What better confirmation of a stable relationship than if a doubtful “Sometimes I think it would be better if we break up” followed by a simple “Nope” in the sense of “We can do it”? Michael (Alexander Khuon) and Dina (Anna Brüggemann) lie in bed together and talk about how things should go on. Marry? Having children? Are you the right ones for it? Michael in particular has doubts and fears, while Dina argues that a couple is not only held together by common interests, but also by the opposite: “We don’t care about the same things!” The scene is enticingly unromantic, and that is precisely what makes it so attractive : Films rarely hit the heart of everyday experiences.
It is the first scene of Dietrich Brüggemann’s new film, which he did after the Nazi satire that started in 2015 Heil and three crime sceneStaging returns to the big screen for the first time. Well is a return in several respects: On the one hand, Brüggemann wrote the script together with sister Anna again, as was the case last time Way of the Cross (2014); on the other hand, Anna Brüggemann and Alexander Khuon play as in Three rooms, kitchen, bad (2012) a couple. And thirdly, the Brüggemanns intervene Well formally return to means that they successfully tried in the previous films. As in Way of the Cross the plot is divided into individual tableaus, each shot in one shot. As in Three rooms, kitchen, bathroom it’s about love and growing up.
As a “topic” it sounds downright boring: starting a family. But the Brüggemanns are gifted at looking at boredom so precisely that it becomes extremely exciting. And they use the stylistic device of the tableaus rotated in one shot for an opening into the surreal, which provides the necessary humor.
In 15 individual scenes, the film moves forward through the stages of Michael and Dina’s relationship: from the first child to advancement in the job to the second child and the accumulated emotional blockage. Find in the individual vignettes Well wonderful pictures for Dinas and Michael’s often diverging points of view. When Dina is pregnant for the first time, Michael sees a monster grinning evil at him on the monitor instead of the innocent baby during the ultrasound examination. He finally has to leave the examination room in a panic. After the birth, on the other hand, it is Dina who suddenly reacts to reality very differently: When Michael picks her up from the hospital, she sees a war zone all around, from which she has to protect the baby on her arm. Later, Michael experiences that the doctor is like when time suddenly stands still during an operation and offers him the opportunity to talk to the older patient (Rüdiger Vogler) about such important questions as whether he is still mourning his first great love and how he should reconcile his profession with his fatherhood. It is difficult for Dina to return to her acting profession as a mother. A workshop shows her how big the role of self-doubt is in her whole life. And a visit to Michael’s terminally ill, bitter father (Hanns Zischler) found surprising repercussions later.
In the strongest episodes, Brüggemann achieved an effect similar to that of the Swede Roy Andersson in his parabolic films since Songs From the Second Floor: life as a more or less profound caricature in which one recognizes oneself concerned and resigned, but also sometimes relieved.
Well Dietrich Brüggemann Germany 2021, 119 minutes
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