User Reviews

This film was screen as part of the 2007 Sydney Mardi Gras Film Festival. I had no expectation of the film as someone else choose it for me.

I actually like films that take time to develop, films that allow the characters to unfold and lets the story flow. Stillness is good. But this film though was just plain slow.

Credit must go to the two main actors. There was a sense of tension between them as two totally different people, misfits really, come together in a very awkward way. There were tender moments and sadness as we learned more about them.

I also liked the setting and the way it was shot. It was claustrophobic and monochrome and it added to the film's intimacy and reinforces the oddness of the characters.

I just don't understand the ending. What was the point of it all?

As long as you can suffer it! If you like watching people waking up, getting up, getting dressed, having a shower, preparing dinner, watching each other, having sex in the dark, then going back to bed to sleep... if you like tacky flats, narrow bedrooms and kitchens, long minutes of silence.... if you like getting bored for two hours, feeling the thrill of "real intimate false art", then you will like it. But if you don't, just try to see a good movie, there are thousands. "As long as you are here", but do we want to stay? This German movie got the award of the Torino gay film festival: Italian journalists still don't understand why the jury took such a bad decision, as the festival presented lot of talented movies. Maybe to be nice with a German, as they don't often get awards? Well, "The Lives of Others" did... but this one is excellent but not gay. So maybe it is a question of fashion. Germans are they "in" again? No matter what? Or maybe only for a hustler's glance of some directors?

It's interesting that all who (so far) seemed to like this film had no expectations--I guess that's the trick. In contrast with them, I had optimistic expectations, and that was a mistake. As soon as I saw how close to the faces the camera always was, I knew we were in the hands of an extremely amateur director--that's always a clear sign of them, they think it is arty or effective or intense to hold the camera about two inches away from the actors. The actors in this film, though, had only one facial expression each.

If the close camera wasn't enough, the lack of light in the film killed it. The film seemed to be entirely filmed in the dark. So now we know that the cinematographer was a rank amateur, as well. "Ooh ooh, we're going to light the set with a flashlight! That will make it all seem intimate!" No, that made it all seem invisible.

On top of the serious technical flaws, there was absolutely no story beyond the barest hint of an idea that was never developed, and nothing new about this kind of relationship was illuminated. (Perhaps this is a new kind of film for Germany, but in Los Angeles, forget about it.)

The fact that this film won a couple of film festival awards doesn't indicate the quality of the film, but besmirches the quality of these particular festivals. I can assure you that this film won't win anything in the festival where I saw it. In fact, two times during the film it seemed that it was finally over and people started to get up to leave (this was one of the side effects of the cinematographer's "total darkness" technique). But when the film shuddered on, instead, there were moans coming from the audience. And once the movie finally DID end, it was clear that it hadn't mattered if it actually had ended at either of the two earlier points. An earlier ending would have saved the audience from yet more monotonous scenes of domesticity (folding sheets, cutting vegetables, spreading honey on bread). Yeah, we get it, the life of the lonely old man was boring-- but we figured that one out at the very beginning.

I recommend that audiences miss this one, it has absolutely nothing to offer sophisticated movie-goers.

WHILE YOU ARE HERE (Germany) "He's asleep downstairs. I'm so excited I just don't know what to do." That's George (Michael Gempart), an elderly German pensioner, speaking into his tape-recorder diary, entries from which play on the soundtrack of this magnificent 80-minute film from 26-year-old writer-director Stefan Westerwelle, who made it as his senior project at Cologne's Academy of Media Arts. George is excited because Sebastian (Leander Lichti), the young hustler he's been hiring of late, has unexpectedly decided to stay the night. Both men need the company, and both gradually find resonance in the other's haltingly told stories of the various men (fathers, lovers, et al.) who've shaped their lives. This exquisitely designed and photographed film has a disjointed and ultimately very moving time scheme, and a vividly physical sense of how a man such as George — like single people the world over — surrounds himself with the photos and objects whose nearness soothes his soul. In its affinity for the movement of light and shadow across a domestic space, While You Are Here calls to mind the films of British master Terence Davies (The Long Day Closes and Distant Voices, Still Lives), while its appreciation for the daily rhythms of solitude makes it the cinematic equivalent of Christopher Isherwood's seminal novel of gay life, A Single Man. That's surely too much hyperbole for such a modest film, but this is gorgeous work from an exciting new filmmaker. (REDCAT, Sat., July 21, 9:30 p.m.) (CW)

I went to see the movie without any expectations, during the Montreal World Film Festival. What can someone expect from a young director, with a young crew, right? What I found out surprised me, and my friends whom I brought back with me to see the movie for themselves. The finesse, the depth of each line, the lightness of small gestures, combined with an impeccable camera technique, gave a wonderful result. Among all the young creators and participants in this movie, the director Stefan Westerwelle definitely knew how to attract the spectator into the show! Michael Gempart does a great part, down to the smallest detail. His role is more of a meditation, a spoken one... Leander Lichti also plays with easiness a character that is quite difficult to portray. The pair reflects very well the incongruence of two ages. My only regret with regard to the movie is that it didn't get any prize at the festival in Montreal. I can't wait for the DVD to come out!

Hi there,

let me briefly tell all of you, that I loved that film. You'll love it,too. I, as a cineast, have always been wondering why gay issued-films became so incredibly boring. Watching "Solange Du hier bist", i found an answer: Because they don't face reality and suffocated in sort of post 80ies trial of breaking taboos, that are not longer existent. Or they obviously just try to tear the money out of the audiences pockets with offering cheap and "pseudo-sexy" stories. "Solange Du hier bist!" doesn't either do the first nor the second. This film seems to have broken a new taboo, confronting the (gay) audience with (their) absolute and personal reality! Honest, brutal, courageous, empathetic!I am sure that might be disturbing for some, but it's a revolution in a way... This film shows individual life, and suddenly puts the word -cinema- above the brand -gay movies-. Congrats...

TO Stampa Rosa: Don't worry about Torino. Maybe you'll win next time!

Already the first scene, in which Mr. Kuhn repairs a broken porcelain bowl with affectionate accuracy, tells us about the essence of the protagonist's inner character. The inner and outer treasures he collected during a 70 years lasting live and that surround him still now, create a perfect personal microcosm in which Mr Kuhn lives absolutely satisfied.

The opposite: In this life contacts to the outer world are sporadic. Each week he allows himself to invite a young hustler to his home. The combination - an elder man and a boy - might sound a bit like "Death in Venice" or "Gods and Monsters" but indeed things become totally different - the relationship turns to the opposite: Georg (sensitively played by Michael Gempart) is far away from resignation or thanatophobia. In proportion to the young Sebastian (Leander Lichti) he rather overtakes the positive and optimistic part. His childlike joy to search for possibilities to offer little advertencies to others doesn't make him look like an old man. In fact he beautifully behaves like someone who discovered the way to reunite mature wisdom with innocent naivety.

Stefan Westerwelle's final project at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne is a very warmhearted debut, in which tiny gestures and precise looks allow the audience to have a gaze into a private and magical world. At the same time he beautifully and sensitively deals with the issue of homosexuality in advanced ages, so that it's clear, that it's nothing one has to be ashamed of. (Seen at Newfest NY)

Wonderful! --- If you don't like to have such a director in Los Angeles, well, we don't care - we like him to stay in Europe anyway! ---

I saw that film even before Ms. Stampa Rosa. Not just in Locarno, where i attended its world premier, no, where ever I've been able to watch it, i couldn't wait seeing it.

And every time i am anew impressed by the beautiful images, by it's impressing tenderness and the sensitive and sensitively told story! I don't perceive it as a gay movie- IT IS MORE! of course, on its surface, it deals with a gay subject, but develops into a incredibly touching portrait of life in general and a fascinating and precise portrait of an old man, as well! Non moralist and open minded! And definitely non of these "gay soft-porn"

To Ms "Stampa Rosa": And now, i am proud to be able to tell you, that i saw it around 4 times internationally and have never been bored at all. I am not sure what you expect from film, but this film has everything a young film should have. It offers a courageous insight into the reality of a living being, into a part of society, younger people like to push aside. THIS, Ms "Stampa Rosa" is a film which gives you 150% back of what it's promising. Your generalization is annoying! One advice: Watch more German Films, (whatch more films in general), and read more press articles (as i am working for Press as well, I know that what you say is definitely NOT TRUE!!! (you should read the international articles about the film as well.) You'll find out that you belong to a minority with your opinion. The awards this film has already won, should say you the same.

hi there,... before watching that film in Rotterdam, I didn't know what to expect. I heard a lot about that movie from press and friends but I went out before that film finished, thinking that I wasn't really interested in it (or i didn't feel in the mood). But then I realized that I couldn't stop thinking about the images the old man and the atmosphere. I was caught in this movie. and I still had them in my mind a couple of days. Without knowing where that all came from. That impressed me and I went in again on another festival and stayed until the end. It was absolutely worth it! It's incredible how subtle the film/the actors/the camera/the way of directing tears one into this very personal world and transforms the whole banality into a deep and intense (not only filmic)experience. You need to sit and wait a bit, but after 15 or 20 minutes your part of it. I really like to apologize for not being patient enough the first time!

I as well had the chance to attend a q&a afterwards. The director found beautifully words to explain it. You really feel that he and his camera woman live for that way of telling stories,... 100% sensitivity!