Artistic, multi-generational drama from Germany. Original title: In Die Sonne Schauen (“Looking at the Sun”)
You probably have never heard of this art film. but many critics have declared it a masterpiece, possibly the greatest German film since Metropolis. It scores 95% at Rotten Tomatoes (no popcorn score yet, but it will be lower)
The Hollywood Reporter:
Schilinski doesn’t spare us all their pain and suffering, nor does she hide the joy and wonder they sometimes experience. Her brave girls carry their forebearers within them from one generation to the next, surging toward the future both damaged and victorious.
Variety:
No finer point of craft, performance or poetic nuance has been rushed or neglected.
New York Magazine:
It’s an astonishing work, twining together the lives of four generations of families with an intricacy and intimacy that feels like an act of psychic transmission.
Screen Daily:
A work of thrilling ambition realised by an assured directorial vision.
The Film Stage:
This highly experimental, deeply unsettling tale about the fates of women and their echoes down history plays like a psychosexual fever dream of epic scope. While it will confound and upset plenty, hardcore cinephiles can mark this down as their next film to obsess over.
Movie Brief:
A powerful reminder of what movies — and only movies — can do, Sound of Falling is, quite simply, the best film of the year.
As a lowbrow Philistine, I fast-forwarded to the knockers. I do love some art films, but there are just some phrases that get my finger firmly on the fast-forward button. For example, if a film is called a “tone poem,” or when a plot summary begins with “In rural Ireland in the 19th century …”
You just know nothing pleasant ever happened there.
In the reviews of this particular film “pain and suffering” and “deeply unsettling” were coupled with other reviews calling it “bleak” and “unsettling,” always using those terms as positive attributes. Ouch. If I want to experience unremitting misery, I can call my ex-wife.
Based on the reactions of respected critics, it’s probably a great film, but it’s decidedly not my kind of great film. Even after seeing just a few minutes while fast-forwarding, I had to re-watch Porky’s to cleanse the palate.
Lena Urzendowsky
Luise Heyer
Rottentomatoes, critics. As if that were a measure of quality these days. Everyone’s tired of these “apolitical” critics.