Punish Me DVD with Ullman; Kroymann; Vollenklee (Unrated) +Movie Reviews

Strange Behavior

Amos Lassen | Little Rock, Arkansas | 07/04/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

""Punish Me"

Strange Behavior

Amos Lassen and Cinema Pride

Due out on September 11 from Picture This Entertainment is an interesting new film, a sado- masochistic German drama, "Punish Me". The performances of the actors is what makes this movie one to keep an eye out for. Kostja Ullman (Summer Storm) and Maren Kroymann set the screen ablaze with astounding acting.
The part of Winkler is played by Ullman. He is a 16 year old juvenile delinquent who is under the observation of a very stern parole officer, Elsa Siefert (Kroymann). Seifert is driven and without compassion. At 49, she is unwilling to compromise. She cares for those in her charge but she does allow them to overstep themselves to any degree whatsoever. As she realizes that she is not getting any younger, she bends a bit and her professionalism allows some small holes to enter. Her daughter, who is now grown, is leaving hoe and her marriage is dissolving. She looks for something out of her ordinary life; something that is intense enough to give her spirit.
Jan Winkler is set to fill her loneliness. He is young and he is obsessed and volunteers to subjugate himself sexually to her. Elsa knowing that no good can come from this enters into an arrangement with Winkler and together they explore the forbidden and taboo. A woman of her age, she feels, is deprived of any type of sexuality and so she abandons reason and knowingly and willingly enters a sado-masochistic affair with a 16 year old. It is not enough that Winkler is young but she is also his parole officer.
The story is basically about the keeping of a secret. In their secret world, Elsa and Winkler can be themselves while being both divided and undivided at the same time. The two break boundaries. There is both lust and revulsion and a myriad of themes crop up. The movie deals with age and transience and pain, both physical and mental. It deals with distorted issues of self-acceptance, power and its rejection and abandonment, about betrayal of one's own ideals and about initiation and the need for a strong experience. The relationship of the two brings all these conflicts into play.
We get to look through a peep hole at forbidden lust and our voyeurism sucks us into the world of the two. We see the nakedness--especially the inner nakedness of two people. We are transgressors like the two lovers as we watch what we should not see. We also se what age can do to bring about the quest and the need for change. Worthlessness becomes mythical or does it become empowering? Without the reproductive impetus and the lack of obligation to fulfill it and without familial approval being necessary, we see that we can proceed to do whatever we want. Approval is not necessary and we have freedom without compromise. What a powerful way to look at life....and ourselves.
"

Needs and Recriminations

Grady Harp | Los Angeles, CA United States | 12/15/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"PUNISH ME (VERFOLGT), aptly photographed in rich black and white, is a deftly made German film that raises as many questions as disturbing thoughts, a film that in every definition is a film noir - and a superb one at that. Writer Susanne Billig and director Angelina Maccarone (note: two very talented women!) have concocted a tale of disparate matching between a 50-year-old woman and a 16-year-old boy, a relationship that builds on sadomasochism as a means of filling voids in each character. The story could easily have become 'sensational' in less sensitive hands, but here, with the sound help of a superb and wholly credible cast, it asks us to examine the extremes to which people will go to feel complete.

Jan Winkler (the gifted and inordinately handsome Kostja Ullmann) is 16 and on probation for petty crimes. He is assigned to parole officer Elsa Seifert (the fine actress Maren Kroymann), a 50-year-old frustrated woman in a marriage that has stagnated. Jan feels a strange attraction to Elsa, an act that at first Elsa rebuffs and discourages but gradually becomes fascinated with the attention and seductive behavior of the young Jan. Committed to helping Jan she manages to talk her husband into employing Jan at his car repair shop the two males strike up a friendship. In a series of subtle episodes Jan suggests his need for 'structuring' to Elsa: what he needs is Elsa to punish him physically, and when Elsa complies she is attracted to the process of sadomasochistic behavior (as the Dominatrix) as well as to the tenderness that always follows their dark sessions. Elsa's husband discovers his wife's relationship with Jan while Jan's friends uncover the secret, and the resulting behavior and recriminations flesh out the surprising ending.

Both Ullmann and Kroymann are outstanding in these difficult roles and manage to maintain our empathy and understanding throughout the story. Both are exceptional actors and both have compelling screen presence. The cinematography allows us to once again remember how powerful black and white film can be. This is a film that some may find difficult to view (sadomasochism, teenage/older woman 'romance'), but the director keeps the story in tight rein and the result is a powerful tale of need and love and the sticky path that often joins the two feelings. Recommended. In German with English subtitles. Grady Harp, December 07
"

Very well done, interesting exploration of sexuality

M. Guerin | 10/23/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I thoroughly enjoyed this German movie. The lead actress, Maren Kroymann, did a great job playing a tricky role. I totally bought this unique, sado-masochistic, sexual relationship between the older woman and the very young man. The sexual dynamic, with the older woman holding all the "power" and the young man as subservient boy toy (and often nude), very much appealed to me. The young German actor, Kostja Ullmann, playing the boy was very, very sexy and beautiful, I remember him from the sweet German gay flick Summer Storm. I truly hope we see more of this sexy young man in other similar flicks.
"

Unusual

Barker D. Chunn, Jr. | New Braunfels,Texas | 11/02/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Enjoyed this different and unusual European film. This movie again points out the difference in mores, American versus everyone else. American Censorship has crept slowly and relentlessly along for the past forty years are so. Political correctness and Agenda media has reached
suffocating status in the states. "Midnight Cowboy" in it's original
cut was X rated yet allowed to be released into lst run theaters. That
could never happen now. The latest thing that is to be banned is smoking, and use of the N word.
I still need to learn how to locate the English on the selection
There is some progress, the movie "Suddenly" was banned for over 40 years, staring Frank Sinatra is now available.
The Walt Disney movie "Song of the South" remains off the market.

Barker D. Chunn,Jr.

"

A thought provoking and sexy movie.

E. Irwin | California | 08/29/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I got this movie because I had read on a website run by a submissive man that this movie comes closest to reality, in his experience, and I'm glad that I did. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. The emotion and interaction between the two characters is intriguing, in no small part due to the actors' fine performances.

Jan is a juvenile delinquent who becomes obsessed with his 50 year old probation officer, Elsa, and they get into a sadomasochist relationship, but there is a lot more going on than simply that. Jan knows exactly what he wants even if he might not understand why. And it's not just about pain for him. He is also thrilled by acts of submission and obedience, enthusiastically showering her feet with kisses and clearly taking sensual pleasure in doing whatever she asks when she issues her commands with the right tone.

Jan is just a boy and yet he has a man's confidence about what he needs (or thinks he needs). And he is not afraid of it, any of it. He unapologetically and without hesitation chooses her over friends several times. In their intimate scenes together, he shifts so easily between his regular self and aroused anticipation, going from rolling a cigarette, to wide-eyed and panting, and back again without a hint of embarassment. He buys a collar and leash for himself, wanting to belong to her, and he kisses her with such reverence that perhaps it is not merely an obsession after all.

I found it interesting that the movie hints that no one else seems to recognize this tendency in him, even the judge who has known him for 3 years and Elsa's husband. Jan offers himself only to Elsa, as if he'd been waiting for someone like her to come along and claim him.

Elsa is at first reluctant to deal with him and initially believes that him following her is just him acting up for attention. But interestingly she begins to understand what he wants without him having to actually tell her. By the time of their first "session" he had made suggestive advances but he had not mentioned wanting to be hit. She figured that part out on her own, so he was clearly right about her "wanting to do things to him" or at least having a predilection towards being a dominate woman. The submissive nature of his clues might have gone unrecognized by another woman or been thought of as a joke. She could have assumed that he was playing a cruel game with her but something in Elsa understood him.

I think that the reason why the writers of the movie choose to make the male character a 16 year old boy was that a boy was able to bring beauty and innocence to the relationship. This helped to ensure that the audience wasn't as bogged down by preconceived notions about submissive men or worried about Elsa's safety with a strange man. We get to see the tenderness and understanding behind these types of activities without being distracted by sex and fetish.

The ending of the movie was not quite disappointing but jarring, however we are too used to American movies that tell you everything that happens until they live happily ever after and also generally tell you what to think of everything too. A film like this is not trying to tell you the answers but ask you questions. At the end you are left in a place where you should be asking yourself what you wanted to happen between them. Is this obsession or love? Is it fair to dismiss his desire as confusion due to an unfortunate childhood combined with the sexual exuberance of youth? In the end, he makes a dramatic gesture that reminds her that he is a child but do you really think he will grow out of this? Is Jan's very final act yet another form of submission?

These questions are especially interesting if you know nothing about this lifestyle/desire or if you have feelings against it. You might be surprised by how you feel about Jan and/or Elsa and that's the point of the movie, IMHO.

On a side note, the German title of the movie, Verfolgt, means "hounded" or "pursued" not "punish me." Does the title refer to Jan pursuing Elsa or about Jan's desires hounding him? You decide.

All in all a great movie and I recommend it, if you can open yourself to its questions.
"

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