Brother of Sleep
- Director: Joseph Vilsmaier
- Writer: Robert Schneider
- Producer: Danny Krausz; Peter Sterr
CGiii Comment
Forget the book...nothing is going to compare with such a mini-masterwork - unless it is compared to its superior: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.
The transition of both novels to film - an arduous task, an uphill struggle.
Super senses of sound and smell - Perfume, as you would imagine, would be a more difficult cinematic journey. At least, with Perfume, Twyker managed to make a watchable film.
Vilsmaier fails miserably.
A brother and sister are in love with the same bug-eyed man who has bionic hearing - in a village that thrives on in-breeding - unsubtly demonstrated by using many actors with Downe Syndrome.
Vilsmaier who has the nasty habit of casting his wife in a roles that are either created for her or roles that are completely wrong for her - as is the case here...she's too old...
Vilsmaier's direction is an atrocity of heavy-handedness and error. He has neither ear nor eye for the material - and, he shows absolutely no skill in the direction of actors.
Why Schneider allowed this merciless destruction of his material is incomprehensible - considering he wrote the screenplay...some novelists should never be allowed to adapt their own work - here is the proof.
A bungled atrocity of the source material.
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
In the beginning of the 19th century, Johannes Elias Alder is born in a small village in the Austrian mountains. While growing up he is considered strange by the other villagers and discovers his love to music, especially to playing the organ at the local church. After experiencing an "acoustic wonder", his eye color changes and he can hear even the most subtle sounds. Elias falls in platonic love with Elsbeth, the sister of Peter, a neighbor's son, who has loving feelings towards Elias ever since. After Elsbeth marries someone else, Elias (aged 22) decides to end his life by not sleeping anymore.
Cast & Characters
André Eisermann as Elias;
Dana Vávrová as Elsbeth;
Ben Becker as Peter;
Jochen Nickel as Köhler Michel;
Jürgen Schornagel as Kurat Benzer / Curate Benzer;
Paulus Manker as Oskar;
Michaela Rosen as Seffin;
Peter Franke as Seff;
Detlef Bothe as Lukas;
Michael Mendl as Nulf;
Eva Mattes as Nulfin;
Angelika Bartsch as Burga;
Lena Stolze as Oskarin;
Heinz Emigholz as Haintz;
Regina Fritsch as Hebamme / Midwife