User Reviews

This film - known as Whispering Moon in English - is the first Austrian film I have ever seen. I thought at first that it was German because of the language - but was surprised as it seemed to be much "lighter" and more fanciful than anything I had ever seen come out of Germany. Now I know why!

It is hard to categorize this film - but "murder mystery" comes close enough. Nevertheless, the entire charm of the film is not really the story, but is much more a question of style. Highly inventive and a visual delight, it keeps you deliciously off-kilter as you try to follow all that is happening on screen... with two languages plus special effects plus subtitles occasionally all happening at the same time. The film is obviously one that could only have been made by computer-savvy technicians - and this is also part of the charm as they let us see some of the tricks they are using as a way to deconstruct things right before our eyes. it is also obviously made by and for people used to multi-tasking and our high-tech modern world.

The story-line is rather weak - but that is even admitted near the end by one of the characters. Since I don't speak German I cannot really comment on the acting - although personally I found the main players to be rather expressionless and unconvincing. But this really doesn't matter - one is caught up in the entire deliciousness of the film medium being used to delight us again and again.

I predict that this film, given a bit of a chance and a reasonable distribution at various film- festivals, could eventually become a cult film for various factions of young people today - specifically film buffs and gay audiences. Give it a chance - you'll probably like it!

"Das Flüstern des Mondes" or "Whispering Moon" is an Austrian German-language movie from 2006, so this one is already over a decade old. The writer and director here is Michael Satzinger and this is without a doubt his most known work. It runs for a bit over 1.5 hours and I thought that this was quite a bizarre film, but I'll get to that in a minute. First of all, I want to say that this is not a film I would define as gay-themed. I also would not define a film as straight-themed, but that is another story. As for this one here, you may think it is at the very core about homosexuality if you see the photo here on IMDb and also if you see people including it in lists that have a title like gay-themed, but this only shows that they have not understood the film one bit as there is a great deal more to this movie and the sexual component is just one of many, but not the one the film is all about. Sorry folks. Anyway here and there the film has a decent moment, but as a whole I wouldn't say I was too convinced by the outcome here and that includes all kinds of aspects here, all production values basically. And I was genuinely confused by the director's screen altering approach at times that was definitely a very unique style and inclusion, but certainly not very good. The way he painted for example a mustache into one character's face was quite embarrassing and I had no clue what this was about. It certainly is not a successful way in terms of comedy and many Austrian filmmakers have delivered more convincingly in terms of humor. Also in recent years. Also in mostly serious film. All in all, this one here is definitely not a failure, but there also isn't a single component that makes this one memorable and this includes the forgettable circus action on many occasions. It's a thumbs-down. Don't watch.