Die Klitoris ist ein Teil des Geschlechtsorgans von Frauen, den viele Menschen lange nicht so richtig wahrhaben wollten. Das mag auch damit zu tun haben, dass sie eigentlich den Penisneid überflüssig machen müsste, von dem Freud noch sicher ausging. Heute kann man über diese Themen diskutieren, ohne sofort Anstoß zu erregen. Aber geht das auch schon in der Schule? Wäre das nicht Teil einer „Frühsexualisierung“, gegen die sich Verfechter einer traditionellen Familienbilds immer wieder aussprechen?
In Karoline Herfurths Film „Wunderschöner“ wird die Klitoris als Merkmal von Weiblichkeit zu einem Thema in einem Projektunterricht. Eine Schülerin namens Lilly macht sich mit ein paar Klassenkolleginnen daran, das Organ, durch das Frauen starke Lust empfinden können, mit einem Kunstwerk zu feiern. Inspiriert werden sie dabei von der Lehrerin Vicky. Nebenan sitzen die Jungen bei einem neuen Kollegen von Vicky. Er heißt Trevor und ist so ziemlich das Idealbild eines Mannes, den Frauen in einer romantischen Komödie sich für einen ausgelassenen Abend mit einem Stripper einladen würden. Hier aber diskutiert Trevor mit den Schülern über Rollenbilder, und dies nicht im Sinne irgendwelcher „manospheres“, in denen Männer bevorzugt als Macker posieren. Trevor ist ein Softie mit Muskeln. Vicky, deren Freund Franz gerade irgendwo in den Bergen nach sich selbst sucht, findet ihn mindestens interessant.
Three years ago, Karoline Herfurth brought her film “Beautiful” to the cinemas. The start had to be moved several times due to Covid-19 and fell into the cinema decoration, which did not immediately evaporate after the Lockdowns ended. Herfurth had already finished her next film “just something nice”. “Beautiful” was a great success.
Women did the essentials
A comedy about the challenges in front of which modern women stand who do everything right in the family and at work and also want to have their own life. Karoline Herfurth himself played the leading role of Sonja, Nora Tschirner was the teacher Vicky. Martina Gedeck made it understandable in the role of the Frauke, as in an apparently good marriage, self -esteem can disappear if the man takes everything for granted.
“Beautiful” was a film in which men like Friedrich Mücke (as Sonja's man Milan) or Maximilian Brückner (as Franz) had supporting supporting roles. But women made up for the essentials. As “herd animals”, as Vicky is now in a “more beautiful” point.
She is currently lives with Sonja temporarily in an improvised solidarity community of two women. Both relationships are on the brink, Sonja has already separated from Milan, but the last word has not yet been spoken. Franz sends strange videos from his wandering to Vicky from time to time, he has no idea about Trevor. Starting from these two central figures, Karoline Herfurth moves the panorama a little further than in the predecessor. It takes a look at the entire social tissue of a large and capital like Berlin, for example with a circle of women who consciously cultivate network and their connections in order to play a role in games and to play important functions.
Access to present topics
Karoline Herfurth, who also wrote the script for “Beautiful” with Monika Fässler, also gives itself access to the topics with this constellation of power women. Nadine (Anneke Kim Sarnau) is exposed by a scandal who affects her husband, a politician. He was filmed at a meeting with a prostitute. After giving her first shock, Nadine turns to the young woman from Romania and ensures that she receives the necessary care for exit from the forced prostitution. Julie, on the other hand,, the sister of Milan, who almost perished in “beautiful” on the beauty ideals of the model industry, begins with an internship on a television station and has to find out that after a blatant case of sexual harassment, she is down from the mighty editor -in -chief is left. It stands on the side of the attractive presenter, which Julie (Emilia Schüle) had interspersed on the first day very routinely.
Especially with the subplot about the Romanian Nadja, “more beautiful” is deliberately towards the tutorial. Herfurth sends directly into the anteroom of political decision -makers, she wants to raise awareness of better legislation.
It uses the possibilities of influence that she has given herself as the most important female voice in the German mainstream cinema. “Beautiful” is another step on a path that Natja Brunckhorst also goes in a similar form. Actors move forward, they no longer only interpret roles, but put the conditions for these roles themselves. The parallels between the roles in invented stories and the role images in society are obvious.
For ten years between Karoline Herfurth's appearance in “Das Perfum” (2006) and “SMS for you” (2016), their first directorial work, a very successful Romantic comedy to Hollywood patterns, which were cleverly translated into German. Herfurth did not have to hide from the great model Nora Ephron (“Sleepless in Seattle”).
“Beautiful” and “more beautiful” now help the drama in addition to the comedy to greater validity. One thinks a little to feel that the concerns flow more directly into the stories. It is also a little clearer, and moments that go into sentimental are no longer necessarily broken.
When Sonja meets with an online appointment on a hype, then “more beautiful” indulges in the colors, lets the candidates be stupid and gives Sonja a contemplative moment.
In the classic Hollywood comedies, the gender roles were undermined by first aiming at exchange: Katharine Hepburn was the “male” figure next to Cary Grant. Karoline Herfurth is now obviously working on another logic of the genres. It has a new form of “Women's Pictures” in mind, which cannot be deterred from the danger of aesthetic proximity to the Kolportage, to kitsch, and even the political leaflet. There are moments in “more beautiful” in which only Nora Tschirner's skeptical view of the role of Vicky spends granic sharpness that goes beyond narrative pedagogy – and indicates the radicality of art.
