"Brandnächte" is a German television movie from late 2017, so this one is pretty much exactly three years old now. It runs for 1.5 hours approximately and the director is Matti Geschonneck. This got me a bit curious because he has worked on many projects since the early 1990s and while it is not a flawless body of work, he was part of an alright outcome here and there. Definitely above your average German small screen filmmaker he is. He rarely comes up with the screenplays for his films and the one in charge here for this job was Hannah Hollinger. She is definitely not on Geschonneck's level, especially if we look at all she did before 2010, especially in the first ten years of the new millennium. She is also a fairly experienced writer and started approximately at the same time that Geschonneck did. However, it seems what she did in the last ten years is better than most of the stuff before that, but this is really only because the earlier stuff was really this poor. Anyway, she originates from Bavaria and this is a fitting connection to where this film got made and where it is set as well. In South Germany of course. The title, however, is a bit difficult to explain and translate, even if it sounds memorable. Or maybe that is why it does sound memorable. The word does not really exist in German language. It is all about the metaphorical use, so you can maybe say it means "Fire nights" or "Burning nights". The lead actress is Sophie von Kessel and well I cannot say she impressed me too much. Be it here or in general. She reminded me a lot of Uma Thurman though. Just physically obviously. She does not even come close to the American's talent when it comes to acting. She is the only male in here I would say and the biggest supporting player is probably Tobias Moretti. I like him. A lot actually. I still think it's amazing what kind of career he managed since "Kommissar Rex". Same applies to Markovics of course. Anyway, as for Moretti, he has a tendency to play darker, potentially sinister characters in recent years and it works well. Again, pretty amazing transformation since his dog cop show back in the day. But enough about that. Sadly, I must say that Moretti was kinda wasted in this film. He is a much more gifted actor than what he could show us here honestly. Pity. The rest of the cast includes more somewhat famous performers that have been in the industry for quite a while. German film buffs will recognize them no matter if we are talking about Auer, Paryda, Loibl or maybe even David. Certtainly a pretty diverse cast. The latter was born in Denmark. Lead actress von Kessel was (unexpectedly) born in Mexico and two of the guys originate from Austria and Switzerland.
Now a few words on the story and tale and why I think it did not turn into a success. I think the film is not daring enough overall. It uses known and familiar formulas, but sadly in a wway as it has been done 100 times before in the past and most of the time more successful. This applies to the general plot idea of a woman returning back to her hometown and we dig with her into her past where she becomes suspicious that a terrible crime that happened years ago may not have happened the way it was decided back then by a court. There is one key problem already. As she delves deeper into the past, it just feels really difficult to believe that she finds out all this stuff years later and the courts and police did not find out back then. It just does not feel credible. Aside from that, a thing that troubled me more than almost everybody else I suppose is how Moretti's character is so underwhelming and uninteresting, even if he still managges to elevate the mediocre material occasionally. Other than that, the film tries to go for atmospheric take in terms of light effects (or the exact opposite in fact) and weather occurrences. No bright sunshine during these 1.5 hours. I must also say that the film was not too strong from the perspective that includes all the aforementioned supporting characters/actors and their impact. These characters were simply not written too convincingly in terms of dialogues, but most of all the characters' actions. No exceptions really. In the end, it is also too much of a solution for my liking. I would have preferred her to not find out what happened back then and if she even has to, then at least the police should be a part of it too and being somewhat present at least. Also like so many other times in the weaker movies with similar stories, there is some romance story included that was a bit of a dark secret or at least did not turn out too happy overall. Nothing more to say about this one. I could have done without it entirely. So the good news is somehow that this film did not result in any sequels (so far) or even a series because for one film alone already it is simply not good enough. Then again I have doubts that they could have hired Moretti in the long run. von Kessel probably. She is not that big of a star winning German Film Awards. However, it must also be said that this movie is not a failure or anything. From that it is pretty far away. It is also far away from being inspired or particularly creative though. Best choice here is to skip the watch. The moments where it reached the level were I would give out a thumbs-up and positive recommendation were way too scarce overall. Go for something else instead. This is not half as interesting as the title suggests and unfortunately not as quietly convincing as it aspires to be.
Now a few words on the story and tale and why I think it did not turn into a success. I think the film is not daring enough overall. It uses known and familiar formulas, but sadly in a wway as it has been done 100 times before in the past and most of the time more successful. This applies to the general plot idea of a woman returning back to her hometown and we dig with her into her past where she becomes suspicious that a terrible crime that happened years ago may not have happened the way it was decided back then by a court. There is one key problem already. As she delves deeper into the past, it just feels really difficult to believe that she finds out all this stuff years later and the courts and police did not find out back then. It just does not feel credible. Aside from that, a thing that troubled me more than almost everybody else I suppose is how Moretti's character is so underwhelming and uninteresting, even if he still managges to elevate the mediocre material occasionally. Other than that, the film tries to go for atmospheric take in terms of light effects (or the exact opposite in fact) and weather occurrences. No bright sunshine during these 1.5 hours. I must also say that the film was not too strong from the perspective that includes all the aforementioned supporting characters/actors and their impact. These characters were simply not written too convincingly in terms of dialogues, but most of all the characters' actions. No exceptions really. In the end, it is also too much of a solution for my liking. I would have preferred her to not find out what happened back then and if she even has to, then at least the police should be a part of it too and being somewhat present at least. Also like so many other times in the weaker movies with similar stories, there is some romance story included that was a bit of a dark secret or at least did not turn out too happy overall. Nothing more to say about this one. I could have done without it entirely. So the good news is somehow that this film did not result in any sequels (so far) or even a series because for one film alone already it is simply not good enough. Then again I have doubts that they could have hired Moretti in the long run. von Kessel probably. She is not that big of a star winning German Film Awards. However, it must also be said that this movie is not a failure or anything. From that it is pretty far away. It is also far away from being inspired or particularly creative though. Best choice here is to skip the watch. The moments where it reached the level were I would give out a thumbs-up and positive recommendation were way too scarce overall. Go for something else instead. This is not half as interesting as the title suggests and unfortunately not as quietly convincing as it aspires to be.
