From Austria, an interesting 2007 film that pairs a trippy psycho-thriller plot with a dystopian setting. It’s not entirely successful, although it does evince a unique and highly skilled cinematic sensibility, and suggests that its writer-director Christian Frosch was working toward something much greater (that “something,” alas, has yet to arrive). It begins with a young woman falling or jumping to her death. Her location is Neustadt, a tightly regulated, computerized experimental community (filmed at Vienna’s Wohnpark Alt-Erlaa) that serves essentially the same function as the psychiatric retreat of Christian Frosch’s earlier film TOTAL THERAPY (1996).
Hannah Schreber is a mousy woman who works as a receptionist in the Neustadt citizen’s bureau. She lives in a Neustadt apartment with her abusive husband Branco, with whom she has a dangerous S&M relationship. To get away from him she moves to a flat on the building’s 11th floor, but he tracks her down and resumes their destructive dynamic. An increasingly conflicted Hannah decides to finally take a stand, and may or may not shoot Branco and bury his body.
From there Hannah gets more involved with the 11th floor’s eccentric tenants, who all have bizarre quirks. She begins receiving phone calls from an individual she believes is Branco while initiating an affair with one of Neustadt’s higher-ups, who has incriminating security photos of Hannah disposing of Branco’s body. She, however, is convinced Branco is still alive.
Order in the community begins to break down, and several people are killed. Hannah’s fellows come to believe that terrorists are loose in the community, and that Hannah might be in league with them. Hannah herself begins losing touch with reality, convinced that someone is attempting to frame her for the killings.
Eventually Hannah forgets who she is altogether, and assumes the guise of one of her fellow tenants, a young woman. As such Hannah tries to expose what she believes is occurring in Neustadt and…well, what happens from there is open to interpretation.
Conceptually this film is similar to OPEN YOUR EYES (ABRE LOS OJOS; 1997), which likewise mixed futuristic and psychological drama, although the treatment here isn’t nearly as harmonious. SILENT RESIDENT boasts highly moody and atmospheric filmmaking, utilizing ultra-wide angle (or fisheye) lenses and a precisely modulated color scheme to create an authentically futuristic aura. Credit must also go to the lead actress, the West German Brigitte Hobmeier, who delivers a powerful performance with a particularly Germanic daring (she frequently appears nude, and doesn’t evince too many inhibitions).
The film is quite discordant. It’s riddled with sudden blackouts and dissolves, hallucinatory segues and commercials touting the benefits of Neustadt. One endures all this puzzlement in the hope that it will eventually come together, and possibly be explained, by some third act twist. That twist, unfortunately, never comes.
Vital Statistics
SILENT RESIDENT (WEISSE LILIEN)
Kranzelbinder Gabriele Production
Director: Christian Frosch
Producers: Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu, Gabriele Kranzelbinder, Bady Minck
Screenplay: Christian Frosch
Cinematography: Busso von Müller
Editing: Michael Palm
Cast: Brigitte Hobmeier, Johanna Wokalek, Martin Wuttke, Xaver Hutter, Erni Mangold, Gabriel Barylli, Walfriede Schmitt, Peter Fitz, Antonia Jung, Günther Kaufmann