Mark Reviews Movies: THE AUDITION

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Review by Mark Dujsik | June 25, 2020

Anna (Nina Hoss) is indecisive about almost everything, except when it comes to music. In The Audition, we see the character, a teacher at a prodigious music school in Berlin, champion a teenage boy auditioning for acceptance to the school. The other instructors think the boy's technique is sloppy, but Anna is convinced she can mold him. Several scenes later, we watch as she can't decide where to sit at a restaurant, changing seats even after ordering.

Director Ina Weisse's character study doesn't portray this as a contradiction. Anna's behavior may be contradictory in different settings and with different people. It all, though, points to one thing: Only the music matters to Anna.

There's a certain fascination in simply watching this character, as she pushes the people around her toward a goal that she was never able to accomplish, only to slowly push them away or, ultimately, into the kind of strict, unforgiving attitude and behavior that has come to define her outlook on music. Anna is an intriguing character, and as played by Hoss, she comes across as a compacted bundle, not only of sternness and determination, but also of insecurity and uncertainty.

We get the sense that she could snap at any moment. The tension of the movie is in Hoss' performance, which suggests Anna constantly fastening her resolve tighter and tighter as that bundle of inner turmoil expands.

The story itself, from Weisse and co-screenwriter Daphne Charizani, is not nearly as focused as the protagonist, though. Anna, whose anxiety kept her from becoming a professional violinist, belittles her instrument-making husband Philippe (Simon Abkarian). Meanwhile, she's carrying on an affair with cellist Christian (Jens Albinus), who wants Anna to join his ensemble. Her teaching style to new student Alexander (Ilja Monti) becomes more desperate as the teen is unable to match her expectations, and Anna's relationship with her son Jonas (Serafin Mishiev) is strained as the talented boy clearly loses interest in playing the violin.

There's a lot going on here, and that's not even mentioning Anna's relationships with her parents (a musician mother, who died, and a strict, possibly abusive, father), which perhaps hold the key to the movie's final thematic concern about how such behavior, attitudes, and worries are learned and transmitted. The Audition has a solid foundation in its protagonist and Hoss' performance, but the story and its insights are much shakier.

Note: Strand Releasing is making The Audition available via a virtual cinema release. You can choose to support a local independent theater (e.g., the Music Box Theatre in Chicago) with your rental purchase. For more information and to access the film, click here. Participating theaters are listed on the page.

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