Reviews
The Universal Theory
Reviewed by Julia Vickers
Once in a while, a filmmaker has the audacity not to make their work fit the norms of genre expectations while having the cheek to pay homage to one of the most defined genres – and pull it off. Timm Kröger, German director of Keswick Film Club's offering last Sunday "The Universal Theory", is clearly a fan of film noir and his version pretty much nails the look and feel of the genre. However, there's quite a lot more going on and, even if not all of it works, it makes for fascinating and mind-bending entertainment.
Set mainly in 1962, post-grad scientist Johannes travels to the Swiss Alps for a physics symposium with his doctoral supervisor and encounters an odd assortment of characters including other physicists and hotel staff, many of whom seem to be hiding something. Most significantly, he meets alluring jazz pianist, Karin (our femme fatale), who leads him into a metaphysical mystery involving tunnels hidden in the mountains, radioactivity, weird cloud formations, deaths and doppelgangers, and squirming carpet patterns… and Kröger even drops in the theory of the multiverse.
It's a heady mix and although the middle section flags a bit, the film's good looks are more than enough to carry the viewer over the less pacey parts. The full orchestral score is a triumph in its homage to classic noir – think Bernard Herrmann's contribution to Hitchcock's work, with eerie melodies, swelling strings and plangent horns. It provides an inspired counterpoint to the stunning black and white cinematography, but at times it did seem to be doing all the work on moving the narrative along.
The film is a sort of noir sci-fi but with not enough 'sci' – it references quantum mechanics and a not that far-fetched theory of universal wavefunction - but this element is abandoned in favour of the adventure-mystery leaving a lot to be explained in the somewhat lengthy epilogue.
The sizeable Alhambra audience was split between those who loved it and those who really did not. If you're a fan of film noir and/or mysteries you'll love it, but check your logic expectations in at the door.
Set mainly in 1962, post-grad scientist Johannes travels to the Swiss Alps for a physics symposium with his doctoral supervisor and encounters an odd assortment of characters including other physicists and hotel staff, many of whom seem to be hiding something. Most significantly, he meets alluring jazz pianist, Karin (our femme fatale), who leads him into a metaphysical mystery involving tunnels hidden in the mountains, radioactivity, weird cloud formations, deaths and doppelgangers, and squirming carpet patterns… and Kröger even drops in the theory of the multiverse.
It's a heady mix and although the middle section flags a bit, the film's good looks are more than enough to carry the viewer over the less pacey parts. The full orchestral score is a triumph in its homage to classic noir – think Bernard Herrmann's contribution to Hitchcock's work, with eerie melodies, swelling strings and plangent horns. It provides an inspired counterpoint to the stunning black and white cinematography, but at times it did seem to be doing all the work on moving the narrative along.
The film is a sort of noir sci-fi but with not enough 'sci' – it references quantum mechanics and a not that far-fetched theory of universal wavefunction - but this element is abandoned in favour of the adventure-mystery leaving a lot to be explained in the somewhat lengthy epilogue.
The sizeable Alhambra audience was split between those who loved it and those who really did not. If you're a fan of film noir and/or mysteries you'll love it, but check your logic expectations in at the door.