Bright Nights (2017) User Reviews

Shallow story, lots of clichés, and landscapes did not rescue the movie. Father role won Best Actor prize from Berlinale 2017 International Jury, but I wonder why

[JvH48 · 5/10 · 12 March 2017]

Seen at the Berlinale 2017, where it was part of the official Competition for the Golden Bear. Not a spoiler, as no secret anymore: The father role, played by Georg Friedrich, won the Silver Bear for Best Actor awarded by the Berlinale 2017 International Jury. I myself and several others were surprised about this prize, so I would like to hear the motivation of the jury, none of which was revealed at the Award Ceremony, so I wonder.

As an amateur film viewer, my conclusion is different. Even worse, I see no reason for any prize whatsoever. This movie simply had too little content overall. The plot and setting were nice, so the landscapes and the environment worked as icing on the cake. However, it did not rescue the movie as a whole. I'm not sure even, whether father and son really bonded together eventually. Maybe only some groundwork has been prepared for smoother future contacts.

The road movie through forests and hills, a few lakes, and more forests and hills, does on itself not offer ample landscape material to make it worthwhile as a sightseeing tour. The people we encountered were not really introduced and thus not really part of the road movie, just tapestry and probably added to un-shallow the story, or merely to fill the nearly one and a half hour running time.

Illustrative for the core story is how father and son start on the wrong foot. Father mentions that he had no car for three years, not needing one in Berlin where he lives. The son finds it boring, saying that as soon he comes to some money he will buy something cool like a BMW or a Mercedes. Apparently, they speak on different wavelengths and come from different worlds, not surprising given their age difference, the many years they did not see each other, and being unaware of each other's circumstances.

One can construe this talk about cars to be a cliché, but it paints a picture that will remain effective during the rest of the running time. I saw more such clichés along the story, like the talk about The Lord Of The Rings, as the father has read the book (boring!) and the son saw the movie (I'm not sure the saw the complete trilogy). The latter example came forth from a side remark triggered by the landscape around them, but disappeared from the dialogue due to some new wavelength difference between the two.

In the opening scene we see that the current partner of the father got a job offer in Washington for a year, and she has already decided in her heart to accept the job. Nowhere further in the story is this item returning, so was this just another way to extend the running time?? Or a way to let us get acquainted with one of the main protagonists, so part of the initial exposition of characters?? This breakfast table topic in an early scene is nowhere re-appearing in the story, so WTF??

All in all, as said before, not a prize worthy movie for a lot of reasons. No substantial story, a lot of clichés about father/son differences in age and topics of interest, and more such mildly interesting things that are no guarantee for keeping you awake.

Not a truly bright achievement, but a fairly good watch mostly thanks to the lead performance

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 17 March 2019]

"Helle Nächte" is a German/Norwegian co-production from 2017, so still a relatively recent release and this is the newest filmmaking effort by writer and director Thomas Arslan, not the most prolific moviemaker, but active for a long time already. It is not a long film by any means as it stays comfortably under the 90-minute mark and tells us a father-son story. Actually, two father-son stories. The main character here finds out his dad has died and that he wants to be buried in Norway, which is also why there are almost no German actors found in here. So he goes on a trip there and he takes his own son, one he has not paid much attention to and cared for in years, probably also in an attempt to make things better than they were between his dad and him and wanting to prove he is a better father than the man before him. Well.. we don't find out a whole lot in detail about his relationship with his father, but when his sister says something on the phone along the lines of he was always good in vanishing when she finds out about his death, this says really a lot. This is a very slow movie, a character and relationship study that some will deem boring probably because really not a lot happens and the focus is more on the interactions than on special events. The biggest thing that happens perhaps except from the changing relationship between the key characters is the younger one meeting a girl from Oslo that he likes. The main character is played by Georg Friedrich and I like him quite a lot as an actor. He is serious competiton for Waltz now in terms of being Austria's finest. I have seen him in a few films over the years and he was always good, sometimes even very good. But he is usually more of a supporting actor, so it was very nice to see him play a central character for once and he definitely proves that he is lead actor material in this emotionally driven performance.

His co-lead is Tristan Göbel, a young actor who has also appeared in really many famous and successful films for his still relatively young age, most of all probably Fatih Akin's Tschick. Sadly, in this one we got here from 2017, he did not impress me as much as I hoped he could and most of the time, he is not on par with Friedrich's commanding performance. But it is not all just Göbel's fault. I think there were moments when his character was just written a bit too stereotypical as a teenager being a rebel against his dad. But there were good moments too, those when it shines thorough that he wants to be with his dad while still keeping the mask intact to show him indirectly how much he hurt him with his absence. One is when they talk about movies for example. Kinda fun which titles they mention and how they speak about Lord of the Rings for example. This is also a very bleak movie, the title is of course a reference to the occasional absence of dark night in Scandinavia. I am sure if you really tried hard enough, you could find a connection or metaphor there that fits in nicely with the main characters' relationship, but lets not go into detail now. It is a film that lives through its main performance and also throuh individual scenes. And most of the time, the dialogues are pretty good too. As a man who has/had a difficult relationship with his dad too though, I was a bit surprised that it did not really connect with me too much on an emotional level. Perhaps because this one here was just very different compared to mine. But it is a good film I believe. Overall, I give it a thumbs-up and recommend checking it out. Also glad to see the Berlin Film festival recognizing excellence in a German movie for once and honoring Friedrich here. Very deserved. Not a film for everybody, but if you make a connection, then you will not be disappointed at all. Go check it out.

The long and winding road to a father-son relationship

[slabihoud · 8/10 · 23 October 2017]

This is not for people who need a certain amount of action because there is none. The film is at times painfully slow with many long scenes which enhances the awkward feeling between this father and son.

They had not seen each other for many years because Michael, the father, left Luis' mother and did not try to have an ongoing contact with his son. Now that Michael's father has died in Norway, he tries to persuade his son to come to the funeral, obviously with the plan in his mind to rescue their relationship. We soon get the picture that Michael's relationship to his father resembles the one he has with his son.

The 14-year-old Luis reluctantly agrees to the idea to spend some more days in Norway by just cruising through the countryside of northern Norway. Luis is very hostile and hardly talks which is a challenge for Michael who tries to get closer to him. Whenever he seems to make progress he looses out soon again and the abyss between them appears deeper and wider than before. During this long silent periods we watch the beautiful landscape passing by which creates a kind of trace. They constantly clash, although it becomes clear that Luis, while complaining about almost every suggestion made by Michael, never asks to return home. He feels pestered and interrogated by his suddenly caring father. He let him try and try again without giving a hint that things could become better. But the longer they get into lonesome territory the quarrel more desperately…

If this sounds depressing to you I assure it is not. The film gives you plenty of time to think you own thoughts about them and the music with these extremely hypnotic sounds draws you into the story and makes you feel like you sit in this car yourself. Throughout the trip there is always something like a glimmer of hope that once the wall between them could be wrecked…

It is basically a two-person movie and both actors are great. The don't show much emotion at first sight, but you get to watch them closely and suddenly you begin to see subtle movements and changes. Great film! The music plays an important part, I cannot image the film without it.

A very good father-son drama

[EdgarST · 8/10 · 27 December 2023]

The relationships between fathers and sons are not shallow or trivial when they have been broken by separation during important years in the psychosocial integration of the boy. According to the idea that a common viewer has of "action", it seems that nothing happens in «Bright Nights». However, there is intense dramatic action, according to the Aristotelian definition of action, determined by a conflict: a movement from point A to B, in which the protagonists change, even if it the change is minimal: at the end of the film, there is a glimpse of understanding between Michael, the father (Georg Friedrich), and his son Luis (Tristan Göbel).

The death of Michael's father is the trigger for his reunion with his son Luis, whom he has not seen for many years: he lives in Berlin, his son in the countryside and his father lived in Norway, so Michael did not see him again after he emigrated. By losing his father, Michael unconsciously realizes that he is duplicating his father-son relationship in the one he has with Luis, so he asks the 14-year-old boy to accompany him to the funeral of his grandfather. He. In fact, only the two of them, a woman priest and an official, attend the funeral. Unbeknownst to Luis, Michael has planned to spend a few summer days together, when the days are long and there is still sunlight at midnight. The process is not easy, the stay is tense, friction is frequent, and confrontation soon occurs.

Director Thomas Arslan's method is observational, he does not judge or take sides with anyone. Perhaps music at some moments appears as an unnecessary resource, when the emotion is obvious, and foremost because Arslan's visual strategy evokes the Scandinavian lyrical realism, which came to film through adaptations of novels by Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf (first woman writer to win the Nobel Prize), such as Victor Sjöström's «The Phantom Chariot» (1921) and Mauritz Stiller's «Gosta Berling's Saga» (1924).

Lyrical realism had a marked influence of Romanticism, evident in the treatment of landscapes, turning nature into a mental projection of the characters. Open, vast, and luminous panoramas predominate in the entire film, such as the attitude of Michael and Luis towards the adventure on which they embark in northern Norway. And it becomes very evident, when just before the most dramatic confrontation, father and son travel through gray and foggy roads, contrasted with the green spaces that they cross after the climax.

An admirable and well-made film, with magnificent performances by Georg Friedrich as Michael (winner of the Best Actor award at the Berlin film festival) and by Tristan Göbel as Luis. «Bright Nights» runs only 86 minutes in good tempo, but it is not a happy film nor does it seek a happy ending. It may not be fully appreciated by those who have never been close to this type of father-son conflict... or who deny having experienced it.