2.12.19

Cause Germans do it better: LONELY TOGETHER, my favorite 2019 German Film @Munich Intl.Film Festival




Lonely together (ZU ZWEIT ALLEIN) 



Directed by Sabine Koder

 germany, 2019.



"The heart has it reasons which reason knows nothing of." 
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)

You will either enjoy the laid-back atmosphere and chatty characters in “Lonely Together”, 
a fresh film out of the Munchen HFF oven, 
or find it all incredibly boring. 
It is though so rare to find movies that don't want to be sensationalistic and violent, 
but would rather present universal questions 
and then investigate them throughout the course of the movie.

Director Sabine Koder traces in "Lonely Together" the portrait of a couple of two undecided.
But, as the director is an obvious follower of Kant, 
she made her characters two volunteers of indecision: 

 

The two chose not to be chosen.
The two do not stop passing from one bank of the river to another, 
as much as they do not stop passing from one state of mind to another.
Yet they never interrupt their analysis and their "no choice".

The characters talk and talk, often such deeply personal matters that I had trouble keeping up. 
But the talk is interesting and intriguing.

This is a story that has to do first with the protagonists self-perception. 
Jean-Thom Lass, who plays Karl, brings a veracious mix of smug confidence and little guy vulnerability to the part.  
All this is spiked with a clear case of self-delusion that illuminates his character.

Nina, played with coquettish innocence by Eva Bay, 
is also clever and deliciously sophisticated, 
vulnerable and honest. 
And she is certainly a bout de souffle, 
a woman on the verge of a breakdown.
Karl engages in much philosophizing about choice, 
but he is never choosing. 
He operates out of how he "should" or "should not" act, rather than out of his experience of what works out. 

When life does not fit his pictures, he deceives himself with endless rationalizations. 
Through his experience with Nina, through their very ludic relationship, more of a camaraderie than of an inflammable love story, 
and especially when she takes time off it, 
he is shook out of his need for complete self-control. 
And then he finally has the epiphany of grace.

The young german director presented here a very strict construction, softened by a balance of tones, 
by the grace of the performers 
and the fluidity of the staging.
"LONELY TOGETHER", intimately linked to the german urban landscape, follows the fluctuations of the feelings of characters who do not cease to hesitate 
on their sentimental destiny.
This is a "philosophical tale", in which the questions of identity and otherness are asked. 
But the film works also as a "moral narrative" that questions the nature of the relationship between the sexes.

“Lonely together” has a quality that lingers long after the action is gone. 
The underlying philosophy about the nature of human love 
and how it conflicts or is (in)compatible with reason 
it really does reflect the above quote from Pascal, 
whose spirit is akin, although he denies it, to that of Karl, the careful protagonist of this very interesting film.

After 10 days when I have lived in the delight of consuming the newest german cinematic oeuvres, 
I found that “Lonely together” is undoubtedly 
one of the most intellectually stimulating films I’ve seen this year.



As this is a beautiful film, worldly wise, warm, 
sensual and subtle 
as a dinner by candlelight.

By Giulia DOBRE
FIPRESCI JURY @ Filmfest Munchen 2019.



Credits

Screenplay: Sabine Koder
Director of Photography: Noah Schuller
Film Editor: Kilian Schmid
Composer: Pablo Jókay
Production Designer: Theresa Scheitzenhammer, Sabine Koder
Costume Design: Olivia Andrione
Sound: Stefan Postavka, Tim Teichmann
Producer: Natalie Hölzel, Sandra Hölzel
Production Company: Elfenholz Film
Co-Production Company: Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film (HFF München)
Director: Sabine Koder


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