HOMESICK B-
Germany Austria (98 mi)
2015 ‘Scope d: Jakob
M. Erwa Official
site
A German battle of wills movie about an odd set of neighbors
that grows more psychologically disturbing, accentuating the idea of taking
things the extreme. While there are
other variations on this theme, including American examples that include D.J.
Caruso’s DISTURBIA (2007) or Neil LaBute’s LAKEVIEW TERRACE (2008), where in
each case the focus is on the extreme behavior of the demented neighbor, what
sets this film apart is its extreme degree of politeness and civility. Shot in Berlin, a young couple, Jessica
(Esther Maria Pietsch) and Lorenz (Matthias Lier), are ecstatic about moving
into their spacious new apartment, an old building with arched ceilings and
windows allowing plenty of light, offering a cavernous interior expanse,
already entering into the psychological realm, expressed with a series of cold,
austere shots of an empty apartment from cinematographer Christian
Trieloff. An upwardly mobile couple
pleased at the discovery of such a stylish old-world place to live, she is an
aspiring cello student while he’s a physiotherapist at a local school. With help from friends, their apartment soon
fills up with furniture and personal belongings, where the young group
celebrates afterwards with food and music, causing a bit of a ruckus, as an
elderly upstairs neighbor, Hilde Domweber (Tatja Seibt), identifying herself as
the building’s unofficial caretaker, knocks on their door requesting quiet, as there
are many elderly inhabitants not used to a display of such youthful
exuberance. Apologizing profusely, the
young couple delivers a peace offering the following morning that is graciously
accepted, though Hilde indicates a concern that the demographics of the
neighborhood are changing, as many of the longtime older residents are being
replaced by a much younger generation that may not share similar interests, offering
them in return a strange (and somewhat ugly) figurine as a welcoming gift. Certainly one of the striking aspects of the
film is the overall blandness of the youthful characters, where there is
nothing drawing attention to any one of them, as they all appear equally
anonymous. The gray, colorless look of
the interiors adds to this dulled perception, as there’s a bit of gloom in the
air.
Jessica, in contrast, is in exceedingly good spirits as
she’s recently been selected to represent Germany in an international Young
Classical music contest in Moscow, a huge national honor and a matter of great
personal prestige, where her outlook looks exceedingly bright, receiving
intensive instructions from the music instructor that recommended her, whose
message is: “It’s the subtle nuances. They make the difference,” requiring
uninterrupted practice time, where she’s seen rehearsing Bach-Cello
Suite no.5 In C Minor, BWV 1011 - Prelude (1/6), Pablo Casals (7:18). Once Lorenz is off to school, Jessica plugs
in her electronic practice instrument that she hears with headphones, literally
inhabiting her own private domain. In
keeping with Berlin traditions, the apartment has no curtains, allowing the
upstairs neighbor to spy on her practice session from an overlooking window,
causing a certain amount of distraction and apprehension, as Jessica feels she
is invading her private space. While
Lorenz suggests putting a curtain in the window, Jessica is quick to defend the
“open” space, claiming she doesn’t want to lose it, as it’s in keeping with the
openness of the creative process as well as the special allure of their home. Rather than spend afternoons alone, she
brings back a tiny kitten to keep her company, placing a little collar around
her neck for identification. Each time
she takes out her cello, however, she is interrupted by some mysterious
distraction, including repeated rings at the front door, yet there is no one
there. Worst of all, someone leaves a
large pile of animal feces on her welcoming doormat, though no other pets are
known to be in the housing complex.
Earlier in the day, when taking out the garbage, Jessica nearly collides
with Hilde, as if she has been lurking just outside her door, while late at
night, she is awoken by inexplicable hammering coming from the apartment above
hers. When her kitten disappears, Jessica
is certain she the subject of a harassment campaign, where her neighbor seems
to be taking an unusual delight in her misery, though in contrast to the
spaciousness of the opening, the four walls seem to be closing in on her,
though one thinks she could be succumbing to the enormous pressure of stress as
the music competition nears.
The director does a good job blending the reality of Jessica’s
everyday life with a blurring of the imagination, where a chain of unfortunate
events begins to eat away at her.
Jessica and Lorenz attempt to clear the air with the neighbors by having
a nice uneventful dinner together, where the glee expressed by Hilde’s husband
Helmut (Hermann Beyer) when showing Lorenz his prized gun set should be enough
to alert anybody, but Lorenz, especially, who is gone all day at work, remains
clueless, showing little empathy for Jessica’s deteriorating condition. When she finds the kitten’s collar hidden in
Hilde’s home, she goes ballistic with accusations of cruelty and intentional
provocation, which only grow worse when she later discovers the dead animal in
the laundry room. Outraged to the point
of furious indignation, she once again confronts Hilde on the staircase,
hurling charges that bring other residents out into the hallway, publicly
condemning the woman as the scourge of the earth, but no one else has noticed
anything remotely suspicious, leaving Jessica seething alone in a blistering
rage, where Lorenz has to kindly walk her back to her apartment, where the
unsettling situation has gotten out of control, where he no longer believes in
her credibility, feeling she may have gone over the edge. When her music instructor pulls her out of
the competition, noticing her nerves are frazzled and her skills regressing,
Jessica only grows more entrenched, going into combative warrior mode,
convinced this woman is a menace and determined to put an end to it. The manifestation of her increasing anxiety
is all the more alarming by focusing so completely on her restricted and
suffocating space inside her apartment, growing increasingly tense and paranoid
about the rising dangers of the world outside.
It’s an interesting take on the plight of urban living, locked behind
sophisticated security systems designed to keep undesirable forces out, turning
the concept around where stuck inside with no conceivable way out lies a
poisonous atmosphere growing increasingly toxic and insufferable, literally
testing the limits of one’s sanity when forced to endure these dehumanizing
conditions. While the film remains minimalist
and low key throughout, it does a good job accentuating Jessica’s internalized
fears and growing paranoia, developing into a twisted and psychologically
altered form of hysteria that continually distorts reality, delving into horror
territory, where a simple note in the final credits, “Dedicated to my neighbors,”
is sure to get a chuckle from the audience.
