Berlin International Film Festival 2006

Dir: Oskar Roehler

Normally, the film-makers try to reproduce something of the character of the original novel, particular when they are dealing with literature with intellectuals pretensions. Perhaps, Oscar Roehler's reworking of Houellebecq's 'Elementary Particles' serves to expose a hollow a centre at the heart of Houellebecq's literature, presenting his characters as everyday self-centred Europeans, played with flat disinterest by Moritz Bleibtreu, Christian Ulmen, Franka Potenta and Martina Gedeck, all experience actors who can take direction. Alternatively, it is a complete misrepresentation of the work in hand and no-one involved with the project had the capacity to draw on Houellebecq's originality.

What we see is a mundane linear narrative with flashbacks to childhood, filmed in the familiar style of German television, though with less aesthetic ambitions than long running series like 'Tatort' have adopted in recent years. Bleibtreu, as one of the two half brothers who are its leading characters, can grin, knot his brow and falls over from time to time, while Ulmen does less, gazing unexpressively through his glasses for much of the film. The two women hardly get a chance to establish and develop their characters. The problem is that neither man seems to have any real interests, or convincing disinterests, despite the occasional references to science and psychiatry. At one stage, the Psychiatrist (Corinna Harfouch) breaks of a session with the Bleibtreu figure, presumably to go off in search of the character she had been told to expect. This is the point at which I would recommend leaving the cinema as nothing that follows redeems what had gone before.