DIE THEORIE VON ALLEM
Venice 80 – In Competition
Germany, Austria, Switzerland, 2023 Director Timm Kröger Starring Jan Bülow, Olivia Ross, Hanns Zischler, Gottfried Breitfuss, David Bennent, Philippe Graber Running time 118′
Alberto Barbera invited everyone to keep an eye on it, calling it the “big surprise” of Venice 80. Die Theorie von Allem (The Theory of Everything for the less German-speaking) is the second feature directed by young German director Timm Kröger, who already attracted attention here on the Lido in 2014 with his debut film, Zerrumpelt Herz (The Council of Birds), which was presented at the Venice 71 Critics’ Week.
And if the excellent premises of the artistic director (“a true example of new ways to cinema”) were not enough, perhaps the words of Kröger himself will be, who in the director’s notes tells about the inspiration he had for the film as follows: “I was attracted by a strange and funny amalgam, as if Hitchcock and Lynch were making love on the carpet of the lobby of an old hotel.” We might venture to call it a dream thriller, although the label, in these cases, does not turn out to be of paramount importance.
Swiss Alps, 1962. A scientist, Johannes Leinert, must participate in a prestigious physics convention. Things begin to get strange when a colleague, supposedly expounding a revolutionary theory of quantum mechanics, disappears. Between murder investigations, quantum formulas and uncontrollable attractions, we follow Leinert as he enters a sinister vortex of false memories and real nightmares, with a dark mystery rumbling hidden under the mountain. Is this the tragic story of a misunderstood genius, or are we witnessing the paranoid hallucinations of a madman with obsessive disorders? We will find out by seeing it. Or maybe not.
