Der Wald vor lauter Bäumen

Excellent film. Not for everybody for sure, but I found this film one of the best I have seen in years. The director has lots of courage to take such an enormous risk. The film leaves many questions open and is not easy to forget. The acting is absolutely superb, so natural and the film avoids simplicity. Highly recommend for people who hate sugar coating. This is film is truly tough, psychologically tough. The main actress is just amazing,but all supporting actors are good as well. The true subject of the film, I think, is actually survival and friendship. Female friendship rarely gets analyzed so closely and accurately. In general films focus too much on romance and not enough on friendships, which are just as complex and complicated.

Melanie is a new college graduate and is beginning her first teaching assignment. However, she is destined to fail because she is painfully unsure of herself and simply doesn't have it emotionally to be teaching kids. The bottom line is that kids walk all over her, her co-workers generally ignore her, she has almost no friends and she's miserable and alone. Because of this, it made me cringe at times to watch and I kept hoping the character would get into group therapy or find another job. However, she did not and her life continued to spiral out of control--leading to an ending that could be interpreted at least two different ways (neither of which are very positive).

This movie is a wonderful example of a fairly well made film that is very, very painful to watch. While I have a very high tolerance for this sort of thing AND I was interested in the psychological profile of the main character (since I teach psychology), I just can't see the average person sticking with this film or feeling especially satisfied by it. Now this isn't to say it isn't good or worth seeing--but it just takes a particular type of person to view it.

Additionally, I can relate because I am a teacher and I have met several teachers a lot like Melanie. Usually I try to help them out, but in some cases there isn't much you can do other than let them know you care--you can't give a spineless person a backbone or give them enough self-confidence to be able to manage an entire room filled with kids. And, in such cases, the kids usually figure this out quickly and the teacher is "toast", so to speak. Maybe this is also why I felt the movie was so painful--it reminded me of several young teachers (including one who literally had the job kill him due to his poor fit and lack of self-esteem).

Overall, this is well made and perhaps the 6 is a bit harsh, but I had to take off at least a point because it was shot on videotape (making it look cheap) and because of its very, very limited appeal. Still, for lovers of edgy independent and foreign films, it might just be worth a look.

I thought this film was very well made given what was probably a very small budget. The acting was very fine, and the story was painfully realistic in many ways. I got it from the local library because it was about a young teacher. My wife teaches so I thought she might like it. Fortunately I watched it on my own first, and decided that she would probably find it very disturbing because of the realities depicted, but frustrating because of the inability of the young teacher to do what was necessary to help herself.

I found myself very moved by the young teacher, and had the feeling that I'd like to help her through her difficulties...difficulties revealed to the viewer, but ones she was unwilling to admit or express to those who might have helped her in the film.

Eva Loebau plays Melanie, an almost socially retarded young teacher who moves to Karlsruhe to begin her career. Her shyness and painfully embarrassing inability to read people makes for one social and career error after another.

She awkwardly befriends a hip and attractive neighbor and then, with her pathetic neediness and constant visits (not to mention her failure to understand subtle interpersonal cues) drives the neighbor to hate her. This, coupled with her legion of problems at work, precipitates Melanie's mental breakdown.

The subject matter, direction, and Loebau's acting makes the film VIBRATE with unease and tension which makes parts of the film almost impossible to watch. Add to this the fact that it was shot on video, giving it a "you are there" realism, and you may need a shot of homemade schnapps to keep from squirming.

A.

I've seen all of Maren Ade's film as of this writing in 2016 and I don't think she's made a bad, or even middling one yet. The Forest for the Trees is her absolutely astonishing debut and immediately showcases her style and strengths.

First of all this isn't a "beautiful" film. Made as a student thesis you can see it was filmed on the cheap on video so the images will never really bowl you over (with a few exceptions). Where Ade's strength lies is in uncovering the hellish situations in reality. She first introduces us to Melanie Pröschle, a sweet, but goofy school teacher who is moving to a new (small) city to teach grade school students. Feeling alone in her apartment building she quickly spies her neighbour Tina Schaffner, and sets about trying to befriend her, which goes in awkward fits and starts as Melanie is socially awkward and doesn't seem to understand boundaries and is constantly confused as to whether her new friend really likes her or not. At first, the tensions between Melanie and Tina seem like the normal awkward pains that happen when adults struggle to make new friendships, but as the movie wears on, and Melanie's professional life flies further out of control, she places greater and greater importance on Tina and her friendship leading to increasingly disturbing encounters between them.

It is an incredibly painful movie to watch because I'm sure everyone has experienced each side of the coin of being a Melanie or a Tina and this movie presents the worst of both worlds. It also features one of the best endings I've ever seen in a movie, and the final shot will stick in my mind for a long time.