Bella Donna Reviews

This is a coproduction between Joachim von Vietinghoff and Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) and Sender Freies Berlin (SFB), Joachim von Mengershausen, and Hans Kwiet. Judging from this picture, I don't think any of them will become household names. One of the thinnest books in the world is alleged to be "One Thousand Years of German Humor," and BELLA DONNA lends credibility to that contention. It's an unremitting downer about a depressing saxophonist pining for a band singer with whom he works on a boat that cruises around a lake in Berlin. His regular girl friend is dying of cancer (always a million laughs), and he mopes around trying to figure out who he is. Janda sings well and does a few nice songs. Josephson came over from Sweden to help out on this turkey, but he should have stayed in Stockholm. The picture rambles like a senator's speech and doesn't really go anywhere--sort of like a boat cruising around a lake in Berlin. Now, if they would have sunk the ship...