Winter Sleepers (Winterschläfer)

 

Director Tom Tykwer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WINTER SLEEPERS (Winterschläfer)         A                                                                    Germany  France  (122 mi)  1997  ‘Scope  d:  Tom Tykwer

Before the opening credit sequence rolls by, filmgoers are immediately aware that they are in the presence of a talented filmmaker, as there are swooping aerial shots that suggest an intoxicating beauty, yet they are balanced into a larger whole where the majestic realm of nature is presented as only one of the many diverse characters.  Yet somehow, it is impossible not to acknowledge that snow in this tiny Bavarian mountainous ski resort village of Berchtesgaden has rarely been depicted with such haunting beauty as here, where the shimmering backdrop of a wintry countryside has a ghostly quality, with small farmhouses nestled next to a forest silhouetted in the fog, winding mountainous roads only partially clear from ice and blowing snow, and an extraordinary landscape of snowcapped peaks that are explored with a dazzling virtuosity by cinematographer Frank Griebe in this mesmerizing film.  All but left for dead in the dusty shelves of unreleased films, this director’s first film was only released outside Germany after the astounding commercial success of his second film, Run Lola Run (Lolo Rennt) (1998), which became an international arthouse hit.  However it is without any reservation whatsoever that this initial film remains the most astounding of all of Tykwer’s works, where there’s near surgical control in his style, an extraordinary restraint in developing mood while the story unravels, always allowing the cris-crossing storylines to unfold at their own pace, taking place between Christmas and New Years, with events triggered by a car accident shrouded in mystery, never providing any real backdrop to the rather complicated interweaving narrative, which lures the audience into these people’s lives, where tone precedes knowledge.  Contending with internalized alienation issues, the main characters are each suffering with personal issues, all hiding buried secrets, seemingly without drive or ambition, living in an arrested state of development, leading shallow and meaningless lives, subject to their own narcissism and self-serving interests, viewed as outsiders in a small town community setting.  We get the feel of the film within the first few minutes, while it’s only later that we learn who the characters are and what’s happening in their lives.    

An existential snow mystery featuring two couples sharing a house together in the Alps, including two exceptional women, the luminous Rebecca (Floriane Daniel), a sensuous, overtly sexual blond who works as an assistant at a ski resort, doubling as a romance novel translator, and Laura (Marie-Lou Sellem), a more introverted dark-eyed beauty who works as an emergency room nurse at the local hospital, and their troublesome boy friends, Marco (Heino Ferch), an arrogant ski instructor at the resort who denigrates locals and is also a compulsive womanizer, something of a plague on the community, having a tempestuous affair with Rebecca, both viewed as mythical Nordic figures fitting neatly into the blond Aryan race stereotype, both driven by libidinious impulses, and René (Ulrich Matthes), a peculiar, more isolated guy that Laura discovers, who continually takes pictures in an attempt to help him recall what he immediately forgets due to his short-term memory loss.  Into this mix is an older farmer (Josef Bierbichler) whose daughter is thrown from a car in an accident and is in a coma struggling to survive.  He fears her loss may push him over the edge financially, thinking he may lose his farm.  While all are connected in an odd sort of mix, it would be wrong to make too much of that even though chance plays a prominent role, as these connections are more accidental than the controlling or determining forces in anyone’s life.  Instead the interweaving storylines give the director an opportunity to build character as we come to know them, where we eventually feel an intimate familiarity with each one of them, though it’s hard to know what really drives any of them.  In this manner, what happens to them matters, but also how it happens, which at times spins brilliantly out of control.  Again, it is the underlying mood that creates who these people are, as it comes from within.  A story of chance and fate, the film teeters between being a thriller and revolving around the alienation and loneliness of the characters, where they know less about each other than the viewer does, becoming a razor-sharp picture of a 30’s-something generation with their doubts and uncertainties still intact, each contemplating new beginnings.  The title may refer to an autobiographical younger generation of lost souls hibernating dormant from deep within the nation’s consciousness that need to be awakened from their apathy and slumber, like coming out of a lengthy European Cold War thaw. 

Based on an unpublished novel by Anne-Françoise Pyszora, Expense of Spirit, who worked with the director altering the novel’s French seaside resort setting to a snowy alpine hamlet with spectacular panoramic views, a region German audiences would immediately identify with Hitler’s summer residence known as the Eagle’s Nest, aka Kehlsteinhaus, while adding the older farmer character to the mix adds a stark generational contrast, something of a throwback to the German Heimat mountain films of Leni Riefenstahl’s THE BLUE LIGHT (1932) or Luis Trenker’s THE PRODIGAL SON (1934).  Premiering at the Locarno Film Festival, this was the first film seen featuring the spare, hauntingly mystical music of Arvo Pärt, “Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten” from “Tabula Rasa,” Arvo Pärt – Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Tõnu Kaljuste | Elbphilharmonie LIVE YouTube (8:21), fusing a dazzling visual style with a unique storytelling technique where a heavily pronounced musical score is so quiet and becomes so prevalent that it actually provides an unseen narrative structure for the developing romances and amazing mountain landscapes, making proficient use of slow motion photography, with viewers able to experience the dreamlike, near hallucinogenic feeling of a colossal mountain freefall.  There is frequent use of a 360-degree pan shot, evoking the cinematography of Fassbinder’s Michael Ballhaus, a technique first utilized in MARTHA (1974) and continuing into Scorsese’s Goodfellas (1990), yet there is also additional music written by Reinhold Heil, Johnny Klimek and the director himself that adds a delicate feel to what we are experiencing, music that is so internally expansive when matched with such gorgeous imagery, offering a poetic path to comprehension, where the contrast of a brilliantly designed color scheme against the glacial outdoors is striking.  One goes to movies for a number of reasons, not the least of which is to be entertained or moved, but the hypnotic musical choices in this film are so emotionally impactive, Spain "Untitled #1" - YouTube (6:38), and in such complete harmony with both what the characters are experiencing and also the awesome splendor of the world around them, Arvo Pärt : Fratres : Definitive version for violin, strings & Percussion - I Flammingi / Werthen YouTube (12:01).  In essence, this inner light becomes one of the things we keep searching for when we go to the movies.  It’s rare to find it in films and this director, sort of a cross between Terrence Malick and Krzysztof Kieślowski, does a masterful balancing act creating a cinematic feeling very close to a state of grace, No Plans No Projects - Wim Mertens - YouTube (5:13).

Félicité

Director Alain Gomis

 

FÉLICITÉ                  B+                  

France  Germany  Senegal  Lebanon  Belgium  (129 mi)  2017  d:  Alain Gomis      Official site

Winner of the Silver Bear (2nd Place) at the Berlin Film Festival, and among the nine finalists for Best Foreign Picture, this film takes place in Kinshasa, the post-colonial capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, shot with a cinéma vérité style by French cinematographer Céline Bozon, whose handheld shots of the cluttered city streets are transporting, literally immersing viewers into the heart of Africa.  But this is largely a character study of Véro Tshanda Beya Mputu as Félicité, a fiercely independent Afropop singer fronting the Kasai Allstars in a small Kinshasa night club that pulsates with drink and noise and rowdy customers, but music is the lifeblood of the city, providing a feeling of gritty authenticity in a faraway region of the planet.  In fact, the film seems to have been written with this musical group in mind, a composite of five different ethnic groups from the region, each with their own language and musical traditions, seen in performance here Kasai Allstars - "Drowning Goat (Mbuji Mayi)" - YouTube (9:55), but the soundtrack can be heard on Spotify, Around Félicité by Kasai Allstars on Spotify, yet their constant presence throughout the film is such a distinguishing feature, along with a local orchestral group seen elsewhere playing several passages from the symphonic music of Arvo Pärt, from the familiar refrains of Fratres (10:39), heard in films like Winter Sleepers (Winterschläfer) (1997), There Will Be Blood (2007), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), and The Club (El Club) (2015), to a chilling liturgical work, Orchestre Symphonique Kimbanguiste / My Heart's In The Highlands (2:28), where the stark cultural contrast between Europe and Africa couldn’t be more remarkable.  This music frames the film, adding color and texture to the resilient story of Félicité, a larger-than-life figure whose freedom is challenged by a series of tragic events that tests her endurance, that chops her down to size, leaving her mortally wounded and exposed, never more vulnerable, even humiliated, where her unconventional response is not what you’d think, finding her own way to survive through a minefield of patriarchal oppression designed to diminish her spirit and leave her defeated.  Yet somehow in a landscape of rampant poverty and overt sexism, she endures, where the exhaustive Odyssean journey typifies her perseverance and enormous willpower, summoning untapped reserves of inner strength through the power of mythology and ancestral appropriation, as elements of the surreal mix with a searing social realism, creating an extraordinary synthesis of mind, body, and soul to recapture the essence of her indomitable spirit.  

This is a film where art is viewed as nourishment for the soul, particularly in the use of music, literally providing sustenance to the needy, allowing society’s fallen figures to draw strength from the vast reservoir of Kinshasa music, tapping into a cultural vein as needed, helping fuel their recovery.  At the outset, Félicité is a single mother raising a 14-year old son Samo (Gaetan Claudia), having rid herself of an abusive husband, where she’s free to live the way she wants, on her own terms, independent to a fault.  Her biggest problem is a broken refrigerator, turning to a local handyman of questionable repute, Tabu (Papi Mpaka), as he’s a loudmouth at the club, seen as something of a drunken rabble rouser in the earlier nightclub sequences, but everyone has a right to earn a living.  Promising a new working fridge for $150 dollars, she’s particularly hard on him, despite his burly frame and poetic charm, somewhat dazzled by her oversized beauty, but she notes humorously that to her he’s still a tiny man, rushing out the door with more important things to do.  Yet the next time we see her perform, she whispers in his ear not to get drunk, as she needs his equipment to work.  In this manner, she allows him into her life, amused by his headstrong pursuit of her charms, where she’s willing to give the guy a chance despite his shady reputation as a drunk and a womanizer.  They have an easygoing manner about them, but it’s clear she’s the boss, the stronger of the two, with an acid tongue, yet her fiery resolve is exactly what he adores about her.  The same could be said for the director, as initially this actress was chosen to play a minor role, but Gomis became more and more intrigued by her, fascinated by her irrepressible screen presence, eventually crafting the entire film around her beguiling persona, while at the same time expanding the repressive limits of questionable Western standards in considering a more healthy image of a leading female role.  But her world crumbles when she’s notified that her son was in a serious motorcycle accident, lying in bloodied bandages at the hospital where patients are stacked up next to one another.  Immediately she discovers the Kafkaesque Congolese system of medical care, as it’s provided on a cash up front basis, as he will be moved to a better room, or provided the needed medications, and even the necessary surgery to repair a broken leg only once she produces the money.  This kind of dilemma can bring a family to financial ruin.  Making matters worse, she is fleeced out of the pharmacy money by another woman sitting at the bedside of the neighboring patient, who graciously offers to run the errand for her, but never returns.  Her trust was earned through a con act, pretending to be the relative of a sleeping patient, but once he awakes, he hasn’t a clue who she was. 

With that, Félicité’s spirit is tested like never before, as her son’s health depends on her, racing against time, revisiting friends and family, including the musicians she works with, where her door-to-door mission is similar to Marion Cotillard in Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne’s Two Days, One Night (Deux jours, une nuit) (2014), literally begging others for help, but still coming up short.  It alters the rhythm of the film, adding a despondent tone of gloom, scrounging for what little she can rustle up as she visits the various neighborhoods of the city, offering a panoramic view of the African world, showing bustling streets with plenty of activity, including the brutal beating of a petty thief, becoming crushed when people are unable or unwilling to help her, like her ex-husband who gloats at her weakened disposition, taunting how she used to be so proud, sneering at how “You puffed out your chest.  You wanted to be a strong woman,” feeling triumph now that she is on her knees, reduced to begging, showing no mercy, treating her with utter contempt, blaming her for failing their son, who continues to lie in filthy conditions, becoming a crisis of confidence, enveloping her world with a profound sadness.  Out of pure desperation, having nowhere else to turn, she arrives at the door of a local gangster pretending she has some urgent business with him, who throws her out when he sees what she’s up to, but she clings to the feet of the security detail, getting battered and beaten, wailing at the top of her lungs, causing such a commotion that the man pays her off just to get rid of her.  By the time she finally arrives with the money, she discovers her son’s condition took a turn for the worse, losing plenty of blood, where they were forced to amputate his leg to save his life.  Both she and Samo are heartbroken, falling into a deep depression where dialogue becomes superfluous, as Félicité traverses an abstract spirit world, exploring a darkened forest in a dreamlike nocturnal night with barely visible images, entering a shadow world, much like the Orpheus underground of Jean Cocteau, wading into water, crossing a wide river, eventually encountering a mythical animal, an okapi, on the other side, which she embraces, blending the surreal with the real, as if purging her sins, adding a mystical element of transformation.  In what is largely a realist drama, this is a particularly alluring aspect of the film, adding magical elements that permeate through the recovery process.  With Tabu’s help, he carries her son home from the hospital, but he refuses to even attempt to use the crutches, instead drowning in his own self-pity.  Tabu has a quiet influence, however, adding warmth, being there as a non-judgmental paternal example, not making any demands on either Samo or Félicité, allowing them to make their own way, with Félicité finally acknowledging, “I like your way of being,” even as she finds another woman lying in her bed.  Tolerance has its virtues, as the music heard throughout adds its own healing force, providing a recuperative power that allows both to recover, finally fixing that damned refrigerator by the end, coming full circle, delivering a hard-earned smile.  This is an unsentimentalized film about facing one’s hardships, where even the loftiest souls among us must come down to earth and face their own spiritual resurrection.