Film Review: Im Winter ein Jahr (Last Winter)

Karoline Herfurth in Caroline Link's Im Winter ein Jahr (Last Winter, 2008)

I wonder if anyone remembers Robert Redford's film Ordinary People, about a middle-class American family who lose one son in a boating accident and the other son suffers from a painful survivor guilt which pushes him to attempt suicide on various occasions? If you haven't seen it, you should: it won an Oscar, so it must be good, right?

Earlier this month, my housemates and I went to watch Caroline Link's Im Winter ein Jahr (Last Winter) which was being shown as part of the 11th annual German Film Festival in Madrid. Pretty much after ten minutes I was thinking about Redford's piece. This is by no means an imitation: several differences mark this film out as a far more chilling story. However, the idea of how a family reacts and attempts to move on after the death of one of its members is central to the action, characterisation, emotional weight and the themes of loss and unity.

All the actors were phenomenal. Karoline Herfurth sublimely plays Lilli Richter as the surviving sister who wrestles with her grief and resentment against her brother, Alex's, inexplicable suicide. Herfurth drifts through the film in a state of indifference to everything round her, while her on-screen relationship with Josef Bierbichler's Max Hollander, an artist commissioned by Lilli and Alex's mother, Elaine.Corinna Harfouch is possibly the actress in the film most reminiscent of Mary Tyler Moore's mother character in Ordinary People. Unable to come to terms with her loss, and failing to repair an already strained relationship with her remaining child, Harfouch elegantly projects the fragility of her character without seeming obvious or overtly cold. At one moment, when she lays into her husband out of the blue, she repeats the same phrase - "you pushed him too hard" - with so many subtle differences, one feels she cannot escape the inner torment she must feel.

One final mention ought to go to guest actor Misel Maticevic, who plays Lilli's brief fling Aldo, and who manages to make himself utterly hateful within the span of a few seconds, after being so utterly charming for ten minutes. Of course, any good actor is capable of a shift in tone and mood, but to hide a second character beneath that of his character's own creation takes a skill which Maticevic doubtlessly has and which he impressively employs.

Im Winter ein Jahr is not a happy film: it is dark and tragic, but the ending evokes such a life-affirming sentiment one might be forgiven for thinking it a feelgood film upon leaving the cinema.

Five Stars

Also: Celuloidiva , Harald Schleider (2008)

This short film was shown before the main feature, and was an homage to the great film divas and starlets of the Hollywood "Golden Age". A fun ten minutes was had identifying the actresses and the films in which they performed, and the audience was reminded of several great lines. My personal favourite was Mae West's "When I'm good, I'm very good; but when I'm bad, I'm better."

Four Stars