"Der Fuchs" or "The Fox" is a co-production between Austria and Germany that premiered in 2022, last year already, but still a pretty new movie that has now reached German movie theaters all over the country. It is really more of an Austrian film though. A look at who shot made this film, who starred in it and where it was set makes it pretty obvious. You could also say that the quality makes it pretty obvious because the majority of Austrian films these days are good if not great and the overwhelming majority of German films are not good right now and that is already a pretty gentle way to put things. By the way, if any more confirmation is needed that this is an Austrian rather than a German film, then this would be that there were German subtitles here for all the dialogues with pretty thick Austrian accents. You could maybe understand most of it without them too, but I thought they helped. The room was also really packed which I am definitely glad to see. This is a film that deserves many people to go and see it on the big screen. I liked it a lot as you can see from my rating. The writer and director here us Adrian Goiginger and his first directorial effort "Die beste aller Welten" from 2017 was already pretty impressive as he was only in his mid-20s back then, which means that now he is in his early 30s and he had this film and another released in 2022 and the other film (the deeply-moving "Märzengrund") is maybe my favorite from the entire year. Not just from Europe or Austria/Germany, but worldwide. Incredible movie. I gave it a perfect 5/5 rating and this one here gets a 4/5 and I think that one director (or team of directors) release two films in the same year that I give a 4/5 is already something that never happened, but Goiginger is really taking things to the next level here.
I am actually glad to see that his work is getting the deserved praise and recognitions. The imdb ratings for both films are quite high, still not high enough, and this one here is nominated for five Austrian Film Awards, including Best Picture. We will see in summer 2023 how it fares. I hope it can win some of the categories. We shall see. It will have a hard time against "Corsage", but my fingers are certainly crossed. Anyway, one of the nominees is also lead actor Simon Morzé. I saw him in another Austrian film not too long ago, namely "Der Trafikant", and he seems to be growing into one of Austria's most successful actors now. I am still not sure if I am a fan of his performance(s), but he was also definitely not weak or disappointing in either of the two films. Might just take me a little longer to really dig him and start appreciating him. Today, we talk about "Der Fuchs" though and of course the fox itself was a real highlight in this pretty long film that runs for approximately two hours. It takes a little while until the fox enters the picture because the movie starts during the years of the main characters childhood as a boy and we see some positive and some negative there. His family seems to have a great sense of community as we see them eat together, sing together and most of all stick together during harsh times when there is not enough food for everybody on the table. Sharing is caring! Initially, I thought that maybe they were treating the boy not too well because he only received such a small portion, but it is not really true. The mother even took nothing for herself before her man gave her something. Then there is of course the sequence in which said man, namely the protagonist's father, tells his son a story, an anecdote about (tricking) death and why a man does not choose to live on forever. I liked this scene and surely will keep remembering it for quite some time too, even if I still struggle to interpret it.
Before we move on to the days of the main character as a grown-up then, let's also say that you will find familiar faces in the supporting cast here: Markovics has really turned into one of his country's defining actors for decades know. Who would have guessed after his cop series starring a certain dog back in the 1990s. Alexander Beyer has a pretty impressive body of work, even if in the big-name titles he only played minor parts, but still. Pit Bukowski is always easy to identify and his body of work is unique for other reasons. And finally Adriane Gradziel plays a French woman in here, the female character with the most screen time, and a potential love interest for the main character and I was definitely won over by her turn. Hope she can win the Austrian Film Award for it too. We shall see. She definitely felt like a French actress. We understand she hates the Germans, but the fox that the guy was carrying made it obvious that he had a good heart overall. This film is closely linked to a real character by the way, one that is related by blood to Goiginger and who had this special connection with the fox indeed. Towards the end, right before the closing credits roll in, you hear the man and his words how he talks briefly about the fox and how it always followed him like a dog. Of course, we do not know what stuff really happened back then and what was just added for entertainment purposes, but it is not too important anyway. The first meeting between the man and the fox was interesting already because we see that the man is initially not really interested, but then he sees that the fox's mother had died and he decides to take him up. This was of course a parallel to his own past who lost his roots when his father decided to give him away to another man because he was worried that the boy would not survive the winter because there was simply not enough food for him. The first meeting between the boy and the other man was also telling how he tries to catch his attention with chocolate and then it escalates quickly and the boy is almost abducted you could say. It stayed this way at his new home. We do not see any scenes from this time, but we understand from his words later on that all he found there was food, but not really a warm and comforting home. This is also why he left as soon as he entered adulthood.
The film is set way back in the past, during the years of World War II for the most part. We see the German army's successes in France, but towards the end it is said that they will not go home, but go to the Soviet Union instead with the goal to conquer Moscow. This is also the moment when the man leaves the fox behind and does not carry it with him for thousands of kilometers. This farewell moment actually got my eyes a little wet, so mission accomplished for the filmmaker and cast here you can say. This was a very sad and touching moment, but at least we understand that the main character did not die in the Soviet Union. He returned after the war and then finally comes to his home where he realizes that his father had died already, but he finds a fateful letter that the French woman sent for him, which he did not want to and we also understand that the father (Markovics) tried to learn to write in order to write back to his son. It wasn't meant to be, but the man finding this about out his dad and that he apparently really loved and missed him was enough and as much of a happy ending that you could get here. It did feel fairly authentic too, which is at least as important. Like the entire movie. Goiginger did so well with the dramatic moments all along that I am still genuinely impressed. Just look at when the protagonist is locked in for ten days or so because he did not follow his companion immediately when they were heading out on an official order from their superiors. Military stuff of course. His companion still defended him in a way and lied for him, otherwise the punishment could have been way worse. He is also the one who held him back towards the end when they were leaving France and he thanks him for it later on even because he knows that with his background and the previous conflicting situation, there could have been a good chance for the man to get shot or executed as a deserter. His words that he would never desert his fellow soldiers stayed in the mind too, so the title of my review is a bit of a lie. The play on words was too obvious though and I just had to go for it.
This is not a film to make you laugh, but there was one scene when I was laughing a lot and so were other people in the room, namely on the occasion when the protagonist opens up about the fox during a conversation with his superior. The latter's reaction of complete disbelief and confusion was totally hilarious. Nicely done. Makes me curious if Goiginger will one day come up with a dark comedy perhaps, a dram crime comedy or so like there are many good ones from Austria without a doubt. But for now I am glad he made this film here. It is a triumph. So many good moments. I could feel the main character worries when he knew he won't be getting out to see his fox for quite some time and he felt sorry that the animal could think he deserted it. He struggled with being incarcerated and did not think too much about the woman there. Only about the animal. I wish it would have been slightly otherwise, both of them, and the woman would actually become a female family member of Goiginger today, but probably not. His ancestor that the film is about must have found somebody else later on. There are many other scenes and moments from this film I could elaborate on like the depiction of introversion, the seaside etc., but I guess we will leave it at that. The fox is of course also so adorable and I see that several foxes portrayed this one. Again, the scene in the end when the two are separated was heartbreaking, but the main character was also already not expecting Germany to succeed in France, so he would not want the fox to come to the Soviet Union with him where chances were even smaller. This is really an outstanding movie and I give it a big thumbs-up. Pretty much a must-see. Don't miss out!
I am actually glad to see that his work is getting the deserved praise and recognitions. The imdb ratings for both films are quite high, still not high enough, and this one here is nominated for five Austrian Film Awards, including Best Picture. We will see in summer 2023 how it fares. I hope it can win some of the categories. We shall see. It will have a hard time against "Corsage", but my fingers are certainly crossed. Anyway, one of the nominees is also lead actor Simon Morzé. I saw him in another Austrian film not too long ago, namely "Der Trafikant", and he seems to be growing into one of Austria's most successful actors now. I am still not sure if I am a fan of his performance(s), but he was also definitely not weak or disappointing in either of the two films. Might just take me a little longer to really dig him and start appreciating him. Today, we talk about "Der Fuchs" though and of course the fox itself was a real highlight in this pretty long film that runs for approximately two hours. It takes a little while until the fox enters the picture because the movie starts during the years of the main characters childhood as a boy and we see some positive and some negative there. His family seems to have a great sense of community as we see them eat together, sing together and most of all stick together during harsh times when there is not enough food for everybody on the table. Sharing is caring! Initially, I thought that maybe they were treating the boy not too well because he only received such a small portion, but it is not really true. The mother even took nothing for herself before her man gave her something. Then there is of course the sequence in which said man, namely the protagonist's father, tells his son a story, an anecdote about (tricking) death and why a man does not choose to live on forever. I liked this scene and surely will keep remembering it for quite some time too, even if I still struggle to interpret it.
Before we move on to the days of the main character as a grown-up then, let's also say that you will find familiar faces in the supporting cast here: Markovics has really turned into one of his country's defining actors for decades know. Who would have guessed after his cop series starring a certain dog back in the 1990s. Alexander Beyer has a pretty impressive body of work, even if in the big-name titles he only played minor parts, but still. Pit Bukowski is always easy to identify and his body of work is unique for other reasons. And finally Adriane Gradziel plays a French woman in here, the female character with the most screen time, and a potential love interest for the main character and I was definitely won over by her turn. Hope she can win the Austrian Film Award for it too. We shall see. She definitely felt like a French actress. We understand she hates the Germans, but the fox that the guy was carrying made it obvious that he had a good heart overall. This film is closely linked to a real character by the way, one that is related by blood to Goiginger and who had this special connection with the fox indeed. Towards the end, right before the closing credits roll in, you hear the man and his words how he talks briefly about the fox and how it always followed him like a dog. Of course, we do not know what stuff really happened back then and what was just added for entertainment purposes, but it is not too important anyway. The first meeting between the man and the fox was interesting already because we see that the man is initially not really interested, but then he sees that the fox's mother had died and he decides to take him up. This was of course a parallel to his own past who lost his roots when his father decided to give him away to another man because he was worried that the boy would not survive the winter because there was simply not enough food for him. The first meeting between the boy and the other man was also telling how he tries to catch his attention with chocolate and then it escalates quickly and the boy is almost abducted you could say. It stayed this way at his new home. We do not see any scenes from this time, but we understand from his words later on that all he found there was food, but not really a warm and comforting home. This is also why he left as soon as he entered adulthood.
The film is set way back in the past, during the years of World War II for the most part. We see the German army's successes in France, but towards the end it is said that they will not go home, but go to the Soviet Union instead with the goal to conquer Moscow. This is also the moment when the man leaves the fox behind and does not carry it with him for thousands of kilometers. This farewell moment actually got my eyes a little wet, so mission accomplished for the filmmaker and cast here you can say. This was a very sad and touching moment, but at least we understand that the main character did not die in the Soviet Union. He returned after the war and then finally comes to his home where he realizes that his father had died already, but he finds a fateful letter that the French woman sent for him, which he did not want to and we also understand that the father (Markovics) tried to learn to write in order to write back to his son. It wasn't meant to be, but the man finding this about out his dad and that he apparently really loved and missed him was enough and as much of a happy ending that you could get here. It did feel fairly authentic too, which is at least as important. Like the entire movie. Goiginger did so well with the dramatic moments all along that I am still genuinely impressed. Just look at when the protagonist is locked in for ten days or so because he did not follow his companion immediately when they were heading out on an official order from their superiors. Military stuff of course. His companion still defended him in a way and lied for him, otherwise the punishment could have been way worse. He is also the one who held him back towards the end when they were leaving France and he thanks him for it later on even because he knows that with his background and the previous conflicting situation, there could have been a good chance for the man to get shot or executed as a deserter. His words that he would never desert his fellow soldiers stayed in the mind too, so the title of my review is a bit of a lie. The play on words was too obvious though and I just had to go for it.
This is not a film to make you laugh, but there was one scene when I was laughing a lot and so were other people in the room, namely on the occasion when the protagonist opens up about the fox during a conversation with his superior. The latter's reaction of complete disbelief and confusion was totally hilarious. Nicely done. Makes me curious if Goiginger will one day come up with a dark comedy perhaps, a dram crime comedy or so like there are many good ones from Austria without a doubt. But for now I am glad he made this film here. It is a triumph. So many good moments. I could feel the main character worries when he knew he won't be getting out to see his fox for quite some time and he felt sorry that the animal could think he deserted it. He struggled with being incarcerated and did not think too much about the woman there. Only about the animal. I wish it would have been slightly otherwise, both of them, and the woman would actually become a female family member of Goiginger today, but probably not. His ancestor that the film is about must have found somebody else later on. There are many other scenes and moments from this film I could elaborate on like the depiction of introversion, the seaside etc., but I guess we will leave it at that. The fox is of course also so adorable and I see that several foxes portrayed this one. Again, the scene in the end when the two are separated was heartbreaking, but the main character was also already not expecting Germany to succeed in France, so he would not want the fox to come to the Soviet Union with him where chances were even smaller. This is really an outstanding movie and I give it a big thumbs-up. Pretty much a must-see. Don't miss out!