Elementarteilchen (2006)

Director:

Oskar Roehler

Writers:

Michel Houellebecq (novel)
Oskar Roehler (writer)

Release Date:

23 February 2006 (Germany)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

Based on Michel Houellebecq's controversial novel, this movie focuses on Michael and Bruno, two very different...

Plot Keywords:

Biologist | Half Brother | Hippie | Sexuality | Sexual Harassment

Awards:

1 win & 4 nominations

Cast

Moritz Bleibtreu	...	Bruno Klement
Christian Ulmen	...	Michael Djerzinski
Martina Gedeck	...	Christiane
Franka Potente	...	Annabelle
Nina Hoss	...	Jane
Uwe Ochsenknecht	...	Brunos Vater
Corinna Harfouch	...	Dr. Schäfer
Ulrike Kriener	...	Annabelles Mutter
Jasmin Tabatabai	...	Yogini
Michael Gwisdek	...	Professor Fleißer
Herbert Knaup	...	Sollers
Tom Schilling	...	Michael jung
Hermann Beyer	...	Annabelles Vater
Nina Kronjäger	...	Katja
Deborah Kaufmann	...	Hannelore

Also Known As:

The Elementary Particles (International: English title) (USA) (festival title)
Atomised (UK)
Elementary Particles (USA) (festival title)

Runtime:

113 min | 105 min

Country:

Germany

Language:

German | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Certification:

Germany:12 | UK:15 | Netherlands:12 | Sweden:11 | Hong Kong:III | South Korea:18 | Italy:VM14

Filming Locations:

Bahnhof, Hetschburg, Thuringia, Germany

Company:

Medienfonds GFP

Trivia:

Oskar Roehler had worked on the script for three years before he started shooting the film.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): The first letter talking about the move to another grave of the brothers' grandmother says she has to be moved due to the construction of "Bundesstraße 17". Later the gravedigger says it's about "Bundesstraße 7"

Soundtrack:

The Letter

Some will deny it, but most will find themselves in it

Elementary particles starts out as a quest for existence and what this word really means. Two brothers (half-brothers to be precise) realize their lives are not what kids dream about however much they seem to fit in the „mechanism". One is having doubts about his devotion to chase his scientific pioneering while the other does not seem to find comfort in teaching literature any more while being constantly turned down by publishers and neglected by his wife. They both have to reach back to their roots to be able to find out where to go from here, though Bruno (Moritz Bleibtrau) does so amidst rather compulsive circumstances, in a clinic he ends up in. They have not been given much of a head-start in life with their capricious, self-indulgent, impulsive and utterly careless hippie mother who left them both with their troubled and lonesome adolescence. Life has taken no mercy either – that is not the nature of things. Michael (Christian Ulmen) however, finds some inspiration to carry on in the shape of an old, more-than-friend girl pal, while Bruno has to rethink and reestablish his everyday needs and desires. He is living his second childhood – a time without constraints but full of uncertainty and odd, unbalanced characters – trying to escape his feeling of being redundant. Oscar Roehler's stark and thick drama seems a little exaggerating, a bit too much, nevertheless depicts life as it is: after stripped from all the fake Christmas wrappers, often desperate, pitiful at most times and forgiving only every once in a while.