Fontane Effi Briest (1974)

English title: Effi Briest.

A woman married to a man much older than her has an adulterous affair. The husband finds out about it years later.

This literary adaptation was filmed in a distanced way with lots of voiceover narration. It seems the filmmaker was trying to convey a sense of the protagonist's loneliness, and of the sterility of 19th-century bourgeois conventions. I'm not sure he was successful, though. Perhaps it would have been preferrable to let that effect emerge out of the situations themselves. Anyhow, although the result was curious and occasionally hilarious, the overall effect was of slight annoyance.

Rating: 45