Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
 

Requiem (2006)

Director: Hans-Christian Schmid

Average user rating
1 review

Movie review

From Time Out London

Based on the same, documented ‘demonic possession’ as the crude shocker ‘The Exorcism of Emily Rose’, Hans-Christian Schmid’s restrained, naturalistic drama foregoes clichés and supernatural trappings and achieves a more involving emotional intensity and troubling metaphysical ambiguity. Emily Rose was merely a suffering victim. By contrast, ‘Requiem’ centres on an extraordinary portrayal of 21-year-old Michaela by stage actress Sandra Hüller, who is convincing as the confused epileptic who experiences seizures and hallucinations.

When Michaela belatedly enters university, she is separated for the first time from her loving father, controlling mother and God-fearing rural community. Reluctantly befriended by the worldly Hanna (Anna Blomeier), Michaela tries to forge an independent identity. But her secretive and erratic behaviour stretches even her new boyfriend’s patience to the limit. She stops eating, comes off her medication and suffers a breakdown. Back in the stifling bosom of her family, she re-embraces the comforting certainties of her faith and submits to a series of exorcisms by a young priest.

Casually evoking its 1970s German setting through clothing and music (Deep Purple, Amon Düül), Schmid intelligently explores the complex societal, familial and religious pressures that Michaela is unable to reconcile. Yet Bernd Lange’s delicately balanced screenplay also leaves open the possibility that her fits and visions may be signs of a genuine ‘possession’. Quietly devastating and unbearably moving, this is a soul-searching classic.

Author: Nigel Floyd 2006-10-27 11:56:38

Time Out London Issue 1891: November 15-22 2007

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

User reviews of this film

  • Bob Novak said...
    Posted on Nov 23 2007 22:04 Viewing this film, I almost felt I was viewing a chapter from my own life. In 1988, I escaped a dysfunctional family and the constant condemnation of an overbearing parent by going away to college, only to find myself, like Michaela, staring at four walls and hearing voices in my head. Like Michaela, I turned to drinking to silence the voices. I, too, found companionship among worldly friends whom, while they may have seemed to love me, would never be able to understand me. Like Requeim's heroine, I also found myself confused by relationships with the opposite sex. Yet, somehow, I managed to pull out of it just short of the complete breakdown she suffered. Modern American viewers will probably not understand the ardent catholicism portrayed in the film, nor will they comprehend the heroine's choice of faith over rationality (science, medicine) in the end. The importance, in the end, is that it was, finally, HER choice, not somebody else's, as to how she should percieve her condition and her situation. That the choice ultimately destroyed her may seem ironic to some, but, to me, it seems, in submission and destruction she ultimately may have found liberation. This film is exceptionally well-crafted and realistic in its portrayal of mental illness, and of a young person's struggle to make sense of a world beyond the dysfunctional family that shaped her.
    Report as inappropriate

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


Requiem

Watch Trailer 1

Cast & crew

Director: Hans-Christian Schmid

Cast: Sandra Hüller, Burghart Klaussner, Imogen Kogge, Anna Blomeier, Nicholas Reinke, Jens Harzer, Walter Schmidinger full cast

Genre(s): Drama, Thrillers

Duration: 93 mins

Related articles


Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.