Alpsee

Alpsee, by Matthias Müller (Germany, b. 1961), is an experimental film that transports viewers into a dreamlike mid-twentieth century family melodrama. With a nod to Douglas Sirk’s 1950s films, Müller develops a visually exquisite domestic situation around a boy and his mother. Alpsee’s two principal characters move through the story without speaking and with limited interactions. The mother wears impeccable 1950s-style vintage dresses, and is often busily focused on the household chores. The son is at a pivotal age when childhood transitions into adolescence, and he spends his time retreating into his own imagination. Despite the familiar surface appearance, an uneasy undercurrent of emotion builds as the film progresses.

Prior to making Alpsee, Müller gained a reputation for his adept repurposing of found footage to construct new works. Alpsee represents a stylistic shift for Müller in that most of the film consists of originally shot 16mm color film. Appropriated material is applied selectively, with a mix of scenes from several television shows used to emphasize key moments. Müller also uses his own family home movies to bookend the film, which adds a loosely autobiographical element. The title of the film comes from the final sequence featuring a 1964 home movie of Müller’s mother emerging from Alpsee, an alpine lake and popular German vacation spot. Of the title, Alpsee, Müller notes “On the one hand, the title refers to the place where the film was made, a lake in the Alps. On the other hand, you can hear the word Alptraum in it—the German word for “nightmare.”