Series: Heimat 2: Chronicle Of A Generation
Release date: 21st June 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 1513 mins
Director: Edgar Reitz
Starring: Henry Arnold, Salome Kammer, Frank Roth, Noemi Steuer, Franziska Traub
Genre: Drama/War
Studio: Second Sight
Format: DVD
Country: Germany
Over twenty-five hours of material brings to life a world often unconsidered by Western audiences fed on typically two dimensional depictions of Germans in film. This generation is ideally epitomised through the character of Hermann Simon, whom we return to as grounding for the series’ meandering plot that incorporates thirteen episodes featuring twelve different character perspectives.
In 1960, we first meet Hermann, a brilliantly gifted musician, who, after a youthful romance is brutally cut short by his family, vows never again to give himself up to love. He leaves his small rural village and makes for the Bohemian Mecca of Munich where he is accepted to study piano and composition at the city’s renowned Conservatory. There, he discovers an enclave of talented, experimental young musicians, poets, filmmakers and thinkers, who are collectively trying to come to terms with the long shadow of the country’s all too recent Nazi past. In the grounds of their artists retreat house, this group take a decisive hand in shaping its future.
Hermann’s vow is put to the test by a cohort of liberated and talented women, but it is the quiet, inhibited but brilliant cellist Clarissa whom Hermann cannot seem to put from his mind.
The series then follows Hermann and his friends as the decade unwinds, tracking them through to the end, where the toughest decisions lie in wait for all of them…
Unsurprisingly given its length, the series often has more in common with a novel than a piece of cinema. Reitz’s direction creates a visual canvas that does much to present the shattered, post war beauty of Munich, and even more to present in smoke-filled, lingering detail, a lifestyle that will awake longing in anyone who professes to have an artistic soul. Heimat 2 portrays a world of improvised jamming sessions, revolutionary ideas, talent feeding on genius, and all with explosive and unpredictable results.
For those used to modern cinema and television, the scenes seem to barely move, so content is the director to allow his audience to soak up the atmosphere. It is a series of powerful contrasts that leaves its audience in little doubt that this generation of young German artists had far more to rebel against than their counterparts in the West. The freedom of expression and sexual liberation are movingly contrasted with characters so emotionally fragile that they are often unable to make good on the bounties their lifestyle offers them.
Each of the thirteen episodes offers a new perspective, and, through use of voiceover, allows for a searching, introspective style that creates characters of depth. As the audience reaches the conclusion of the series, there is an intimate familiarity born of having spent at least an hour-and-a-half inside the head of each character. As their initial youthful euphoria gives way to the far more recognisably adult word of professional jealousy and inadequacy, the characters come of age.
Hermann’s inspiration in writing a composition for Clarissa becomes steeped in envy when his experimental work propels her to stardom but he is left in the shadows. His multi-talented South American friend Juan goes from being a musical figure of near reverence to a bitter love rival. As the episodes progress, the intoxicating wide-eyed optimism of the early stories is replaced by something distinctly more dramatic, verging on melodrama, as debauchery, drugs and death pay the characters a visit.
One of the series’ main achievements is in the fact that we never question for one moment that these are highly gifted musicians. This is in equal parts a testament to the skills of the ensemble cast as well as clever, intricate filmmaking. Unfortunately, visually the quality of the series appears to have been greatly diminished in its transfer to DVD. This is particularly sad as the films share an almost decadent, languid visual style that incorporates use of monochrome amid the colour photography during scenes of high emotional poignancy. The slow pacing allows us to take in detail that we would certainly miss in modern, intercut film and television. Whilst some might view this visual style as dated, others will be seduced by it.
There is nothing dated about the performances, however. Henry Arnold leads the ensemble cast with a nuanced and, at times, unsettling portrayal of Hermann Simon, the young genius struggling to come to terms with the ruthless, clinical suppression of his human desires. He is ably supported by Salome Kammer playing frightened love interest Clarissa. The scenes between the two conjure the awkward, stumbling attempts at romance that many will empathise with, and they are handled with a grace and humour that belays their charged emotional context.
In what some might describe as brazenly attempting to ‘chronicle’ a period of the last century, Reitz unsurprisingly faced accusations of a somewhat selective approach to German history. Whilst his representation of ‘60s Munich is often idyllic, Reitz preserves a subtle sense of foreboding at the Nazi skeletons lurking in closets and attic spaces. Even the Foxhole, the Bohemian mansion paradise of the creative set once played host to leading Nazi figures, and the students must face the knowledge that the philanthropy that allows their artistic collective to flourish was preserved by their benefactor’s dealings with the Reich.
Heimat 2 is unquestionably and unflinchingly epic in scope. Its unhurried style may not suit all tastes but for those willing to invest the time demanded by the story’s length the rewards are considerable. In many ways, the best judgement on the film is passed by the film itself. In the opening episodes, Hermann is introduced to a team of young, Avant Garde film-makers brimming with revolutionary zeal. “The films of our fathers are dead,” they tell him, without a hint of mourning at their passing. Now, approaching twenty years since the filming of Heimat 2, there is little doubt that epic filmmaking of this kind has long passed into history, but history has preserved, albeit imperfectly, a near unique cinematic experience of great depth that will fully repay the time invested in watching it. NB
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