# Jenseits der Stille (1996)

### reviewed by
Steve Rhodes

    BEYOND SILENCE
    A film review by Steve Rhodes
    Copyright 1998 Steve Rhodes

    RATING (0 TO ****):  ** 1/2

Director Caroline Link's German film, BEYOND SILENCE (JENSEITS DER STILLE), was a nominee this year for best foreign language film at the Academy Awards. (It lost to the Dutch film CHARACTER). Just beginning to open around the United States, BEYOND SILENCE tells the tender story of a girl, Lara, whose parents are deaf.

Extremely well cast and acted throughout, the movie stars Tatjana Trieb as the 8-year-old Lara and Sylvie Testud as Lara at age 18. The two attractive actresses look and act remarkably alike, and they both bear an uncanny resemblance to Emmanuelle Laborit, who plays Lara's mother. Howie Seago plays the handsome father.

Divided into 2 distinct acts, the movie's more consistent first part has the younger Lara coping with the challenges of learning to read in a household where she is the only one who can speak. Her parents rely on her for everything, including negotiating on their behalf with telephone callers. This places significant pressure on her young shoulders, which she, nevertheless, manages to put to her advantage.

"My reading is improving but isn't perfect yet," is how Lara translates into sign language her teacher's much more dismal report on her lack of progress, but her parents never seem to catch on to her chicanery. Scenes like these hold much promise, but the timidity of the director cuts most of them short before they are ever allowed to develop their full potential.

After Lara learns to play the clarinet, much to her parents' chagrin, the movie makes a smooth transition to Lara as an older teen. She is ready to go out into the world and seek a profession, thanks to the help of her Aunt Clarissa (Sibylle Canonica), a fellow clarinetist.

The disorganized second act has many magical scenes which, once again, the director seems reluctant to allow to come to fruition. And as she did in the first part, the director telegraphs her punches. The movie's one genuine tragedy is so obviously announced and reannouced that you get tired waiting for it to happen.

One lucky day, Lara spies a handsome, signing-man named Tom, played by the charismatic Hansa Czypionka. They quickly fall in love with each other, and she tells him of her hopes for the future. "Hope is a widespread fantasy," he admonishes her. Soon thereafter they are dancing and signing to a pulsating rendition of Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive." This scene literally bursts with exuberance.

This pleasant enough film possesses a promising plot and good acting but remains adverse to risk taking. The director leaves out any tension and smoothes out the rough edges so that the resulting picture only sporadically rises above the ordinary.

BEYOND SILENCE runs 1:49. It is in German and in sign language, both with English subtitles. The film is not rated but might be PG-13 for a brief scene of sexuality and would be fine for kids ten and up.

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