DVDebut for DARK FORTUNE, Stefan Haupt's quiet, psychologically astute drama of family, trauma, repression and loss

A very dear friend of mine, a psychologist whose life ended abruptly and far too soon, once told me that the children of psychologists are some of the most screwed-up people on earth. The doctor/parent may minister quite well to patients, yet for whatever reason(s), his/her own children are often in certain ways left at the starting gate. Why this should be -- the age-old choice of placing job ahead of family or maybe simple hypocrisy/denial -- may not matter as much as the fact that, all too often, this cliche proves true.

TrustMovies thought about his old friend and that theory while viewing the very fine, almost-new (2016) Swiss film, DARK FORTUNE, directed and adapted by Stefan Haupt from Finsteres Glück by Lukas Hartmann.

Herr Haupt (pictured at right), who gave us the unusual documentary/ narrative combo, The Circle, back in 2014, here offers up a film full of events -- seen or remembered and some of these truly awful -- in such a quiet, considered manner that he, along with his excellent cast, manages to preclude melodrama while still giving us the necessary drama, allowing us to feel all of the emotion that goes along with it.

Events include a horrendous car accident that destroys a family and leaves one orphaned child, a fight between relatives over the care of that child, an excellent psychologist who is given temporary care of the orphan, and her own family that is going through -- yep -- its own "children issues."

Dark Fortune covers a lot of ground, but its near-two-hour running time allows that ground to be explored properly. If you appreciate stories of family, trauma, astute psychology and believable resolution, you won't be bored and will finish the film is a state of pleasurable relief.

The role of the child is taken by the appealing and talented young newcomer, Noé Ricklin (above), who combines vulnerability, fear and anger into quite a personality. His psychologist and helper, Eliane, is played by Eleni Haupt (above and below) with such a strong sense of conviction and understanding that she'll win you over just as she does her young patient.

Slowly, carefully we learn more about the boy's departed family members, as well as his remaining aunt and grandmother, and simultaneously we meet Eleni's two daughters and her estranged second husband (a very good job by Martin Hug, below, right).

Together, these quiet, beautifully observed scenes build up quite a head of steam and emotion, mostly by not allowing the characters to do so. The tightly constrained script, direction and performances combine to create a tale of trauma, loss and family secrets. Most interesting of all is how the film's center of interest moves from one family to the other -- and then brings it all together via a kind of off-the-cuff, spontaneous psychology and therapy that not only seem believable but also work. This is an all-around lovely, moving job of movie-making.

From Corinth Films, in German with English subtitles and running 116 minutes, the film hit the street on DVD -- for rental or purchase -- this past Tuesday, June 23, and can also be seen via Amazon Prime Video.

How to become a writer the easy/hard way: Alain Gsponer's LILA LILA opens in New York

The adorable German actor Daniel Brühl (from Good Bye Lenin! to last year's Rush) has such a youthful countenance that even after more than a decade of film-making he barely seems to have aged. Even so, in what is his latest movie to open here in New York City, LILA LILA, he appears to be suddenly aging backwards. Never fear: this is because, though Lila Lila opens this Friday, it is already five years old, having been released in Germany back in 2009. This is not the only oddity about the movie. While watching it, I kept thinking of another film -- The Words -- released in 2012 that appears to have been "inspired" by its German counterpart. Both films deal with a young man who comes upon a manuscript -- that he then pretends to have written -- of what turns out to be, once published, a critically acclaimed and extremely popular novel.

While The Words treated this whole thing uber-seriously and thus became utterly silly, Lila Lila uses the idea for its rom-com potential and thus gives in to the silliness, allowing us to have some fun. Directed by Alain Gsponer, with a screenplay by Alex Buresch, adapted from the novel by Martin Suter, the movie is lightweight in the extreme, with characters doing things that often don't ring true to who they are. Or maybe who they want to be. But this does not prove a deal-breaker, as the glossy trappings and attractive leads -- Herr Brühl, playing a character named David Kern, pairs with the spunky, attractive young actress Hannah Herzsprung, below -- make the viewing pleasurable and nearly swift enough to keep us watching. (The running time of 107 minutes might have been shortened by about ten for maximum effect and to avoid needless repetition.)

Having a hero who claims credit for something he didn't actually do can be tricky, but Lila Lila finesses this by having Ms Herzsrpung's character, Marie, send the manuscript to the publisher unbeknownst to David, who then spends the remainder of the movie feeling guilty but trying to enjoy the perks that sudden fame has bestowed upon him.

Brühl (above) is by now a past master at playing sweet and naive, and he does so again here with proper relish and just the right amount of diffidence. (The actor is much more versatile than this, however, as his appearances in Rush and The Fifth Estate will attest.)

The movie is helped (for awhile, at least) by the introduction of a new character, Jacky (played by the funny Henry Hübchen, above and below, left). Who he is and what he wants add to the near-screwball comedy that the movie would like to -- and sometime nearly does -- achieve.

Also on tap is a publisher's assistant hoping to become David's agent (a very nice job by Kirsten Block, below, left). There's romance, a little comedy, and a look at how German publishing works (it's not that different from most Western countries). But mostly, the film will please fans of the ubiquitous Mr. Brühl.

Lila Lila -- the rare theatrical release from Corinth Releasing (the very interesting catalog of which you ought takea look at) -- opens this Friday, May 23, in New York City at the Quad Cinema.

DVDebut: Léa Fazer's philosophical rom-com of the business world, WHAT IF...?

TrustMovies had never heard of this smart little French film till now. Turns out WHAT IF...? (Notre Univers Impitoyable) was made in 2007 and released in 2008 (only in France and Belgium, then in Mexico in 2010), in addition to being shown at a few festivals world-wide. Canada got its DVD of the film in 2009, no doubt due to its large French-speaking population, and now we here in the USA get our own chance, thanks to First Run Features, the noted distributor which, in addition to its fine roster of documentaries, releases an interesting narrative movie every now and again.

What If...? is written and directed by Léa Fazer (shown at right), a Swiss filmmaker of whom most of us will not have heard, which is a shame, as her film is well made, features a nifty and attractive cast, and deals with themes that have only grown more timely and important in the succeeding years following its original release.

The tale here is of a young, bright, good-looking couple, Margo and Victor, unmarried as yet but who are both successful lawyers at a large and important law firm. Within the first few minutes of the movie, Fazer sees to it that one of her themes -- the unhealthy stress involved in big business -- comes to the fore, as suddenly and comically one of the higher-ups has a heart attack.

A new partner is immediately needed, and the position will go to either Victor (the late Jocelyn Quivrin) above and below, left) or Margo (the ubiquitous Alice Taglioni, above and below, right). The two seem genuinely supportive of each other and feel that they can't lose, since either one or the other will gain the promotion and thus their life together will be better and easier. Oh, really?

What Ms Fazer has up her sleeve has been compared to the gimmick of a film like Sliding Doors. I don't think the comparison is quite apt because the idea behind one film contradicts that of the other. Both use the device that if anything is changed in the scenario, the end result might be quite different. But while, as I recall, Sliding Doors relied on this difference to make all the difference, Ms Fazer places the onus more on character than on chance. Things happen -- he wins the slot, or she does -- and then other things change (success breeds the usual: power and its misuse, contempt, assumptions) but this change happens no matter which of our pair is on top.

The filmmaker's style is to remain quite matter-of-fact; the change from his rise to hers and back and forth is done briskly and immediately. No frou-frou here. This forces us to consider what is happening and why. Powerful jobs require lots of extra hours, and retaining that power usually means a certain amount of duplicity -- on all fronts.

Feminism raises its head, too (the scene in which Margo must serve coffee, along with the consequences, is hair-raisingly funny), but the filmmaker does not let this in any way control her movie. She's fair-handed to a fault.

You could, if you were inclined, take What If...? as an attack on capitalism (look away, Kyle Smith!) but Fazer doesn't insist on this, either. It's the people here who matter most, and Taglinoni makes a lovely heroine, even as her versatility (Grande école,  The Valet, Paris-Manhattan and The Prey) continues to grow. Quivrin, who was clearly on the road to stardom before his untimely death, is equally good -- as are Pascalle Arbillot, (above, right, with kids) as Margo's sister; Scali Delpeyrat, very funny as sis' possible new beau; and Thierry Lhermitte (below, left) as the law firm's boss.

No claims here for the film's greatness, but it makes a very nice addition to your "Movies Look at the World of Business" collection. The new DVD of What If...? (in French with English subtitles, running time 84 minutes) hits U.S. streets today, Tuesday, September 3, for sale and/or rental, and eventual VOD and streaming, one hopes....

News flash: Peter Liechti's award-winning doc THE SOUND OF INSECTS is no doc at all

Marketing, I guess, really is all. Being billed as some kind of a documentary (it won the 2009 European Film Award in that category), THE SOUND OF INSECTS: Record of a Mummy -- a film from Swiss filmmaker Peter Liechti (shown below) who, in this case has adapted, written, directed, produced, and handled the cinema-tography -- is not a documentary at all. Not since On the Bowery -- which at least had a true documentary feel, was shot on location and used actual "alkies" as its actors -- won its doc award, has anything so dead-wrong occur-red in the land of the fête. (OK: The Blind Side was nominated for Best Picture. But Liechti's film actually won.) Before seeing the movie and imagining that it had anything to do with the documentary format, I'd considered the European Film Awards to be a cut above our own. That notion has now been laid to rest.

According to its press release, The Sound of Insects "blurs the line between documentary and fiction," a phrase we've been hearing more and more of late. But surely this is true only if someone has no idea of the meaning of the words "blur," "line," "documentary" and "fiction."  This film is based on a novel.  A novel! (Speaking of meanings.) And a novel
written by a Japanese man, at that (and set, I imagine, in Japan): so much for verite of location. It's subject: a man who takes to the woods and commits suicide. (No spoiler here: the film begins with the removal of his corpse.) So this is a documentary? Then one might think our filmmaker would by now have been arrested. But of course not. This movie is about as "fictional" as you can get.

Even if you consider the movie to be "a profound inquiry into the art of representation" that "probes the ever-elusive and mystifying line between life and death" (that press release again), all movies -- good, bad and indifferent -- makes a stab at the former, while countless one (most recently Hereafter, Shutter Island and several films in the ongoing Spanish Cinema Now series) are happily probing the latter. OK: So much for the marketing of the movie. How is it as cinema? Interesting. Not bad. Though not particularly award-worthy, either, TrustMovies thinks.

Using (yes!) a heavy-duty documentary style -- which is hardly the same thing a being a documentary -- Liechti introduces us to his protagonist, a fellow of middle-age determined to starve himself to death over a period of, he hopes, a very few weeks.  Death, it turns out, takes longer. We see parts of him, as he himself would, looking at his own hands and legs. We become acutely aware of the world around us/him, particularly of sounds, as the symptoms of starvation becomes more intense. There's a nod to eastern culture, spirituality and the like, but this seems not nearly thought out enough by the character nor the filmmaker.

We learn very little about our fellow -- who does not seem to have led a particularly fascinating life -- and this helps drag the film down. I'd have preferred spending my hour-and-a-half with someone more interesting -- but then that person would have been a good deal less likely to commit suicide at this relatively young age. The visuals are rudimentary -- much is as they would be if we were there in the tent that the protagonist has built -- and the attempts by the director to go into fantasy and heightened states of reality are not very successful. You certainly see what Liechti is trying for, but that's about it.

The film does encourage you to consider what its protagonist is attempting and how this might play out, together with what dreams, thoughts and feelings would arise as death draws nearer. This, of course, is enough to send the majority of most audiences running for the hills. But a few fearless souls may opt for the ride. We don't get this kind of film all that often, so attention must be paid. Just don't expect a documentary.

The Sound of Insects, from Lorber Films, is opening at a Manhattan cinema venue I've never before mentioned: the Rubin Museum (150 West 17th St. between 6th and 7th Avenues), beginning Wednesday, December 22, at 7pm.  Click here for all screening dates and times (there are only ten of these, so if this post has piqued your interest, reserve now).