_Swing_ is a period drama/comedy about a financially struggling
middle class parents in pre-WWI Munich, and their high-spirited,
artistic daughters. Like so many of director Percy Adlon's films,
it is an ensemble piece with odd-ball characters and a farcical but
fond tone. The main character is tomboy Mathias, whom I find
increasingly obnoxious as the film wears on. I know the director
doesn't care for decorum, but some common sense in the protagonist
can't hurt. However, Lena Stolze is magnificent as Gervaise the
theater geek whose mimicry skills bring down the house and help
dissolve the frequent tension in the family. A third sister can
sing Mozart with best of them. They do their best in negotiating
German high society with their dwindling means. The setup reminds
me of John Boorman's superior _Where the Heart Is_, but Adlon's
mockery of religious prejudices and aristocratic pretensions give
the film its period specificity too. The camera darts in and out
of doorways, and in one memorable scene, takes in the flood of
sunset refracted into their "glass house."

I watched the film because of Lena Stolze, and there isn't enough
of her. This is the third collaboration between Stolze and Adlon
I've seen. _The Last Five Days_ is the masterpiece because it is
unlike typical Adlon films: its few characters, a dead-serious tone,
and single location interior force the director into much soulful
innovation. _Mahler on the Couch_, more standard issue Adlon,
can easily be called _The Real Housewives of Vienna_. _Younger and
Younger_, not featuring Stolze (but has Julie Delpy in the cast), is
likewise too whimsical and uneven in tone. But Adlon seems to have
enjoyed a large following in the past; going forward though, you
wonder about the longevity of a mid-level auteur like him. Who
still cares about cinema like this after the demolition derby the
art-house critics inflicted on us the last two decades?

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