Alexander Kluge's latest film is an exploration of human emotion--its philosophical, psychological and even legal “definitions,” and its power over events and people. The film is a challenging one, though critics disagree as to the extent: Variety's Ron Holloway writes, “The film has already been called ‘a film of emotion made without any emotion at all.' In fact, this is the coldest film Kluge ever made,” while British Film Institute's John Gillett calls the film “more accessible than some of (Kluge's) previous work.” In his notes on the film for his Critic's Choice at the 1983 London Film Festival, Gillett writes: “‘All emotions believe in a happy ending' runs the refrain through Kluge's latest essay for our times. From a vast city landscape (‘the restructuring of emotions') to an opera house (where passions are always ‘burning') to a final section which is pure narrative, Kluge's fertile mind works its way through a loving study of German pomposity, shows how life is ‘transmitted' on the operatic stage and how some bad actions can be transformed (a rapist saves a suicide).... (Its) collage-like structure yields some wonderful images on the way, the play between sound and picture constantly urges the argument forward and the final segment shows what a sharp, economic storyteller Kluge can be, embellished by memorable vignettes from his regular actresses. And, true to his thesis, Kluge provides a kind of happy ending to it all.”