Very well executed

A Brilliant Conflict

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

"Abwärts" or "Downwards" or "Out of Order" is a West German 85-minute film from 1984, so this one is already over 30 years old. The writer and director is Carl Schenkel and it is one of the filmmakers' most known works, especially if you only count his German-language movies. He received some nice awards attention here and same can be said about the cast. Götz George won a German Film Award for example for his performance here, even if it was not a supporting performance at all. He was clearly lead, if anybody was lead in here. The cast includes a whole lot of actors that are still really well-known in Germany today such as George, the really young Hannes Jaenicke in his very first performance and Wolfgang Kieling, who was also nominated in the same category like George. If you look at these three, you recognize that they stand for 3 different generations of actors. The only mentionable female performance comes from Dutch actress Renée Soutendijk, but she was also the film's biggest weakness I think, not because of her acting, but because of the way the character was written.The kissing scene with Jaenicke or the scene when she randomly tells George's character that she is about to get his job felt really bad and were among the film's weakest moments. Obviously the filmmakers tried to use her to create controversy between the two alpha-males in the elevator, but it felt forced and wasn't working at all. Subtlety is sadly not the film's biggest strength and these were the thriller moments that weren't working at all. I personally thought the film was at its best when the action took place outside the elevator, namely when there was danger somebody would be falling down or even dying. Yes there may have been a bit too many ropes in danger of being torn, but it was still edge-of-seat material and going by these sequences, it was an 8/10 even.Another couple words on the actors. Jaenicke may not give a great performance in terms of range, but he was at least as good as Kieling who added very little for me, and Jaenicke's biggest strength was his physical acting here with which he shines and given it was a rookie effort, it was pretty good. The supporting performances include familiar faces too such as the late great Klaus Wennemann, Ralf Richter or Fassbinder protégé Kurt Raab in a brief cameo early on. And while I enjoyed watching this film, I still see it as a bit of a missed opportunity as the claustrophobic component has been used convincingly on really not too many occasions and this one could have added an entirely new dimension of thrill to the film. I guess you really have to be claustrophobic to feel the protagonists' fear here. I was wondering more why they would not just wait in there for help instead of risking their lives again and again. Is oxygen really a problem? I am not sure. Also, there were sometimes too many coincidence for my liking, but it adds to the plot and drama and that's why I can live with it. Even if it's not a perfect film by any means, I still recommend seeing it. I like that they kept it essential with this short runtime and kept it from dragging. It had more positive than negative moments and George really shines once again. May he rest in peace and awesome he left us films and performances like this one here.

Admittedly, there are some scenes in this movie that seem a little unrealistic. The ravishing woman first panics and then, only a few minutes later, she starts kissing the young lad while the old guy is right next to her. But as the film goes along we learn that she is a little volatile girl (or slut) and that partly explains her behavior. The cinematography of this movie is well done. We get to see the elevator from almost every angle and perspective, and some of those images and scenes really raise the tension. Götz George plays his character well, a wannabe hot-shot getting old and being overpowered by young men like the Jaennicke character. Wolfgang Kieling who I admired in Hitchcock's THE TORN CURTAIN delivers a great performance that, although he doesn't say much, he is by far the best actor in this play. One critic complained about how unrealistic the film was and that in a real case of emergency nothing would really happen. But then again, how realistic are films such as Mission impossible or Phone Booth. Given the fact that we are talking about a movie here, and that in a movie you always have to deal with some scenes that aren't very likely to occur in real life, you can still enjoy this movie. It's a lot better than many things that I see on German TV these days and I think that the vintage 80's style added something to this film.

In 1983, there was a Dutch movie about a killer elevator called De Lift (which was remade by the director in 2001). Here's a German movie from 1984 about a killer elevator. Funny how that happens. Anyway, the one in De Lift was evil, but this one is just poorly designed and maintained.Four people get stuck in an elevator: a couple, a younger guy, and an older man with a suitcase. The night watchman doesn't notice the problem since the alarm had been turned off for the repairman who'd been there earlier. They try to get out, hurting themselves and smashing up the elevator in the process. They bicker a lot. The hand-held video-game playing, walkman-wearing young man is annoying, and the woman is surprisingly slutty. The actress is rather unusual-looking, with eyebrows tweezed away to almost nothing, and hair in a style that emphasizes how high her hairline is and how thin her hair is. Whoever did that to her should never have gotten the job!When repairmen come, they give the security guard a hard time. He has a German accent (the video I watched was dubbed in English), which they mock, and they complain about foreigners. I thought that was weird, since the movie was German. Did he have an American accent in the German-language version? I was also surprised that they try to raise the elevator car, rather than lower it; I wonder if that is the procedure in real life?Still, I enjoyed this. It's not great, but is entertaining enough.I wonder if the elevator horror subgenre is played out. Someone ought to have one involving a paternoster lift (look it up) - those are pretty unusual; a friend of mine had ridden one and told me about it.Incidentally, the Worst Case Scenario Handbook writers have evidently advised the best way to survive a plummeting elevator is to lie down flat on the floor.

Have you ever been stuck in an elevator? I was, so I can tell you how it is: the lights go dim, the lift stops, you press the alarm. After a while, the lift moves again, you step out the door and promise your little boy to treat him to some ice cream for not panicking.That alone is not merely enough to fill a TV commercial. Consequently, if you plan to extend the scene to feature length, you have to add a little bit of spice to it. Job one - adding spice: very well done.You have one youngster-half-criminal well-enough looking dude, an old guy, frustrated by the view of a small pension awaiting him, who therefore filled his pocket with a DEM 100K loot on his last day, and a semi-successful businessman who wants to screw the you-don't-how-old-she-is ravishing employee.Well of course this ain't enough because at least you expect some sort of plot also. Job two - plot: not badly done.By all means, girlish 'she' shows cold shoulder to semi-pro, youngster pounces on the opportunity, old man acts astoundingly cool. And - so much for action - the cables do snap, there is a showdown in the elevator shaft, bad guy dies and old man walks away unharmed, plus: young guy eventually gets chick.Now for some cinematographics. Job three - really well done.Whatever claustrophobic vibes you might feel in such a situation - they delivered it. Motions, noises, everything, it all falls in place to make you 'live' inside that cabin.Last of all - dialogues. Job four - expectations exceeded.German moviemakers have always been well-known for a lack of ease. Here it's the same, but for a reason. Each of the characters has a personality, and the screenwrite took some time to fashion them. Whatever they say to one another shows a lot about who they are - people - but at the same time leaves lots of space to imagine what we don't know, or what we don't want to know. That's what those Germans are really good at, and not surprisingly many of those kind of movies are placed on a Tarantino level - at least by those who understand them. I've never seen the dubbed version (if there is one at all), so apparently you can only enjoy this piece if you are familiar with the German language.Read other comments to find out what actually happens in the movie.