Wednesday | November 29, 2006 6:30 pm

Marianne and Julianne
(Die bleierne Zeit)

Directed by Margarethe von Trotta.
With Jutta Lampe, Barbara Sukowa, Rüdiger Vogler.
West Germany, 1981, 35mm, color, 106 min.
German with English subtitles.

Margarethe von Trotta's masterpiece zeroes in on the psychological relationship of two sisters, one the editor of a progressive feminist journal (Lampe), the other a committed revolutionary who has been jailed by the police (Sukowa). The Baader-Meinhof era comes to life in this extraordinary melding of the personal and political, where the tension between stands that are either too safe or too shrill comes into sharp relief.