Masks (2011)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2011
	Director: Andreas Marschall (Tears of Kali)
	Actors: Susen Ermich, Magdalena Ritter, Julita Witt
	Country: D
	Genre: Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 19.10.2013, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: A young actress (Ermich) applies for a school that used to teach the extreme methods of its founder Matteusz Gdula.
Review: I have been eager to watch this movie for some time, and bought it in France to make sure I had sub-titles to understand everything. It met some success in festivals and was classified as part of the renewal of the Giallo genre like could be Amer, Tulpa, Berberian Sound Studio or La Couleur des Larmes de ton Corps. I cannot deny it belongs to this genre: it starts with bright colors, extreme close-ups, colorful murders, guitar and bass, and the mysterious school that brings to mind the one of Suspiria (including the story of a student escaping it just when the heroin arrives). It then slowly puts less emphasis on those elements to focus on the evolution / transformation of the main character. The whole thing is pretty well done, but half way between the perfectionism of Amer and the deliberate 70's style of Tulpa, which makes you feel in the end that the movie is not complete. I may not have been fully satisfied with Masks, it is nonetheless a remarkable German attemp to do something new and original, and I congratulate Andreas Marschall.
Rating: 6  /10