Making a movie from a book takes quite a tricky bit of screenwriting to keep it in context so your audience will understand the storyline. If it gets too confusing the plot really doesn’t work. Take the movie Transit for example. The book that the movie is based on was written about WWII in France and takes place while the Germans were starting to move dissidents and Jews out of Paris and other cities to extermination camps. However, the filmmakers chose to use modern day as the period instead of 1942. While this can work for some movies, here it only confuses. It may have been because of the cost involved to change everything back to the past so it would look like the 1940’s France.
It’s Paris, France and there are many German refugees living in the country that are trying escape the war including famed Jewish writer Franz Weidel. He has been living in Paris and most living quarters are being sealed off by the Nazis. Georg Grunert (Franz Rogowski), a German refugee illegal finds an opportunity to flee the area when he gets asked to deliver two letters to Weidel for a good sum of money. When he gets to Weidel’s apartment however, he’s told that the man committed suicide. Opening up the letters he finds one is correspondence from his estranged wife Marie (Paula Beer) living in Marseilles, and the other contains legal papers to get passage out of the country to Mexico.
So begins a story of misconception, love at first sight, pursuit of citizen papers and passage tickets to freedom. Director Godehard Giese, who also plays a role in the film, does his very best to make the film understandable even though the difference in the time periods. However, the more you know your history, the more confusing the film becomes.
He does however, a good job of bringing Marie and Georg together to start not only a possible way out of France for both of them, but the budding of love that has eluded Georg all his life. Adding in Marie’s current companion Richard (Godehard Giese) puts the three in a love triangle that provides some needed drama and enriches the plot.
The film would have been much better in my opinion if the filmmaker played it out as a 1942 film. This would have added some history to the story and made the plight of Georg, Marie and Richard more understandable. I do however like the relationships between characters, living conditions and the challenges they were facing in order to flee France.
BONUS FEATURES:
“Making of Transit” Interview featurette with Franz Rogowski·
“Interview with director Christian Petzold”
“Franz Rogowski: Shooting Star”
“Filmmaker Q&A from the Film Society of Lincoln Center”
“Press Conference” with the cast and crew from the Berlin film premiere
“In Transit: Thrown Into the World” a conversation with Christian Petzold and Barbara Auer·
“Collector’s Booklet” featuring interviews and an essay by Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
Transit has not been rated by the MPAA but contains gore, language, and a graphic suicide. The film plays out in the German and French language with English subtitles. Being released on DVD and Blu-ray may help the film as you can rewind and go over the dialogue if it gets confusing.
FINAL ANALYSIS: A good film if you can understand the background and relate it to modern day. (2 out of 5 Stars)
Specifications and additional video information:
Cast: Franz Rogowski, Paula Beer, Godehard Giese, Lilien Batmann, Maryam Zaree
Director: Godehard Giese
MPAA Rating: Not Rated, contains gore, language, a suicide
Genre: Drama, Foreign
Running Time: 1 hr. 41 min.
Video Release Date: July 9, 2019
Original Theatrical Release Date: March 1, 2019
Language: German and French with English subtitles
Reviewed Format: Blu-ray
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Video: Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
Subtitles: In German and French with English Subtitles
Number of Discs: 1 Disc
Distributed by: Music Box Films Home Entertainment
Released on: VOD, DVD and Blu-ray
Writer, critic, film editor John Delia, Sr. has been on all sides of the movie business from publications to film making. He has worked as a film critic with ACED Magazine for more than 20 years and other publications for a total of 40 years. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Florida. John is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association and Critics Association of Central Florida Send John a message at jdelia@acedmagazine.com
