Roter Himmel

It's fair to say, there's no inferno or great blaze, and there's a good chance half way through, your eyes might start to glaze, the meandering's quite slow, although there is a subtle glow, but it struggles to compete with perpetual malaise. The perspective needs your mind to persevere, for reflections to emerge and re-adhere, consider landscapes past and present, how they change, evolve and ferment, locking horns with dread, anxiety and fears. The performances are fine, there is intent, although poor Leon is in permanent descent, lacks a flicker and a spark, you wouldn't say he is a lark, one of those people you might call, quite malcontent.

This is an absolute gem of a film. I hadn't done my homework - just ticked it a as good option to see in the NZ International Film Festival, but I was hooked form the opening scenes. It's a subtle, beautifully played film, based around a young writer (Leon) who is struggling to put the finishing touches to a novel, while staying at what is turning out to be the holiday home from hell. Leon is his own worst enemy, always makes the wrong choice, and then beats himself up about it. There is a sinister backdrop to the story, and an unsettling tonal shift toward the end - but that's life, right? Despite the dark undercurrent that gradually emerges, the film is also very funny, and therefore works on more than one level - as a study of human behaviour but also as pure entertainment. I loved this film, and I highly recommend it.

This had potential, there is a good movie inside this movie, just not the one i watched.

It's like this movie has a beginning and an end but not anything in between. This want to be a "character study" but there is not a smooth transition in this leading character's development: He is always immature and suddenly he supposedly has an epiphany. There is no chemistry between him and Nadja, are we suppose to believe that she is attracted to him? Why? How? And the ending is just lazy writing. Symbolisms are naive. And it's "easy". Big events are easy. A more lowkey approach would be better.

Having said that, this is a somewhat good slowburn drama, not a "heavy" drama, neither a comedy as it labelled. I loved the song. Kinda interesting, some intense moments, subtle and well acted. As another reviewer mentioned, "That works up to a point, but there was too much missing from the puzzle for me to really find myself engaged with any of them".

"Leon" (Thomas Schubert) and his friend "Felix" (Langston Uibel) head to a remote rural cottage near the Baltic coast so the former man can put the finishing touches to his novel before a visit from his publisher (Matthias Brandt). They arrive, though, and discover that "Nadja" (Paula Beer) is already staying - and this upsets the apple cart a bit. "Leon" quickly becomes obsessed - and that only gets worse when her nocturnal activities with life guard "Devid" (Enno Trebs) and some wafer thin walls force him to sleep in the garden amongst the mosquitoes. What now ensues is quite an intricately constructed observational presentation that looks at the evolving dynamic between the four - and it doesn't pan out as you might expect, especially once it becomes clear that his latest literary work is nobody's idea of a magnum opus. The characterisations here have a fluidity to them that makes for quite an interesting watch. None of them could ever be described as beautiful - in any classical sense - so the story is much more about their traits, flaws and foibles than about their looks. That works up to a point, but there was too much missing from the puzzle for me to really find myself engaged with any of them. The last twenty minutes - set amidst some lethal forest fires - was rushed and seemed to me indicative that "Leon" wasn't the only one who'd suffered from a writer's block! The photography is effectively intimate at times but at other times we see just too many shots walking to and from the beach (and the constant buzzing of the mozzies got on my nerves a bit, too, after a while!). I did quite enjoy this, but somehow it just lacked substance before a conclusion that just seemed to be unnecessarily ghastly. Give it a go, though...

The plot is very disorienting. There is a huge deadly forest fire and yet mere minutes away these people are going about their recreational and artistic pursuits without issue. The fire keeps pendulating between being the driving force of the plot and being an ignored inconvenience.

The characters are all mildly uncanny. If there is an artistic message in their personae then it must have been too esoteric for me to pick up while watching.

The storyline felt like it may have been a symbol for the ideation of the film. Keep writing literary nonsense while being an unlikeable detached egotist until you finally chance upon something passable... Unfortunately, the protagonist is so egotistical that when he tries self reflection he actually somehow becomes more egotistical! So I have to confess bewilderment at what the message is supposed to be.