Le Libre arbitre

Une histoire crue qui ne nous ménage pas, ce qui ne m’a pas empêché de développer une certaine sympathie envers les personnages au cours de ce métrage prolongé. L’impuissance et la lutte menée par Théo contre ses propres démons conduisent littéralement celui-ci à la destruction et Nettie, de son côté, se démène contre son déséquilibre. L’indécision et la timidité qu’ils affichent l’un par rapport à l’autre sont drôles et touchantes. Bien que j’aie aimé, une durée raccourcie à 120 minutes aurait certainement mieux convenu, sans rien enlever à la valeur artistique ou à la force du message. (15/12/2011)

Jürgen Vogel’s performance in this movie isn’t paralleled, not even by Michael Fassbender in Shame, and that’s a lot considering how amazing Michael’s performance was. But unlike Shame, Free Will is way rougher and rawer, because there are lengthy rape scenes that are quite explicit at times. And it’s not only because of those. There’s way more interesting moments and it’s not necessarily just long static shots. What stood out to me was the length that was really unheard of with this kind of a drama and was fascinated that the actors could maintain such suspense. It’s true that in the second half, the moments repeated quite a lot, but the ending saved it. I haven’t ever seen such destruction of a human soul. Especially since it wasn’t a bad soul, just an ill one. Jürgen was really incredible. If I were him, I’d rest this filming out somewhere in the Himalayas and ponder about how far I’ve gone with the acting. The German Film Festival has given us such a gem that I don’t understand that it has so few reviews. I’m still shocked and it’s been a few days since I’ve watched it. (02/08/2017)