Rohtenburg (2006) Reviews

• Different from any expectation

  troubledmind2006-09-02

  I have to say that this film caught me by complete surprise. I expected it to be a typical "Hostel" kind of horror movie. But the opposite was the case. Rohtenburg is an incredible shot film that draws you into a personal story and guides you slowly into the darkness of a disturbed mind. Against all odds i was pleasantly surprised about this film. I do understand though that this film will raise a lot of controversy and have people not understand it or love or hate it. This film has no grey area, it is hate or love for sure, since it doesn't slumber through the mediocre horror genre formulas and has very little blood for the die hard horror fans. It works on a psychological level and goes way deeper than i expected, actually giving me sleep trouble for two nights. This is a very different film. I don't think i have ever seen anything like it. I would recommend it.

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• A worthy watch, if not an easy one

  madam_Q2007-02-28

  I can't help but wonder, after reading so many negative reviews, if people really got this movie. Yes, it is a commentary on a depraved culture. But, as the narration points out, the important things are not what makes us different from people like cannibal Oliver Hartwin, but what makes us the same. As Hartwin, Thomas Kretschmann does a great job in a role that can be described in a mastery of understatement as "difficult." He plays a man who fantasizes about eating human flesh. He finds the yin to his yang in Simon Groembeck (Thomas Huber, equally superb), a man who's veritable truckload of I.S.S.U.E.S. see him abandoning his GQ model boyfriend to be eaten by a guy with a Herman Munster haircut and a predilection for beige. Go figure. They hook up over that great haven for all the demented and depraved - the Internet. Go team! Kerri Russell narrates the film in a somewhat unnecessary framing device. Quite frankly, what I found most irritating about the film were the most over obvious attempts to sell it internationally - Russell is the known "face" but the majority of the cast is comprised of German actors. Why not film it in German? Why not drop Russell altogether and instead focus on the relationship between the two men? A relationship which is, in its own way, oddly affecting. For as the title implies...this is a love story. Well, come on. How many movies does Hollywood churn out annually based on the central premise of a woman (once upon a time Meg Ryan, lately her mini-me Reese Witherspoon) and a man (preferably Hugh Jackman but Mark Ruffalo or one of the Wilson brothers in a pinch) who are made for each other? When you really examine it, this film is based around the same premise. These are two men who are, in Russell's own words as she drably narrates, a perfect match. Far too much screen time is given to Russell poking around Hartwin's farm house and looking generally freaked out, at the expense of the developing of the relationship between two true oddballs. This is not monster and victim - these are two lonely men who have found each other, and not nearly enough time is devoted to the why of it all. In it's look, the film very much honors it's subject matter, to great effect. It is shot mostly in muted tones, yet avoids the trap similar films have fallen into - namely looking too dark and leaving the audience wondering if they need to turn the contrast on their TV up. Very much a 1970s horror movie feel. Clever tricks abound - we see a grisly horror film being enjoyed by Hartwin reflected on his eyeball in an extreme close up, while in an earlier flashback the camera travels under the sheets to watch him reading under his bedclothes as a child. The running time is concise, a mere hour and a half, with the majority of the film's most difficult to watch scenes occurring in the final twenty minutes. There is the odd unexpected moment of black humor - yes, you feel guilty for chuckling - while the bare bones script is stripped of exposition and all the better for it. On the whole it is a well made movie, not what you'd call entertaining, but a worthy watch none the less.

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• The Cannibal ate my homework ....

  Coventry2007-11-04

  Both this film and Marian Dora's "Cannibal" were inspired by the unbelievably inhuman yet real-life horror case of Armin "The Rohtenburg Cannibal" Meiwes. Meiwes was a lonely and introvert homosexual who placed an internet add, looking for volunteers to get slaughtered and consumed by him. It didn't take that long before he got a response from Bernd Jürgen Brandes, another homosexual who treasured a life-long dream of having his penis chopped off and eaten. Like the script states at several occasions: these two formed a perfect match. Even though both films remain faithful to the grueling and sickening facts, they are two completely different viewing experiences. This film is more like a 'light' version of the facts (but, mind you, still shocking enough to upset people with a weak stomach), whereas "Cannibal" is a downright brutal and uncompromising film. "Grimm Love" supposedly takes place after the facts and the story is re-enacted via the research and profiling of an American psychology student (Keri Russell) residing in Germany to work on her thesis. This wraparound story is actually rather redundant, since Russell only appears on screen in order to link together all the flashbacks that build up towards the two men's fatal cannibalistic meeting. Unlike "Cannibal", this film dedicates a large amount of time digging up the men's backgrounds and illustrating their personalities. The voluntary victim Bernd Jürgen Brandes (renamed Simon Grombeck) forcefully hated the reproduction organ between his legs and apparently blamed himself for his mother's suicide, because she once caught him and another boy playing doctor. Armin Meiwes (renamed Oliver Hartwin) had issues with his mother as well, but she was more of a dominant and overly protective type. He developed cannibalistic tendencies after she died and eventually the endless opportunities of the almighty internet brought these wandering souls together. I find it praiseworthy that both films, especially considering the gruesome themes, succeed in clarifying to the audiences that this is, in fact, primarily an (unusual) love story rather than a gratuitous exploitation flick. It's a portrait of two men who're social outcasts due to their unacceptable sexual desires. This was even clearer in "Cannibal", since the two men shared all the screen time together as from the opening sequence, but even "Grimm Love" successfully reflects the affectionate and deeper relationship between the two 'monsters'. However, this movie suffers from a handful of dreadfully tedious moments and it sadly remains too vague about the disturbing things that happened after the castration. Meiwes stored Brandes' corpse on a meat hook in his basement and continued to eat his pal for several more months after the actual killing. This film only briefly mentions this little detail somewhere at the beginning. The cinematography is pleasingly dark and depressing, and the slow pacing and grim set-pieces contribute to the building up of an overall uncanny atmosphere as well. Martin Weisz' direction is subtly creepy and he clearly doesn't aim for sensationalism here. The German actors are very competent as well, even though they are for some reason forced to speak their lines in hesitant English… My main complaint regarding this production, as stated by other reviewers already as well, is the international character of the film. Why the involvement of a fictionalized American student character working on a psychology thesis? Why narrate the story through flashbacks, for that matter? Russell's role is entirely redundant and her character isn't even plausible anyway. For someone who has been obsessed and fascinated with the case for more than 3 years, she really sucks at watching graphic cannibalism on tape.

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• The Dark Regions of the Human Mind

  gradyharp2010-08-12

  Director Martin Weisz and writer T.S. Faull created this movie adaptation ROHTENBURG (GRIMM LOVE) of a famous crime that is so bizarre it deserves a summary from the legal aspects in order to appreciate the quality of the film. Names have all been changed, including the spelling of the title - 'Rotenburg', or 'red castle', is the name of the small village where this grisly event took place. The facts of the case are as follows: 'Armin Meiwes (born 1 December 1961) is a German man who achieved international notoriety for killing and eating a voluntary victim whom he had found via the internet. After Meiwes and the victim jointly attempted to eat the victim's severed penis, Meiwes killed his victim and proceeded to eat a large amount of his flesh. Because of his deeds, Meiwes is also known as the Rotenburg Cannibal or Der Metzgermeister (The Master Butcher). Looking for a willing victim, Meiwes posted an advertisement at a website, The Cannibal Cafe, whose disclaimer mentions the distinction between reality and fantasy. Meiwes's post stated that he was "looking for a well- built 21 to 40-year-old to be slaughtered and then consumed". Bernd Jürgen Brandes answered the advertisement. Many other people responded to the advertisement, but backed out; Meiwes did not attempt to force them to do anything against their will. As is known from a videotape the two made when they met on March 9, 2001 in Meiwes's home in the small village of Rotenburg, Meiwes amputated Brandes's penis and the two men attempted to eat the penis together before Brandes was killed. Brandes had insisted that Meiwes attempt to bite his penis off. This did not work, though Meiwes was able to burst both of Brandes's testicles by biting them. Ultimately, Meiwes used a knife to remove Brandes's penis. Brandes apparently tried to eat some of his own penis raw, but could not because it was too tough and, as he put it, "chewy". Meiwes then sautéed the penis in a pan with salt, pepper, wine and garlic, he then fried it with some of Brande's fat but by then it was too burned to be consumed. He then chopped it up into chunks and fed it to his dog. According to journalists who saw the video (which has not been made public), Brandes may already have been too weakened from blood loss to actually eat any of his penis. Meiwes read a Star Trek book for three hours, while Brandes lay bleeding in the bath. Meiwes apparently gave him large quantities of alcohol and painkillers, 20 sleeping pills and a bottle of schnapps, and finally killed him in a room that he had built in his house for this purpose, the Slaughter Room. After stabbing Brandes to death in the throat, he hung the body on a meathook and tore chunks of flesh from it; he even tried to grind the bones to use as flour. The whole scene was recorded on the two-hour videotape. Meiwes ate the body over the next 10 months, storing body parts in his freezer under pizza boxes and consuming up to 20 kg of the flesh.' These are the facts of this case. In order to make this film 'palatable' the writer and director introduce a new character - Katie (Keri Russell) is an American Psychology student who travels to Germany to explore the depths of the dark interstices of human behavior. It is though her eyes and imagined flashbacks visiting the places of the childhood and adulthood the two people involved that she offers the audience the understanding of this act. Oliver Hartwin (Thomas Kretschmann) is first seen as a child (Rainier Meissner) and the seeds of his strange behavior are briefly identified. We also meet Simon (Thomas Huber), learn of his background and his relationship to his mother (Helga Bellinghausen), and meet him with his lover Felix (Marcus Lucas) in what appears to be a healthy relationship. But Simon surfs the internet, finds Oliver's curious invitation to cannibalism, and decides to become involved in a fantasy he has always had. The two men meet and mutually agree to take part in the act of Oliver's slow cannibalistic murder of Simon. Many of the aspects of the real case are included, but the writer and director know when to hold back and also know when to leave the story alone, without the trial or follow- up, that leaves the audience shocked but also somehow makes the entire story seem more like a nightmare than an actual deed. Kretschmann and Huber both are extremely fine actors and have found that thin thread of inner fear and self-doubt that makes us able to understand the bizarre act we are watching. Keri Russell is very good in the tiny part she plays (the deleted scenes on the DVD show her role was originally larger), adding a bit of a reality touch for the audience, helping us through this story. There are technical problems with the film: cinematographer Jonathan Sela uses scratchy developing for the flashback scenes which are not always suitably inserted, and the musical score by Steven Gutheinz is often too dependent of the pipe organ fright tactics of horror pictures. It is a difficult subject to watch but in all the film presents a bit of reportage in a watchable manner. Truth is stranger than fiction. Grady Harp

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• Guaranteed to Clear a Room

  LeonLouisRicci2012-05-29

  Oh Man...as the Joker said..."Why so serious?". It all Starts when We are Young. Psychologist generally Say that Our Personalities are, for the most part, Formed in the Beginning Years. The Complexity of the Human Condition takes so many varied Forms that Occasionally it Produces Monsters of all sorts. Freedom of Expression allows Us to explore and expose these Aberrations for Education and Entertainment purposes. So, there is a Place for the Data no matter how Horrifying. But most who watch this Movie, Arguably, are doing so for some kind of Horror Movie Thrill. Good luck. The Film is presented in such a Serious, Deep Deconstruction and is so well done that the Entertainment Value is Vacant and what We are left with is Guilt for Watching, and Sympathy for the Maladjusted Men who are Convinced in that the only way to show a Connection with Humanity is through an Exchange of Material Matter with Sexual Perversion of the most Extreme. As these Carnivores Consume and Consummate their Love it proves to Them that this is the Ultimate Love. But, this places Them in the Unnatural Selection of the Specie...Categorically...Inhuman. If Your Party or Gathering is Over and You have Unwanted Lingering Guests. Put this Movie on and it is Guaranteed to Clear the Room. If it does not, go to the Kitchen and start Frying up some Meat. If the Guests are still there...Dial 911. But I Digest...I mean Digress.

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