Freier Fall

"Darüber, wie wichtig es ist, in den entscheidenden Momenten des Lebens regelmäßig zu atmen, damit man nicht langsam aber sicher unter all dem Druck erstickt." Liebesbeziehungen am Arbeitsplatz (oder am Ausbildungsplatz) verheißen nichts Gutes, und wenn man dann noch bedenkt, dass es sich um zwei Männer handelt, von denen einer eine schwangere Freundin hat, gibt es sicherlich keinen Mangel an starken und emotional angespannten Momenten. Ich habe Freier Fall lange Zeit in der Schublade liegen lassen und mir dabei einen glaubhaft geschriebenen und gespielten Film über Liebe, Familie und eine verwirrte Seele vorenthalten. Hanno Koffler spielte die Rolle des Marc wirklich überzeugend - Sommersturm war so ein humorvolles Warm-up für ihn - und er wurde von Max Riemelt und Katharina Schüttler gut unterstützt. Wahrscheinlich habe ich mir das Ende etwas anders vorgestellt, aber ich war trotzdem mit dem Ergebnis zufrieden. (22.11.2020)

Well, before we get into that, I'd like to preface this by saying that I find homosexuality cool and, in the words of Sergeant Hartmann, I don't care if someone is into girls or a filthy slimy faggot. Free Fallis just a bad movie and embodies all the dark corners of contemporary European art, in the pejorative sense. The main character is, again for tactical reasons, autistically disabled so the script can wag him around as much as it likes and in fact the only distinctive feature he has is his homosexuality. Apart from that he doesn't exist, and basically, rather than a look into the travails of gay self-discovery, the film is a probe into the world of a mentally challenged man who can't deal with the basic necessities of life, especially communication with those around him. It's completely unnecessary to embed the protagonist in the macho world of a police SWAT team, as this theme is not dealt with in any way beyond a gay man in any other "power" job, and in the same way the depiction of the breakdown of a traditional family as a result of discovering the protagonist's orientation fails, as the problem here is only built up by the fact that the protagonist can't manage two relationships at once. Last but not least, we have a homophobic work collective and family – both of them as if straight from a catalogue – who here serve as the bearers of the most severe homophobic clichés, regardless of the fact that reality has already progressed a bit beyond that point, simply because queer filmmakers need homophobes to make their art. How progressive Blue Is the Warmest Color suddenly looks... (12.10.2014)