I have only watched the part I, a friend of mine which has seen the part II confirms that my thoughts on the movie are also valid for the follow-up movie so I guess it can be fine to share this with you guys.
Heimat truly is an exclusive experience. The film is produced and directed by Edgar Reitz and shot in black and white ; except for some particular elements for which the colors has been accentuated in such a way to contrast with the rest of the setting. Every color element (the coin, the flame, etc…) seem to serve a purpose in conveying a certain message. Except for the blue wall, at a moment there was a wall in the movie which was blue during its first appearance and was left black and white during its second appearance. I couldn’t figure why. At the end of the movie, a friend of mine, with whom I watched the movie told me that the blue wall we saw in the movie was colored for the scene during which one of the crew members died, it was an homage to that person.
The choice of black and white is a marvelous idea for it displays an image of high quality where our eyes aren’t mesmerized by the colors of the screen. Personally, I felt like I automatically adjusted to it and even though it was black and white I felt like it was colored in its own way. I could perceive the contrasts and admire a large chromatic scale included in the black and white image.
Leaving aside the purely visual character of the film, let’s talk about the protagonist. I felt like Heimat was a crossover between Into the Wild and Maupassant’s Mme Bovary. For those who don’t know or forgot about the movie and the book. Into the wild depicts the journey of Christopher McCandless who seeks happiness through a reconciliation with nature, during his journeys he crosses the path of many person and always leave them for the sake of persevering in his goal. In the end when he dies alone, he realizes happiness doesn’t exist outside of sharing. As for Maupassant’s book, the protagonist is a woman called Emma Bovary which comes from a medium agricultural background. However she reads a lot and dreams her life as though it were the same as the fantasies written in the books. She modifies the way to she perceive reality to emphasize the illusive elegance. At the end, disillusioned she commits suicide.
*Spoilers ahead*
Now, why do I feel like Jakob is a crossover between the previous two characters ? It’s because he’s floating on a cloud that swifts above the realm of everyday reality. I recall a scene where Jakob’s grandmother was warning someone to look out for the boy for his gaze was always lost somewhere up in the air as though no part of the world of the living. Jakob i indeed quite the dreamer, and throughout the movie we are being played by the director, tricked into thinking he possesses a supernatural power with which his reading transforms reality. It does indeed add a magical aspect to reality that triumphs over mundane routine, but he doesn’t exactly have any concrete power. The power of imagination fuels the mind of this dreamer. He perceives everyday reality in a different way from those around him and seeks adventure or higher purposes like “Liberty” for example. The final scene where Jettchen cries as Jakob gets taken away very well underlines the difference between the world’s mindset and Jakob’s reality. In my opinion, Jettchen incarnates misinterpretation for she thought Jakob got jealous of her having an affair with Jakob’s brother. So did Florinchen that was always worried whenever Jettchen and Gustav both went missing. Courting Jettchen was none of Jakob’s concern from the beginning, she was just someone with whom he wanted to share the enthusiasm of an adventure in Brazil. So by the ending, as the folks around him went into a full small-town drama, Jakob was already pursuing an ideal of his he probably read somewhere in his books.
*End of spoilers*
Having watched it a long time ago, I don’t remember the other ideas, if there were any, that sparked in my mind by the end of the movie. I’d be more than happy to discuss the movie with anyone who wants to. Thank you for reading this comment ! Enjoy !!
Movie Melody 