The City Below
September. 15,2010
A man and a woman at an art exhibition share a fleeting moment of attraction, which neither can act upon. Days later, a chance second meeting leads to an innocent coffee and the two strangers – both married - toy with their unexplainable fascination for each other. Svenja is curious and finds herself in a hotel room with Roland, but she does not consummate an affair. A powerful executive at the large bank where Svenja's husband works, Roland is used to getting what he wants. He manipulates the transfer of her husband to Indonesia to replace a recently murdered bank manager. Unaware of Roland’s actions, Svenja now ceases to resist...
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Reviews
the audience applauded
The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
"Unter dir die Stadt" or "The City Below" is a German 105-minute movie from 2010, so this one has its 7th anniversary this year. The writer and director is Christoph Hochhäusler and it is one of his more known works. It is basically the story of a woman who struggles with (married) life in a new city and ends up having an affair with a much older, married man. The central character is played by Nicolette Krebitz and while her good looks (especially for her age) are undeniable I must say her performance did not really win me over this time. This may also have to do with the way the character was written though. It is not really a problem that there are no likable characters in this film at all, it is much more crucial that none of them feel really interesting or relevant in a way where I would care what happens next to them. Or their relationships. The rest of the cast is probably not too well-known, but German movie buffs may recognize one face or the other. All in all, you could perhaps divide this film into 2 segments, the personal life segments involving Krebitz' character and the business life segments involving (many more characters than) her husband. The latter was probably even weaker than the former I guess as none of the central characters received proper characterizations and elaborations in a way I would have liked it. The runtime is not too little, so lack of screen time was not a problem at all. The major problem was instead that Hochhäuser perhaps lacked the right focus. Maybe he should have centered the entire film around Krebitz' character and kept it at 75-80 minutes max as the business parts were mostly nothing more than loud and self-important without having any kind of substance to them really. Oh yeah, the title is also a bit on the pretentious side. I don't mind poetic references like these, but you have to make a connection with a title like that too and homesickness that is not really at the very core of the film even won't cut the cake here. This film is not a failure by any means, but I personally found it uninteresting for the most part. Not recommended.
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