The Wall (Die Wand)

Introduced by Julie McMorran this weeks Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre Film Club showing of Die Wand (2012) is the story of a women who is forced to break with her normal life by means of an inexplicable phenomenon and live a new life in a strange and different world. 

The waiting.

Visiting a cabin in the mountains with two friends, this nameless middle aged woman along with her friends dog are left on there own when the couple go off to walk to the nearest village. Following an early night the woman awakens from a deep sleep to discover that her two friends have not returned. After breakfast she sets off to the village to find them. A short way down the road she discovers that a mysterious solid invisible barrier has sprung up cutting her off from the outside world. The story is narrated as the woman writes her 'report' on the limited amount of paper she has available. The appearance of the invisible force field is never explained but would at first appear to be an allegory for separation and the will to survive. This landlocked female has only the dog, two cats and some farm animals for company. Devoting herself to her animals especially Lynx the dog (who belongs to the director) she makes a conscious decision to survive.

 

Die Wand!

Directed and adapted from Austrian writer Marlen Haushofer’s novel of the same name by Julian Roman Polsler, a man better known for helming TV movies rather than feature films. He first read the book 25 years ago but did not gain the film rights until 18 years latter. First written in 1963 but not published until two years before her death in 1968 from bone cancer, Haushofer’s dystopian novel did not become a best seller until the 80’s some ten years after her death.

 

The 'report'.

Portraying a strong Germanic female goes back even beyond Leni Riefenstahl and Polsler successfully continues this trait by casting the powerful presence of Martina Gedeck in the role of the woman and even with no human presence to interact with, proves her worth as an actress. Her credits have included some very well known award winning German films including The Lives of Others  (2006) and The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008).

The family.

This powerful film was shot in the very photogenic Gosau region of Upper Austria over a long 14-month period by nine of Austria's most accomplished cinematographers including Martin Gschlacht (Lourdes 2010 Ravanche 2008) and Christian Berger (The White Ribbon 2009) 

 

Survival.

The discussion following the screening debated two main points, the theory about the human animal bond and how good this is for the health of the human as well as the dog, lowering blood pressure and cholesterol levels. The second point of discussion was the Film Clubs analysis of the film, which did vary. The book is said to voice the nuclear anxieties of the sixties but survival and loneliness where two of the interpretations as was the author’s metal state. Allegedly whist writing the book she was said to be dissatisfied with life and suffering from serious depression, the eminent psychiatrist Paulas Hochgatterer said that the book ‘is a precise description of clinical depression’.

 

At peace.

This minimalist film where almost nothing happens, has been accused of being a feminist statement, ‘because the fact that the characters a woman plays an important role. It’s no coincidence that all male energy is snuffed out: the dog, the man and the bull all die, while the woman, the cat and the cow survive’[1] By the end of the film she has not so much become androgynous, as transcending sexual identity, is this feminism? Perhaps a little long but that does not alter the fact that this film is an exceptional piece’s of work both from the leading lady and the director. Not quite up to Tarkovsky’s masterpiece Stalker (1979) but like that film it is stark, emotionally gripping and transcends loneliness.

 

Acceptance.

The question I think the film raises is how much do we really need human contact?

---

[1] Julian Polsler interview with Karin Schiefer November 2011.

Breathing.

A surrogate womb.

It must be quite fascinating to be a writer, someone capable of creating a story and putting together a screen play that you eventually see in a darkened theatre up on a large screen surrounded by other appreciative people. Where do the ideas come from? I saw a documentary some weeks back about the author Ian Rankin who told us how he set about and planned the new Rebus novel, its so interesting how an author’s mind works!  But the interview with the debut director of Breathing (2011) Karl Markovics, who you may have seen as Salomon Sorowitsch in Stefan Ruzowitzky’s 2007 film The Counterfeiters, was particularly enlightening. He told us that he had been a writer for best part of his life and that the ideas are always triggered by an image that appears in his head. With Breathing it was the image of an old lady laying dead on her living room floor, with a young man who says nothing, eventually appearing in the same image. Markovics knew at this stage that the old women had died of old age and had not been murdered or killed and that the story develops and involves ordinary hard working people, in this case mortuary workers! It’s this story that Markovics eventually turns into an emotionally tender movie.

Kogler takes his chance in the Vienna City Morgue.

Nineteen year old Roman Kogler has been institutionalised all his life, first a children’s home and now a detention centre where he is serving time for killing another lad when he was fourteen. With his parole hearing coming in up Roman realises that he will need to secure a job and keep it to stand any chance of getting out of prison. He finally secures work in Vienna’s city morgue where at first it seems he has swopped bullying prison wardens for bullying co-workers. It’s not until Roman has to assist with the dressing of a naked corpse of an elderly women in her bedroom while her traumatised daughter-in-law wait’s outside that he realises the worth of his job and his new colleagues. Central to the complexity of the story is the large prison swimming pool that Roman uses most days which seems to offer the safety and warmth of a surrogate womb. While at work one day he comes across the body of a woman with the same surname as his own, he then decides to seek out the mother that abandoned him at birth and to find out the reasons she so readily gave him up.

Will Kogler eventually find out the truth?

The film stars first time actor Thomas Schubert who from 200 auditioning 18 year olds won the part of Roman Kogler. His confidence is self-evident and his realistic approach to the part does him and the director great credit. Between Markovics and his DOP Martin Gschlacht there is not a line of dialogue or an image wasted, keeping this superbly produced piece of work very solid, putting the directors theatrical background to good use. I really can’t recommend this film more, it references the British modern reality scene of Lynne Ramsey’s Ratcatcher (1999) and Andrea Arnolds Fish Tank (2009) and cross-fertilizes them with the cinema of Michael Haneke, I was sincerely surprised how impressive this directorial debut was. A compassionate slice of social realism that is well worth adding to your rental list. 

Michael.

To describe Marcus Schleinzer’s debut film as a hard watch would be quite an understatement; it deals with one of the most taboo subjects in life let alone the cinema, paedophilier. Michael (2011) is a portrait of a strange lonely 35-year-old middle management office worker. Michael (a very convincing Michael Fuith) is a man with little or no friends and one who never takes part in any of his mothers or sisters family gatherings and a man whom it would appear prefers his own company other than the fact he has 10 year old Wolfgang (David Rauchenberger) imprisoned in his sound proof basement.

Schleinzer had previously worked as a casting director on some sixty films the best known are Michael Haneke’s The Piano Teacher (2001), Time of the Wolf (2003) and The White Ribbon (2009) and you can sense Haneke’s influence on his work with the overall look and feel of the movie appearing very basic but with a narrative that is at times very dark and serious, a typical trait of modern post Haneke Austrian cinema. Behind this films calm exterior is a powerful story written by Schleinzer and loosely based on the real life Kampusch and Fritzl cases where children were imprisoned by their captors for a considerable length of time.

Michael.

Even keeping the sexual abuse off camera Schleinzer film cannot fail to provoke a reaction. The most horrifying part of this movie is its ordinariness, almost at times seemingly telling the story of a single parent’s struggle bringing up a child until Schleinzer forcible brings you back to the reason for young Wolfgang’s imprisonment in Michaels basement. A film for those that appreciate their cinema strong and bleak!

A single parent!