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‘Sound of Falling’ Review: Shattering, Century-Spanning Tapestry of Female Unrest Shoots Mascha Schilinski Into the Big Leagues
'Sound of Falling' is an astonishingly poised and ambitious second feature from German director Mascha Schilinski, steeped in sadness and mystery.
Through her eyes, we learn the savage truth of how the young, once-strapping Fritz (Filip Schnack) lost his leg, and probe behind the mournful demeanor of stricken, old-before-her-time domestic servant Trudi (Luzia Oppermann) — one of many maids forcibly sterilized by her employers, “to be made safe for the men.” Though she only understands some of what she witnesses through keyholes or coy adult allusion, Alma’s innocence darkens over the course of the summer, by the end of which she herself expects to die. In the other direction, the family tree extends to Erika’s sister Irm (Claudia Geisler-Bading), introduced in the early 1980s as mother to restless teen Angelika (a superb Lena Urzendowsky), whose growing sexual awakening is exploited by her uncle Uwe (Konstantin Lindhorst) and more tenderly pursued by her gawky cousin Rainer (Florian Geißelmann). Shooting in a suitably confined Academy ratio, Schilinski and Gamper visually unite the film’s switching eras with grainily textured compositions that evoke faded family photos in some shots and antique mirror oxidation in others — all in a palette of dulled blacks and tea-stained browns only sporadically leavened by a breath of stonewashed blue.
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