Afire
Winner of the Silver Bear, Christian Petzold’s drama of raging forest fires proves uncannily timely.
It is generally agreed that this latest film from Christian Petzold is markedly different from those that have preceded it even though Petzold is once again writer as well as director. Apparently, it was made while Covid restrictions were in force and that could be a reason why it has a relatively small cast and mainly takes place out of doors. But, even if the circumstances encouraged a film of this kind, it is also possible that Petzold wanted to make a work which carried echoes of what Eric Rohmer used to give us. That's a comparison that has been made by some critics and it is indeed the case that the four central characters here are all relatively young and that we see them in a seaside location with a number of beach scenes included. But, if that can be seen as Rohmeresque, Afire being the work of a German director lacks the distinctively French tone so apparent in the talk and attitudes present in Rohmer's films, Consequently the comparison, understandable though it is, does not really take us very far.
Given that the material in Afire is uncharacteristic of Petzold's previous work, this could in theory have been the film to make me reassess this filmmaker. Having now viewed this film I have seen all six of his features released in Britain and am well aware that many people rate them very highly indeed. That may again be the case here since Afire has already won the Silver Bear, the Grand Jury Prize at this year's Berlin Film Festival. However, my own response to his work has been relatively unvaried since I have regularly regarded Petzold’s directorial skills as being far superior to his writing ability. That’s because despite containing some fine acting his films have always for me been undermined to a greater or lesser degree by plots which rely on contrivances and indulge in storylines that frequently seem improbable. For all its differences Afire finds me reacting in exactly the same way (and, yes, the actual filmmaking remains quality stuff continuing Petzold’s valuable collaboration with his talented team, the editor Bettina Böhler, the costume designer Katharina Ost and, of special note here, his excellent photographer Hans Fromm).
As already indicated Afire is centred on four characters who would seem to have a full future ahead of them. We first meet two friends, Leon (Thomas Schubert) and Felix (Langston Uibel) who have driven from Berlin to spend some time by the Baltic Sea in a holiday home belonging to Felix's family. Leon is a writer now working on his second novel and Felix is a student photographer preparing an application to submit to an art school. If their visit will provide some relaxation, it is also planned as a quiet opportunity to work and it is somewhat unsettling when the pair discover that part of the property temporarily houses someone else - that’s the attractive Nadja (Paula Beer) who has a nightly visitor in the form of a local lifeguard, Devid (Enno Trebs). Later, Leon is visited by his publisher, Helmut (Matthias Brandt), but for the most part Afire concentrates on the talk and interactions of the four younger figures.
The original title of this film translates as Red Sky and, if that could signify a warning of trouble ahead, the English title even more assuredly arouses expectations of high drama. But in the event, despite some early references to nearby forest fires made all the more alarming due to actual climate change tragedies, the film holds back from any real drama until late in the day. For most of the time this is a persuasively played slow-moving study of shifting relationships during a time in the sun. The talk convinces but, even if references to writers come up (Heinrich Heine is quoted twice over and Uwe Johnson is mentioned), this is only a faint echo of the philosophical and intellectual discussions in Rohmer's work. Indeed, what becomes apparent in Afire is the fact that the other characters are to some extent subsidiary and that Petzold’s film is at heart a study of Leon.
Once one recognises that this is so it raises a question. How worthwhile is it to build a film around a character who is so deeply unappealing? Leon is ungracious, always ready to complain, humourless and someone who, as we soon realise, is keeping up a facade as he pretends to work. Why the far more engaging Felix should ever have befriended him is never apparent and, if his often-boorish behaviour could be considered to have its comic side, that doesn't make the film engaging. I understand that Petzold has described his film as being about creativity and love and Afire is certainly a portrait of a writer with acute self-doubts. That could be worthwhile if written in a way that made it clear how it should be seen. That is to say that we need to know one of two things. Is this is a film about a talented writer and the cost to him of putting his art first at the expense of living a rounded life engaged with others or is it instead about the tragedy of somebody behaving in this way but without having a genuine talent? For most of the film the evidence suggests that Leon is a bad writer but does so without evoking sympathy for his situation and, while the other characters are more engaging, the writing fails to fill them out sufficiently for us to feel for them.
The fact that the last section of Afire takes on a new impetus and a fresh tone is not unacceptable in itself. However, it involves one emotional revelation which seems unlikely given what has gone before and then ends with a flourish which establishes how we should see Leon but does so far too late in the day. Schubert’s performance has made Leon feel real throughout but this conclusion only serves to emphasise the extent to which Petzold has failed to tell his story in a manner that would indeed turn Afire into an effective and moving story centred on creativity and love and the cost when they collide.
Original title: Roter Himmel.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Thomas Schubert, Paula Beer, Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs, Matthias Brandt.
Dir Christian Petzold, Pro Anton Kaiser, Michael Weber and Florian Koerner von Gustorf, Screenplay Christian Petzold, Ph Hans Fromm, Pro Des K.D. Gruber, Ed Bettina Böhler, Costumes Katharina Ost.
Schramm Film Koerner & Weber/ZDF/Arte/Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen-Curzon.
103 mins. Germany. 2023. US Rel: 14 July 2023. UK Rel: 25 August 2023. Cert. 12A.
