Berlin Syndrome

Berlin Syndrome-360P

Berlin Syndrome-720P

Berlin Syndrome-480P

Berlin Syndrome_720p(480P)

source: Berlin Syndrome

I caught this movie at a preview screening, not knowing much at all, and was extremely impressed. Berlin Syndrome is a superbly taut thriller that takes a well worn scenario and thrillingly reinvents it. Perhaps in the hands of someone else, this would've been a disposable B movie, or perhaps even something as over the top as I Spit on Your Grave, but Shortland ensures the focus of the film is on character. Captive and captor are never, ever two dimensional. Both Teresa Palmer and Max Reimelt deliver powerful and stunningly complex performances. What separates the film from other kidnap thrillers is how sympathetic and normal Andi, the captor, is. He's charming, erudite and curiously rational, only harming his captive in circumstances where she tries to escape. He's a hopeless romantic, who resorts to crime for fear of a spark shared between two people dissipating. Reimelt channels all these emotions with admirable subtlety. Palmer rarely gets to use her native accent in films, having appeared recently in Hacksaw Ridge, Lights Out and Warm Bodies. With brown hair, what appears to be no make up and a mild mannered fragility, she's totally affecting in the role, by far the most impressive I've seen her. What's especially impressive in the film is its distinctive style. Minimalist score, gorgeous editing and cinematography, and great use of the location of Berlin all point towards a director who is wonderfully assured in the mood and tone of the story she wants to tell, and it works terrifically to engross you in the story. Equally, Shortland proves to be a real master of tension - my screening was audibly gasping multiple times throughout the film. The elements that work in the film are so terrific that it's a shame narrative problems begin to occur around the 2nd act. Moments that don't ring true for Palmer's character, and logical inconsistencies (particularly towards the very end) took me out of the story when previously I'd been unwaveringly engrossed. It's somewhat inevitable that the audience often scrutinises the actions of captives in films, but there are moments that are truly frustrating. Even so, Berlin Syndrome is a confident work, an unbearably tense and stylish thriller with a terrific art-house aesthetic and two extremely compelling characters (matched of course by terrific performances.) It reaffirmed my faith that Australian cinema is alive and well (even if the setting is Berlin).

The primal terror of captivity appears in everything from fairy tales to horror films, and female captives are particularly popular tropes for vulnerability to sexual abuse. Most captivity stories are framed into a binary where the captor is an evil ogre and the captive an object of sympathy. One of the many reasons the Australian made Berline Syndrome (2017) stands out as a psychological thriller is that it defies these conventions by portraying the captor as an almost normal professional guy and the captive as sexually complicit in her captivity. The plot line is simple, linear and familiar. It opens with the wide-eyed wonder and excitement of young Aussie backpacker Clare (Teresa Palmer) arriving in the uber-cool city of Berlin. Like thousands of others, she is looking for adventure in a city famous for its architecture and nightspots and she is captivated by the beauty of the city. She meets German native Andi (Max Riemelt) and is immediately attracted to his Aryian good-looks and charming smile. He is a school teacher and thus trustworthy, so they hook up for a night of erotic passion and he leaves for school in the morning with her locked in his fortified, soundproofed, and isolated flat. Just an oversight, she thinks, but it happens again the next day. When she discovers her phone SIM card removed and finds an album of bondage photos the real terror begins. The story itself is unremarkable, but the acting, filming, and directing make this a high-tension act from beginning to end. The key to this psycho-sexual thriller is establishing the 'normality' of the film's perpetrator so that we feel he is just another lovely guy. Once we are taken in by his charms, the film paces out in tiny incremental steps how Clare's discomfort changes to fear and then terror. The photographic style accentuates sharp close-ups on terrified eyes against out-of-focus backgrounds and an almost hand-held style of filming to emphasis the instability of the situation. Teresa Palmer is brilliant in showing the transitions from initial innocence and country-girl naivette to the palpable eroticism of domination and the stark realisation that she may not survive. Co-star Max Riemelt is her match in every way, evoking the charm and normality of an urbane teacher who is attentive to his students and respectful of his father. To the outside world, there are no warnings. Then slowly he reveals his distorted grasp on reality and deranged intentions to keep Clare as if she were a mere possession like a doll or a pet. His plans are not entirely sinister as he believes that love will blossom even in captivity. But in this fairy tale, the handsome prince morphs into a monster, a meta-reference to the millions of domestic abuse scenarios in which modern-day princesses still find themselves. Many thrillers cannot sustain dramatic tension for a whole feature film but in Berline Syndrome it keeps rising until the climactic scenes when unexpected events overtake audience expectations. At times the pace slows down to create a sense of inertia in captivity but the ending is swift and satisfyingly conclusive. This is an engaging thriller that echoes parental warnings about strangers with nice smiles. Preying on such fears taps the right nerve to make any backpacker a little bit more careful.

Would like to see a bit more after she is freed. And reasons why Andi would wash his hands after women touched him, background info on his mom and childhood, otherwise great acting from Clare.

The problem with this film is that you feel like you've seen everything before and you probably have. A young woman is held captive by a man. It is essentially the same plot as William Wyler's brilliant British 1966 thriller "The Collector", and that film was much better. The young Australian photographer Tessa Palmer is in Berlin to take pictures of the GDR architecture. She meets English teacher Andi, who takes her to one of Berlin's allotment gardens. Andi then brings Tessa home to his apartment and they sleep together. When Andi is teaching at school the following day, Tessa discovers that the door is locked. When he returns home, she tells him about it and he gives her the keys. The problem is that they don't fit. He has also removed the SIM card from her cell phone. Andi tells his father, a professor, that he has got a girlfriend named Tessa. The father asks what happened to his former girlfriend, Natalie, whereupon the son replies that she has moved to Canada. This is the film's unanswered question. Did he kill her? And what happened to the dog Lotte, whom he claimed had run away? A potential helper is brutally beaten to death by Andi. A similar plot device is used in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?", in which the maid is beaten to death by the title character - and in lots of horror films and thrillers. I think Max Riemelt is somewhat uncharismatic as the mentally ill teacher Andi. I liked Terence Stamp better. So to me this film was a re-cycling of old stuff. It did not present an improvement to the previous films with similar plots.

Do not watch Berlin Syndrome. This extremely depressing piece of semi-rape * will leave you nauseated and angry. The excruciatingly slow pace combined with a tension that builds up continuously throughout the movie yet reaches absolutely no release is simply awful. I left feeling sick to my stomach and cheated.