7.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Katja's life collapses after the death of husband and son in a bomb attack. After the time of mourning and injustice, here comes the time of revenge.
Starring: Diane Kruger, Denis Moschitto, Johannes Krisch, Samia Muriel Chancrin, Numan AcarForeign | 100% |
Crime | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
German: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English, English SDH, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
BD-Live
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Death comes randomly in the films of German writer/director Fatih Akin. It can suddenly
and unexpectedly remove a major character from the scene, as it does in The Edge of Heaven. It
can abruptly alter a protagonist's fate, sending him in a totally new direction, as it does in Head-On. It can serve as a deus ex machina, magically producing a happy ending—to the extent one
can say that any of Akin's films ends happily—as it does in Soul
Kitchen.
But in Akin's latest film, death sets the plot in motion and governs every subsequent event, and
whether or not these deaths are truly "random" is a critical question uncomfortably looming
over the film. Titled In the Fade for its American release—the original title, "Aus dem
Nichts", translates literally as "From Nothing"—Akin's searing portrait of a woman whose life
and family are destroyed by a terrorist bombing was Germany's submission to the 2018 Oscars
and won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture: Foreign Language. Star Diane Kruger,
playing her first film role in her native tongue after a successful career abroad, won the Best
Actress Award at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival for her revelatory performance. If you only
know Kruger as Helen of Troy in Wolfgang Petersen's misbegotten
epic or as Nicolas Cage's
love interest in the National Treasure films
or as the actress/spy in Inglourious Basterds,
prepare
to experience something new and amazing.
In the Fade was shot by director Fatih Akin's long-time creative partner, Rainer Klausmann, of
whom Akin has said that their collaboration is so intimate that "[o]ur communication on-set
has been reduced to the odd grunt because we hardly have anything to discuss". (Aside from
working with Akin, Klausmann's work includes the cinematography of Downfall and The
Baader Meinhof Complex.) If IMDb is to be believed, the film was shot digitally on the Arri
Alexa, although the image on Magnolia Home Entertainment's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray
often has a distinctive texture reminiscent of film. While many scenes are sharply detailed, Akin
and Klausmann frequently soften the image with smoke or rain, and they do not hesitate to stage
scenes in darkened spaces or to cast deep shadows across parts of the frame. The judicial
proceedings in the lengthy second act are the most consistently bright and illuminated, almost to
an extreme, and these are also the scenes that are most overtly digital. But the entire film has
excellent detail and clarity, even when darkness obscures much of the frame (and even in the
iPhone videos that Katja watches to seek comfort in happy memories).
In the Fade has a naturalistic palette with muted colors broken by flashes of bright hues like the
jacket that Rocco is wearing when Katja brings him to his father's office. Several environments
reflect a more stylized palette, e.g., the spa that Katja visits with her sister in the first act
(screenshot 8) and the crowded bar to which Katja and her lawyer retire after a hard day in court
(screenshot 4). The final chapter features vivid blues and greens, as Katja journeys abroad to
seaside locations.
The image is free of aliasing, interference, artifacts or other blemishes. Magnolia has mastered In
the Fade with an average bitrate of 24.98 Mbps, which is respectable, but since they have used
barely 30 gigabytes of the available space on a BD-50, one has to wonder why they failed to take advantage
of the opportunity for more generous compression.
In the Fade's 5.1 soundtrack is presented in a choice of either original German or an English dub
track. Both have been encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA. The mix provides a good sense of
ambiance in environments ranging from the bustling street outside Nuri's storefront
establishment, to the echoes and dripping water of the spa that Katja visits with her sister
(unaware of the tragedy unfolding elsewhere), to the hushed courtroom with its formal
presentations and rustling papers. There is one major sonic effect in the film's third act that
cannot be described without spoilers, but suffice it to say that the track handles the demands
appropriately. My German is just good enough to allow me to confirm that the original dialogue
is clearly rendered; I did not listen to the English track.
Perhaps the most striking and distinctive feature of In the Fade's soundtrack is its brooding score
by Josh Homme, lead singer and guitarist of Queens of the Stone Age. Director Fatih Akin has
offered the following account of how this American rock musician came to write the score:
I listened to a lot of Queens of the Stone Age music when I was writing the screenplay. They have these fatalistic songs. It came to me that fatalism was the right attitude for this film. I made a Queens of the Stone Age playlist for the character of Katja. I asked my music supervisor to clear the rights to those songs and she suggested that I ask the band. I was able to speak with the group's founder and lead vocalist Josh Homme. He saw a very rough cut of the film and he liked it! Maybe it hit the same nerve where his songs come from. He was busy finishing the group's new album, but he still agreed to work on the film. . . . I've always wanted to do a thriller or at least work with some elements of that genre. Integrating this music has definitely given the film that quality.
While the extras are numerous, most of them are brief and conclude with the film's German
release date, underlining their promotional nature.
It is impossible to watch Akin's film without reflecting on the immigration debates currently
roiling the political landscape in both Europe and America. But In the Fade isn't a "message"
film, despite the director's nod to recent events in the closing frames. Akin makes no secret of
his allegiance to the immigrant community, but his choice of a classically blonde, blue-eyed
Aryan as the film's protagonist is deliberate and purposeful, emphasizing the universality of
family devotion and the equally universal agony when violence rips families apart. The political
climate may change in future years, but In the Fade will remain a vital and electrifying account
of one woman's harrowing battle with unimaginable loss. Highly recommended.
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