Falling (2006) by Barbara Albert - Review

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by Barbara Albert

grade: 7.5

In Falling, Barbara Albert, in staging a strong nostalgia for the past, together with the desire to find oneself and one’s affections, skilfully avoids excessive emotionalism, showing a necessary detachment and a mature rationality in observing the five protagonists closely. Detachment and rationality that, in this case, manage to make us gradually get more and more connected with each individual character.

The seasons of life

The passing of time. The inexorable transience of life. Memories of youth that, despite the years, still seem alive and pulsating. To the point, often, of influencing even the present days. This is not the first time that the renowned filmmaker Barbara Albert has attempted to capture a present that is destined to vanish soon, for a season of life that has reached its essential turning point. And if in Northern Skirts (1999) we witnessed the vicissitudes of teenagers living delicate transitional moments in an alienating suburb of Vienna, here in Falling (original title: Fallen) youth immediately seems like a (not too) distant memory, which still makes itself felt in the present. For better or for worse.

Presented in competition at the 63rd Venice Film Festival (2006), Falling stages the story (or the stories) of five women aged just over thirty. Five former classmates who, after many years, meet again at the funeral of one of their former professors, a sort of mentor of theirs, whose teachings have meant a lot in their personal education.

And so, immediately, we get to know the young protagonists, each seemingly different from the other, each having an important past in common. Alex (Ursula Strauss) is an independent and dynamic woman who is unable to have a stable relationship and works as a trainer for job seekers. Nina (played by Nina Proll, who achieved national and international fame thanks to Barbara Albert and her Northern Skirts) is pregnant and jobless, ready to start her new life as a single mother. Carmen (Kathrin Resetarits) worked for years as an actress in Berlin, only to return to her hometown, Vienna. Brigitte (Birgit Minichmayr) works as a teacher and is the one who seems to suffer most from the death of her professor, as she had a relationship with him for years. Finally, Nicole (Gabriela Hegedüs) is on probation and takes the opportunity to spend time with her daughter Daphne.

Five women, then, and five different approaches to life. What will become of this day that seems to pass too quickly? The numerous photographs that are continuously taken and the black and white of the landscapes, which sporadically blend into the colours of five different personalities, further emphasise moments destined to quickly vanish. Or even to last, in their own way, forever.

And Barbara Albert, for her part, in staging this strong nostalgia for the past, together with the desire to find oneself and one’s affections, skilfully avoids letting herself get carried away by excessive emotionalism, showing a necessary detachment and a mature rationality in observing the five protagonists closely. Detachment and rationality that, in this case, do not in any way refer to a coldness of the director’s gaze, but which, in a skilful minimalist mise en scène within which very frequent moments of strong emotional impact (see, above all, the scene in which the five women run together carefree or when, after her arrest, Nicole embraces her daughter, rediscovering a much stronger bond than the initial struggles had led us to believe) manage to make us gradually get more and more connected with each individual protagonist.

With such an approach, then, Falling is definitely remarkable. And it has nothing to envy the previous Northern Skirts. On the contrary, an even more mature gaze, if you like, turns out to be almost perfect in capturing a crucial season of life, amidst last goodbyes, weddings in which one takes part practically by chance, but where old loves, drunkenness, quarrels, melancholy and tender rapprochements meet by surprise. Once again, then, Barbara Albert hit the mark. Once again, we become one with the story. And between one party and another, between a wild run, a cry and a hearty laugh, we stop to observe, in silence, the trees moved by the wind. Image of a moment that, at least in our minds, seems destined to last forever.