Der Boden unter den Füßen

A sister's mental health causes an overworked workaholic consultant her own psychological issues as she juggles both in a tale that teaches the lesson there are more important things in life to get distressed about.

If you like female nudity, lesbian sex scenes and high heels then this film is for you. If you want a clear narrative and satisfying ending then perhaps not. Early on I suspected I was watching a Hitchcock influenced tale and the set up suggested there was a mystery to be solved. I was wrong. Overall I enjoyed this film, thought it was well shot in a Michael Haneke sort of way and the acting was compelling. I just felt the narrative lacked focus (is it a thriller, is it a lesbian love story, is it a critique of corporate life, is it a comment on mental health issues?) and the ending felt somewhat flat.

Gifted Austrian Writer/director Marie Kreutzer's coolly austere, immaculately shot 'The Ground Beneath my Feet' aka 'Der Boden unter den Füssen' is a starkly realised, earnestly acted, psychologically dense drama about single-minded, high-flying young business executive Lola Wegenstein (Valarie Pachner), and her older, mentally ill sister Conny (Pia Hierziger), long estranged from one another, Conny's attempted overdose of medication somewhat cruelly reunites them both, and the focused, work-orientated Lola soon becomes profoundly unsettled by her disturbed sibling's continued frantic, inchoate ranting, and as Conny is being treated in a psychiatric unit far from Lola's place of work, the once implacable Lola experiences increasing pressures balancing a demanding, high-pressure job, a passionate relationship with the strikingly beautiful Elise (Mavie Hörbiger), her boss, and weighty concerns for Conny's welfare begins to compound Lola's ever more precarious grip on reality. Director Kreutzer's handsome-looking, richly fascinating film has all the immersive intrigue of a meticulously wrought thriller with the additional ballast of an emotionally edifying drama, the performances are uniformly excellent, with especially forceful work from powerhouse Valarie Pachner, the refined photography is sublime, the frequently muted, glacial colour palate adding an oppressively grim verisimilitude to Lola's unhappy descent in her own rapidly debilitating depression, wherein work, love, and familial bonds start to deleteriously unravel into cognitive chaos. While 'The Ground Beneath my Feet' has an aesthetically cool veneer, it is far a from remote experience, being a nuanced, emotionally intelligent drama that deals explicitly with the devastating effects of mental illness in a bold, and wholly sympathetic manner.

Excellent Austrian drama film on schizophrenie, depression, burnout, family issues, capitalism, sexism. A workaholic and anxious top-level white collar specialized in reorganizing companies and selecting people to fire deals with her stressful work goals and routine while needs to split her attention in order also to guard her older sister who had a suicide attempt and suffers from serious psychiatric disease. Besides well acted and well directed, the movie impresses for its quite good script, which I will no detail in order not to give spoilers. It shows very carefully the way the main character sees everything that deviates her from her career as a burden, including her sister and her own health.

This is a story about a talented, ambitious, and highly defended young woman struggling with her humanity and struggling with whether to let others breach her walls. As those walls begin to crumble, so does she.

Let's dispense with the absurd notion that this is a "lesbian" film. Sure, Lola is in a same-sex relationship. But that no more makes this a lesbian film than her being in a business consulting job makes it a business consulting film. There's no indication whether she identifies as lesbian, or bi, or whatever. It doesn't matter. This is a film about being a human being.

I was pleased to see that Valerie Pachner won the German best actress award for this film. She was terrific.

As a viewer, I was left with the same uncertainty about what was really going on that Lola experienced. This diminished only a little on the second watching. I thought that was kind of cool.

Disclaimer: my opinions are backed up by zero expertise in Film as an art form, and far less than the average layperson's knowledge of movies in general.