Free Fall - Freier Fall

[mariska]

So cute! 

Yesss, so cute. At this moment he's reallly my number one actor (have to admit because of his looks, especially his smile).

Some time ago you wrote something about him naked in Free Fall and why an welknown actor as him should do that.
I found this in an older interview:

Max told the interviewer he was kind of timid with women. The interviewer asked: But in alsmost every movie you had a nude scene. Don’t you have trouble with that?
Max: in the beginning I was very stressed because of all the other people on the set. I imagined they looked at me all the time. Everyone was dressed except me.
But now I’m getting more relaxed about it.


I know he was naked before in movies  (but never that naked as in freier fall). I didn't understand why. Not that I hate Max seeing naked but the movie and the actors didn't need this. Stephan Lacant said he wanted to make a movie with cultural value, not for commercial reasons. So why then advertising with "full frontal nudity"?

[mariska]

You won't believe it's him in the Dark Knight, he completely loses himself in the role, as he does in all of them, I think. 

Yes I read about it, that he was so good in the movie.
I saw Brothers too, I liked Jake in it.
What's your alltime favorite movie?

[morrobay]

Yesss, so cute. At this moment he's reallly my number one actor (have to admit because of his looks, especially his smile).

Some time ago you wrote something about him naked in Free Fall and why an welknown actor as him should do that.
I found this in an older interview:

Max told the interviewer he was kind of timid with women. The interviewer asked: But in alsmost every movie you had a nude scene. Don’t you have trouble with that?
Max: in the beginning I was very stressed because of all the other people on the set. I imagined they looked at me all the time. Everyone was dressed except me.
But now I’m getting more relaxed about it.

Yes, he seems pretty relaxed about it these days!

Thanks for posting that, it's always interesting to hear what actors think about the movies they're in. 

I know he was naked before in movies  (but never that naked as in freier fall). I didn't understand why. Not that I hate Max seeing naked but the movie and the actors didn't need this. Stephan Lacant said he wanted to make a movie with cultural value, not for commercial reasons. So why then advertising with "full frontal nudity"?

Since Freier Fall wasn't promoted over here at all (at least not that I saw), I didn't know anything about the amount of nudity until I saw it; I was surprised (in a good way   )

[morrobay]

Yes I read about it, that he was so good in the movie.
I saw Brothers too, I liked Jake in it.
What's your alltime favorite movie?

Brokeback is number 1, I think now it is tied with Free Fall.  

I like a lot of older movies, The Best Years of Our Lives (probably #2), The Godfather, All About Eve, The Graduate.

How about you, anybody out there, what's your #1?

[morrobay]

That's funny, yesterday was for me the first day I didn't watch it at all too  . And tonight (it's 22.20 here now) I watched it again.


What you asked about Marc not saying sorry: I think he WAS sorry. But maybe more like "sorry for all that you are going through because of me" than "sorry I did it".
And maybe he did say sorry (and is it one the many things they didn't show us in the movie).

I thought him saying he was sorry was something that we should have seen, I just wonder why they left it out.  As you said, he might not be sorry that it happened, because he was falling in love with Kay, but at least sorry to have caused Bettina so much hurt, sorry that the life she had with him was destroyed at his hand.  More along the lines of "I didn't mean to hurt you."  The whole thing is just too sad.  

[morrobay]

[morrobay]

I love this shot-

When Kay offers the key and Marc goes to take it, then Kay closes his hand - do you think that was ad libbed, or written in the script that way?  I thought it looked spontaneous, like Max just did it off the top of his head.  Either way, it works.

[morrobay]

An article/review that addresses some of the symbolism.  In regards to the movie, I agree with the statement "finding complexity in familiarity", but I think I draw the line at "evidence of deep intellectualization".

Also agree with the evaluation of Marc in the last paragraph, but this "Free Fall confronts the question about whether someone cheating on their hetero partner with a same-sex person is a betrayal or noble".  is a silly argument.

http://cheatedhearts.com.au/brisbane-queer-film-festival-free-fall-freier-fall-review/

Free Fall tells a familiar story. Boy meets boy. Boy falls in love with boy. Boy also has girl, who is pregnant. Boy struggles with his sexuality in a hostile family/work environment.

But while the particulars of the film’s story, from director Stephen Lacant and screenwriter Karsten Dahlem, might unfold in an expected fashion, Lacant elevates the material with a confident, even-handed approach. The conventional approach would be to present the narrative as a melodrama; emphasising emotions and angry confrontations; Free Fall contains both strong emotions and quarrels, but he examines the material with his use of symbolism and evidence of deep intellectualisation, finding complexity in familiarity.

The boys in question are Marc (Hannon Koffler), a young police officer who’s just moved in next door to his parents with his pregnant girlfriend, Bettina (Katharina Schüttler); and Kay (Max Riemelt), a handsome, self-assured cadet who encounters Marc at a training camp. Marc’s training doesn’t seem to be going well; he struggles to keep up with the other cadets during jogging drills. Kay begins to join him on jogs, endeavouring to teach Marc to “breathe evenly.” The ability of Marc to control his natural breathing is applied as a clear metaphor for his natural sexuality, and it’s not the only symbol effectively leveraged by Lacant.

The two men bond over cigarettes – both the regular and the university type – and the intimacy of sharing a cigarette is repurposed as a symbol throughout the film; whenever Marc or Kay drags on a smoke, it’s clear who they’re thinking of. The colour blue is widely used throughout the film; while I’d need a second viewing to fully unpack its significance, it’s interesting how it seems to represent both Kay and Bettina; Kay’s apartment – and the key to his apartment – is blue, while Bettina is invariably outfitted in blue clothing. While the meanings of the colour can be oblique, it’s difficult to miss the import of a scene where Marc struggles to clean spilt blue paint from the carpet of his son’s nursery after attempting to shut Kay out of his life.

The colour red appears fleetingly throughout the film – it is the colour of Marc’s mother’s car and outfit when she stumbles upon him kissing Kay (her reaction is far from understanding) and of the lights in a club bathroom where Marc picks up a random guy. Red seems to represent Marc’s shame at his sexuality, influenced by an unforgiving society. It’s no accident that Marc and Kay work in the police force, a masculine environment defined by its rigidity and prejudice. Whatever comments about “tolerance” Marc’s squad leader (Oliver Bröcker) might utter, the police force is a synecdoche of a society that demands conformity and punishes difference.

Marc is a sympathetic but not particularly likable character; he’s fundamentally selfish. He’s torn between Bettina and Kay but can’t commit to choosing either; he cheats on his girlfriend with unconvincing lies but treats Kay equally poorly. Free Fall confronts the question about whether someone cheating on their hetero partner with a same-sex person is a betrayal or noble, a realisation of their true self. It’s neither. It’s both. It’s messy and complex and there are no neat answers. No happy endings.

[mariska]

Marc is a sympathetic but not particularly likable character; he’s fundamentally selfish. He’s torn between Bettina and Kay but can’t commit to choosing either; he cheats on his girlfriend with unconvincing lies but treats Kay equally poorly. Free Fall confronts the question about whether someone cheating on their hetero partner with a same-sex person is a betrayal or noble, a realisation of their true self. It’s neither. It’s both. It’s messy and complex and there are no neat answers. No happy endings.
[/i]

I  agree with this, even the part " Free Fall confronts the question about whether someone cheating on their hetero partner with a same-sex person is a betrayal or noble".
I don't understand the word "noble" in this context (there must be another word), but I can't look at it as just betrayal.
It’s very difficult for me to explain how I feel this (even in my own language), but I think passion is the strongest human emotion and basic instinct. After Kay triggered Marc, there was no way back.
(I think that was the reason he was so angry when Kay showed up again, he didn’t want it, he wanted to go on with his life as it was, but at the moment he saw Kay again, he instinctively knew what was going to happen and no way to stop it, he felt ( although not consciously) intuitive that these feelings were part of his true self.
Of course he cheated on Bettina and lied to her. But that’s what happens in situations like this. He couldn’t resist Kay but he wanted to loose Bettina either.
And I’m sure: if Kay had not come back, Marc would have been happy either because denying (part of) yourself makes unhappy.
That’s why I can’t think in terms of guilty (Kay nor Marc), just human. Same about the “not saying sorry” thing. I’m sure he didn’t want to hurt Bettina, but during the shower scene he began to feel his affair with Kay changed something inside of him. Saying sorry to Bettina would be like: I’m guilty, I shouldn’t have done it. But his feelings for Kay were real and pure, part of him.
I don’t know if it makes any sense, it’s just how I feel it.

Did I mention to you I like Max a lot? But every time I watch the movie I’m impressed and touched by Hanno’s acting. I think I’m going to visit the old guy who got the price for best German actor, steal that thing and bring it to Hanno.

[mariska]

I love this shot-

When Kay offers the key and Marc goes to take it, then Kay closes his hand - do you think that was ad libbed, or written in the script that way?  I thought it looked spontaneous, like Max just did it off the top of his head.  Either way, it works.

Yes, it looks spontaneous and possibly it is. In the comments the actors told they experimented a lot. They did scenes over and over again. And were allowed to bring their own input.
About the bedscene they said: just a little part of what we experimented is in the movie (I can't help wondering what we missed)  . I guess they spent some time in the bed with just the person with the camara (crawling between them) and the vodka.
At the moment they turn on the side, Marc smiles at Kay. I had the feeling Hanno smiled at Max at that moment, like: let's go for it.