TeenzTen
An action-packed slog
Pacionsbo
Absolutely Fantastic
Ortiz
Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.
Lee Eisenberg
Karl Markovics's "Atmen" ("Breathing" in English) focuses on a youth's emotional awakening and the issue of morality in our lives. The movie both gives the viewer a glimpse into the youth's life as he gets a job as a mortuary attendant while still in a juvenile detention center, but also how he has to confront the crime that put him juvie. There are also several shots of the environs of Vienna. I thought that the most effective scenes were the train, showing him going to and from the juvenile detention center, and how the advertisement comes into view, or vanishes.I'd say that this was the right movie for Austria to submit for its nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards. Addressing matters of incarceration, ethics, and relationships, it hits the right notes.
maximuneyoshi
The themes of life and death and brilliantly elaborated through breath and suffocation. It is no accident that the film name is "Breathing".Through the use of recurring themes to elaborate on psychological drama this movie strongly reminded me of the also very good "Don't Look Now" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069995/ where red, the color of blood, water and fall are in a constant interplay with the ideas of life, death and sorrow.In this case breathing means life, and deep in the swimming pool is the perfect place to evade from it, to leave it outside. By spending a good deal of time there you can quit life for good. But no.This young taciturn boy, who for the lack of meaningful ties contacts didn't learn how to express himself, carries on. It is the power of the indomitable human spirit that in spite of mounting difficulties and tons of hesitation doesn't quit.He was raised in an orphanage and the lack of support is there to be seen almost every time. It is there when he is deep down in the pool, or when he cries. Boys don't cry, even more so in prison.He has to make amendments. He does time for killing a boy - who was trying to suffocate him - and also his mother he only gets to know aged 19. It is a lot to do for something lacking the proper tools, but intentionally or not, the work at a mortuary helps him deal with his own suicidal impulses and the death he caused.It is an overall sad movie, but also an inspiring one about how life can prevail. Kroger, the boy, speaks very little through this piece but that doesn't make his acting any less convincing or expressive. Thumbs up for the director, too, who pull a seamless and very aesthetic work.
jm10701
I fought hard not to fall in love with this movie, but I lost that battle. Words seem inadequate to describe a movie that communicates so effectively with very few words, words that only hold the story together but never carry the full weight of its power. But all I have here is words, so I must try.Breathing is the story of Roman Kogler, a 19-year-old inmate of a juvenile detention center where he has lived since he was 14 and killed a boy who had been bullying him. Roman was given up by his overwhelmed teenage mother soon after his birth (she had almost killed him to stop his crying) and has spent his whole life in orphanages and group homes, where the bullying incident occurred.He is almost catatonic, with no idea how to relate to other human beings. He's like a wounded wild animal held in a cage, never looking anyone in the eye and almost never speaking; I didn't count, but I'd be surprised if he said more than 50 words in the whole movie. Inside the tortured, terrified shell is a sweet and gentle boy tired of being alone but with no idea how to come out; a chance encounter with an American girl on a train is especially touching and lovely.Thomas Schubert, the totally inexperienced actor who plays him (never even in a school play, and went to the audition only because a friend he wanted to see was going) does it all with his eyes, his face, and his body language. To say it's a powerful performance is a pitifully inadequate understatement. He is amazing.This is a very, very great movie, the first feature written and directed by Austrian actor Karl Markovics. It is quiet and unpredictable and deeply moving, with none of the cheap emotional manipulation, gut-wrenching melodrama and gratuitous plot twists I was afraid of after a lifetime of watching American movies. Breathing is beautiful, simple, powerful and profoundly satisfying.
shatguintruo
Through the magnificent photography of Martin Gschlacht, we take science, right in the opening scenes, that we are facing a movie totally different then those we saw before. Initially controversial (due to the fact of stupendous interpretation of Thomas Schubert) Roman Kogler will creeping in our imagination as one more important character in movie's history. Take, for example, the scene in which, after more day of labor, he comes back to "his home" : when he observes the others passengers, as if the was trying to guess how the lives of those "unknown": Are they happy? Do they fight among themselves? Do they have enough money to sustain themselves? What are theirs aspirations (secret or not)? After all these thoughts, the final question (made in silence to himself and looking out through the glass train's window, which reflects his inner loniless): And how my life would be without having to go back to "home" = Prison? Poignant film! Karin Lischka (almost the same level of interpretation of Thomas Schubert) is simply sensational when she reveals brutally, bluntly, that she tried to kill his own son! Must-see movie for all those who enjoy a film in which the Director (Karl Markovics) seeks to dissect with a scalpel, the soul of all his characters. On a scale of 1 to 10, rating: 10 (masterpiece).
