Kritiken

In a nod to melodramas like Stella Dallas (1937), Barbara ends with an enormous sacrifice by its steely lead character, though without the sentimentality and self-abnegation common to the “women’s weepie.”

It starts out slow and then moves even slower -- but by the end, somehow, it got me in its gentle clutches.

All of this is conveyed through the subtlest nuances in looks and timing. Masterful stuff.

References to Turgenev and Mark Twain, and a virtuoso deconstruction of a Rembrandt painting make this literate, teasing work one that will surely reward repeated viewings.

This may throw off audiences seeking lively drama, but it’s very much Petzold’s m.o. to have feelings boil beneath the surface until they’re about to blow.

Of all directors working in Germany today, Christian Petzold has the surest hand and, while, after just one viewing, it's too early to stake a claim for Barbara as his best film yet, it is, in many ways, a culmination of his stylistic progression towards a classic yet vividly contemporary cinematic language.