The Left-Handed Woman (1978) review

Quiet Marianne (Edith Clever), who lives with her young son Stefan (Markus Mühleisen), has her husband Bruno (Bruno Ganz) come back to live with them after working in Finland, except she doesn't want him around, so he leaves and stays with her friend Franziska (Angela Winkler) - Marianne, meanwhile, works on a translation of Flaubert, has encounters with strangers, and goes for long walks.  This is one of the few films directed by (controversial) Austrian Nobel Prize Winner Handke, who adapted it from his own novella, yet his cinematic treatment doesn't do the source material any favors: not much actually takes place, the inner workings of its protagonist remain mostly lost on the viewer and it just feels like a random assemblage of scenes with no "point" to it.  The book itself is (apparently) an investigation into depression and loneliness, which is evident from Marianne's sporadic fits, yet the big screen version is inert and (intentionally) alienating.  Admirers of Handke's plays and novels should take a peek out of curiosity, but everyone else can safely skip it.