The Melancholic Girl

How does the new generation of young women feel? What do their love lives look like? In Susanne Heinrich’s pastel-tinged debut film, they are described as a generation that ‘drinks macchiato, meets their lovers and has pseudo-intellectual discussions at galleries.’ It is a generation that neither shares its parents’ idealism nor its grandparents’ pragmatism. Aren’t You Happy? is a playfully theoretical and casually stylized film loaded with stunning one-liners like, ‘In the dictatorship of self-actualization, everyone is an artist.’ All lines are delivered in theatrical deadpan. Even in the musical bits. (Göteborg Film Festival)