150 Word Review: 'Ticket Of No Return' (1979)
Lady in red
A nameless woman, beautiful and fashionable, buys a one-way plane ticket to West Berlin with a plan: drink. Cognac. Champagne. Large stines of beer.
Director Ulrike Ottinger’s atmospheric German-language dramedy is a sort of urban travelogue of loneliness, as our hero, the Drinker, dressed in colorful, clownish, haute couture, gets in and out of taxis and glug-glugs her way between cafes and casinos.
She coolly regards Berlin’s various nightcrawlers, takes in a homeless woman, and ignoes/avoids a Greek chorus of well-dressed sociologists on vacation who are constantly discussing feminism, alcoholism, and cultural trends. Cold War-era West Berlin is also a character: grimy, funky, dangerous.
The Drinker is played by an aloof and mischievous Tabea Blumenschein, painter, actress, and actual West Berlin legend. There are moments of sublime weirdness and long stretches of head-scratching nonsense. Ticket of No Return is cerebral/ridiculous/cynical. Freedom is just another word for drinking yourself to death.
More West Berlin: ‘The American Friend’ (1977)
Even More West Berlin: ‘Possession’ (1981)
