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Farewell From Yesterday

1966 1h 30m Drama List
Tomatometer 4 Reviews 78% Popcornmeter 100+ Ratings
An East German (Alexandra Kluge) seeks a better life in West Germany but finds it difficult to find her place in society.

Critics Reviews

View All (4) Critics Reviews
Angelos Koutsourakis PopMatters Yesterday’s Girl raises issues of our relation to the historical past and this makes it timely... Rated: 9/10 Feb 23, 2024 Full Review Ann Birstein Vogue Yesterday Girl is perhaps a rarer achievement than it seems on the surface, a statement about German heavy-handedness done with a light and even often gay touch. May 28, 2020 Full Review Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews An early example of the New German cinema. Rated: B+ Mar 12, 2014 Full Review Sean Axmaker Turner Classic Movies Online Kluge directs his dramatic scenes with a mix of realism and satirical exaggeration and intersperses them with a series of interludes... May 29, 2010 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (7) audience reviews
Audience Member Also, Kluge ist nicht meine Wurst... Aber dieser Film ist schon besser als was ich frueher gesehen habe. Die Figur von Anita G. ist auf einmal lustig und tragisch, aber die Frage bleibt: was wollte Kluge uns sagen? Anita ist kein Opfer der Gesellschaft. Sie ist nur eine Luegnerin. Gegenteilig kuemmert die Gesellschaft sich um Anita. Vielleicht genau das wollte er uns zeugen: manche Leute sind nicht boese, sie brauchen nur ein bisschen Hilfe. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/16/23 Full Review Audience Member Very French New Wave-y, but it also has a distinctly German feel to it. Yesterday Girl was very important to establishing German as an artistic cinematic power. The movie itself is very well shot and acted. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/23/23 Full Review Audience Member This film is very similar to a lot of French New Wave films, at first. In the beginning I almost thought it just felt like a Godard rip-off but really it is much more. This is an amazing film dealing with a woman from Eastern Germany trying to fit in to society. Whether it is dealing with the communist regime, the free-market, etc. she has struggles. This is beautifully shot and written. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/17/23 Full Review Audience Member This feels a little like "Un Feu Follet" or a Godard film for some reason. I found the narrative and experimental nature of this film very refreshing and the Frenchiness fascinating. The lead female was stupendous and turned a film of a typical nature into one that was wonderful to explore and splendid to view. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/31/23 Full Review Audience Member This is my first Alexander Kluge film and I'm glad that I had the opportunity to view it. It has that gritty urban feeling that many of us can associate with the middle Cold War. Filmed in B&W maintains that feel and allows us to concentrate of the protagonist's character and her emotional response to her environment. I'm beginning to believe that color actually degrade the film's quality, if it's there in the first place, and may actually hide a multitude of faults. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review walter m After serving a prison sentence for stealing a cardigan from a co-worker, Anita(Alexandra Kruge) is released on probation. Sadly, her first job in an office does not work out. So, maybe her next job as a salesperson for language records will work out better. "Yesterday Girl" is an engaging critique of capitalism that owes more to the playfulness of the French New Wave than Italian Neorealism. Of which, it is probably no coincidence that Anita is originally from Leipzig in East Germany. It is no surprise that she is unable to adjust to West Germany, where everybody is selling something, considering that after landing a job, she is told by her supervisor to be grateful to a higher being.(I could never imagine this happening today in real life, but as a few commencement speaches by well-heeled people have revealed recently, there are those who feel exactly this way.) Nor is this the last time religion is mentioned in this movie. Even though she is judged at every turn when her worst crime is a lack of property, forcing her to steal, she carries on, regardless. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Farewell From Yesterday

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Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Synopsis An East German (Alexandra Kluge) seeks a better life in West Germany but finds it difficult to find her place in society.
Director
Alexander Kluge
Producer
Alexander Kluge
Screenwriter
Alexander Kluge
Production Co
Independent
Genre
Drama
Original Language
German
Release Date (DVD)
Oct 28, 2008
Runtime
1h 30m
Sound Mix
Mono