Bella Martha (5 Stars)

Dancer's Top Films #100

If you're wondering about the text I've written above, here's the explanation. Since 2016 I've been promising to publish a top 50 list on my film blog, in the form of a countdown from 50 to 1. In 2018 I finally had my top 50 list complete, but I didn't have time to start watching the films in order. That's just as well, because I soon remembered films that ought to be in the list. I stretched the film to a top 60, but soon I remembered other films that needed to be included. 70 is an awkward sounding number, so I bumped the list up to 100. I've had the list on my computer since mid 2018. This year it was my New Year's Resolution to finally publish the list. I made a few changes, and today I've finally started. To get through the whole list in one year I'll have to watch two films a week. In case there are any interruptions, I've set myself a goal of three films per week.

A top 100 films isn't an easy task, because I frequently change my mind. My top 10 has been pretty stable for years, but my top 20 (the numbers 11 to 20) has undergone several changes since 2018. Added to this, I have a tendency to call the last good film I watched one of the best films I've ever seen, so as I go through the list there will be a lot of films that I think should be higher in the list. There should be room in my top 20 for 100 films, if you understand what I mean.

Think of my top 100 list as a snapshot of my favourite films on 17th January 2021. I'll probably have changed my mind about the order within a week, but I'll stick to the list as it is.

If anyone wonders why the list is called Dancer's list, come on! Have you never read my blog before? I am Dancer. Everyone should know that by now. This blog's name is Dansator, which is Romanian for Dancer. Don't make me have to tell you again.

So let's start with the 100th film in my list. It's a German film made in 2001, wrongly labelled as a romantic comedy. It's about Martha Klein, a single woman who lives in Hamburg and works as the head chef in Hamburg's top restaurant. She has no time for anything in her life except for food. She visits a therapist once a week, and she spends an hour talking to him about food, however much he tries to get her to change the subject. She even brings meals to the sessions to impress him with her skills.

Everything changes when her sister dies in a car crash. She has to look after her eight-year-old niece Lina until she can trace the estranged father. She takes a few days off work, and in her absence her boss hires a new cook. An Italian! Even though Mario is her assistant, she feels threatened by his presence in the kitchen. There's a hint of racism in her attitude, but mostly it's the culture clash. Martha is precise and highly organised, but Mario arrives late and sings while he's cooking.

Martha is outwardly cold and unable to show her emotions, but it's a very emotional film. That's the skill of the tremendous actress Martina Gedeck in the title role. By hiding her emotions she reveals her emotions to the viewer, and we can shed a tear with her.

The film was remade in English as "No Reservations", but the remake is awful. Instead of ruining the film by simplifying the plot, the original should have been dubbed by high quality voice actors. I'm not saying that I support dubbing in general, but in this case dubbing would have been a better and cheaper alternative.

The original film was released in America with English subtitles as "Mostly Martha". It's now out of print. The official German release only has German subtitles. Sorry.