LADY AMERICA is a metaphor dreaming/fantasizing about the ultimate American life. An immigrant arrives to live with his cousin in an apartment building where he falls in love with a beautiful blonde girl who lives above them. He begins to fantasize about her and when his infatuation becomes unbearable he decides to profess his love to her only to get rejected. Desperation drives him to be a "peeping tom" only to get caught and humiliated. His only way out of his torment and embarrassment is to return to his homeland.
This film deals with the contrasts of the Wilhelminian era in Berlin: the splendor of the monarchy, the economic and intellectual vitality of the up-and-coming imperial capital on the one hand, and the misery of the proletarians in the tenements on the other.
Something very common in our days, an adolescent who does not find communication with her mother or stepfather falls into a depression that drags her down paths of difficult return.
Playwright and director Nils Wijn brings his relationship issues to the stage. In his play "The Whore, the Virgin, and the Dying Man," he has his girlfriend Tessa appear in revealing lingerie and takes her to a real prostitute for some practical lessons.
The weekly brass band rehearsal is an enjoyable, light-hearted occasion. Then Mathew, the conductor, introduces James, a newcomer to the village, who is an enthusiastic bandsman from the north, where they do these things properly.
