Marie Kreutzer's "The Ground Beneath My Feet" has put itself into the early running for Best Foreign Film of 2019. It unfolds beautifully, dancing between psychological thriller and a cold examination of mental illness and the cutthroat corporate world.
Lola Wegenstein (Valerie Pachner) is a young, attractive woman who is a big part of a company that goes into other companies to make them more solvent. Translated, she is one of those people who is feared by employees everywhere in the corporate world, because when someone like her shows up at the place where you work, people are going to lose their jobs. Downsizing is everywhere. Personally, she is competent and affable, but she's part of the machine that can gobble people up and spit them out.
While living in this high-pressure work world, she also faces two other outside issues. She is having a secret lesbian relationship with her boss, and she has an older sister, Conny (Pia Hierzegger), who is a schizophrenic residing in a mental hospital. Lola is always balancing these three issues, and each issue keeps overtaking the others in immediate importance. Of course, it takes quite the toll on Lola.
Lola can't fully trust anyone. Yes, she's having an affair with her boss, but this guarantees her nothing professionally. She also endures the abuse of her male counterparts who undercut her. One of them exposes himself to her and laughs at her, knowing that he is safe. She can't fully trust her sister, because how can you trust an angry schizophrenic?
When Conny starts peppering Lola with phone calls, things get really weird, because when Loa contacts the hospital she is told that Conny doesn't have access to a phone and is currently in a meeting. What is particularly disconcerting to Lola is that the calls claim that they can see Conny at her hotel window, wearing a bathrobe, while Lola is standing by the window wearing a bathrobe. Lola is beginning to panic.
We do eventually figure out what is going on, but it's not exactly a calm resolution to everything Lola has gone through. Poth Pachner and Hierzegger deliver outstanding performances and Marie Kreutzer equals their performances with her work behind the camera. "The Ground Beneath My Feet" is one of those films that really sticks with you. I was still thinking about it for a few days afterwards. We take the ground for granted. It's one thing we can usually depend on, except during earthquakes or when everything falls apart like it does for Lola.
| Movie title | The Ground Beneath My Feet |
|---|---|
| Release year | 2019 |
| MPAA Rating | NR |
| Our rating | |
| Summary | The pressures of modern-day corporate life and personal relationships throw a woman into a hailstorm of confusion and the results are oddly gratifying. |
