The Berlin Affair

The Berlin Affair (Interno Berlinese)
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Liliana Cavani
Produced by	Yoram Globus Menahem Golan
Screenplay by	Liliana Cavani Roberta Mazzoni
Starring	Gudrun Landgrebe Kevin McNally Mio Takaki
Music by	Pino Donaggio
Cinematography	Dante Spinotti
Editing by	Michael J. Duthie Ruggero Mastroianni
Studio	Cannon Productions Italian international Film
Release date(s)	October 1985 USA 6 November 1985 Italy February 1986West Germany(Berlin International Film Festival)
Running time	122 minutes
Country	Italy West Germany

The Berlin Affair (Italian: Interno Berlinese) is a 1985 Italo-German film, directed by Liliana Cavani and starring Gudrun Landgrebe, Kevin McNally and Mio Takaki. Set in Berlin, 1938, it sees the wife of a rising Nazi diplomat fall in love with Mitsuko Matsugae, the daughter of the Japanese Ambassador and an artist. Her husband finds out, and moves to break up the affair. However he soon falls in love with Mistuko himself, leading to the intervention of officials higher in the system. The film is based upon the novel Quicksand by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki.

Plot

In Berlin in 1938, Louise von Hollendorf, the beautiful wife of a German senior official in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, decides to take drawing lessons at the institute of Fine arts when the works of his literature professor are banned by the Nazi regime. At the art classes Louise meets Mitsuko Matsugae, the young and alluring daughter of the Japanese Ambassador. Captivated by Mitsuko's beauty, Louise uses her as a model for her sketching exercises. At school, a rumor spreads romantically linking the two women which actually bring them together. Smitten with each other they become friends and soon embark in a passionate affair. As Louise later tells her professor, "One moment we were laughing, the next, we were making love". Their lesbian relationship is carried away at Louise's house and a later in a seedy hotel. The two spend almost all of their time together, and Louise is madly in love. Her husband, Heinz, begins to suspect the nature of Louise relationship with Mitsuko. He is jealous, but also worried about the political implications that his wife indiscretions can bring to his political ambitions. Heinz confronts his wife, but she denies everything in spite of clear evidence to the contrary.

One day, Louise is summoned by her lover and she discovers that Mitsuko has been carrying an affair with their drawing instructor, Joseph Benno. They had planned to marry in spite of their social and racial differences, and intentionally spread the lesbian rumors at the art institute to mask their relationship. Disgusted and disillusioned, Louise breaks away from Mitsuko and returns to her husband telling him all.

Meanwhile, the Nazi regimen has been using a moralizing campaign as an excuse to eliminate its opponents. Heinz’s cousin, Wolf von Hollendorf, a high ranking officer in the Gestapo makes Louise and Heinz participate in a plot to uncover General Werner von Heiden homosexuality. The trap takes place in the house of the Hollendorfs who could not refuse the favor. They invite the old General von Heiden and his lover a young handsome pianist. Wolf exposes their relationship ruining the general's career.

A month later, Mitsuko reappears in Louise’s life faking being ill and pregnant. Louise does not believe her, but they rekindle their affair even with greater ardor. Benno is still in Mitsuko life, but promises Louise that he will tolerate her relationship with Mitsuko if she helps them getting married. Louise reluctantly agrees but Benno uses their written commitment to blackmail Heinz. With Wolf's help, Heinz has Benno, who is half Italian, deported. He is determined to separate his wife from her Japanese lover, but the two women plot to scare Heinz to get him to accept their relationship faking a suicide attempt. The plan takes an unexpected turn when Mitsuko seduces the husband himself. This leads to a ménage à trois with each member of the triangle becoming more and more jealous of the others. Mitsuko, jealous and possessive, is the domineering partner in the threesome. She gives the von Hollendorfs sleeping pills after dinner to make sure they will not have sex and plays the married couple off against each other. Their self-destructive relationship becomes known to the Nazi authorities when Benno publishes the information abroad. To avoid a scandal Heinz is asked to resign and to leave the city. Wolf temporarily withdraws their passports. Rather than risk to be separated, all three drink poison in a ceremonial ritual. However, later, to Louise's bewilderment, she awakes and understands that Mitsuko had intended to take Heinz instead of her. She visits her professor one last time, who tells her to publicize her story before he is arrested by the Gestapo.

Cast

• Gudrun Landgrebe as: Louise von Hollendorf
• Kevin McNally as : Heinz von Hollendorf
• Mio Takaki as: Mitsuko Matsugae
• Hanns Zischler as : Wolf von Hollendorf
• Andrea Prodan as : Joseph Benno
• Massimo Girottias : Werner von Heiden
• Pieter Daniel as : Edmund Meyer
• William Berger as : Professor
• John Steiner as: Oskar Engelhart
• Edward Farrelly as: Bernard
• Philippe Leroy as: Herbert Gessler
• Claudio Lorimer as: Otto Bhuler

Production

The original title of the film, Interno Berlinese, can be translated as Inside Berlin or Interior berlines. The story is based upon Jun'ichirō Tanizaki.’s novel Quicksand, Manji, better known as The Buddist Cross 1928 -1930. Cavani was drawn to the novel because of its dramatic " intensity and extreme economy, his capacity to bring us, as nearly breathless spectators, inside the meaning of seemingly insignificant details. Manji was published a serial novel in a literary magazine between 1928 and 1930. Sonoko the first person narrator, recounts her own story to a prominent writer as a long monologue that continues the novel itself. It is the story of a passionate love affair with Mitsuko that eventually involves her husband and Watanuki, an impotent effeminate dandy. Mitsuki was actually the name of Tanizaki third wife. She inspired several of his novels. Cavanai brought the story forward in time and set the plot in Germany in 1938.

The Berlin Affair was the first film produced by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus in Italy for Cannon. It was shot in Rome at the Paolis Studios and Vienna from April to July 1985. Gudrun Landgrabe, one of the discoveries of the New German Cinema, had appeared in Robert van Ackeren’s Die Flambierte frau The woman in Flames 1982, Edgar Reitz’s Heimat 1984, and István Szabó’s Colonel Redl 1985. Kevin McNally, a British actor, plays the husband. Casting the role of Mitzuko was challlenging. Cavani went to Tokyo looking for a model of beauty that could balance seductiveness with an iron will. She found it in the 24-year-old actress and pop singer Mio Takaki.

Release

It was entered into the 36th Berlin International Film Festival. The Berlin Affair is available in Region 2 DVD. It has not been released on DVD in the U.S.A.

References

• Marrone, Gaetana (2000). The Gaze and the Labyrinth: The Cinema of Liliana Cavani. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691008736. 

External links

• The Berlin Affair at the Internet Movie Database
• Filmografia di Liliana Cavani