BERLIN SYNDROME
Australia, 2017, 116 minutes, Colour.
Teresa Palmer, Max Riemelt, Matthias Habich, Emma Bading.
Directed by Cate Shortland.
Cate Shortland has had an interesting career in both direction and writing. Her 2004 film Somersault won most of the awards at the Australian Film Institute awards, including best film and director. She made the striking film about Germany during the war and the consequences of indoctrination, Lore, and also won many awards. She contributed to the writing of the excellent miniseries, Devil’s Playground. She has not written this screenplay. It is by Shaun Grant and based on a novel by Melanie Joosten.
Once again, Cate Shortland is in Germany, but this time contemporary Berlin. A central protagonist is Clare, a persuasive performance by Teresa Palmer, initially naive and wide-eyed, sexually available, charmed by one of the locals. He is a teacher, Andi, played very well by Max Riemelt.
A classic William Wyler film of the 1960s, one of his final films, was a two-hander psychological thriller, The Collector, with Terence Stamp as the collector and Samantha Eggar as his victim. Berlin Syndrome is a 21st-century variation on The Collector.
Berlin in summer looks an interesting and attractive city, Clare arriving, immediately being welcomed by a group of young people to share a drink and talk, her settling into her room, phoning her mother in Brisbane, going shopping for clothes and slides because her interest is in studying the architecture of the East Germany period. She also comes across an agreeable young man, Andi (Max Riemelt) who, surprisingly, turns up again, exercising a great charm – for which she falls.
Andi is the kind of young man who looks as if he would not hurt a fly – perhaps not a fly but certainly women. He imprisons Clare in his apartment, locking her in while he goes to school, teaching English literature, the work of James Baldwin, to a young and interested class. It is a sport school and he also supervises team exercises, with an eye on the young student, Franka, which she interprets correctly to his annoyance and a moment where she sees Clare.
As might be expected from this kind of story, Andi exhibits a kind of Jekyll and Hyde personality, a pleasing Jekyll as he goes out into the world, a sadistic Hyde in his behaviour at home, tying Clare up, then attempting to spoil her by meals and gifts. He might have some head idea about what it is like to be captive but he seems to be particularly carefree, although when Clare reacts in anger, he also shows anger.
The months pass, the seasons change, from summer to Christmas, to New Year. While the action of the film goes outside the apartment, giving the audience a sense of freedom, nevertheless when we are back with Clare we share her confinement, her frustrations. We are also puzzled as to whether she is going to be an ultimate victim (it seems there has been a previous victim, one at least, from Canada) or whether she will escape.
One moment for understanding Andi is when he visits his father, a lecturer, reminisces about his mother leaving (and certainly Andi is angry at this) and then, later, find his father dead.
The film has a contemporary look and feel, perhaps not the kind of story we were expecting from Cate Shortland, but an interesting variation on The Collector theme.
1. The title, location of syndromes and Stockholm Syndrome for prisoners assimilating to their captors? The overtones of the Berlin setting?
2. An Australian production, filmed in Berlin? The views of the city, the streets, buildings, apartment blocks, apartments, shops, the school, the classroom, the sports stadium? The musical score in the moods?
3. Application of stories like The Collector, the victims, the oppressors?
4. Clare, from Brisbane, her age, her studies, photography, interest in East German buildings? Arrival, wide-eyed, invitation to the social, the friendly group? Her shopping, dresses, the slides? The encounter with Andi, his being pleasant, attractive, his finding her again?
5. Going to the apartment, pleasant, the sexual encounter, the aftermath? Her being locked in? Her being tied up? The stages of reaction, anger, trying the doors, the key holes? His treatment of her, harsh, sexual, sadistic? His gifts, the meals, shopping? The Christmas gift of books? The underwear? The parcels? Her becoming passive, her fighting back, stabbing his hand and his hurting hers? Smashing the windows? The furniture? Time passing, the seasons, Christmas, the celebration, the cake, the hymns and songs in the background? New Year, the fireworks? Her sense of imprisonment? Her being seen when Franka visited her teacher?
6. Andi, nice, his charm, the sexual encounter, turning sadistic, tying Clare up, the shifting manner, the details of their domestic life, leaving, locking her in, coming back? At school, his English class, the books of James Baldwin, Steinbeck? His students? Training at sport? His gaze at Franka? Her visit, his anger, her anger? Discussions with the staff, menacing the woman who took his mug, talking about dates, the New Year’s party, the teacher asking him to leave? Correcting the work, going back to class? The photo Clare placed in the book, from his pornographic collection? The photo dropping on the floor, Franka’s disappearance, his reaction, driving, caught in the traffic?
7. His relationship with his father, going to the lecture, the complaint about the mother leaving them, his innate anger, the discussions, ideas, sharing? Discovering his father dead?
8. The outing the woods, the child with the hurt leg, Clare attempting to give information, the boy not speaking English?
9. Clare, Andi texting her mother? Franka seeing her? Franka coming, getting out, her alluring Andi, physically attacking him, locking him in? His sitting in the chair and reading about her disappearance?
10. The effect of this experience? The sadism of the Collector?
