Liebmann

By: chromoman

This is a film that seems to be more interested in creating an atmosphere than in telling a story. Into a small town in the French countryside, a German stranger arrives. Certainly he has a back-story, and wheedling out the strands of what that story might entail is, I suppose, what the film is "about." There is an event in his past that he must find a way to come to grips with. We witness his interactions with those around him -- his landlord, neighbors, and a possible romantic interest -- as he settles down into a disjointed day-to-day existence. There are definite signs of darkness and foreboding, but we are given only tangential clues as to what it is that he has run away from, and he seems by turns depressed, mysterious, sexy, dangerous. We eventually witness his attempt to address the provocations of his troubling past, albeit in an obtuse poetic manner; but it is not clear what effect his actions will have for him in the long run. Nor is it clear what the film's viewers are meant to take away from their viewing experience. We can acknowledge that the filmmakers have been able to successfully build for us a tension and a sense of un-ease. But to what end? Perhaps the character himself has gained some sort of self-awareness, but what is it that we have gained from this experience?

By: Amos Lassen

Antek Liebmann is a teacher who moves to the French countryside in order to leave his former life in Germany behind. He finds a job and a new relationship. However an artists colony and an unexpected visitor from Germany make him realize he cannot escape his memories. He has to find his own way to confront the ghosts of his past before he can start a new life and engage in the possibility of true happiness.

Liebmann rents a quaint house and takes a job in the town's antique shop. The tranquil setting initially appears to be perfect for blending in and disappearing, but life isn't quite so simple. In the nearby woods, local hunters are a little trigger-happy, and if that doesn't make the forest dangerous enough, there is a serial killer stalking victims in the woods. Liebmann also has to deal with his neighbors: single mother Genevieve (Adeline Moreau), who is perhaps a little too much so, especially considering Liebmann seems more intrigued by the Sébastien (Fabien Ara), a customer at the antique shop.
Jules Herrmann's debut feature stars German theater actor Godehard Giese as Liebmann who barely speaks any French when he arrives. We get, at first, no sense at all of who this man is or what he's doing in France when the film starts, although it quickly becomes clear that Liebmann wants to forget about his old life in Germany.

When Liebmann helps Sebastien move a piece of furniture he bought up a flight of stairs, the two fall into bed, panting, and proceed to make out. But though his sexual orientation might become clear, what Liebmann is escaping from remains a mystery until his sister, Ines (Bettna Grahs), shows up unannounced.
Director Herrmann also wrote the screenplay although most of the sequences were improvised around scene ideas with the small cast. Sometimes this works very well, especially when Herrmann and Giese come up with visual ideas to express or explore pieces Liebmann's identity. The nearby woods, for example, seem to be teeming with danger. Early on it is clear that he is attracted to the danger of the woods and that what we're seeing might partly be his overly active imagination and/or subconscious.
The mystery of Liebmann begins to come apart when Ines arrives. The two talk in the shorthand of siblings, referring to past events and character traits in quick half-references because they know each other well enough to understand what the other means. But this becomes confusing because vital connections are not discussed.

"Liebmann", the film is filled with anger, fear, sadness and desolation while Liebmann, the person comes across as disturbed making him a fascinating character---- that he is so mysterious makes him inexplicable. Even though we see him, we go with him, we feel his moods with, we are with him when he is with Sebastien, we never get to really know him. And what is his secret?........