"Die Wand" or "The Wall" was Austria's foreign language submission to the Academy Awards the year after "Amour" took home the big prize. This one failed in making the list, but it is nonetheless an excellent movie. I guess it did not really do well with awards bodies as even with the Austrain film Awards it did not score a single win when Ulrich Seidl's newest work dominated the categories. The movie is written and directed by Julian Pölsler based on Marlen Haushofer 1963 novel. The film runs for roughly 100 minutes and basically we only hear Gedeck narrate and see what she is narrating in these scenes. There are a handful more actors in this film, but all only very briefly while Gedeck (still very stunning at 50) is in it from start to finish. Her narration is actually based on diary entries. She is already further in the future than what she tells us about. She knows things we do not know. The plot is as simple as it is effective. A woman wants to spend some quiet time in the mountains, but she quickly realizes that there is an invisible wall there holding her prisoner. She can see other people through it, but they are not moving. Are they dead? Is she dead? Is she hallucinating or suffering from a psychological illness? What happened? One of the film's biggest strengths is that there is no solution in the end, so feel free to speculate and discuss all the way. It reminded me a bit of Jürgen Domian's book "The day the sun disappeared".
12 minutes into the movie, the first crucial thing happens when her dog runs into the invisible wall. Yes, she has a dog, also a cow and a cat and also some young animals freshly born into this devastating scenario. They keep her company and possibly also keep her from going insane. Dog in a drama movie usually not a good prospect for the dog. Same here. The scene when she meets the man near the end is a very pivotal one. Pay attention to how she completely neglects approaching him in order to find a solution to her/their imprisonment. She did not think about it one second. All she thinks about is revenge for what he did to her companions. Listen closely to what she says about she got rid of his corpse compared to how she got rid of her dog. The tragedy is also referred to earlier in the film when she mentions her the death of her cat the first time that she was facing loss. Or how she talked about the death of her dog long before it happened in the film. Apart from that, what makes her interesting is also that we do not find out about who she was before coming to the mountainside. Also the audio is excellently done. There's is silence for most of the film and I really liked the contrast between the forced happy music Gedeck's character forces herself to listen to in the car and the general atmosphere.
This is the kind of film which is always worth a watch, but much more effective on the big screen, so be grateful if you have a home cinema or managed to watch this at your local theater. All in all, it is a dramatic tale on isolation, but there are some horror elements too, like her nightmare. It's one of the most atmospheric and metaphorical (white crow) films I have seen lately and is highlighted by Gedeck's outstanding lead performance. And last but not least, it has an excellent ending as the movie ends when she has no sheets of paper anymore and so is forced to stop with her diary entries. Highly recommended.
12 minutes into the movie, the first crucial thing happens when her dog runs into the invisible wall. Yes, she has a dog, also a cow and a cat and also some young animals freshly born into this devastating scenario. They keep her company and possibly also keep her from going insane. Dog in a drama movie usually not a good prospect for the dog. Same here. The scene when she meets the man near the end is a very pivotal one. Pay attention to how she completely neglects approaching him in order to find a solution to her/their imprisonment. She did not think about it one second. All she thinks about is revenge for what he did to her companions. Listen closely to what she says about she got rid of his corpse compared to how she got rid of her dog. The tragedy is also referred to earlier in the film when she mentions her the death of her cat the first time that she was facing loss. Or how she talked about the death of her dog long before it happened in the film. Apart from that, what makes her interesting is also that we do not find out about who she was before coming to the mountainside. Also the audio is excellently done. There's is silence for most of the film and I really liked the contrast between the forced happy music Gedeck's character forces herself to listen to in the car and the general atmosphere.
This is the kind of film which is always worth a watch, but much more effective on the big screen, so be grateful if you have a home cinema or managed to watch this at your local theater. All in all, it is a dramatic tale on isolation, but there are some horror elements too, like her nightmare. It's one of the most atmospheric and metaphorical (white crow) films I have seen lately and is highlighted by Gedeck's outstanding lead performance. And last but not least, it has an excellent ending as the movie ends when she has no sheets of paper anymore and so is forced to stop with her diary entries. Highly recommended.