Sehnsucht

Shot in a usual village-setting, no glamor, no special dramatic effects, this movie displays love, grief and sensibility in a rather uncommon way; it deals with real people (or at least it has a strong tendency of emphasizing realism), real routine and day-to-day situations, where you don't really have the "femme fatale" or the hero.

Markus, the main character is the real mystery here. Some questions the viewer might be asking him/her self during this movie: what does Markus want? what does he think/feel? One of the great pluses for this movie lies within this character's psychology, since it often hard to understand where he's going with his actions and most importantly why. That is what brings the viewer to the end of the movie, through the long shots that could be considered almost dead-boring if it weren't for that true curiosity of finding out what happens next.

So: do we find out? In the end, it is really a mystery, a question of "fate". I found the epilogue of great effect and a good means to emphasize the essence of what we -as an audience - witnessed through this nice, quaint little romance.

What is fate ? The question is asked by children at a certain point in this film, and a simple answer is given. I found this film compulsive viewing. Every detail of very ordinary lives is depicted, and in this village near a forest setting I felt a sense of foreboding. Behind the spare use of dialogue there was the unease felt in too solitary settings, and despite choral practice and homely meetings and work little happens. But when events take a turn by a visit to another village a train of events take place that could not be foreseen or stopped. I will not give the story away, as every viewer has to find their own path into the film. There is practically no music to distract and when fate strikes the shock is terrible, and the end reminded me of the last scene of Alban Berg's ' Wozzeck ' and the building up of scenes reminded me as well of the source of the Opera; Buchner's play. ' Wozzeck ' in its simplicity calls to mind several German films of semi-recent years. ' Harvest ' is one of them. Like ' Sehnsucht ' the surface is calm, the way of life placid. Too placid and the centre cannot hold and it is then whatever we call fate deals its cards and lives are changed forever. Thanks to ARTE I saw this film and it enriched me. I hope many other viewers track it down. To finish I must mention the acting and despite the fact that all the acting was perfect, Andreas Muller gave a performance to be remembered. Rarely has the inscrutability of the quiet male mind been so finely shown.

The ability of the movie of keeping its audience interested right up to the end by constructing the movie almost entirely out of slow, long, lingering shots reflects the brilliance of the director. Very few directors have this ability. Wong Kar Wai is one that comes to mind. Gus van Sant on the other hand has been fairly erratic: Elephant was good but Last Days lulled me to sleep. So it is refreshing to see a director having the grasp and control of production.

Coming back to the film, it is a simple story of a married couple where the man has a brief fling with a woman in a different town, which is resolved eventually. It may also get fairly predictable, although it wasn't for me.

It is clear that the director is having fun with the audience by using intelligent shock tactics. However, ironic as it may sound, this is a perfect film for people who wish to wish to watch a movie to relax and enjoy good cinema. A few of the people may not like the epilogue, but to me it was revealing and it was an interesting variation to regular cinema. So it doesn't really matter whether we like it or not, it is a unique experience that I haven't seen in movies before.

The acting is also excellent with all the performers giving a heartfelt and honest performance.

So kudos to the director and we hope she comes up with more such stuff in the future.