Cinema’s always open. Come rain or shine. The film by superb writer Doris Dörrie is nothing less than a German-version Cinema Paradiso in documentary format. At the same time it is one of the earliest slow cinema works tracking the everyday life of cinephile Maria: as she winds film through the projector, as she pens a petition, as she travels into town to contract a pop group or theatre company… All so that young people also have a reason to go to the movies. We observe this lady, happy in her own way, in slow, sensitive images. Frequently, Maria is only glimpsed behind the projector, through a peephole, as she absorbs films. And us, the audience.
Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art (Arsenal - Institut für Film und Videokunst)