Penumbra (film)

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Movie
Original title Penumbra
Country of production Germany , France
original language German
Publishing year 2013
length 84 minutes
Age rating FSK 0
Rod
Director Nicolas Wackerbarth
script Nicolas Wackerbarth
production Titus Kreyenberg ,
Antoine Simkine
music Olivier Mellano
camera Reinhold Vorneider
cut Janina Herhoffer
occupation

Halbschatten (2013) is a feature film and the feature film debut by Nicolas Wackerbarth (written and directed). The film premiered in the Forum of the Berlinale 2013.

action

The writer Merle, a German in her late 30s, wants to visit her lover Romuald in the south of France. But despite his invitation, he is not present. Instead, she meets his pubescent children Emma and Felix in his holiday home near the sea, who receive Merle in a rough and unfriendly manner. At first she hesitates whether she should leave again, but Merle decides to have a good time in the villa above the sea. Merle initially waits towards the children, watches them, researches the holiday home with its objects and designer pieces, later tries out the role of caring and helps Emma with math problems. The days pass uneventfully. While writing on the laptop, Merle is disturbed by the vacuum cleaning lady who asks her about her book. She continues to wait for Romuald, is now writing her book, is insulted in the pastry shop when she doesn't have enough money for a cake with her, embarrassed and rude by a boutique owner and entertains neighbors who have locked themselves out. But Romuald doesn't come and he doesn't call either. At Emma's 13th birthday, the three get closer; But when Romuald finally calls, Merle decides to please the children near her rather than her distant lover, and she quietly enjoys her breakthrough.

Reviews

Jan Schulz-Ojala wrote in the Tagesspiegel that penumbra was “a love story without love. A journey without arrival. A fall in slow motion into a depth. ”In the visual language of the film, he sees allusions to the Berlin school , in“ the characters drifting past each other, the approximate, the inconsequential ”. Only the “Thrill doesn't really want to come in”, which belongs to the “Thriller about a few uneventful days” (Wackerbarth). More drastic cinematic memories, similar to summer-south settings, crowd in between: François Ozons Swimming Pool, for example, or La piscine , the classic with Romy Schneider and Alain Delon . "

Heike Hupertz said in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that in penumbra , Wackerbarth deliberately renounces the usual dramaturgy, puts silent observations, cinematic exploration of movements and images, even the rustling of the wind in the leaves and the barking of a dog at the center of an action, which is developing a little, but not too far. ”This is how a portrait of Merle succeeds, a“ flaneur in her own life, an observer and self-observer who does not (yet) want to commit to existing social roles. She experiments with her life like the film with the passage of time. Even next to her desire for love, she seems to be self-forgotten and self-lost in amazement. "

The critic of the Focus said, “Not much happens in“ Halbschatten ”, but Nicolas Wackerbarth's feature film debut is still exciting. [..] In well-measured dialogues and original scenes, the film tells the story of alienation (from the man) and an approach (to the children). Wackerbarth plays with the expectations that moviegoers have when they see such a French backdrop. "

According to Rüdiger Suchsland leaning partial shade too much of films like Manila (2000), The Rock (2002), Thomas Arslan's Holiday (2008) All other (2009) or Ann-Kristin Reyels ' Formentera (2012) to "holiday mood and the pent-up conflicts of Karmakar , Ade and Reyels , the female protagonist at Graf and her attempt to find solace in the youthful world, to feel herself. This names the strength of the film, the knowledge of film history and the means, as well as its weakness: that it is difficult to break out of the shadow of the role models, consciously or unconsciously quoted a lot and therefore has a quotation-like effect, which is why this film sometimes gives the impression On the other hand, Suchsland praises the play of the leading actress Anne-Ratte Polle , “who balances confidently between aggressiveness, curiosity and uncertainty” and Reinhold Vorneider's camera work , “who runs through his images with boundaries, as well as in the precisely captured mood of our lives in times of no alternative ".

Peter Uehling expresses clear criticism in the Berliner Zeitung : “The figures in“ penumbra ”are empty, neglected, narcissistic. That puts a Wackerbarth in front of you as if you didn't have to explain how they came to be. And in fact, he doesn't have to: they are simply the consequence of the overpowering style. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for penumbra . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , June 2013 (PDF; test number: 139 629 K).
  2. ↑ Review of Jan Schulz-Ojala in the Tagesspiegel
  3. ↑ Heike Hupertz: Don't tell, just look in FAZ (2015)
  4. ↑ "Penumbra": Thriller, although nothing happens in Focus (2013)
  5. ↑ Review of Rüdiger Suchsland in artechock
  6. ↑ Neglected in prosperity - Review by Peter Uehling in the Berliner Zeitung