Voyager (1991)

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

The first must-see film of the year.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

"Homo Faber" is a German movie from 1991 directed by Oscar winner Volker Schlöndorff, but this time he did not write it, but let Rudy Wurllitzer do the adapting of Max Frisch' novel. Schlöndorff's most known movie are all based on works from famous authors and this one here is no exception. The cast includes Oscar nominee Sam Shepherd, who looks like taken right out of a Hitchcock or film noir movie, Julie Delpy, probably the most stunning, most natural and most beautiful actress out there in the early 90s and Barbara Sukowa, who is a really weak actress usually with her constant overacting, but bearable in here, even if the European Film Award nomination is an utter joke.The story is about a man, who on a business trip falls in love with a much younger woman. After some initial struggles about how (even if) a relationship may work out, the two are truly happy, but luck may not be on the protagonist's side this time after early on he survives a plane crash without any injuries. He seems to be very cold and calculating, but when he meets Delpy's character, he offers us and his love a totally new side, emotional and caring until the ghosts from his past come back to haunt him. Won't go any further into detail to avoid major spoilers, but this was such an unrealistic development, but I guess Frisch had it in his base material, so they had to include it here too. Also everything before he meets Delpy's character is fairly forgettable to me and I could have done without it, even if the film may not have crossed the 90-minute mark this way. Overall, despite occasional criticisms, I thought this was a really good watch for the most part and I can definitely recommend checking this one out. Oh yeah, you may also find it under the title "Voyager".

The only other Schlöndorff movie I was aware of having seen before this was Palmetto, a hyper-twisty neo-noir made in the States . I liked that movie a whole lot, but it didn't prepare me for Homo Faber which is very dense, well made and literary. Definitely not the "man with hot pants" type of neo noir, like Palmetto, The Hot Spot, Body Heat, Romeo is Bleeding &c. Indeed it's not that obviously noir, because it's steers free of many of the cycle's clichés, whilst keeping what is perhaps the essential ingredient: fatalism, wherein an initial mistake spirals out of control and controls your destiny. The film is not conceptual film noir, it doesn't wallow in the plot arc, or the destruction of a character. The only film I feel I can truly compare it to is the English Patient. Both movies have romantic themes, have extremely good literary-based scripts, contain educated well-spoken protagonists, excellent location shooting, unobtrusive period recreation, and take place in eras not too far apart in time.So Homo Faber is a man, Walter Faber, a prodigal engineer, who seems like a laid back cross between Fitzcarraldo and Brunel. He's too caught up in his romance with engineering to seize the moment and the girl. He is reminiscent in this sense of Dominic in Youth Without Youth, and Zetterstrøm in Allegro (excellent films), both love-blind men caught up in their pursuits (linguistics and piano playing). As Cupid is the real God and reigns over drama, these men must be punished.Homo Faber is Latin for The Man Who Forges His Own Destiny, which is ironic, because in the film Faber is subject to a series of extremely rare coincidences, seemingly manipulated by Providence. There's a duality though, because in a very real sense he has forged his own destiny, it's just that it's inescapable.The movie is a luscious wonder, it takes place all over the world in often exotic locations, and the recreation of late 50s period details works really well (there are far too many "look at me" type films where the production team feel the need to introduce absolutely superfluous period details). I mentioned the phrase "the passage of independents", in my title, which needs explaining. You come across many characters in the movie who are independent. Even when Faber is in love and travelling in Europe, quite often he will go off on his own, or she will go off on her own. The folks here are extremely insulated from the manipulations of others. Faber even has the annoying habit of ignoring questions put to him. I think the movie is very ambivalent on the subject of independence, which is displayed as being quite heartless, however on the other hand, you can see, for example, that if Faber had maintained his cloying New York relationship, that would clearly have been the wrong move. So the film allows you to make up your own mind on that subject, and really in the process becomes elegiac.To be more forthright on the subject, the film may indeed be best described as being about the folly of existentialism. Although as mentioned there is a large level of ambiguity to this. Faber, the "intellectual Philistine", at one point draws a blank when Sabeth mentions Camus and his existentialist (although Camus rejected this term) novel The Stranger, and then makes a joke when Sabeth asks him if he knows about Sartre and existentialism, "aren't those the guys who dress in black and drink espresso" (quote from memory). This is despite him being what I would describe as a textbook existentialist himself. He is an authentic person, full of enthusiasm for his own interests, who lives for himself, whilst recognising his level of duty, and its strict limits. When he truly starts to understand love, and, although he feels absolutely nothing in the presence of art, is able to appreciate the happiness of Sabeth whilst she appreciates art, it is too late for Faber.Couldn't recommend it more highly, would help a lot if you liked The English Patient. Is currently available via DVD from Germany.

The american trailer ist really, really bad. Hopelessly kitsch.Schloendorff himself has a reputation as a director of "Autorenfilme" - author's films. That is exactly what "Homo faber" is supposed to be. an Adaption of a famous book. Schloendorff eradicated much of the mythological connotations, except for the obvious oedipus analogies. Just as well. you can't take everything into a movie. but to happily ignore the marvellous work of Max Frisch and thinking that the title "voyager" is substantial for the film! To compare it with other kitsch films! How sad. And Julie Delpy's acting is really not helping matters.

The first (and last) images of this film really interested me. At the risk of spoiling, we find Faber sitting alone in a Greek airport trying to figure out what the hell just happened to him. A really depressing scene that draws you in to his web of coincidence that is the rest of the story. Faber is a man of science that really should have a great life(he is the chief engineer on an important dam project), but his past catches up with him with a series of coincidences that play a terrible joke with his life.Delpy is very sexy and very French. The aircraft that crashes is just as sexy. A romp around Europe rounds this great film out. Watch with your wife or girlfriend with wine - not with the guys and beer!