First things first: I must confess to being a fan of Christian
Petzold’s work, such that the semi-annual appearance of his latest film
usually represents one of the highlights of the EIFF for me.
For
the uninitiated, the German director specialises in well-crafted,
slow-burn thrillers. They demand a higher degree of viewer involvement
than most comparable Hollywood product, but are not as hermetic as
those of, say, Michael Haneke.
Petzold’s clinical, restrained
mise-en-scene, all the better to accentuate the moments of sudden
violence, does recall Michael Haneke somewhat. But there also is no
question that Petzold is his own film-maker. This is particularly
signalled by that issues around German identity that Fateh Akin would
foreground here being a bit more subtextual.
The title refers to
the film's setting in North-Eastern Germany, near Rostock on the Baltic Sea
coast, where the action centres around a triangle of characters.
The first, Thomas, is an ex-soldier. He’s someone we can
infer grew up in the DDR and to whom life has not been particularly
kind. He was dishonourably discharged from the army after serving in
Afghanistan – a stain on his character that’s deliberately left
underexplored. After failing to keep his savings from a creditor, now
has no money with which to do up the family home.
The second, Ali, is a Turkish-German
businessman. He came to the BDR when he was two years old and has
established a chain of 45 fast food places in the area. Perhaps through
the pressures of his job – his employees, many of them fellow migrants,
cannot be trusted – he has a tendency to drink too much.
A
chance encounter when Ali, drunk again, drives his Range Rover into a
ditch, leads to Thomas being hired by Ali as his driver and, after the
ex-soldier demonstrates that he knows how to handle himself and when to
keep quiet, he becomes his general trusted right-hand.
It would be a perfect
relationship but for the third point in the triangle, Ali’s wife Laura.
Theirs is a curious relationship. She’s younger and considerably more
attractive than Ali, yet she works hard for his business rather than
taking things easy in the trophy wife manner that might be expected.
She’s also, of course, a ‘true’ German like Thomas.
One day the
three of them head to the coast for a picnic, during which the drunken
Ali encourages Thomas and Laura to dance together. Ali then goes up a
cliff, which collapses beneath him. After a highly significant moment
of hesitation and exchange of reaction shots between Thomas and Laura,
Thomas rushes to Ali’s aid and hauls him back to safety.
As Thomas and Laura embark on an affair under the always suspicious Ali’s nose, they begin to hatch a murderous scheme…
At
this point it becomes clear, if the viewer had not realised it earlier,
that Jerichow is a interpretation of James M. Cain’s oft-filmed novel The Postman Always Rings Twice.
Crucially, however, Petzold again makes some interventions of his own,
as we begin to wonder whether it is not so much that the postman always
rings twice as that sometimes he doesn’t ring at all or perhaps only
once – and even then, maybe not in the manner anticipate.
Another of Petzold’s strengths is his ability to draw the best from his actors. Jerichow proves no exception, with Benno Fürmann, Nina Hoss and Hilmi Sözer
delivering nuanced, credible performances and playing off one another
well.
Technically the film is accomplished, with good cinematography and sound design in particular.
In sum, strongly recommended.