Der freie Wille

I would not like to give a summary of the impulsive scenes or the techniques used in the film. I do refrain from talking about the movie as a logical construction. Anyway, that is exactly what was done at Ludwigshafen's 'Festival des Deutschen Films' - trying to pull the discussion onto a more emotional level, the director himself and the two protagonists failed. which stands for the extreme distance people (and eve the cast) seem to be able to keep having watched the movie. This lets me conclude that the movie, although displaying one part of human life/struggle, was unable to move people's substance.. This is the first movie that made me doubt, if the medium 'movie' can really reach people's core. Not even the realistic display of rape seems to be enough to touch people.

One of the worst movies I have ever seen. Inconsistent story line, way too long, camera shots that last forever, mute characters, scenes that have nothing to do with the story, etc. E.g. why do we have to watch the protagonist practicing his martial arts moves? Especially when it's a bad move like when he teaches his girlfriend to defend herself from being choked. I hope no female viewer will memorize that move, because it will not work at all but even put her in greater danger.

A typical poor German movie, I have seen many of this kind. Heavy stuff, always trying to explain the world to us, and/or trying to educate the audience when it is not called for.

The story could have been told in 90 minutes (max). But it drags on and on and on.

But the worst is the sound, there is a constant background noise. The sound editor should be put in jail for this masterpiece, at least he should not edit another movie.

What a waste of time and money.

Dr. Marre (ph.d.guy)

Ah, the always-magnificent German cinema comes through once more. 2 hours and 43 minutes of stupendous cinema experience is what this movie is.

I really can't say whose performance was the greatest: Sabine Timoteo's or Jurgen Vogel's? They were both so rattling in their own way. And the subject of the movie is bold, carelessly blow-to-blow, heartbreaking.

This movie has no beauty in it. But that's exactly the beauty in it. There's no poetry in it but it's so poetic. Every close-up, every character panning, every scream. Obsession and addiction and the free will.

I, too, saw this film at the Berlinale, and though the matter of rape was treated with maturity and frankness, the film itself was constructed poorly. More than anything, it was bland - camera placement and cuts were standard fare, non-diagetic sound was near non-existent, and the dialogue was highly unrealistic, comprising of long, drawn-out pauses interspersed with briefly-spoken lines.

The upshot of this was that I felt no attachment to the characters beyond a basic sympathy for their current predicaments - dialogue was stretched out to the point of losing its emotional resonance, and many lines were delivered with little feeling from the actors. I was particularly unconvinced by Sabine Timoteo's performance, whose talent restricted her to screaming rather than actual crying. Compared to Claire Dane's stunning depiction of anguish in Romeo and Juliet, I felt wholly unsatisfied by her performance.

It was these factors that made the characters feel less than human, failing to imbue them with life. This, coupled with the utterly bland direction and editing, meant that I felt no attachment to them, and I was left gagging for each coming line of dialogue purely to provide a break from the silent, expressionless moments in between. Drawing out the narrative to over two and a half hours simply rubbed salt in the wound.

The Free Will was not in itself awful, but there were so few points of interest that I found myself becoming restless within forty minutes, and when the credits rolled in what will doubtless be considered a brilliantly emotional finale, I still felt little attachment to the characters.

A very good film about the emotional and psychology of a raper who, after nine years of condemn, is free under supervision. He gets a job and begin a relationship with a girl who has is own psychological peculiarities.

The film goes deep into the emotional and psychology of the main characters, specially the raper, and through a very good acting from both of them and a good manage of silences and dialogs, the film really makes the people get into the movie to feel the horrible suffering side from the point of view of the victims and the struggle that Theo has to deal inside with.

Also it shows to us the hard part of knowing and, after, accepting the past life of Theo by Neeti. At the end and after hard struggle within, Theo realizes that he can not fight against his own "frei Wille".

The film is indeed too long but it never makes you feel bored or lose interest. A very impacting and good film.