The subtle psychodrama “Frau im Dunkeln” by Maggie Gyllenhaal – based on a book by Elena Ferrante – is a must for film buffs and fans of Olivia Colman at the beginning of the year.
Berlin – Regardless of whether in the series “Fleabag” and “The Crown” or in films like “The Lobster” and “The Father”: The British Oscar winner Olivia Colman (“The Favorite – Intrigues and Insanity”) is with her acting skills always a revelation.
Now she can be seen on Netflix (since December 31st) as a professor who is going through a psychological crisis during her summer vacation in Greece.
“Frau im Dunkeln” (original film title: “The Lost Daughter”) is the name of the thoroughly successful Elena Ferrante film adaptation by Maggie Gyllenhaal. The film joins dark summer films such as “Swimming Pool” by François Ozon with Charlotte Rampling.
Cracks in the perfect holiday setting
The British Leda Caruso, who lives in the USA as a professor of Italian literature, is traveling alone and has rented an apartment on the Greek island of Spetses to relax with a bit of work. The 48-year-old flirts with the handsome student Will from Ireland (Paul Mescal), who works at the beach bar, but also with Lyle (Ed Harris), the caretaker of her holiday home.
It could all be so beautiful, but something is wrong beneath the surface. Matching this, the nicely draped fruit in the bowl of your apartment is rotten from below and at night a disgusting, big, loud cicada lies on the pillow.
The arrival of an uncomfortably vulgar and threatening extended Greek-American family brings unrest to the beach, where Leda likes to sit and ponder. Leda notices the attractive Nina (Dakota Johnson) from this family. She has a lot to do with her annoying little daughter. Leda seems to recognize herself in the excessive demands of her mother role. In the following, the professor becomes melancholy, caring, but also mean.
Sensitive drama from a women’s perspective
The film jumps back and forth in flashbacks (Jessie Buckley plays the younger Leda) and gradually reveals what Leda and her daughters were all about. The psychogram of a woman in her late forties is impressively designed, who struggles with the roles and behaviors intended for her and thus despairs.
“Woman in the Dark” is a sensitive work from a female perspective in which men hardly play a role. The women’s drama is the directorial debut of actress Maggie Gyllenhaal (44, “Crazy Heart”, “The Dark Knight”), who cast her husband Peter Sarsgaard as an attractive professor and seducer in Leda’s past.
In Venice at the Festival 2021 Gyllenhaal was awarded the prize for the best screenplay (Premio per la migliore sceneggiatura). The two-hour film is an adaptation of the 2006 novel of the same name, written by the mysterious bestselling author Elena Ferrante. In the original Italian novel – “La figlia oscura” – Leda is an English professor in Florence and is on vacation on the Calabrian coast, where a family from Naples arrives. dpa
