Sep 10, 2019
Hi everyone!
Today’s our final Takeover Tuesday for our third quarter cycle, and we’re super excited to have the 32 Fans Movies podcast joining us to review a film that has received both a Certified Fresh and a Metacritic Must See rating from this year, usually a signifier of the best of the best. How did Av see it? He’ll let you know in a minute, but for a few other reviews for films with this distinct honor that we’ve covered, check out “American Factory” (Episode #585), Keith Lyons’ review for “Birds of Passage” (Episode #571), and “The Farewell” (Episode #568). Two of those are likely Oscar contenders this year. “Birds of Passage” just missed the cut last year.
Are you interested in doing a guest review here at One Movie Punch? Head over to onemoviepunch.com/takeover-tuesday and read up more on the process, then reach out to us using the provided form or over social media to find out about guesting. We’d love to have you on the show, and you’ll get access to our growing audience and be able to run your promo before the review. We have a limited number of slots open each quarter, so be sure to contact us as soon as possible. And if you do well enough, you just might be asked to join the ranks of the One Movie Punch crew.
Before we get to the review, we’ll have a promo from the 32 Fans Movies Podcast, the offshoot of their original sport-themed podcast, the 32 Fans Podcast. You can check them out at anchor.fm/32-fans-movies, where you can subscribe at your podcatcher of choice. Be sure to catch their recent episode as they continue their Sports Movies Brackets, in their attempt to find the top 64 sports movies of all time, then have them compete to find out which one’s the best. You can find them on Twitter @32fansmovies.
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Here we go!
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Today’s movie review is of “Transit”, a 2018 German language film written and directed by Christian Petzold, and starring Franz Rogowski and Paula Beer. It was released in the US in March 2019. Based on Anna Seghers's 1942 novel of the same name, “Transit” tells the story of Georg, who while attempting to flee Nazi-occupied France, assumes the identity of a dead author, but soon finds himself stuck in Marseilles, where he falls in love with Maria, a young woman searching for her missing husband.
No spoilers.
Transit tells the story of refugees, ostensibly those fleeing the Nazis in Europe of the 1940s. However, by super imposing the stories of yesteryear on a France that looks and feels like the one we recognize today, Christian Petzold pulls off a brilliant magic trick that dislocates his story from time, and bestows it with a timelessness that only increases its importance and its relevance. A film that borrows both cinematically and thematically from “Casablanca”, “Transit” tells the story not only of the Jewish refugees of the 1940s, or the migrant crisis of today, but that of all refugees throughout history: people stuck between places, stuck in transit, stuck in time.
In a moving scene, about halfway through the film, a haunting parable is relayed by Georg. A man arrives in purgatory, eager to learn his fate in the afterlife, but his judgement is slow to arrive. The minutes turn to hours, then to days, weeks, and years. Eventually, he sees another man and asks him “Can you help me? I’m supposed to register for hell.” It is then that he receives the haunting reply, “Don’t you understand. This here is hell.” That’s the bleak reality of the lives of the refugees we see congregating in the corridors of a small hotel, in the waiting room of consulates, in cafés and bars in the harbor, all in hopes of the elusive transit papers they pray will set them free from purgatory and offer them a future.
Told as a Russian Doll story within a story within a story, “Transit” asks us to consider why we tell stories at all. In a line that is repeated throughout the film, we are asked, “Who is the first to forget? He who left or she who left him?” Is it the one who departed or the one left behind that is better positioned to move forward? More importantly, who is the one left with the primary task of dealing with the consequences and the telling of the story: the victim or the oppressor?
“Transit” is a brilliant masterwork from one of Europe’s best filmmakers, and one of the most relevant and essential movies in years. It’s a movie that doesn’t pull any punches and challenges its audience to confront the horrors of the past as they bleed into the present. I would strongly recommend it to any viewer who isn’t scared off by subtitles.
Rotten Tomatoes: 96% (CERTIFIED FRESH)
Metacritic: 84 (MUST SEE)
One Movie Punch: 9.5/10
“Transit” (2018) is currently available for rental or purchase on Amazon, Google Play, and Vudu.