Aloys

This movie is not only visually stunning, greatly directed and performed, but is also extremely clever and interesting. I get it, it's a slow movie! But it's also how the story is told, slow paced and detailed, that makes you feel immersed in to the characters lives and fears and frustrations. It's about the human condition and how we cope with small things in life. People who dislike this are probably Nolan fans who cant understand an extremely over-explained blockbuster movie. Worth the watch over all these brainless new titles flooding streaming services every day. 10/10

Honestly, I don't know how I stumbled across this film. I was just minding my own business, looking for a movie to watch and so I checked my 2016 watchlist. When I checked it a film called 'Aloys' was starring back at me. So I told myself that if I could find it, I would watch this little film. A little film that I couldn't even remember wanting to see. But find it, I did. The best way to really describe this film is that it's a hybrid between 'Her' and something like 'Synecdoche New York'. Simply put, this is a romance of sorts that has a lot of visual metaphors. It's a kind of bizarro little film that feels like a bunch of friends put together just because they could.

Mainly the film is about a private investigator who recently lost the one person he was close to, his father. The film picks up shortly after the funeral for his dad. As the films goes along we see that this man is stuck in a deep rut. He's completely isolated from the world and does nothing but secretly tape people and then re-watch it over and over. That is, until he gets his camera robbed.

From then the robber begins calling him and telling him that he needs to get out of his shell if he wants his stuff back. The woman and him form a relationship over the phone and fall for each other. They do this by simultaneously imagining themselves with each other doing mundane tasks. Eating food together, talking at a table, playing the piano etc. Of course both of them are just sitting in their own rooms picturing it.

The film does a great job showing that these people can have a genuine connection. Both helping each other break out of their own shells. While both of these characters are horribly depressed the film manages to be incredibly fun to watch at points. There's a wonderful scene where they throw a party at Aloys (private investigator man) house. Where all the people Aloys has come into contact with during the movie are dancing and having a good time.

This is what really surprised me about this film. Where 'Her' Focuses on relationships this film focuses more on people in relationships. And It has a great grasp on its characters. They are both sad, lonely people but they both have distinct voices. We understand them and their struggle. Which just makes us want to see them connect more.

For me, 'Her' is a far superior film but 'Aloys' has quite a few surprises up its sleeve for anyone willing to give it a chance. It talks a lot about relationship expectations vs reality without becoming sappy or unbelievable. We see these two picture themselves in a perfect, bright, colorful, happy relationship when they haven't even met each other. And its this realization that hits you time and time again throughout these sequences.

And every time it does you just feel a little worse. There was numerous times when I was just yelling, "TAKE HER OUT FOR REAL!" to myself. While this is a film that I do like, it isn't perfect. As it marches to the finish it starts to feel a bit full of itself. There are times when we jump around between reality and numerous different fantasies and I was left wondering, why? I wanted an explanation for all of it that never came.

It felt like the film didn't really know where to go near the end. So, it just threw in various dream like sequences that didn't fit with what was happening. That being said, the last shot of the film almost completely redeems it. It's the basic, so close but so far. And it works so amazingly well for this movie.

Overall, I really liked this movie. It's genuinely well constructed and written. But what makes this film work, is the characters. You actually know and like these two people. They share a bond that feels real. Even outside of the main romance, this film feels like a movie made by someone who's been in the business for a while. It's breathtaking in it's style, framing, and blocking of shots. If the end was tightened up this could've been one of my favorite films of the year. As it is, this is still a great movie that I quite enjoyed.

From a strange, eerie opening, featuring a continuous string of stylish visuals and ethereal music the audience is led into a semi-surreal fantasy. At first, the mysterious situations that make up the life of small time private eye, Aloys, promises to take us into some interesting psychological territory but, as the story ambles into unfathomable character involvements - the initial element of mystery simply becomes tiresome. The real becomes fused with the unreal - till it all falls over itself. That's when most viewers are likely to become restless and begin to want it all to move toward some sort of closure. Slick images and a mysterious first 25mins is simply not strong enough to hang a limp study of loneliness (or is it madness?) & then expect it to carry the weight of 90mins. As a short experimental movie it could have worked - there's simply not the legs to carry a feature. As to be expected, this overstretched work won praise from festivals but defiantly won't win many patrons. It certainly would be a hard watch to ever re-visit. Photography, mystical score, and the main performance, carry it to a degree but lack of coherence brings it down to little more than an interesting failure.

"Phone Walking", a proposed theoretical technique devised by neurologists, is the ability for two callers to concentrate on background frequencies of a conversation to visualise a shared location within their imagination. The rustling of plastic bags. Leaves blowing in the blustery winds. Underground trains speeding through subway stations. A method utilised to help disintegrate isolation from those particularly vulnerable to unsocial behaviour. For example, a private investigator whom is overburdened by melancholia due to the recent death of his father. The titular protagonist is often cold, reserved and distant from the hustle and bustle of society, plainly embracing ignorance to those who attempt to converse with him. Overridden with depression, he drinks himself unconscious, waking up to a vacuous bus smothered in bleak condensation. His possessions stolen, his robust phone begins to ring to which he is greeted by a soft female voice on the other end. Attempting to postulate whom the female entity is, he investigates several clues that lead him to the path of "Phone Walking", which inevitably changes his outlook on life itself.

Nölle's Swiss-German drama Aloys is a conceptual experimentation in exploring social behavioural traits through pseudo-science, not explicitly seen since Gondry's 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'. Whilst not nearly as romantic as the aforementioned feature, Nölle opts to focus his story on isolation. That intense confinement of loneliness that drives mental well-being into inexplicable actions, including suicide. From the offset, the sparse dialogue and distant camera shots perfectly imitate Aloys unaffectionate persona to the world. Staring at his father's coffin as it rampantly catapults into a crematorium furnace. The frustration exposed on Friedrich's face whenever an outsider asks a question. A relatable, yet problematic personality that creates a barrier of connectivity with the main character. That is until the anonymous female voice enters the fray and commenced the unique "Phone Walking" exercise, which profoundly transforms a melancholic portrait into a plethora of psychological divulgence.

Nölle audaciously alters Aloys to become a sensual experience, once this neurological method springs into action. Enabling viewers to listen out for background ambience, taste the descriptions of specific food types as these two troubled individuals imagine a party, and sensitively touch specific objects depicted through vocabulary alone. The sharp editing cuts between reality and fantasy, often depicted as a barren woodland, allow audiences to share this imaginative process with both Aloys and his female counterpart. Slowly breaking down that isolated barrier once Aloys begins to comprehend this technique. The transparent alteration in Aloys' elation whenever his "virtualised" interpretation of said female joins his imaginary self, is exquisitely portrayed by Friedrich whom acutely balances fragile mentality with vulnerable fear. Whilst Nölle's direction infers a romantic partnership, the surface-level characterisation instead implies a friendship of understanding and reinforcement, which coincidentally suits these personalities more.

Various narrative bumps do seem to be discarded swiftly, including the reasoning behind the unknown female stealing his possessions in the first place and the continuation of his current investigation. However the biggest issue is the heavy-handed metaphorical equivalence for their confinement, particularly when discussing a seal believing it is still in the Atlantic, but actually imprisoned in a zoo. Whilst perfectly acceptable analogies, their inclusion negates the subtle storytelling that Nölle had effortlessly incorporated throughout. Almost a forced last attempt at conveying the mentality of these characters, yet wholly unnecessary.

Regardless, the sheer conceptualisation of virtualisation through descriptive telephone conversations to chip away at unapproachable personalities is worth the watch in itself. To accompany that refreshing technique with solitary characterisation, despite the yearning for deeper exploration, makes Aloys a desirable phone call indeed.

Aloys Aldon is a lonely man, he works as a Private Detective in Switzerland. He was under the thrall of his father who has just died and now he is alone with a cat who seems estranged and has a magnesium deficiency. He has spent his life viewing the World through the view finder of his cam corder

Then something happens that makes him realise just how bland his existence is and that he has all the charm of a disused latrine – but strangely it awakens in him a part of his being that he had felt erstwhile lost. Now this is a strange film and it is meant to be. It co-mingles reality with fantasy in a way that is completely believable.

The music is often portentous or hinting at a dripping emotion like a dam about to burst. The shots are all beautifully framed and the tension creeps up on you without you realising it – only to be broken by moments of release. In short a film that a lot of thought and soul has gone into. It is a slow starter though a very slow start but it is so worth staying with – this is one for those who appreciate what cinema can do and not expect it to be as they have always known.