Presented in Berlin in 2023 where he left with the Bear of Argent, The Red Sky (Roter Himmel) by the German director Christian Petzold offers a burning dive in the heart of a summer not like any other. An almost-comedy or almost-drama qualifier for a surprising feature that escapes any classification. Certainly one of the great films of the past year, which it is now possible to catch up in physical format! The ideal opportunity to come back in a few words...
The Last House on the left
Two friends, Leon (Thomas Schubert) and Felix (Langston Uibel), found in the heart of the summer in an ancient idyllic country house, by the sea. But when they finally get there, the building will prove to be already occupied... They will have to share their daily lives with the enigmatic Nadja (Paula Beer) and one of his friends, Devid (Enno Trebs). And while the temperatures are stifling and the flames threaten the kilometers of forests surrounding the villa, the sighs of the night give rise to fantasies that will in turn germinate in the minds of the various forced roommates of this lost house...
Director Christian Petzold calls his Red sky of the « Summer film », and no doubt he borrows from this fertile subgenus several codes. First of all, an entry into the field which could be closer to that of slasher Teen – two young guys will spend the summer in a dream house and get lost on the way to a gloomy forest – before turning completely on board and getting closer to the coming-of-age where the heating of desires accords to the panic of mercury... And thus throwing leads, we quickly get caught up in the game of film. The recurring but unexplained misalignments and intrigue (the aircraft noises that one will only understand later, the house already inhabited, the "squatter" that one delays to discover, etc.), participate in the grip of the feature film, which immediately embarks its spectator alongside its two protagonists.
« There is no relationship between film and reality, film is reality »
A Hitchcockian punch? At least this is how the German director describes himself, a fervent disciple of the master of tension. Petzold goes back to several points concerning The Red Sky in a brief interview for Les Films du Losange to be found below.
Parallel world
Then, it is the discovery of the house which maintains a little more strange atmosphere than The Red Sky will delay throughout his plans. Is this a horror movie house at Wes Craven? Or the cocoon our heroes can transfigure into? Probably a little of both... And its inscription in this clearing drowned in the woods helps to isolate this building, never connected to the outside. The villa becomes an infra-world, a sort of secret idyllus, a utopia lost in the woods. But soon inhabited by our two protagonists, it is threatened. The flames surround. The snow of the ashes announces the worst. The sky simmers.
From this Red sky There are two related themes: solar energy and immobilism. The « evil of the country without exile » described by Baptiste Morizot, who has rarely been so well illustrated in cinema and the resulting incapacity for movement. And in this sense, it is impossible not to reconcile The Red Sky of the Te l'avevo detto by Ginevra Elkann (another film burning up news, another summer film, which we hope will soon be able to discover in theaters). The proof by two that cinema embraces more and more this paralysing intranquility that covers our societies...
And if these themes are global, they are incarnate at the intimate level in our two starting friends, especially at Léon. Always scrutinizing the emptiness (from a screen, from a flat sea, from a ceiling to an insomnia evening), we understand that this is what scares the most. Nothing. A fear of failure – professional, sentimental, friendly – that will become so paralyzing that each of his choices will seem oriented to sabotage himself. Only a dull, amorphous, emptied being... The fire went through that too.
Summer Beats
But let's leave the characters to focus again on the essence of this Red sky. If the film is so catchy, it is also thanks to the particularly clever use of music, especially the song in my mind Wallners. The four brothers and sisters of the band offer with this single a flat music, perfectly sticking to the atmosphere of calm innquillity bathing The Red Sky.
Anyway... hanger, strange, unclassifiable and resonating with the anguishes and desires of the new generation, The Red Sky is resolutely one of the great films of the past year that did not demerit his Silver Bear received at the 73rd Berlinale. While he did not have a distribution at the height of his maestria, no doubt his recent release on physical media will satisfy the spectators wishing to catch him.
Data sheet
DVD Zone B (France)
Publisher: Blaq Out
Duration: 99 min
Release date: February 20, 2024
Video format : 576p/25 - 1.85
Soundtrack German Dolby Digital 5.1 (and 2.0)
Subtitles French
Subscribe
Connection
0 Remarks
oldest
