Sleep — Sleep( Blu Ray)
Sleep is a greyly wonky & unevenly paced arthouse horror/ come dream fed psycho chiller. The film comes off as a blend of cryptic-slow burn mystery, and a bleaker Twin Peaks, with often dizzying shifts back & forth between dream and reality. Here from Uk’s Arrow Video is a blu ray release of this 2020 film- featuring a commentary track, and a few other extras.
Sleep (Schlaf) is a 2020 German production- it was directed and co-written by Jena, Thuringia born Michael Venus. This is his first feature-length film after releasing a few shorts between the years 2007 and 2012. And there’s no doubt from the evidence on display on Sleep, he’s a talented and skilful filmmaker- sadly it didn’t quite click with me.
The film centres on Marlene (Sandra Hüller) a middle-aged air stewardess and Mona (Gro Swantje Kohlhof) her early twenties daughter. The pair live together, but unfortunately due to her work, Marlene has to take various forms of medication to deal with her airline shifts. For some weeks she has been having very clear nightmares about a hotel, and strange things going on there. One morning she says she’s off on a flight to Istanbul, but instead checks into the hotel she’s been dreaming of- which is located in a small valley set town. Mona gets a call from a hospital, informing her that her mother is in a coma after having some sort of break down in one of the hotel's bedrooms- where she sees a wild boar.
Mona makes her way to the hospital, finding out her mother is in a self-created coma- and they just have to wait for her to come out of it. So, she decides to stay in the hotel her mother dreamed of/ went to. It’s run by odd middle-aged couple -balding and tubby Otto (August Schmolzer) who has to be strapped down to sleep, and his wife sniffy and abrupt wife Lore (Marion Kracht). As the film unfolds we find out several men have committed suicide in the hotel, and seemingly the place has more than a few other secrets.
Michael Venus attempts to give the hotel a vibe of 1970’s disquiet and unease- but sadly this never fully comes off. Added to this the film awkward shifts back and forth between dreams and reality, to the point where one really not sure what’s real and not. In theory, this type of thing can be jarringly appealing and intriguing, but instead, it left me rather worn down.
Later on, I do get some tauter and darkly tense claustrophobic Lynch and early Cronenberg vibes appearing- as well as hints, nods towards traditional fairy tales- but neither of these really pulled me into the film. On paper/ by its description I should have been taken by Sleep, and technical it’s a well-made film. But I’m afraid the atmosphere of unease didn’t hit home with me, and the shifts between real and unreal felt clunky & at points quite frustrating. Even though it didn’t click with me, I'll certainly be interested in seeing what Venus does in the future- because there is both skill & promise here.
Moving onto this region B Blu Ray- and we get a good selection extras. First, off we have a commentary track from film critic and historian Kim Newman & author Sean Hogan. And as you expect from these two pros it’s a well-done track, though at points they do get a little stuck with what to say. They move from talking about this being quite a late first feature-length film for the director as he’s now in his mid 40’s. They discuss the film's influences: Bros Grim & dark European fairy tales. The creepiness of small-town life/ darker take on German small-town drama, and of course Lynch. They talk about the film's title, saying it’s an odd name for a horror film, and mention the Andy Warhol film of the same name. They discuss how the film doesn’t fully fit into the horror genre, and how it plays with the tropes. They talk about female monsters in film in genreal, comment on certain scenes. They mention the films touches of dark humour, and how the film is doing some fairly fresh and new things.
Otherwise, get a few visual essays- there's A Dark Strange Magic with Alexandra Heller-Nicholas(16.38), Sleepwalking through National Trauma with film critic Anton Bitel(22.02). We have Dream & Folktale in Sleep, an interview with anthropologist, dream researcher, and filmmaker Louise S. Milne( 11.00). This is No Dream, a two-minute introduction from director Michael Venus and star Gro Swantje Kohlhof. Talking in their Sleep, director Michael Venus and star Gro Swantje Kohlhof in conversation(26.01), A Dream We Dream Together, a compilation of film festival introductions created during lockdown by director Michael Venus and the cast of Sleep(16.00) Making Dreams Come True, a glimpse behind the scenes of Sleep(2.34)- these last two are in subtitled German. We get a selection of deleted scenes, Marlene’s Sketches- exploring the many obsessive dream journal sketches that are only glimpsed in the film, created by artist Christoph Vieweg, a trailer, and Image Gallery. So a very plentiful selection of extras for such a recent film.
It’s great to see Arrow Video once more giving their normal full and classy release treatment to this modern and arty horror film. As you'll gather It wasn’t for me, but it could well be for you if you enjoy the idea of a reality and dream shifting psycho horror-come surreal drama.