Revanche

Image courtesy of Janus Films

Crime and punishment. Fate and circumstance. Revenge and atonement. These oppositions are certainly not new concepts to the art of storytelling. Hollywood loves to hand out Oscars for them. But, where Tinseltown has their standard formulaic pattern of predictable themes wrapped up in a nice little 90 minute flick, Austrian filmmaker Götz Spielmann has found a rather unique way to explore the fallout of these very same Hollywood themes. In his latest film Revanche (nominated for Best Foreign Language pic at the 2009 Oscars), Spielmann takes elements from the typical Hollywood format, expands it, and gives his collateral victims room to breathe.

The first storyline of Revanche starts out as a heist / drama film when Viennese ex-con Alex (Johannes Krisch), who works security at the same brothel as his Ukrainian girlfriend Tamara (Irina Potapenko), one of the prostitutes, decide that robbing a bank is the best way to better their lives. The second plot is a straight-up drama that revolves around supermarket worker Susanna (Ursula Strauss), her infertile police officer husband Robert (Andreas Lust), and their resulting marital problems. The two storylines intersect at the end of the first act when Robert happens upon Alex and Tamara at the scene of the crime and opens fire on their fleeing getaway car.

Once the film progresses into the second act, Revanche becomes a psychological character analysis disguised as a revenge drama. Yet, instead of filling the intertwined lives of these characters with suspenseful, fast-paced plot twists, Spielmann draws out the remainder of the tale to create an overall mood of unfulfilled hope and bad karma through their gradual psychological decline. Alex takes refuge at the farmhouse of his grandfather Hausner (Johannes Thanheiser) who coincidentally happens to be friends with Robert’s wife Susanna. While Alex sublimates his obsessive thoughts of revenge through manual labor, Robert projects his own questions of guilt onto his wife, and Susanna goes about filling the void in her life without thought for the consequences.

In following with the cinematic style of Berlin School films, Revanche focuses on middle class people drifting through their lives, unable to make decisions that could free them from their constant state of melancholy. The long camera takes of the world belonging to this straightforward protagonist continuously emphasize the visual image over the verbal dialogue. Yet, by taking the familiar elements of revenge drama, heist, and psychological suspense, and slowing down the pace, Spielmann allows his characters to develop on their own terms, in their own tragedies, in their own time. In turn, the characters in Revanche become more driven by the complexities of human relationships than the sum of their morals.

Cinematographer Martin Gschlacht’s unpretentious scenes that are shot from a respectful distance perfectly compliment Spielmann’s contemplative script. The sparse dialogue and lack of subjective shots don’t purposely make you identify with any of the characters, yet your fascination for them continues to grow as the story progresses. Every single shot has a purpose, even when Gschlacht’s camera goes static and lingers on a scene after the action has moved out of the frame. You may not make the connection at first, but when it finally is made, the deeper meaning behind those images allows you to see the love within the sex, the limits of human aspiration, and the loneliness of isolation.

What at first seems simple often turns out to be ambiguous in Revanche. The fixed spacious compositions, forced audience reflection, and conflicted characters are what make Spielmann’s film resonate with you long after it’s over. If you’re looking for a typical fast-paced Hollywood revenge flick, Revanche isn’t it. No bloodbath exists in this film’s tragedy. Instead, you’ll find a moral beauty in its consideration of violence and vengeance. Only in Revanche can a man experience a moment of true clarity from someone who doesn't know you're just about to kill him.

© Left From Hollywood 7/3/09