Coming of Age (Gerhard Ertl, Sabine Hiebler, 2012) Austria

Reviewed by Lynn Montgomery. Viewed at Santa Barbara International Film Festival

I saw this movie with my fabulous, southern beauty, 80 year old mother. When the lights came back on, and the sobbing audience tucked their kleenexes away, my mother’s first response was, “What’s so old about 80? They should have made them 100. Everyone knows 80 isn’t old anymore. It’s the new 60.” My 84 year old, electric guitar picking father, who passed away a few months ago, always said, “I don’t feel any different than I did when I was 18. I’m just a young fella trying to do my thing.”

And that is the tragic point of Coming of Age, though the movie is far from a tragedy. It teaches us something we will all learn if we are blessed to live long enough: Only an 80 year old knows how vital, passionate, subversive and downright sexy – an 80 year old is, or a 90 year old, or a 100 year old. Too often, the rest of society, just sees old people.

This year’s Best International Film Award went to COMING OF AGE (Anfang 80), directed by Gerhard Ertl and Sabine Hiebler. The Jurors, Pamela Gray and Anthony Zerbe, praised the film, and chose it to win “because of the stunning performances of lead actors Christine Ostermayer and Bruno Merkatz. It’s a beautifully written screenplay that skillfully combines a passionate love story between two eighty-year-olds with a sobering look at the ways we devalue and dismiss the elderly. It was funny, charming, heartbreaking and ultimately uplifting.”

Coming of Age was a surprise hit at the festival right from the start. When the moderator introduced the first showing to the audience at the Metro 4, he said, “This film just happened to come across our desk. It was one of the first submissions. This is the West Coast Premiere.”

The lights went down, we all settled in to our seats. I don’t think anyone was prepared for the journey we were about to take. And I definitely needed more kleenex.

The opening shot is a close up of Rosa (Christine Ostermayer) in an x-ray room. The camera lingers on her Nordic beauty. Yes, there are ample age spots, but there is also a sharp glint to her eyes. She watches the two technicians behind the glass animatedly discuss something. Is it her results? Are there more problems? Their communication continues, and then she thinks she sees them laughing. She is confused and asks, “Excuse me, are you finished?” They dismiss her with a flippant, “Yes,” and she realizes they had completely forgotten she was even present in the room. Rosa gets dressed, walks up to the technician and slaps her across the face.

That’s our first indication that this movie is here to slap us into consciousness and really see the characters for who they are. Rosa later says of the experience, “They forgot me after the x-ray. There’s no time for things like that.”  Indeed, there isn’t. Rosa has advanced cancer with only six months to live. She chooses to leave the hospital and go back to the apartment she loves. But when she arrives, she finds the key doesn’t work. Her meddling niece jumped the gun on Rosa’s demise. “My niece gave notice on the lease. I’ve been painted white.”

This conversation takes place on a bus. Rosa has nowhere to go. The camera stays on her face as the outside world rolls by. Then we find another face on the bus that seems to have the same lost relationship to the outside world. This is Bruno (Bruno Merkatz). He cradles a box on his lap and tells Rosa, “My dead cat’s in there.” This is a wonderful “meet-cute” that sets the tone for their relationship.  The Urban Dictionary describes “meet-cute” as: “Scenario in which two individuals are brought together in some unlikely, zany, destined-to-fall-in-love-and-be-together-forever sort of way (the more unusual, the better).” Bruno’s dead cat is a metaphor for his marriage. He’s carting around a love-less relationship with his wife of 60 years. 

Of course they fall in love. It is as charming and inevitable as “When Harry Met Sally.” Bruno’s son sees it as a selfish disaster ruining their family. When he yells at Bruno and demands, “Have you no shame!?” Bruno responds in a way that makes us want to cheer – he slaps him. Again demanding the audience to sit up and take notice.

The cinematography of Wolfgang Thaler is excellent as are the sets by Gerhard Hannak. The movie is intimate, the mood is crisp. Both the camera and the sets are asking us to clearly see what is before us.

The only criticism I have is the title translation. (Besides the fact that I could never remember it.) The original German title is Anfang 80. Anfang means starting or beginning. There is a sense of a journey at its inception.  The English language title, Coming of Age, conveys a sense of arrival, destination achieved. We think of its meaning in relationship to teenagers coming of age between 13 and 16. But the idea that love can continue for all of us Rosas and Brunos whether we be 80, 90, or 100  is a long time coming of age. I prefer Anfang 80 – it’s all still a beginning.

As my dad always said, “I don’t feel any different than I did when I was 18. I’m just a young fella trying to do my thing.”