User Reviews

I gathered all my layman's Freudian knowledge to try and understand this movie, but in vain. What you see, is a gay couple on a bicycle outing through the German countryside. They make love, bicker, and play weird hide-and-seek games in the nightly forest, culminating in some sort of bondage-sex in the bushes. Then they meet a friendly lady and her teenage son in a dilapidated farmhouse and spent some time there. They leave, something happens in the woods, we see only one guy back. The end.

What we don't see, is what it's all about, director & writer Jan Krüger (deliberately?) leaves almost every background in the dark. What we do get is lots of innuendo's to potential plot twists, that never come to anything. Like we see the lady flirtatiously hovering around the boys, but nothing! Or one of the guys seems interested in the teen son, but again: nothing! The end of the movie seems to be meant as some kind of climax, but is totally unfathomable, I can only assume that the more pensive and somewhat jealous guy does something violent to the other one (a reference to their SM-games?) and left him in the woods (to die??).

The pace is for most of the movie extremely slow. This occasionally works, like when we follow the three boys in a boating trip on a lake, in that scene the atmosphere even gets a dreamlike magical feeling. The photography is at times beautiful, but at other times, like in the dark woods, it's way too arty, at the cost of understanding what on earth is happening. Both guys are rather uncharismatic and non-descript, if anything they are pretty unsympathetic, so you couldn't care less what happens to them.

I probably missed out on tons of metaphors, and I'm sure it's my too simple brain, but the purpose of this movie totally eluded me.

"Rückenwind" or "Light Gradient" is a German movie from seven years ago written and directed by Jan Krüger and this was far from his first work in terms of gay-themed movies. And admittedly, it is also not as bad as the short film he made on this matter early in his career. But "Rückenwind" is still a pretty unsuccessful project overall. There was not a single factor about this film that I really liked. I have seen many gay-themed (short) films and the problem is in 90% of the cases that the film relies way too heavily on the couple being homosexual and not heterosexual as if this was already a major plot point. In my opinion, you have to deliver in the face of this background information and not act as if this is the plot already. To be more focused on this film here, this is also a major flaw I believe. Apart from that, the writing does not feel too inspired either. It was obviously the maker's intention to deliver a character study here, in which nothing really spectacular happens, but even from that perspective I found it lacking and boring. It certainly does not help that the two lead actors do not seem to be among the most gifted of their craft. looking at their bodies of work in recent years, it seemed that they stopped acting. And Krüger also has not made a feature film in 5 years anymore. I hope if he does another one one day, he will have improved a bit as "Rückenwind" is disappointing for the most part and lack relevance despite being very short and running only for approximately 75 minutes. Not recommended.

I'm not sure it counts as a spoiler, since I couldn't figure out the ending.

This film seemed to go nowhere, slowly and randomly. Two gay boyfriends (together two months) go on a biking trip together, and encounter mishaps and some friction. They take refuge in a farmhouse with a 40ish woman who seems to fixate on gay men (like her vanished husband) and her teenage son who is typically rather bored and boring, not especially interested in things gay, and not believable as a threat to the two lovers. There's a loose sense of foreboding, but since all the characters seem bored or moody, there is little in the way of clues to piece together a plot. There are a lot of indulgent scenic shots which slow down the action, rather than adding momentum towards a denouement that when arrived at, I still found confusing. The side story about a disappearance in the 18th century seems like it could be a clue to the action, but I couldn't see how it fit. Ditto the psychoactive berries, which add confusion rather than clarity and makes an attempted thriller less thrilling and more confusing in the end.

****** POSSIBLE SPOILERS ********** But wait! You can't spoil a movie that has nothing to spoil!

I'm a fan of indie films and foreign films, but I'll be the first to admit, I've seen a lot more bad ones than good ones. So as an expert on bad movies, let me tell you, this one is terrible. What happens in it? Maybe something, but whatever the hell it is, it happens off-screen. There's a lead-up to the point when the something may or may not have happened (i.e., the whole, drawn-out, insufferably boring movie), and an epilogue in which a character mumbles something about a fox and a hare in a hospital.

But what happens? Well, there's a flash of ropes, and a struggle and darkness, and.... well that's it.

I'm not exaggerating. That's the movie. the lead-up is lyrical... a prologue about a fox and a hare... then lots and lots of bicycle riding in the woods. Bicycling riding on abandoned runways. Sun shining through the trees as they ride bikes through the woods. S&M in the woods, robbing sandwiches from other bike riders in the woods. Outdoor showers with a garden hose, skinny-dipping on a pier, and then the thing that possibly happens, and then the epilogue.

At least "The Singing Forest," in my mind the worst movie ever made, *tried* to tell a story. This one doesn't even try.

So this is how to torture Hitler in hell. Strap der Führer into a chair, with his eyes pried open a la Alex in A Clockwork Orange, and force him to watch the "Light Gradient" over and over... But, every time it finishes, pause to beat him and shout "Achtung! Explain it to me, Herr Hitler! I know you understand what happened! Now talk!" Beat him for five more minutes, say "Vee haff vays to make you talk" and play the loop again.

Hmm. Maybe even he doesn't deserve that.

This review contains **Spoilers** and the reason is because I came here after watching the movie to see what others thought about it. It's quite confusing at the end...because it's unexpected. Some of the reviews are hilarious, others reflect the viewers' confusion. As soon as it ended...I had a theory, and I don't see any other theories like it - so this is my way of documenting that. Two things I would suggest...1) At the end go back and watch the beginning and 2) listen to the story of the fox & the hare at the beginning...and then go back to the end (again) to listen to its continuation. Some people said the fox was trying to convince the hare to go on an adventure...and we assume the fox is the bad guy...but I think the hare is the tricky one here...firstly, the hare asks the fox to be friends...that's immediately suspicious. And all of the things that the hare agrees to...are not in the hare's nature - so this is a deceptive hare (or a self-deceived hare). Secondly...someone was wondering which boy was the fox and which was the hare...I think it's obvious. Johann (dark hair) is the hare. As the narrator pans to him at the end...he references the hare - and he references the questions they (alluding to the doctors) were asking the hare...as doctors ask Johann questions...why were you in the forest? Was there anyone with you? (was he there alone...?) Why the ropes? Then at the end the hare asks the fox...why did you leave me alone...and the fox says, I thought it was YOUR idea. Going back to the beginning...when he was trying to remember whose idea going into the forest was...Robin's or Johann's...and he couldn't remember well whose idea it was.

So this is my theory. There is no Robin...there is no Fox. 1) This movie opens up and ends with Johann being in a mental institution (one where he's being a 2-way mirror...where he can be observed by doctors) - so we know he has some mental challenges. I believe that this entire story happened in his head. This is why he can't remember who came up with the idea...was it him? was it robin? - Robin is a hallucination in his mind. And it's also why, at the end, he asks the fox...why did you leave me alone? "I thought it was your idea" he said to the hare. The hare orchestrated it. 2) I think that's why he was acting so strangely, at the end...he was beginning to suspect something was wrong...and he set up a trap, with ropes. We don't see the other guys face in the trap...we can only see him - he trapped himself. 3) I have another theory, in addition to the first, that Henri, the lady's son, was actually Johann...and he was having flashbacks of his childhood. He was jealous of Robin's interaction with the boy...but it was himself...as a child, before he came out. He began reading the book - and there were letters in it...and the letters made him suspicious of who was behind all of this...so he began acting strangely, went back into the woods, & set up a trap and trapped himself. Also remember when they found the farmhouse and the boys mention the bikes disappear in the middle of the woods...Henri has a look on his face - he knows what happened to the bikes...because Henri is Johann...and all of this is happening in Johann's mind.

This is a film reminiscent of "Sun Kissed" of 2006. Most seemed to hate that film too.

Both are films following a schizophrenic fantasy. The action is slow because it is a dreamlike state. Johann fantasizes a hiking trip with a lover. The mother and son they meet are totally supportive of their homosexuality. It is possible that society's non-supportive attitude is what put Johann in the institution in the first place, and so he fantasizes the opposite in a dream world. Johan is both the fox and the hare, two different aspects of his personality.

All the water scenes are symbolic of fantasy and are the key that we are not witnessing reality. The showering with a hose out of doors is similar to a scene in "Sun Kissed" because the plumbing did not work indoors which may symbolize the institution or society in general. The scene over the highway where Johann and Robin watch the world go by beneath them shows they are in a world of their own in which they can love each other and be free. The one contact with the real world to which Johann must succumb is the need for sustenance thus the scene with the stealing of food from the couple bicycling.

I like to believe the berries eaten by Johann was actually medication administered which totally disrupted his dream lovers' outing. Thus doctors meddling with someone's subconscious are liable to get him tangled in the woods.

Who can say that a schizophrenic with a complete fantasy world in his/her mind has not reached nirvana? I gave it a nine because I realized fairly early that I was following a dream that was not supposed to make sense. One just has to suspend reality and go with the sensuous flow.