Frevel (1983) User Reviews

This spellbinding movie has haunted me for many years

[sleepsev · 10/10 · 2 November 2000]

I saw this movie when it was shown in a cinema here in 1995 and somehow couldn't get rid of it from my mind. It lingers in my mind, in my memory. During the first time when I saw it, I don't think it overwhelmed me or struck my feeling strongly. I just felt that it was pleasantly weird. But after the movie ended and the time had passed for a while, I found that some images in the movie, some kind of feelings, some memory of the atmosphere in the movie keep on haunting me. I can't say I extremely liked it just after I saw it the first time, but it really had a long-lasting impact on me. Fortunately, "Frevel" was shown in a cinema here again this year, and I saw it for the second time. Now I can surely say I extremely like it. The plot seems so simple: it is about a policeman who gets obsessed with the main suspect in a brutal murder case. (It sounds like "Solo for Clarinet","Basic Instinct","Sea of Love" and maybe many other films.) And the relationship between the two main protagonists are in a way similar to "Persona." The insane one doesn't speak, while the sane speaker slides more and more into the realm of insanity. Though "Frevel" is dwarfed when compared to "Persona," I still have to give "Frevel" 10,mainly because of its effectively eerie atmosphere, and also because of the character of that woman. I don't know how Fleischmann could create that kind of atmosphere. It requires the right music, the right shots, the right images, the right performances, the right rhythm, and most of all, the right harmony between these elements to create that atmosphere. When I saw it, I felt there's something sinister in the atmosphere, something wicked and invisible flowing in the air, in the space around the characters. Though the story is not supernatural or surreal, I kinda felt like something supernatural and beyond explanation exist in this movie. That atmosphere, that thing which you can't see or grasp, is the thing that makes Frevel stand out from other movies in the police-love-suspect genre. The leading actress is great here. Her character really "BEWITCHED" me. I can sense strongly the aura of mystery enveloping her. "Frevel" makes me become very interested in Fleischmann, but I don't know if his other movies will ever be available here in Thailand.