July 27, 2023
FILM: AFIRE
DIRECTED BY: CHRISTIAN PETZOLD
STARRING: THOMS SCHUBERT, PAULA BEER, ENNO TREBS
RATING: 3 out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
German filmmaker Christian Petzold has made some intriguing films (Barbara, Phoenix, Transit) that have captured international attention. His latest, Afire, won the Grand Jury Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year. It concerns two friends, Felix and Leon, who are to spend a few days at Felix’s family cabin by the Baltic Sea to work on their professional projects. Felix is putting together a portfolio of his camera work, while Leon is working on a book he hopes is about to be published.
There are a number of distractions though that seem to effect Leon’s ability to progress. First, there is another guest named Nadja already staying in the house. Her late-night sex life keeps the guys awake. The young lifeguard she is seeing, Devid, becomes part of this group’s time together for better or worse. In the distance a forest fire is burning and may be heading for all of them.
The fire is really a metaphor for all that is approaching Leon, who becomes the primary focus of the narrative. He’s a bit overweight and tends to remain somewhat inert to a lot of what is going on around him. There are planes flying overhead, and later sirens, perhaps due to the fire. Does he question it? He watches and hears it all but is he really seeing and hearing? On a more personal level, is he really listening to the people around him?
One might characterize Leon as a younger version of Paul Giametti’s character from Sideways. Perhaps he’s not as neurotic but he seems equally unwilling to change and grow. He has a difficult time speaking up to all that is encroaching upon his potential movement: Nadja, Felix’s photos, and his publisher who comes to talk about Leon’s book but appears more interested in the other fascinating characters around Leon.
Afire is, no pun intended, a slow burn of a film. It’s hard to determine, during the first 45 minutes what Petzold is attempting to tell us about Leon or any of the characters. I’d even say much of this portion of the film is pretty tedious and frustrating. Yet, that might just be the point. We know there are some interesting things going on with Felix, the lifeguard, and Nadja. There’s even some physical attraction that may be brewing between a few members of this group but Petzold holds out and reveals more about this later.
Going back to the fire metaphor, it is as if Leon is oblivious about the major burn to come. Will the characters explode with their true feelings? Is Leon ready to find out who they each really are and will that fire him up? There is a lot that does happen near the end of the film which I won’t spoil. Some of it seems a bit too dramatic and maybe a bit unrealistic based on the little we know about some of the characters. Still, there is an intriguing quality to the film that lingers well after the credits roll as we think about just what is happening within Leon.
Afire is a film for patient cinephiles who want to examine the many layers that Petzold is trying to uncover. It opens this week at the Gene Siskel Center in Chicago.
FILM: AFIRE
DIRECTED BY: CHRISTIAN PETZOLD
STARRING: THOMS SCHUBERT, PAULA BEER, ENNO TREBS
RATING: 3 out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
German filmmaker Christian Petzold has made some intriguing films (Barbara, Phoenix, Transit) that have captured international attention. His latest, Afire, won the Grand Jury Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year. It concerns two friends, Felix and Leon, who are to spend a few days at Felix’s family cabin by the Baltic Sea to work on their professional projects. Felix is putting together a portfolio of his camera work, while Leon is working on a book he hopes is about to be published.
There are a number of distractions though that seem to effect Leon’s ability to progress. First, there is another guest named Nadja already staying in the house. Her late-night sex life keeps the guys awake. The young lifeguard she is seeing, Devid, becomes part of this group’s time together for better or worse. In the distance a forest fire is burning and may be heading for all of them.
The fire is really a metaphor for all that is approaching Leon, who becomes the primary focus of the narrative. He’s a bit overweight and tends to remain somewhat inert to a lot of what is going on around him. There are planes flying overhead, and later sirens, perhaps due to the fire. Does he question it? He watches and hears it all but is he really seeing and hearing? On a more personal level, is he really listening to the people around him?
One might characterize Leon as a younger version of Paul Giametti’s character from Sideways. Perhaps he’s not as neurotic but he seems equally unwilling to change and grow. He has a difficult time speaking up to all that is encroaching upon his potential movement: Nadja, Felix’s photos, and his publisher who comes to talk about Leon’s book but appears more interested in the other fascinating characters around Leon.
Afire is, no pun intended, a slow burn of a film. It’s hard to determine, during the first 45 minutes what Petzold is attempting to tell us about Leon or any of the characters. I’d even say much of this portion of the film is pretty tedious and frustrating. Yet, that might just be the point. We know there are some interesting things going on with Felix, the lifeguard, and Nadja. There’s even some physical attraction that may be brewing between a few members of this group but Petzold holds out and reveals more about this later.
Going back to the fire metaphor, it is as if Leon is oblivious about the major burn to come. Will the characters explode with their true feelings? Is Leon ready to find out who they each really are and will that fire him up? There is a lot that does happen near the end of the film which I won’t spoil. Some of it seems a bit too dramatic and maybe a bit unrealistic based on the little we know about some of the characters. Still, there is an intriguing quality to the film that lingers well after the credits roll as we think about just what is happening within Leon.
Afire is a film for patient cinephiles who want to examine the many layers that Petzold is trying to uncover. It opens this week at the Gene Siskel Center in Chicago.