User Reviews

"Ein fliehendes Pferd" is a German 90-minute movie from 2007, so this one has its 10th anniversary this year. It is among the more known works by director Rainer Kaufmann and the screenplay is by Kathrin Richter and Ralf Hertwig with whom Kaufmann has worked on many occasions before. He has also worked with actress Katja Riemann on many occasions before, so it is not surprising that she plays one of the two biggest female parts in here. The other lead actors are Ulrich Noethen, Ulrich Tukur and Petra Schmidt-Schaller. And I liked all 3 of them. My favorite performance was probably Tukur who really created a sleazy unlikable character here and I am surprised to see he is the only one who did not get any awards attention from this quartet. I personally liked Katja Riemann the least, but this is also personal preference because I just don't think she is a talented actress at all and comes off as very pretentious in most of her roles like this one here. Admittedly, she has been in many weaker films giving way worse performances, also next to Kaufmann, and apart from occasional lows like the masturbation scene that feels very cheap, trashy and included for the sake of it without adding anything memorable at all, she is at least bearable this time. But like I said, I don't like her at all as an actress, so more unbiased observers may differ.

Now about the film itself, I think it was a pretty solid watch and this also has a lot to do with the acting, but also with the script. This is the second (I think) film adaptation of the Martin Walser work "Runaway Horse" after the first (starring Glowna) came out decades ago really as the literary work is also pretty old already, but not dated as we see from this movie, even if it's admittedly also already a decade old. But even if they made it today, I am positive it could turn out nicely. So yeah, there is a moment here and there that I did not like or that did not make that much sense to me, but as a whole, the positive certainly outweighs the negative and I think this film is absolutely worth checking out. It is also interesting how Tukur's character is depicted as such an antagonist and then we see the protagonist suffering from his alleged demise, so that we should not known what to feel about Tukur's character really. One of the best plot developments here. Sadly, I did not like the ending that much, but the chemistry between the actors from start to finish turns this into a convincing outcome. I am positively surprised judging from other Kaufmann/Riemann work I have seen before. Most likely their best collaboration. See it.

I approached this film full of hope as I had read and seen quite good reviews, but even from the opening sequence it was clear that I was going to be disappointed. Whereas the novel starts with Helmut, the querulous protagonist, being forced to take a table at a café by his wife when he would rather go home to read Kierkegaard ( typically awkward piece of coercion), the film presents far too easy-going a picture, with him sitting with his feet dangling in the water, his trousers rolled up, watching the girls go by.

I know that this is just a detail, but in order to achieve the power of the book, the film should have stuck to its systematic presentation of extremes: on the one hand Helmut, the melancholic, heavy, reserved, steady-drinking pessimist; on the other hand Klaus, the mercurial, tee-total, Apollonian demi-urge. In the book, a great deal is made of the fact that Klaus and Hel don't drink, don't smoke and prefer to act rather than ponder, in contrast to the well-lubricated introspection which Helmut practices. The film twists this antithesis into something more banal and seedy: the comic encroachment of a drinking, pot-smoking philanderer on the territory of a moody, somewhat bookish he-badger.

I have to ask at this point why it was almost inevitable that a German film maker would transform a novel as elemental and transcendent into such an ephemeral piece of sub-John Updike trivia. Perhaps because the only director in Germany who would be up to the job is Fateh Akin? Perhaps because the actual story here is simply too horrible for the bland bourgeois world of the "Monday evening movie"?

This hits home particularly in the last phase of the film, where it strays even further from the book than it does at earlier points: after Klaus's apparent death in the storm on Lake Constance (Bodensee), his distraught lover, Hel, stays with Helmut and his wife Sabine. In the book she completely lets go, admits her relief at Klaus's death, tells them that living with him was simply unbearable, that his hunger for life was in itself nothing more than a headlong hurtling away from life, onto the edge where being is obliterated in pure animal experience, living as the abnegation of life. In the film, however, she comes over, cries into Sabine's breast and says "oh, I miss him so much". Diddums.

In a way it's a pity, because the actors, especially Ulrich Noethen, are pretty good. They're simply suffering from poor direction and cinematography that casts a gloopy, monotonous sheen over events, smoothing out each wave, attenuating even the "liberating" dash on the stallion that gives the piece its name. If you want to see a good German film, watch Fateh Akin's "The Edge of Heaven" or Volker Schlöndorff's "The legend of Rita". If you want to enjoy the fine novel "A runaway horse", I hope that it's available in translation. But this film is not really worth the bother, unless you've really got nothing to do of a Monday evening.

Each year in Australia in Apr we have a German Film Festival that runs for about 10 days and screens a selection of the most recent German films with English sub-titles. This year there must have been 20 films including 6 with Jurgen Vogel who made the long journey out here to be a special guest.

Of the two films I saw "Runaway Horse" was my favourite. Pre the festival I did a little research, found a German trailer to get a better idea of whether the film would be my taste or not.

The previous poster (Intelligent Comedy) has summarized it very well. In Klaus the outgoing, grab life by the balls character we have surely the quintessential German man.. well built, confident, blond hair and very engaging and in his late 40's, early 50s? His girlfriend the seemingly Lolita like Helene played by a very engaging Petra Schmidt-Scheller whose character in the film is a Pilates instructor.

Can I at this point confess that the foil between 2 men of the same age, one with a wife his own age and one with a girlfriend half his age was a factor that drew me to this film. But let's not underestimate Sabine played by Katja Riemann. A quite stunning women in perhaps her 40s married to the quite dour Helmut played by Ulrich Noethen. Sabine is a like a ripe peach, unappreciated by Helmut but of course our man of the world Klaus has no problems seeing how truly gorgeous she is. In some ways at one point in the movie it was back 12 months to my favourite from last years festival "Summer '04". Perhaps it was a similar location being summer and beachside/lakeside (Summer '04 in Nth Germany on the Baltic Sea, Runaway Horse in Sth Germany on Lake Constance). Or was it the middle age hotties (sensual women truly in their prime)described in Summer '04 and applicable here as well "radiates serene beauty and tranquility, a confidence and self-assurance as vast as the sea close to her summer home" ...Martina Gedeck (also in The Lives of Others) in Summer and Katja here. It was quite a nice moment to drift back to that old favourite.

SPOILER All in all a very enjoyable movie. I did not quite get the bit at the end where Klaus and Helene disappeared quickly.

Commercially perhaps I would re name this movie something like "Marriage at the Cross Roads" And film a few more minutes to splice into the start with Klaus and Helene heading for Lake Constance in what looked like a VW Thing (a European Jeep without a roof). And Helmut and Sabine heading for the same location in their Peugot 406. A signpost showing where they have come from and where they are headed to would complete the addition!

I'll certainly keep an eye out for the main actors in the movie and follow their future works. For a Saturday afternoon in autumn (fall) this was an interesting and well spent 95 mins. Another German film to add to my favorite German film list! Almost forgot to mention a very catchy soundtrack here with whistling mixed up with some jazz improvision!

The trailer is also on You Tube if you search "Runaway Horse", Akso on You Tube is a 25 min report in English on the Munich Film Festiveal including an interview with Katja Riemann. Search KINO: The German Film Magazine. There is a whole series of the German film video magazines that run to about 25 mins each and with English speaking hostesses!

FOOTNOTE After this review my wife and I made a trip down to the general area in which this film was made in early Jun 2008 while in Germany. We found some of the locations but not all. Mainly on the quiet coastal road that runs along the edge of Lake Constance between Meersburg and the old church at Birneau perhaps 5km or so down the road. Yes you could see glimpses of locations and the manager of the old hotel in Meersburg where we stayed knew of the film, perhaps even some of the crew and some of its approximate locations without having actually seen it.

THere were some hotels just down the hill from the old church at Birnau that I'd certainly like to stay at if in the area again. Right on the lake, very quiet and peaceful. There's Hotel Pilgerhof and Hotel Rebmannshof (which has great pictures of the area on it). I have a shot of the hotel I fancied but not it's nameplate! However these two are a good start.

For cinema fans there is the Cinema Rex @ Friedrichshafen... not too far down the road if you have a car and very close to the Zeppelin museum which is housed in a very modern building overlooking looking the lake there