Montag kommen die Fenster (2006)

Frieder and his wife Nina, a doctor, are fixing up their house, though their relationship is obviously strained. Instead of picking up their young daughter Charlotte, Nina drives off to ... See full summary »

Director:

Ulrich Köhler

Writer:

Ulrich Köhler

Stars:

Isabelle Menke, Hans-Jochen Wagner, Amber Bongard

2 wins.

Cast

Credited cast:
Isabelle Menke	...	Nina Buchner
Hans-Jochen Wagner	...	Frieder Buchner
Amber Bongard	...	Charlotte Buchner
Trystan Wyn Puetter	...	Christoph (as Trystan Wyn Pütter)
Elisa Seydel	...	Natalie
Ilie Nastase	...	David Ionesco
Ursula Renecke	...	Maria (as Ursula Renneke)
Devid Striesow	...	Fenstermacher
Stefan Kriekhaus	...	Dr. Alexander
Sülke Pierach	...	Trauernde
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Harry Baer	...	Herr Zander
Hartmut Becker	...	Herr Buchner
Ingo Haeb	...	Frank
Tatja Seibt	...	Frau Buchner

Storyline

Frieder and his wife Nina, a doctor, are fixing up their house, though their relationship is obviously strained. Instead of picking up their young daughter Charlotte, Nina drives off to visit her brother Christoph in an isolated cabin. From there, she cycles to a sports hotel in the woods where she stays. Aimlessly wandering around the hotel, she has a brief encounter with an old tennis pro who has been giving demonstrations. Her brother, Frieder, and Charlotte find her, but she does not come home with them. After all the old windows have been removed, Frieder rejects the replacement ones that are delivered. Frieder has a liaison an old girlfriend Maria, who is now Charlotte's nursery school teacher. Nina returns to the house without windows.

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Plot Keywords:

surgeon | female stockinged feet | pregnancy | sex | hand job | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Germany

Language:

German English

Release Date:

26 October 2006 (Germany)

Also Known As:

Montag

Filming Locations:

Braunlage, Lower Saxony, Germany

Company Credits

Production Co:

Ö-Filmproduktion

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

User Reviews

the best film I've seen all year

The term "exquisite" is largely insufficient here. Ulrich Koehler has accomplished nothing less than a cinematic masterpiece with WINDOWS ON Monday; a patient and poetic look at the linear nature of human behavior, as well as an observation on the anatomy of the relationship between man and woman disclosed elegantly in images that have the tonal and luminary texture of classical paintings. Rather than rely on expository dialog to detail the all-too-common predictable series of plot-points that plague most of modern cinema, this filmmaker and his astonishing cast instead illustrate the power of subtlety within a story that never ceases to captivate and fascinate; a choice that rings very true and very human (without losing an extremely unique dreamlike quality that saturates the film as well). Tarkovsky, Antonioni and Kieslowski come to mind here, although Koehler maintains a style all his own. Those with small attention spans and little patience for a film that refuses to spell everything out explicitly to its audience will doubtlessly be frustrated with WINDOWS ON Monday. The fact is, life itself is not predictable, nor is it always fast-paced; it is sometimes calm, yet full of confusion, contradiction, uncertainty and distraction. And, as Koehler masterfully demonstrates, love is also made up of such things. Both humorous and austere, surreal yet human, vulnerable and bold…this is true cinema, and truly art.