| Crossing Europe Film Festival : notes pt1 : Lucy [6/10], Lenz [6/10] |
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 Germany ¦ LUCY ¦ 6/10 Though solidly made, consistently believable and intelligently written, Lucy treads what's become very familiar cinematic terrain in what's become a very familiar style, and thus represents a slight disappointment after writer-director Henner Winckler's strikingly fresh and auspicious 2002 debut School Trip. His focus is now on marginally older 'kids': Maggy (Kim Schnitzer) is a single mother in her late teens living in an unremarkable German city, who finds that having a baby gets in the way of (a) enjoying the local night-life and (b) forming a serious romantic relationship. Lucy is reminiscent of Isabella Stever's Gisela in its clear-eyed, believable, well-acted and tightly-written depiction of unremarkable German suburban lives, though the basic set-up is a little bit closer to the Dardennes' The Child (Winckler's enigmatic final shot is even a Dardennes-ish image of Maggy's head from behind.) But while the Dardennes reluctance to show us the kid's face meant they were able to cast 21 different tots as their film's infant, Winckler elicits a remarkably expressive performance from his own child as the eponymous Lucy - so much so that you wonder how many takes he went through to get each priceless reaction. Winckler and his co-screenwriter Stefan Kriekhaus deserve credit for the convincing way they develop Maggy's key relationships - with her daughter (whose arrival forces Maggy reluctantly towards maturity), with her well-meaning but somewhat judgemental mother Eva (Feo Aladag), and with Gordon (Gordon Schmidt), the baseball-capped barman-cum-electronics-merchant who becomes her on-off boyfriend. And, as in School Trip, Winckler shows a sharp eye for the precise details of young people's hair, clothes, trends and make-up - the difference here being that the characters are also forced to deal with the practicalities and financial problems associated with the 'adult' world. All very commendable - even admirable stuff, but on the whole insufficiently distinctive to lift it above the dozens of European films which every year tackle very similar subjects in very similar, observational style. This kind of 'social', humanistic material is invariably catnip for funding-bodies and film-festival programmers alike - but has to be executed with particular flair and flavour if it's going to reach out to a wider audience and thus really make a difference.  Switzerland ¦ LENZ ¦ 6/10 Bret Easton Ellis concluded his novel Glamorama with the line "The future is that mountain," a prediction which applies just as well to Lenz, Thomas Imbach's anything-goes, loosey-goosey modern-day adaptation of Georg Buchner's 19th century novel Lenz. Most of the film takes place in the Swiss resort of Zermatt, with the pointy bulk of the Matterhorn looming in the background - and the Matterhorn is such a prominent presence in the film (Imbach seems as obsessed with it as his deranged protagonist) that it is given equal billing alongside the human actors in the end credits ('Der Berg [the mountain]: Matterhorn'). Said credits are, oddly, perhaps the highlight of the whole film, accompanied as they are by a suitably wavery and unforgettably ethereal version of a classic old-school rock-anthem, performed by the picture's lead, Milan Peschel - who earlier treats us to his rendition of Pink Floyd's 'Wish You Were Here.' After last year's incisively-drawn Berlin tale Netto, Lenz confirms Peschel's status as one of Germany's (and therefore Europe's) most watchable and talented screen presences (not to mention his striking resemblance to The Fall's Mark E Smith.) Once again he's the father in a tricky father-son relationship - though here the child is significantly younger, and the pair get on very well throughout. Trouble is, the son is in the custody of Lenz's ex-wife and access is limited - perhaps as a consequence of the chap's erratic behaviour. This restriction only worsens Lenz's mental state, interfering with his creative endeavours: he's a documentary-maker who may also be some kind of poet. Lenz's mental imbalance (his bizarre behaviour includes using a suitcase as an impromptu sled to get down a snowy hillside; venturing into the crisp mountain air in only the skimpiest of clothing; much donning and doffing of a bushy blonde wig) seeps into Lenz itself - a postmodern exercise in literary adaptation if ever there was one, gleefully scrambling notions of fiction, reality and artifice (as when Peschel, perhaps in character, jovially accosts real-life passers-by from his chalet window, with an amusingly wide range of responses.) The picture is a purposefully skittery, disorientatingly jangly, repetitive affair which seems partly designed to get on the viewers' nerves - even Lenz/Peschel's antics (and his monotonous obsession with his son) wears somewhat thin after an hour or so. It's a testament to his prowess that, while his character is wildly eccentric, the actor does somehow manage to hold things together with a kind of demented, centrifugal force. Besides Peschel's priceless contributions, the compensations of the picture's strikingly limpid cinematography are often the main element serving to retain our interest. The 'story' takes a back seat to Imbach's exploration of character, and while there's much to admire and enjoy about the oddball results, scaling this particular 'peak' does prove somewhat arduous: and reaching the "summit" (those delightful end credits) do come as a bit of a merciful release. Neil Young 16th/22nd May 2006 LUCY : [6/10] : Germany 2006 : Henner WINCKLER : 94 mins (timed) LENZ : [6/10] : Switzerland (Swi/Ger) 2006 : Thomas IMBACH : 95 mins (timed) both films seen 26th April at CityKino cinema, Linz (Austria) click here for A-Z of all features reviewed at Crossing Europe 2006, or here for a roundup article on the event (written for Tribune magazine)  |
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