This was the second film of Tom Tykwer who is of course best known for his filmhit “Lola Rennt” (1998) and his also quite well-known “Der Krieger Und Die Kaiserin” (2000).
“Deadly Maria” is about Maria, a woman who didn’t have too much luck in her life. The film is brought quite fairytale-like as Maria looks back on her life. Maria’s mother dies giving birth and her father wants his daughter to replace his wife. She is brought up a servant for daddy having to fulfill his needs for food, drinks and that of his friends. When father gets a heartattack after seeing Maria kissing a boy, he becomes practically invalid, no longer able to get out of bed by himself and Maria has to make even more effort taking care of him. Then a friend (or colleague) of Maria’s father offers free rent of the house in trade for marying Maria who has become a nice-looking young woman. Her husband is as horrid as her father, demanding dinner at the minute he comes home from work and breakfast ready when he has his suit on.
From her youth Maria has been writing letters to a small statue that she got from a women at an early age. When she finds back all the letters she dreamingly thinks back to passages in her life.
Going crazy she also dreams away seeing a lonely neighbour passing every morning. She even kills her husband for him, but he scares away, so it is time for her father…
A nice film, quite strange but not too much. Not much alike Lola or Der Krieger, but why should someone’s film always be the same? See it if you get the change.