The
past is indeed a foreign country.
This means it is often filmed as such,
with
an eye for the exotic otherness
that makes it an alien zone.
But Sonja
Kröner made with THE GARDEN
a quietly assured, gentle tragic comedy.
An scented film
that delivers the portrait of a bourgeois
German family’s 1970s summer
that feels deliciously and authentically as present-tense.
All images here are so piercingly accurate
that they feel like real memories.
A foot
stepping out of the loop of a garden...
a rim of grime under a fingernail...
are somehow delivered without
fetishization or nostalgia.
The cumulative effect is to make “The Garden” feel like an auspiciously
evocative debut,
even if it delivers more on atmosphere
than on fully nourished
story.
Chintzy
patterns,
vintage cars,
and space hoppers
are all present and correct in Sonja
Maria Kröner’s ode
to the languorous West German summers.
It generates a mood of easy, lived-in authenticity.
The Garden
assembles three generations
of an affluent family
at their beloved summer
bungalow,
following the death of the grandmother.
Discussions about the future of one of the
garden plots sow tensions.
The children squabble over the treehouse,
and try to kill as many wasps as possible...
...and the news that a local girl
has been kidnapped
imbues the bungalow next door
with a sense of danger.
The only thread
that somewhat
raises the pulse revolves around one aunt’s
repressed lesbian
longings.
In
the background,
there’s a buzz of foggy unease.
The radio burbles that story of the missing child...
the newspapers print salacious details
of the crime
for the old ladies to tut about over tea...
wasps keep multiplying;
and,
like
all good childhood vacation spots,
there’s the mysterious
“artist”
who lives just over the fence,
who lives just over the fence,
whose art betrays an interest in doll mutilation...
The
family relationships
are not drawn especially clearly,
are not drawn especially clearly,
but that adds to “The Garden’s” choral,
lazy-days feel.
This is family in the most recognizable
and honest sense.
People take each other for granted and nurse favoritism.
That is an indolent, hot summer.
Nothing and everything happens.
A tree falls...
plants
get watered...
a birthday is celebrated...
kids are lost, found and grounded...
one of the older generation is politely asked
to stop sunbathing
nude...
Ilse the old aunt
seems on the verge of a tentative
of same-sex romance,
but
is made to feel ridiculous
for wearing lipstick to lunch.
The children bounce
around on Hoppity Hops, venture
into the forbidden territory
beyond the fence...
and sing a childishly racist song
that refers to child murder and cannibalism...
The
images are rich,
in a precisely calibrated palette.
The framing from
DOP Julia Daschner
sometimes sacrifices discipline for immediacy.
But more often it
picks out
nicely observed moments of humdrum activity,
like
making a bed with blankets
rather than a duvet,
or briskly cleaning one’s nails
with a nail brush.
The locations, interiors and costuming
are terrific,
with every corner of this contained,
microcosmic world
feeling authentic to its
1970s German setting.
And, perhaps most impressive of all
for a neophyte director,
Kröner
gets natural,
unselfconscious performances
from every member of
her big,
generations-spanning ensemble,
playing a family
who may be nothing
like your own,
but who will remind you
of them
anyway.
By Giulia Ghica Dobre
Production: (Germany) A Prokino Filmverleih
presentation of a Walker + Worm Film production, in co-production with
Bayerischer Rundfunk and Westdeutscher Rundfunk.
Producers: Philipp Worm,
Tobias Walker.
Crew: Director, screenplay: Sonja Maria
Kröner. Camera (color): Julia Daschner. Editor: Ulrike Tortora.
With:
Thomas Loibl, Laura Tonke, Ursula
Werner, Mavie Hörbiger, Günther Maria Halmer, Christine Schorn. (German
dialogue)
