Stimmen
Director: Mara Mattuschka
Writer: Mara Mattuschka
Cast: Alexander E. Fennon, Julia Schranz, Raphael Nicholas, Leo Janeselli, Sandra Bra, Stephanie Cumming, Peter Badstübner
Part of: Viennale

Plot:
Alex Gottfarb (Alexander E. Fennon) is a successful opera singer with a secret: inside of himself, he is not alone. There’s also sexy Sandra (Julia Schranz), hypermasculine Lex (Raphael Nicholas), seven-year-old Xandi (Leo Janeselli) and uptight Alexander (Alexander E. Fennon) who tries to hold everything together. When Alex reconnects with his ex Helene (Sandra Bra), her love for him helps him discover his inner life.

Stimmen is a really, very and completely strange film. Sometimes it is awesome in its strangeness, sometimes it falls flat. The result didn’t excite me, neither positively nor negatively.

I liked the idea of Stimmen and the way Mattuschka went about setting Alex’ personalities in scene. Though it has nothing to do with serious psychology, to have the personalities living in Alex’ flat and only one is allowed out at the same time (though she doesn’t stick to that concept all too consequently).

I’m a little torn about the personalities Alex is divided into. Because you can read them as archetypes – in which case the ending is unsatisfying because it doesn’t really lead to an integration of the archetypes into a whole personality but rather a serial co-existence. Or you can read them as stereotypes in which case they’re offensive all around, particularly Sandra and Lex. A little more clarification on that would have been much appreciated. [Unfortunately, the time allotted for audience questions after the film was completely swallowed by the introduction to and thanking of the film team, since it was the premiere.]

Two things worked especially well for me. One, were the slightly surreal TV interviews Alex gives that very frankly hilarious – also due to the amazing interviewer. And two, were the integration of the myth/opera Orpheus and Euridyke. It’s interesting to think of Helene as Orpheus, but actually the bes thing about it was the production Helene and Alex are working on and that featured one of the coolest dances in recent memory.

But towards the end, when the novelty of the film’s concept has worn off, it starts to have some serious lengths and the weirdness starts to become exhausting. Also, while the cast is serviceable for the most part, it doesn’t rise much about ok. In the end the film just doesn’t move much beyond its good idea.

Summarizing: Ok, but not great.