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48th NYFF 2010: Benjamin Heisenberg’s The Robber
Rettenberger is our first bank robber and marathon running champion in cinema. Director Benjamin Heisenberg does not do much with the comparison though, apart from some long set pieces where he…runs. He runs away from banks that he’s robbed. He runs from cops chasing after him. He runs to escape prison. He runs marathons as well.
The Robber is based on the true story of Johannes Rettenberger aka Pumpgun Ronny, named after the Ronald Reagan mask he would wear when he would rob banks. Seeing the Berlin Film Festival selected film at the New York Film Festival is a surprise — because it’s basically just your regular action/suspense film. Actor Andreas Lust delivers a strong perf in a role that is the antithesis of his run in the Oscar nominated Revanche, in which he played the detective. Now he’s the one on the run. Literally, on the run.
Rettenberger is our first bank robber and marathon running champion in cinema. Director Benjamin Heisenberg does not do much with the comparison though, apart from some long set pieces where he…runs. He runs away from banks that he’s robbed. He runs from cops chasing after him. He runs to escape prison. He runs marathons as well. The film doesn’t totally run out of breath, but there’s just nothing fresh or notable here worth “running” to see in this German-Austrian co-production.
One thing of note—in case you care—is that director Benjamin Heisenberg, yes, is that Heisenberg. His grandfather was Werner, the multiple Nobel prize winner, father a geneticist, brother a biologist, and everyone on his mother’s side are politicians. How he got to filmmaking he could not even say. He’s a fine filmmaker actually. The action scenes flow very nicely, think Bourne-like style without the shaky cameras. He knows how to slow it down and speed it up appropriately. This is not a case of a filmmaker who can shoot a chase scene really well, but happens to have a script that features a whole lot of talking, i.e non-chase scenes, without knowing how to shoot them.
He connotes Rettenberger’s problems well. The guy is stuck. He at first just does not want to live in society, at least not under the rules they lay out. Then he wants to be normal, and he even has the outlets—through his parole officer and girlfriend. Heisenberg and Lust convey this brief moment effectively, specifically its brevity, for it follows very quickly with the major turning point for the character, an action that really seals his fate.
The Robber, directed by Benjamin Heisenberg, screens at the New York Film Festival September 27 at 6pm and September 29th at 9:15pm, both at Alice Tully Hall.
