Afire is a Misfire

 

 

 

Afire

Directed by Christian Petzold

The Match Factory/Criterion, 103 mins. R (language, mild nudity, adult situations)

In German with subtitles

★★

 

Director Christian Petzold has announced his intention to make films on the elemental themes of water, fire, and earth. The first was Undine (2020); Afire is the second film. But what is it, exactly? A gay love film? A comedy? A drama? Call it all three, though one could say relationships of all manner are doomed. Plus, though I hate to be ethnically insensitive, Germans just don’t seem to do comedy very well. So much of it turns out sardonic rather than funny. (One can only hope detached irony is on its way out of fashion.)

 

Leon (Thomas Schubert) and Felix (Langston Uibel) are on their way to holiday home on the Baltic Sea, but gets a bad start when their car breaks down and delays their arrival. Leon, an author, is an egotistical bore who obsesses over his second novel, and Felix is working on his photography portfolio, though he’s lackadaisical and gives little indication of facility with a camera. They arrive just as Nadja (Paula Beer) is about to ride off on her bicyclical. Both are smitten, though they initially think she’s a caretaker rather than one of their housemates. Leon immediately falls into a workaholic routine that seems to consist mainly of fretting and pretending to be busier than he is. He is crestfallen to learn Nadja has a lifeguard boyfriend named Devid (Enno Trebs) and refuses every offer to engage in anything that reeks of jollity. He is so insular that he is initially fails to recognize the shifting terrain of sexual attractions. The unlikely quartet will later be joined by Helmut (Matthias Brandt), Leon’s older publisher, who will deliver the verdict we’ve long suspected: Leon’s manuscript stinks and is unpublishable.

 

If all this sounds too laconic to be dramatic and too petulant to be funny, you’re right. Paul Beer is the best thing in the film by far. Her Nadja is actually a brilliant doctoral candidate in literature capable of holding in-depth intellectual discussions with Helmut instead of worrying about her chops as a writer or researcher. A medical emergency and a dangerous forest fire provide a spark of dramatic tension and tragedy. Leon is shocked back to reality, but can he admit he’s in love with Nadja or change his ways? What do you think?

 

Aside from the talented Ms. Beer, the most interesting thing about Afire is trying to figure out how it got rated R in the United States. Given that F-bombs are more common than Disney characters these days, plus the fact that everyone is speaking German, it seems the real problem is shirtless men and a quick flash of bare buttocks. In other words, backdoor homophobia has reared its head. I could make more out of this, but it hardly matters. Though Afire won a Golden Bear—Germany’s equivalent of an Oscar—it went nowhere at anyone’s box office. I don’t think that had much to do with gay themes; I simply think Afire should be renamed Misfire.

 

Rob Weir