Utz (1992)

Directed by: George Sluizer | 98 minutes | drama | Actors: Armin Mueller-Stahl, Brenda Fricker, Peter Riegert, Paul Scofield, Gaye Brown, Miriam Karlin, Pauline Melville, Adrian Brine, Peter Mackriel, Caroline Guthrie, Clark Dunbar, Christian Mueller-Stahl, Jakub Zdenek, Christian Rabe, Anthony Donovan , Marjol Flore, Vittoria Tarlow, Harriet Robinson, Bonnie Williams

A film about a passionate collector of porcelain, and in particular the specific ‘Meissen’ porcelain, is probably not immediately a subject that makes the heart of the average film viewer beat faster. Sure, the target audience isn’t your typical blockbuster audience, but even for many art house buffs – unfamiliar with Bruce Chatwin’s novel of the same name – this won’t be at the top of the list. Yet ‘Utz’ turns out to be a rather fascinated person and film.

There is actually no false note to be found in ‘Utz’. The entire cast is excellent, especially Brenda Fricker as Baron Von Utz’ housekeeper Marta, an outstanding Paul Scofield as Dr. Vaclav Orlik, an eccentric collector of houseflies (and formerly fascinated by mammoths), and last-but-not-least Armin Mueller-Stahl as the title character. Mueller-Stahl offers a nuanced view of this character. He’s withdrawn and a yes, a little unworldly. But he is also sensitive and empathetic. And just when the viewer threatens to bond with him, he is distant again, a tad naughty or haughty. It is also clearly someone who is struggling with himself, especially his own obsession.

That obsession concerns his collecting obsession: porcelain, indeed, and perhaps a bit of opera divas. These two obsessions come together beautifully in one of the film’s most beautiful scenes. In it he has placed several porcelain figurines of stately dressed men and women on the table in front of him, while he lets opera music blare from his record player. He then gives a kind of (private) performance with these figurines, which he makes move towards and around each other, as if they were real opera actors. His friend from New York, art dealer Marius Fischer (Peter Riegert), watches this spectacle, together with Marta, breathlessly.

George Sluizer shoots his film and the main characters with love and attention and he edits the story with interesting jumps in time, in which the viewer is presented with retrospective and forward views at the right moments, so that he can learn more about the characters, or is cleverly kept at a distance, to keep the tension in it.

Because what actually drives Baron von Utz? Why is he fascinated by this porcelain? How did he get that enormously precious collection? And: where did it suddenly go when he suddenly died? But also: can he still separate his life from his porcelain, his obsession? Does he – or does he make – enough room in his life for relationships and love? Gradually, the viewer finds out, although it might have been better if not everything had been explained. Baron von Utz’s theory about the beginning of humanity, that he thinks porcelain is alive, or the history of the relationship between Utz and his housekeeper Marta. It’s fine that we get a flashback to their meeting, but we don’t need Orlik explaining whether or not they were married and what exactly they felt for each other and why. It is better to let the images speak for themselves or to leave some mystery for the viewer.

On the other hand, showing the ‘fate’ of the porcelain collection – which does not happen in the novel – is above all an enrichment of the theme and a kind of grace for the protagonist. It underlines once again what an obsession can do to you and arouses some extra sympathy for the baron.

All in all, ‘Utz’ is a rather intriguing portrait of a collector, skilfully shot, directed and acted. The final shot, as Fischer walks through a tree-lined avenue toward the camera, is reminiscent of film classics like ‘The Third Man’ and ‘Casablanca’, and leaves the viewer with just the right feeling: a combination of satisfaction, curiosity and melancholy. Despite an at first sight not very accessible or fascinating main character, ‘Utz’ has become a beautiful, well-balanced film.