Fetzenleben (4 Stars)

This is the latest film by the Stuttgart director Alexander Tuschinski. It deals with an unnamed man visiting Paris to think about why his girlfriend (also unnamed) broke up with him. The film is shown in non-chronological order, jumping back to a previous visit to Paris together and their time in Germany. While walking the streets of Paris the man meets other men who give him advice. Most of the advice is superficial, nothing that can help him. For instance, "Find someone else. You look young enough to pick up any 18-year-old in Paris". The man broods, not taking the advice to heart. Or does he? One of the problems with the film is that it's not always clear which Paris visit is being shown.

Who are the men giving advice in Paris? They're German speakers. Do they really exist, or are they just the inner monologues of imaginary friends? This isn't 100% clear, and it's deliberately left to the opinion of the viewer, but I like to see these conversations as the working of his own mind.

"Fetzenleben" is shown in random chronological order, but there's a development. When the film starts it's unclear why the pair broke up. My sympathies were with the man as the one who was wronged. It even seemed like a brief affair by the girl was the reason. As the film progresses, we see that it's the man's egocentricity which led to the breakup. When they first came together they agreed that he could sleep with other women, but she wouldn't sleep with other men because she didn't want to. That's fair enough. It's not something most couples would agree on, but it set boundaries. Later on, the girl began to complain about him sleeping with other women. She asked him to stop, but he refused. He said that it's something he could never change. He even suggested that she should seek therapy to get over her jealousy.

So the girl dumped him. We see repeated arguments, but not the breakup itself. The man walks the streets of Paris, miserable that she's left him. Does he accept that it was all his own fault? No. The only development is in the eyes of the viewer. The man is frozen in his way of thinking. He says he loves her, but in truth he only loves himself.

The film lasts a whopping 165 minutes. There's an intermission, which could possibly be used for a break in cinema screenings, but today the two parts were shown without a break. Could the film have been made shorter, only 120 minutes or even 90 minutes? Yes, the film's content (what actually happens) is small enough that it doesn't need such a big film. However, the repetition of similar conversations and arguments gives "Fetzenleben" an oppressive atmosphere which overwhelms the viewer. It could just as well have been made twice as long without losing any of its quality.

What does the title mean? The literal translation would be "Life in shreds", but I prefer to call it "Broken Life". The film shows a broken man unable to put his broken life back together.