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Der Freischwimmer – Merry Mixture of Genres
By Ron Holloway | August 18, 2008
Programmed in the Venice Days section at the 2007 Venice film festival, Andreas Kleinert’s Der Freischwimmer (Head Under Water) (Germany, 2007) comes across as merry mixture of genre cinema: partly psycho-thriller, partly black comedy, partly high school horror. And although “free swimmer” might be considered a better English translation of the title, Head Under Water offers hints of the weird nuances in the story.
Set in an idyllic town somewhere in provincial Germany, the tale evolves around the fantasies of 15-year-old Rico (Frederick Lau), a gawky, semi-deaf youngster who, as the butt of class jokes, retreats regularly to his own little isolated world, especially when he has to take off his hearing-aid during swimming races. His only defence is his handy camrecorder, used daily to film the exploits of school nymphos and jocks.
One day, at the swimming pool, Rico’s chief loud-mouth jock tormentor chokes to death over a creamy eclair, thus triggering an investigation at the school as to possible murder suspects. Among them are the swimming coach (Devid Striesow), who unfortunately happens to be the new boyfriend of Rico’s flighty mother (Dagmar Manzel); a loony art teacher (August Diehl), who is the bane of other teachers save for an adoring music teacher (Fritzi Haberlandt); an overriding school principal (Jürgen Tarrach), who doesn’t have a clue as to what kids under his care are up to anyway; and, of course, Rico himself.
Along the way, while Rico is seeking soul kinship with the friendly art teacher at the latter’s secluded mansion, the school’s music teacher makes the mistake of showing up too – and the stage is set for the next round of psycho bloodshedding. As a sociocritical statement, Head Under Water is held above water over the long stretch by Andreas Kleiner’s knack for casting ace thespian talent down to key bit players.
– Ron Holloway
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