, going well beyond the usual procedure and including rooms that are not occupied. But it may be this trait has simply been learned from her mother who she visits a couple of times during the narrative. Lynn has no real friends but she has occasional sexual encounters with her boss when he is between girlfriends. It soon transpires, however, that Lynn has a distinctive mode of operation in her cleaning process. Once she has cleaned a room meticulously she is interested in the different personal items in the room belonging to guests. She tries on clothes and goes through wallets etc. not to steal but seemingly to get vicarious pleasure. But her singular activity is to relax by lying still beneath the bed in rooms she has cleaned. She then experiences a period as a partial observer when a guest returns to their room – though of course, remaining hidden, Lynn cannot see much. In one comic scene we see a male guest on his bed playing what appears to be a violent video game on the room’s TV while Lynn is immobile beneath his bed. Lynn’s fantasy world built on voyeurism seems to sustain her and at home she has a laptop which appears to screen old black and white films on a loop.
One day, Lynn overhears a man greeting a young woman, clearly for the first time. When he asks the desk for a specific room key and the couple head to the lift, Lynn runs ahead of him and dives under the bed in the room. In this way Lynn learns about the dominatrix Chiara and is later able to access the business card that Chiara leaves for the hotel guest. Lynn then rings Chiara and arranges a house call for her free Saturday. The main part of the narrative will cover Lynn’s relationship with Chiara (played by Lena Lauzemis who UK viewers may have seen in the Deutschland 83 TV series) which develops across the several visits Chiara makes to Lynn’s apartment.
The film is directed by Ingo Haeb who also wrote the script, adapting the novel by Markus Orths. Orths is a prolific author in Germany. Although the narrative is written by men, there are several women in leading roles in the production including Sophie Maintigneux as cinematographer and Nicole Kortlüke as film editor. I mention this simply because the most important representations of sexual activity are those between the two women. I wouldn’t describe these as particularly ‘graphic’ because they are carefully choreographed and composed scenes – though we know what is happening to the submissive Lynn. These scenes are more about how Lynn comes to learn things about herself than about titillating the viewer. However even the slightest representation of BDSM practices seems to offend some viewers. I note one reviewer who seems to assume that because Lynn asks Chiara to ‘hit’ her, this must mean that she was abused by her father. I’m not sure this is the case. This is not a ‘realist’ film as such and Haeb’s overall approach places Lynn in a world of quiet streets and a kind of unreal calm. The pacing is slow and the photography is often beautiful, supported by the restrained musical score. Chiara’s sex work is almost ‘matter of fact’ in the way she approaches it, but her ‘costumes’ (heels, stockings, tight tops etc.) are a necessary part of her act. They also contrast with Lynn’s appearance – little make-up or coiffure and clothes that are unfashionable and plain. There is an interesting aspect of costume in the chambermaid’s overall. Lynn is a cleaner as well as a maid so the uniform is utilitarian. It’s a simple plain housecoat (see above), but it’s quite short and we know that beneath it Lynn tends to wear only her panties. It’s almost naively sexy. In the last part of the narrative, Haeb pushes Lynn’s dreams of a relaxing holiday with Chiara into pure fantasy. There is no resolution as such to the main narrative, although when her mother asks her about her work, Lynn hesitates and then tells her mother that “I’m different mum . . . a different person than you think”. This is quite a clumsy exchange and I did wonder if the subtitler had difficulty translating it into English. But it does make a kind of sense.
I enjoyed the film and in its own calm, unhurried way it seemed to say something. I’m not sure exactly what but it did seem to suggest that Lynn had used her fetish to help her to learn something and to change. It also leaves the narrative nicely open as to what will happen to Lynn next. I rather hope she finds someone who will have the same qualities as Chiara, but without being a ‘professional’. The performances by Vicky Krieps and Lena Lauzemis are both impressive.
itp Global Film 