Aloys

Promising debut from Tobias Nölle that calls to mind the work of Andrei Tarkovsky and Christopher Nolan

Film Review by Steve Timms | 31 Oct 2016
Film title: Aloys
Director: Tobias Nölle
Starring: Georg Friedrich, Tilde von Overbeck, Kamil Krejcí, Yufei Li
Release date: 24 Oct
Certificate: 12A

Making its premiere at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year, Swiss director Tobias Nölle’s debut has drawn comparisons with the work of Charlie Kaufman.

It’s the story of a withdrawn middle-aged private detective, Aloys Adorn (Friedrich), who experiences life through a video camera and a collection of surveillance tapes he watches obsessively at home. “The baker bakes bread, the fisherman fishes and the investigator investigates,” he says, in a rare moment of self-awareness. After the death of his father, and following a night of drinking, Aloys wakes on a bus to find his camera and tapes missing.

A mysterious woman (Von Overbeck) offers to return them if he will participate in an obscure Japanese invention called ‘Telephone Walking’. Numerous calls later, Aloys starts to fall in love with the voice at the other end of the phone. What follows is a mind-bending mystery about blackmail, breakdown and recovery.

There’s a tonal similarity to Synecdoche, New York – less that film’s meta-narrative and more its themes of disconnection and loneliness. Some of the exterior shots have the feel of Tarkovsky; in this sparsely populated world, Aloys is always trudging to nowhere, a lost soul hemmed in by concrete, sky and snow. The cryptic narrative also recalls Memento, though Nölle is far less cerebral a director than Christopher Nolan.

“Every party comes to an end and left behind are lonely people,” says Aloys’ lover. Is she a figment of his imagination, a symbol of a future connection – or is he simply reliving memories of an old affair? Beautifully lensed and scored, Aloys is a film whose gifts will surely become clearer after multiple viewings. The final shot is the most quietly romantic thing you’ll see all year.

Extras

Trailer only.


Released on DVD and Blu-ray by Eureka Entertainment