The Edge of Heaven (Auf Der Anderen Seite)

 

Director Fatih Akin

Akin with Hanna Schygulla at Cannes

winner of Best Screenplay at Cannes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

THE EDGE OF HEAVEN (Auf Der Anderen Seite)                       A                                      aka:  On the Other Side                                                                                                    Germany  Turkey  (122 mi)  2007  d: Fatih Akin

This film opens and closes on a brilliant shot, each offering its own thematic observation, beginning with a car arriving at a desolate, run down gas station, where the traveler is called by the name of “brother” several times, a sign of cultural respect, but one that is multi-sided, as the film soon reveals.  The film’s literal title is On the Other Side, which better reflects the border between life and death as well as the geographical one between countries and the different ways of life.  Fatih Akin has written another one of those Kieslowski-like Three Colors Trilogy intersecting plot scenarios told in three chapter headings involving three families with mixed German-Turkish heritage, a Turkish father and son living in Germany, a Turkish mother living in Germany but separated from her long lost daughter, and a German mother and daughter, not necessarily seen in any correct order.  At some point in the film, all are connected, but what matters most is not the interweaving mathematical construction, which is interesting enough, but the deep-seeded connections that are established, some of which are profoundly moving, becoming a story of sacrifice and forgiveness, and the possibility of reconciliation.  The film highlights the differences between the two cultures in the first two shots, which couldn’t be more opposite, providing the viewer some idea as to the vast divide that exists between characters.   Historically, as the postwar French invited the Algerians, more than two million Turks were invited into Germany to work as “guest workers,” the exact same term President Bush has used for his proposed temporary resident immigration program with Mexicans, a proposal that went nowhere except to fan the flames of racist intolerance along the border states where they are building giant iron fences to keep the immigrants out.  While these host nations offer unskilled, low wage labor, it has been accompanied by deep seeded resentment in the mother country against the “foreigners” as well as complications arising when first generation offspring are actually born citizens, yet treated with racist scorn and disregard, where the harsh reality is that it’s easier to hate someone than to love them.  Evidence Fassbinder’s earlier German classic ALI:  FEAR EATS THE SOUL (1974) and the recent riots outside Paris that lasted for weeks.  Angry demonstrations by what are seen as radical fringe groups in both France and Germany (and now Turkey) are the norm and cast an altogether different face than the advertised brotherly unity of the European Union.  

Winner of Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival of 2007, though the choice is not without controversy, as many have tired of an over-reliance on this revolving door style of storytelling these days, though few are as deeply compassionate as displayed here.  Tuncel Kurtiz, a prominent Turkish actor who worked with renowned Turkish director Yilmaz Güney (an unmistakable influence on Akin), is Ali Aksu, an Anthony Quinn, Zorba the Greek type character, an old Turkish man who retains his vigorous energy and charm, and his delight with the pleasures of women and drink.  When he finds a Fassbinderesque Turkish hooker in Bremen, Germany, Nursel Köse as Yeter, who may as well be the voluptuous Barbara Valentin in ALI:  FEAR EATS THE SOUL, he is so taken by her that he makes her an offer to come live with him.  After she is visited by some glum looking Islamic radicals who could make her life miserable, she thinks the old man’s offer is a safe choice, but it has tragic consequences for both.  Ali’s son is Nejat (Baki Davrak), somewhat reminiscent of French actor Romain Duris, an introverted college German professor who lectures on Goethe and becomes the closest thing to a lead character in this film, who is initially skeptical of his father’s relationship, but he grows fond of Yeter once he discovers the sacrifice she makes sending most of her hard-earned money home to Turkey for her estranged daughter's university studies, and eventually goes searching for her missing daughter in Istanbul, realizing the importance of the connection they never had.   Nurgül Yesilçay plays the daughter Ayten, a fiercely independent radical in Turkey who has revolutionary ambitions with militant connections, which after an unfortunate incident leads to a quick escape to Hamburg, Germany, finding herself alone and penniless, where she meets a young student Lotte (Patrycia Ziolkowska) completely at random, soon becoming love interests, despite the disapproving eye of her more conservative mother Susanne, Fassbinder icon Hanna Schygulla returning to the screen after a long absence, who truly rekindles her acting credibility here.  Ayten is arrested and confined for months before her asylum plea is denied, leading to her deportation and imprisonment in Turkey.  Lotte travels to Turkey, where she doesn’t speak the language, yet a chance encounter brings her together with Nejat, where the city of Istanbul actually becomes a prominent character, where it’s easy to get lost, as she gets caught up in the seemingly hopeless situation of freeing Ayten.  Once the principals are introduced, tragedy befalls each and every one, though in differing ways, but each loses something that may as well be the most important thing in their life. 

Influenced by Erich Fromm’s The Art of Loving, which was enormously popular on college campuses in the 60’s, this film is multi-layered and poignant, the second entry in an intended trilogy Liebe, Tod und Teufel (Love, Death and the Devil), with Akin's acclaimed HEAD-ON (2004) as the first installment, culminating in THE CUT (2014).  While not as explosive as HEAD ON, a radically offbeat punk love story, this quieter effort is still a daring work of probing intelligence on death and the power of redemption, where the extraordinary editing interweaves several stories together in a nonlinear narrative, using a revolving cast in a series of near-miss connections, becoming an exploration of transnational identity, which includes the difficulty of identity within exile, where the cruelty of the modern world, with its Kafkaesque absurdities, is simultaneously tearing us apart while also bringing us closer together.  Set in an expanding internationalized stage with a constantly-on-the-move camera style by Rainer Klausmann that beautifully captures with precision the finer details in each culture, which is an extraordinary expression simply by composition alone, adding authentic locations and music to a superb ensemble of actors, led by Schygulla who may surprise many with the depth of her performance, but she is given some of the best scenes in the film which occur near the end.  Her character beautifully transcends the cultural divide with her effortless style of understatement and also offers a refreshing look at what those self-absorbed kids from Fassbinder’s KATZELMACHER (1969) might have turned into forty years later, where she literally becomes the consciousness of the film.  The final shot has its own transcendent quality, which could easily be a shot from similar films such as Ozon’s TIME TO LEAVE (2005) or Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s CLIMATES (2006), yet shown here, coming on the heels of Schygulla’s personal transformation, offers profound insight, and an open-ended ambiguity.  It’s so easy to get caught up in our differences, which is at the root of KATZELMACHER, shown through simple, ordinary acts of societal prejudice and xenophobia, but what we have in common is all too often overlooked and forgotten, but not by Akin, called Fatih Fassbinder in some reviews, who skillfully navigates outside the jurisdiction of national boundaries and identities by knowing each so well and instead, despite the meandering journey, cuts a path straight to the heart of the matter, creating believable people who suffer unfathomable losses yet retain a surprising emotional resilience.  

2023 Top Ten List #8 Passages

 

Director Ira Sachs

Sachs with lead actor Franz Rogowski

PASSAGES                B+                                                                                                         France  Germany  (93 mi)  2023  d: Ira Sachs

A tumultuous assault to the senses from a quintessential New York City filmmaker who changed venues by making a film in Paris, the director of the tenderly crafted Little Men (2016), but also KEEP THE LIGHTS ON (2012), winner of a Teddy Award at the Berlin Film Festival for Best Queer film. and LOVE IS STRANGE (2014), films that are deeply humane and involving, Sachs is a preeminent storyteller and leading voice in New Queer Cinema who showcases a wide range of poignant and emotionally gripping work, reflected by his 2022 BFI Sight and Sound Poll vote for the ten greatest films (Ira Sachs), revealing the affects others have had on his own developing career.  Making films about protagonists who find themselves in their own very isolated and painful processes of self-discovery, the central relationships that drive his films have an integrity and moral honesty that feel unique to his artistic vision, where this film feels more in line with the uncompromising style of Maurice Pialat, who he cites as one of his influences, featuring strong performances that are deliberately unglamorous.  Perfectly evoking a sense of chaotic alienation with the intensity of a stage play, told with a mature assurance, the intimacy can be both tender and merciless, reflecting a paradise of the lonely, Sachs and his longtime co-writer Maurice Zacharias have chosen the indelible German actor Franz Rogowski from Christian Petzold’s 2018 Top Ten List #3 Transit (2018) and 2020 Top Ten List #6 Undine (2020), but also Thomas Stuber’s In the Aisles (In den Gängen) (2018), to reflect the central malaise at the heart of the film.  Veering from pathos to absurd humor, he steamrolls his way through relationships, showing no remorse for the pain he inflicts, motivated by his own sense of narcissistic entitlement, placing himself at the center of every driving thought and feeling.  When screening the film at Sundance, Sachs was genuinely surprised by the audience laughter, as bad behavior, even in a wrenching drama, can be viewed as social comedy, where the exaggerated extremes are projected as liberating.  Rogowski plays German film director Tomas at work in Paris, seen early in the film painstakingly focusing on minute details on the set, yet he exhibits a flair for the dramatic (no doubt bored without all the drama), making sure the film is made exactly the way he wants, so his imprint is all over it.  Afterwards, he and his crew celebrate the completion of the shoot with a party, yet Tomas is perturbed that his longtime partner, British graphic designer Martin (Ben Whishaw), is disinterested and wants to leave early, creating an awkward moment, but thankfully Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos) steps in to fill the void and offers to dance with him, taking his mind elsewhere.  It’s a sensual explosion of sound and color, yet meticulously woven together, shot by French-Canadian cinematographer Josée Deshaies, PASSAGES | Official Clip | Now Streaming YouTube (1:05), with the camera rarely leaving Tomas’s point of view, as he ends up spending the night with Agathe, taking great pleasure in his newfound excitement, which he immediately wants to share with Martin the next morning, confessing he slept with a “girl,” obviously a rarity in their gay relationship, describing it as “something different,” but Martin fails to share his interest, extremely hurt and turned off by what he views as a betrayal of trust, something Tomas fails to see, having a blind spot for his own moral indiscretions, refusing to believe he’s done anything wrong.  This incident frames everything that follows, creating a fissure in their relationship, as Tomas is driven by his own narrow focus, where he’s like a bull in a china shop, leaving shattered glass everywhere 

Tomas and Martin are part of a network of friends that meet frequently for social occasions, though they seem to click more on an intellectual level, with no real sparks indicated, but they thrive on being part of an existing gay community, where artistic expression is a driving force within the group, allowing Tomas the freedom he needs, while also satisfying Martin’s curiosity, yet both feel comfortable with this sense of place.  In an interesting aside, Martin is drawn to the literary exploits of a young French-African novelist, Amad (Erwan Kepoa Falé), whose book is all the rage, seen chatting together in a local bar, yet Tomas fails to see what all the fuss is about, not the least bit interested, especially when Amad confesses he has no ambition to write another book, never really seeing himself as a writer, something Tomas finds utterly bogus and false, as art is part of their collective identity.  Among the better realized scenes is a weekend trip to a countryside house that Martin and Tomas share, accompanied by a coterie of friends, where one of the highlights is when their friend Clément (William Nadylam), a literary agent, accompanies himself on piano as he sings Carrie Jacobs-Bond’s A Perfect Day - Carrie Jacobs Bond YouTube (3:31), a composer of sentimental art songs that attained great popularity in the early 20th century that feels like the kind of parlor song Terrence Davies might have chosen, filled with a nostalgic sentiment from a much earlier time, yet in this company it elicits a contemporary elegiac message that plays out again over the end credits.  While the strong performances are an essential ingredient, music also plays a prominent part of this film, expressing great imagination in broadening the viewer’s range of interest, which is one of the inherent achievements of the film overall, as this is never what we expect, intentionally branching out into new territory.  While the central focus is the on again and off again relationship between Tomas and Martin, where there’s an element of growing tired with each other, the attraction to Agathe, who is a primary school teacher, is an unexpected surprise, with the language changing from French to English, as both eagerly take to one another with a heated passion, even uttering the word “love,” with Tomas actually moving in with her while Martin begins his own relationship with Amad.  This is easily the best acting performance of Adèle Exarchopoulos, who’s never been convincing as a lead actress, but with most of the attention focused elsewhere, she delivers a warmly authentic performance that feels entirely natural, exuding a sympathetic warmth lacking in both men, who spend much of their time either ignoring one another, exploring new loves in their lives, or furiously making up for lost time with make-up sex, which never feels artificial, but is more like a torrential river with no return, which might recall the unpretentious simplicity of the Andrew Haigh film Weekend (2011), who is listed among the many thanks in the final credits.  No breasts or genitalia are shown, though there is simulated anal sex filmed from the vantage point of a bare behind, yet the film strangely has an NC-17 rating, so uninhibited, realistically portrayed gay sex is viewed as something that must be censored, which is a disturbing revelation, so the film was released unrated, which limits the number of theaters that are willing to show it.  In response, Sachs told the Los Angeles Times, “It’s really about a form of cultural censorship that is quite dangerous, particularly in a culture which is already battling, in such extreme ways, the possibility of LGBT imagery to exist.”  It is perhaps for this reason that the director went to France to make his film.

There is an uncensored aspect to this film that feels unique, especially the straightforward and brutally honest manner of Tomas, as he has no filter and no inhibitions, but plunges headlong into whatever interests him, while his flamboyant wardrobe choices provide comic hilarity, feeling more like a non-conformist, bohemian free spirit, yet there are metaphorical implications, as an artist in order to create needs to remain unhindered by societal restrictions, where discovering their own voice is a liberating aspect of developing an artistic identity.  The novelty of the experience with Agathe quickly flames out, however, but not until after she’s pregnant, with Tomas having a contentious dinner together with her more bourgeois parents who view him as a flight risk, which he finds both offensive and unnerving, but he doubles down on his stubborn refusal to even accept that possibility, yet the vociferousness of his denial reveals how closely the accusation comes to the truth, as starting a family requires domestic qualities he simply does not have, loyalty, patience, and responsibility.  Seemingly driving him back into the arms of Martin, Agathe can hear them having sex through the thin walls of the country home, leaving her utterly devastated, with nowhere to turn.  Tomas is tone deaf to her sudden silence, as she has nothing more to say to him, feeling like an intruder in their house, infuriated that she was so easily fooled, as her future has been unceremoniously gutted by such blatant disregard.  It’s a savage act, tearing her world apart, yet Tomas is so consumed by his own needs that he can’t for a moment step outside of his own vantage point and place himself in anyone else’s shoes.  The brazenness of his actions impresses Martin, who takes him back, thinking they’ve righted the ship and reconnected, as if their sins have been purged, feeling optimistic about what comes next.  This is no politely rendered ménage à trois from François Truffaut’s JULES AND JIM (1962), instead the shifting dynamics are brutally harsh, exposing a raw vulnerability of inflamed nerves, showing a steely resolve in matters of the heart that only grow more complicated, leaving viewers on edge, like a suspense thriller, where you wonder who will be the next tortured soul.  There’s something morbidly fascinating yet ultimately despairing about this film, where lives are left shattered, yet this poetically insightful drama explores the complexities and contradictions of love and the cruelties it often brings.  Inspired during the pandemic to create a film about intimacy, some might recall the tyrannical behavior and sexual exploits of German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who had sex mostly with men, but also had serious romances with women, rarely keeping his professional and personal life private, as the emotional casualties he left behind (two lovers committed suicide, while his own death came from a lethal cocktail of cocaine and barbiturates) seamlessly found their way onscreen.  There is an exalted finale that feels like a contemporary example of the French New Wave, shot on the streets of Paris, as Tomas has worn out his welcome, having alienated everyone he knows, where all that’s left is the chaos that thrives within, a wild, unimaginable force that cannot be tamed, as he furiously bikes through the streets as if escaping an unseen force steadily gaining on him, though most likely fleeing from the demons within, which have the capacity to suffocate him.  The ingenious musical choice accompanying the lengthy tracking shot is an excerpt from free jazz saxophonist  Albert Ayler - Spirits Rejoice YouTube (11:39), recorded live in a rented hall in New York without an audience in 1965, where the faintest outline of the French anthem La Marseillaise can be heard, something akin to Jimi Hendrix’s incendiary performance of the national anthem at Woodstock, Jimi Hendrix National Anthem USA Woodstock 1969 YouTube (4:25), feeling like something literally no other filmmaker has ever used, infusing the film with a staggering originality and ferocity of spirit.