‘Sound of Falling’ quietly plunges into female despair
With the esoteric-to-a-fault “Sound of Falling,” writer-director Mascha Schilinski delivers a technical marvel depicting the various traumas visited upon four generations of girls and young women from the same German family. It extends from the early 20th century to the present. But instead of laying it out chronologically, Schilinski opts for a far more convoluted route, interweaving their tales of hopelessness and despair through costumes, props, and photogenic actresses to help us identify which of the four time periods we’re currently inhabiting.
It begins with Erika (Lea Drinda), a curious teenager, first seen hobbling down the hallway of the large farmhouse where all four stories unfold. It appears that she’s had her left leg amputated. But mere seconds later, the truth is revealed. The limb is actually intact. She’s used a rope to tie the shank to the back of her left thigh, apparently so she can experience how difficult it is for her disabled Uncle Fritz (Martin Rother ) to move about.
Leg unfastened, Erika stealthily enters Fritz’s room to quietly return his crutches. But she can’t resist dipping a finger into the shirtless man’s navel to extract a drop of sweat and bring it slowly to her tongue. It’s equal parts icky and erotic. It also serves as a portent of what awaits, no matter if the setting is 1915, 1945, 1985 or 2025.
Death is omnipresent, largely in the form of suicides, and usually by means of leaping from dangerous heights. What links these fatalities is that each time these girls throw themselves to the floor or dirt below, there is no sound upon impact. Ergo, the movie’s title, a brutal metaphor for these bright young women feeling misunderstood and unseen. It won’t be the only time Schilinski resorts to such melodramatic expressions to emphasize the point that women have been silenced through the ages, mostly by men.
If this is news to you, I suspect you’ll dig “Sound of Falling” more than I did. For me, many of these ordinary, albeit accurate, observations were articulated far more compellingly in Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking.” That film evoked a visceral reaction. “Sound of Falling” gets bogged down in self-pity and gratuitous displays of angst and suffering.
A fun night at the movies, it ain’t. But as I said earlier, it’s a remarkable technical achievement, as Schilinski and director of photography Fabian Gamper employ an array of editing and camera tricks to create seamless transitions. Not just in shifting between decades, but also between scenes, moods and tones. It’s really quite impressive, and no doubt took intricate planning and strategy to execute. Yet, what good is it when the storytelling is so pedestrian?
I was often reminded of a current idiom: “The cruelty is the point.” And boy does Schilinski drive home the meaning, with her “girls” being slapped, molested, bartered and led to believe that physical attractiveness is the sum of their worth. For some of the girls, sex is their only means of power over the neanderthal males who brazenly ogle them, often incestually.
This is particularly true of Veronika (a striking Lena Urzendowsky), a teen growing up in communist East Germany during the 1980s. She knows whenever she slips on a clingy swimsuit or supershort shorts, her creepy uncle, Uwe (Konstantin Lindhorst), and even weirder cousin, Rainer (Florian Geißelmann), will be transfixed. You’d think she’d be repulsed, but in one of the film’s numerous expository voiceovers, she surprisingly challenges that assumption. “They think they are watching me,” she reflects, “but it’s me watching them watching me.”
In current times, Veronika’s niece, Lenka (Laeni Geiseler), also senses eyes on her when she removes her top on a sweltering day to run through a sprinkler. It’s an unconscious act by a perhaps naive young lady who still regards herself as a child. The lecherous response from one onlooker shatters that innocence, causing unwarranted shame and embarrassment. By contrast, her great aunt, Erika (Drinda) and great-great aunt Alma (Hanna Heckt) saw power in death and the myriad mysteries it holds. Alma, all of 9 or 10 years old, sees ghosts, and you’re eventually as convinced as she is that her expansive home is inhabited by the repressed spirits of every female who ever lived there.
Ultimately, that’s what “Sound of Falling” reveals itself to be: A haunted house of horrors with a significant #MeToo bent in which each succeeding generation progressively gains more agency, more courage and more strength. Sadly, that emancipation doesn’t extend to everyone. Just ask Veronika’s put-upon mother, Irm (Claudia Geisler-Bading), or Lenka’s perpetually ignored little sister, Nelly (Zoë Baier). Their fates of doom and invisibility are heartbreaking.
They, along with the other talented young actresses, provide just enough oomph to sustain “Sound of Falling.” And their universally strong performances no doubt played a significant role in landing it on the Oscar shortlist for best international feature. It’s unlikely to be one of the five finalists, as this year’s competition is much too tough. But despite its numerous flaws, “Sound of Falling” remains a film richly deserving of recognition, even if it doesn’t always fully and meaningfully connect.
Movie review
Sound of Falling
Rated: Not rated, but contains graphic nudity, sexual situations, language, suicide and violence
Cast: Hanna Heckt, Lea Drinda, Lena Urzendowsky, Laeni Geiseler, Zoë Baier, Claudia Geisler-Bading, Konstantin Lindhorst, Florian Geißelmann, Filip Schnack and Marton Rother
Director: Mascha Schilinski
Writer: Mascha Schilinski
Runtime: 150 minutes
Where: In theaters Jan. 16 (limited)
Grade: B-
