The Audition

Ina Weisse's 2019 German film follows Anna Bronsky, a violin teacher at a music school, and her fixation on her student Alexander. Convinced she has found extraordinary talent, she throws herself into mentoring him so completely that she neglects her family, her own child, and her own unresolved frustration as a performer. The film asks at what point mentorship becomes the use of someone else's life to cover one's own deficiency. Nina Hoss's performance refuses to explain the character's coldness, which is the film's strongest decision; Anna stays comprehensible without becoming likeable. Weisse shoots the music scenes with technical accuracy and the bodily exhaustion of rehearsal is visible. The harshness of the ending arrives unprepared and its cause is never fully explained. Who it's for: viewers who follow Nina Hoss's work and like psychological drama about musical training and the cold register of German cinema. Who it's not for: anyone who needs to sympathise with the protagonist, or who will count an unexplained ending as something missing.