Europe, She Loves

Described as a documentary but filmed like a feature film in which the 'actors' seem to be playing variations of themselves, Jan Gassmann's "Europe, she loves" is a virtually plot less look at the lives of four couples in four European cities. Judging by the fairly explicit sex scenes it is unlikely it can be described as pure documentary; everything is obviously staged. It's also not very interesting. Fundamentally we all seem to live very boring lives in which nothing very much happens. If there is a thread running through the picture it's economic deprivation. Gassmann's protagonists definitely come from the lower end of the economic spectrum and since he doesn't picture them in any kind of positive light the film feels more than vaguely like exploitation. It's certainly of its time so it is naturally depressingly prescient. It's most definitely the antithesis of feel-good.