Das schreckliche Mädchen

Plot synopsis:
A German high school student, Sonja (Lena Stolze as a fictionalized version of Anna Rosmus) wins an essay contest and goes on a trip to Paris.
Martin Wegmus begins teaching physics at Sonja's school and one of Sonja's classmates falls in love with him. Almost by luck, Mr. Wegmus and Sonja kiss. The teacher promises to return for her.
The next year, she enters the contest again. She chooses "My Town During the Third Reich" from the possible topics. Her research leads her to discover that her picture-perfect town had been intimately involved in the Third Reich and that nearly all of the city's prominent families were members of the Nazi party long before it came to power. As she digs further, local authorities stonewall her efforts. Sonja persists and learns that there had been eight concentration camps in the area and that all the Jews were forced out of the town and had their property confiscated.
Sonja marries Martin, and the townsfolk think Sonja has dropped the issue of Nazi involvement. Sonja bears two daughters and studies history at the University. She resumes her research into the town's Nazi past, and wins court cases granting her access to archives. She still has to employ trickery to get the information she wants, however. In response, her town's hostility grows from verbal abuse, to death threats to physical assaults as they attempt to silence her with increasing desperation, but nothing deters her.
Meanwhile, her husband feels emasculated as he's forced to take care of the children. The family survives a bomb from the angry townsfolk, but Sonja keeps up her research.
At the end, the townspeople change their tune, even putting a bust of Sonja at the town hall. Sonja sees this as a means to silence her and rejects the honor.

Tags: psychedelic, comedy, alternate history

Review:
The film is about a young woman in a small conservative community in southern Germany who decides to do some research into life during World War 2, and discovers that the version of events she has been brought up to believe is not backed up by the facts.
Much as the vast majority of American westerns tend to gloss over the true level of barbarism we so-called civilized members of society visited upon the 'heathen' Indians, the German town in question conveniently 'forgot' its level of involvement with the atrocities of the Nazi regime.
Mädchen's true 'sin' was of revisiting the Nazi era and detailing the involvement of many of the town's leading lights with that regime and its atrocities.In toto, this film asks disturbing questions about society (any society) and its willingness to justify or simply forget 'inconvenient' truths and realities..
At points this film feels almost comic, but never loses its focus on the important topic of Germans either coming to grips with the past or covering it up.
Some modernist filming techniques seem to remind the viewer that the film is very much set in the time of its production (1990, though the story begins in the 1970s) rather than in the distant, black-and-white days of the past that is its most important subject.
It's like Verhoeven is saying "the cover-up is NOW."It is my understanding that the story is based on the experiences of an actual German woman.
That being the case, Verhoeven could have written a serious biographical film about this woman's experiences as she struggled to investigate the truth of her town's activities during the Nazi regime.
But as the topic of Das schreckliche Maedchen remains controversial and, for many Germans, difficult to discuss, the somewhat light-hearted approach that Verhoeven takes may open doors for more viewers and more discussion.
He strikes a nice balance.On another note, this film is also a very good portrayal about a modern woman's struggle to be independent in her work while having a large family.
Michael Verhoeven has constructed a masterpiece in this glorious depiction of denial in a small German town.
Through a unique style, Verhoeven takes a sensitive topic, the feelings of Germans as to their participation in WWII, and adds a glorious ironic humor to the story.Lena Stoltz is glorious as Sonja, retaining her youthful charm and appeal throughout the film, from infancy to adulthood.
While it doesn't really detract from the film, you should see it to understand what I am talking about--it's quite unusual at times.What is so interesting and incredible about the movie was how everyone turned against her so quickly and violently.
Using Brecht's idea of Epic Theatre, Michael Verhoeven creates a stage upon which audiences can learn from the past, and critique such instances from World War Two and Nazi Germany through the main character Sonja's struggles.
One scene taking the walls down of Sonja's living room and having it float through town while people anonymously call and threaten her family.
Bringing back the walls also helps alarm the audience, just in case they were becoming too comfortable without them.Another part of the film is Sonja's family.
I think the scenes of neglecting the family are overdone to not show the point that Sonja is a bad mother, but that she wants her children to grow up and learn to love their Heimat (homeland), which during WWII was given a negative political term.
She wants to make things better for her children so they don't grow up learning all of the corrupt things the her town has been covering up.The Nasty Girl is a clever and great cinematic film that makes you think, rather then feel.
Sonja (Lena Stolze) seems like any ordinary person.
Then, everyone in town not only turns against her, but tries in every possible way to silence her.Much like another West German film ("The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum"), "The Nasty Girl" shows a woman used as a scapegoat for something that was society's fault (it makes sense for German movies to deal with that; it's exactly what the Third Reich was all about).
Another one of Germany's solid masterpieces.Watching this movie, I couldn't help but wonder what sorts of secrets any place, anywhere on Earth, carries..
It may sound in outline like a bad joke, but this daring comedy about a young German girl's frustrated attempt to uncover the Nazi past is no laughing matter.
The film has a lot of the same, sassy energy as its heroine, who as a schoolgirl began a lifelong investigative crusade to unearth the Nazi skeletons in the closet of her Bavarian hometown, discovering firsthand the hypocrisy and complacency of her friends and neighbors (and, by extension, of the entire German nation).
The story is drawn from actual events, but the heavy stylization of the film takes (deliberately) some of the sting from the facts, by lending them an almost playful air of unreality sometimes unsuited to the subject.
Lena Stolze plays the character Sonja from the age of 16 through to adulthood.
And that subject is so troubling to all potential viewers, going as it does far beyond blindness to past Nazi activities, that if it were laid on heavy, it would not be accepted, because it would be perceived as an attack on everybody.
But it is actually an attack on everybody, because the film seeks to expose a faultline in human nature of our tendency to conspire to forget, conspire not to see, and conspire to falsify reality.
The character Sonja in this film (based upon a real girl named Anja who actually had similar experiences) challenges consensus reality.
The fact is that just about everybody living in Germany during that period was seriously compromised, there were few heroes (despite the many claims of heroism which came after the War), and the majority of Germans actually approved of and supported the Nazis.
Based on real events around a student who, in the 80s, worked of the Nazi past of a Bavarian town and hence got torpedoed by the local regulars and authorities.
Lena Stolze's, the 'nasty girl', speech directly to the audience is part of it, as well as the effect of an obvious rear projection of the municipal archive while we see the actors performing on stage around a desk.
The documentary style didn't "give validity to a fictional story." This is based on a true story and the movie mirrors, quite well, what happened in real life..
The documentary style didn't "give validity to a fictional story." This is based on a true story and the movie mirrors, quite well, what happened in real life..
The documentary style didn't "give validity to a fictional story." This is based on a true story and the movie mirrors, quite well, what happened in real life..
The documentary style didn't "give validity to a fictional story." This is based on a true story and the movie mirrors, quite well, what happened in real life..
A local girl decides to venture on a project dealing with the nasty history of her home town.
I had to view this film for a class that I am taking, Film and the Holocaust, and had the honor of hearing Mr. Verhoeven talk about a different film, but also mentioning Nasty Girl.
Also, the use of rear screen projection as backgrounds, looking much like scrims in a theater, showed the fact that many of the characters were Acting their part, not behaving as they would normally.
In her last scene she takes a role completely different from either of these, and again, the change is abrupt (although this time it seems more justified).The film seems too basic: Either the characters do or do not support Sonja, although some characters allow her to continue her activities only up to a certain point, and other characters lovingly disapprove of them.
There is no real conflict for Sonja throughout the film because the people to whom she is closest support her ideas (though not always her methods).
Once Sonja obtains the necessary documents, her research seems very simple -- although it may have only been the director's choice to skip the laborious details.The visual style will inspire some and annoy others.This is worth seeing for the acting and the message that attitudes that seem past are very much a part of the present.
Das Madchen Schreckliche (The Nasty Girl) is about high school student girl who write an essay of her town during War World II.
I remember seeing the woman on 60 Minutes a couple years ago talking about her life that the film is based.
I would definitely recommend the film, but please realize you are watching German cinema, which is usually a little strange when you are used to American style movies..
An engrossing film made in pseudo-documentary style as one long flashback (with occasional cuts to the present for contemporary character reactions).Ending does not tie the film together but rather left me with a gnawing appreciation for how real it actually felt..
When you can sympathise, and even smile while watching the eerie subject of this movie.Other than breaking the humorless myth of the germans,  to its Nazi past.It's sure a past many people in Germany want to leave behind, and that's why this movie (and the main character of the film) is so daring of bringing it back.
I bought The Nasty Girl blind, not knowing either the film, nor director.
Lena Stolze, as Sonja, the girl, then a woman who starts out thinking up a subject for her school essay assignment.
At first.As her task becomes a full-time passion and as she uncovers possible cover ups as to who in the town were Nazis and how far their crimes went, those doors to her, previously so open, are now closed.
What did she prove, apart from the fact that she was able to change opinion.Anyway, a nice little film, not too long and a bit different and also, really quite German..
When a young woman (Lena Stolze as a fictionalized version of Anna Rosmus) investigates her town's Nazi past, the community turns against her.Rosmus wrote her first book, "Resistance and Persecution - The Case of Passau 1933-1939", which was published in 1983.
The film, though light-hearted and innocent in many ways, does bring up an important point: it is not simply a matter of "erasing" or "forgetting" or "ignoring" history -- a community must actually confront it in order to move on..
A young German woman investigates her town's involvement during the Third Reich.
The presentation is quirky, with Stolze at times stepping out of character to directly address the audience.
After the light-hearted start, things turn serious as Stolze goes about trying to dig up information on her town's history.
I know my fair share about Germany through my research of their history and their automobiles, however I have never actually watched a German movie outside of Run Lola Run. German films have always been portrayed by the American society as 'art house' style films.
As such, I would classify The Nasty Girl as an art house style film.
The movie never really comes to present time to my understanding as it is always narrated by Sonja.The other art house styling I see in the film come from the use of a projection screen to show certain interiors (the archives, the library, the archive administrators office) the stage like apperance of the courthouse scenes and the use of the living room that moves through a part of the town that Sonja and her family are constantly seen on later in the movie.
The whole movie comes off as a big budget play rather than a traditional film.
The film's timeline comes in at a confusing part of German history, though.
This confusion of the time leads me to believe that is why the end of the movie is so open ended.
If you are interested in German reactions to the war and their own involvement and denials, you may like this.
It makes you wonder what the real story was like.You won't like this if you like "straight" documentary-type films on this subject.
Some of the characters are quite funny, but other parts are quite serious, befitting the subject.You can tell the director can be quite quirky!
Das Schreckliche Maedchen (The Nasty Girl) is a great film by virtually any measure.
Michael Verhoeven does a fine job directing, the story is engrossing, and Lena Stolze is simply amazing.
This may be the finest performance by an actress ever.The story of a girl raised in postwar Germany and her search for the truth regarding her town's history during the war is touching, thought-provoking, and realistic (Actually based on a true story).
This should be required viewing in any history class, not just for the historical facts of the movie, but for the portrayal of the revisionism that can take place to put history in a better light by distorting the truth.
For example, Lena Stolze (playing Sonja) uses a form of acting class gestic.
I think that American distributors view femaleness with little regards or respect by the way they market films.
For instance, as `The Nasty Girl' passed from the German culture to the American culture, the way it was advertised did not represent the film in all actuality.
The title should have been translates into something like `The girl with courage' from having no support from her town in her quest to uncover the hidden truth about the town's involvement with the Nazis.
For the most part, this is a style that works best on the stage--but director Michael Verhoeven uses it as a springboard for THE NASTY GIRL.
She eventually gives up the project, but it continues to fester in the back of her mind, and some years later when she resumes her research with the idea of writing a book she discovers that the anti-Nazi heroes were not, perhaps, either anti-Nazi or heroic.The main thrust of the film centers upon Sonja's relentless battle against the powers that be to obtain access to documents from the Nazi era, and how civic leaders work to frustrate her--both by persistently dodging her demands for the material and by direct terrorism.
Ultimately, she does arrive at some of the truth, only to discover that she has now been enshrined by civic leaders as a "hero" in an effort to silence her with praise.Director Michael Verhoeven presents the story in an odd mix of documentary and theatrical and realistic styles that mesh extremely well to create that famous Brechtian effect without ever actually seeming preachy.
And leading actress Lena Stolze, as "the nasty girl" who accidentally drifts into the role of advocate for the truth at any price, is equally remarkable: she gives a very likable, bemused performance that draws the viewer in even while maintaining the necessary degree of detachment the style requires.
'THE NASTY GIRL' DIGS DEEP INTO POST WAR Germany Movie Review by C A Hall SPELLBREAKER STUDIOS.
Both take on collusion by the German people during and after World War II.
THE NASTY GIRL is hilarious and based on a true story.
Lead actress gives a very fine performance as a woman who grows up in a nice, funny town full of basically good people who lived under the Nazis during Hitler's rule.
The premise and plot of this movie is remarkable, thought-provoking and funny in a very strange way.
The story is developed in almost Amélie-like fashion with quirky characters and plot development but it doesn't quite go all the way and thus stays in a strange limbo.
A lot of the backgrounds and sets seem more like theatre than film (that may have been intentional, but according to me takes away from the movie's effectiveness) 
Sonia tries to research the nazi past of her town but gets rejected at every turn.
The movie has a great potential for being fun, quirky, thought-provoking and "important" but as none of the elements is perfected and due to the distracting style and sets it doesn't quite reach its impact.
"Das schreckliche Mädchen" or "The Nasty Girl" is one of the most known German films from the 1990s and the reason is probably that it was nominated for an Oscar, a Golden Globe and won a BAFTA.
She won a German Film Award for her portrayal of a young woman who takes a look into her town's history during World War II.
The way the film develops was a bit surprising as it starts as a story about a girl crushing on her teacher and is pretty unpolitical for a long time early on.I think this was a good idea as it certainly helped with writer and director Michael Verhoeven's idea to make this not too serious and there are light moments from start to finish in this 90-minute film that go very well together with the more serious historic parts.
But the film is not only about Stolze's character, it is much more about the people and their reactions to what she does.
A pretty interesting character story and even if it does not end up as one of my favorite German films ever, I still recommend, especially to people with an interest in German politics.
'The Nasty Girl' tells an interesting story that I did a bit of reading about sometime before this movie came along.
I had learn that a young German girl named Anja Rosmos had done some probing and found that her little town had had some major ties with Nazi Germany.The local politicians were outraged and warned her not to do anymore snooping around but she went digging anyway.
The girl's name in the film is Sonja Rosenberger and she lives in Bavaria.
Watching Sonja I felt that I was watching a staged, sanitized version Anja's story by someone who knows little or nothing about this subject.