The Wave (Dennis Gansel, 2008)
-What is the story?-
A real-life experiment inspired the 2008 German film Die Welle (The Wave). It centres on Rainer Wenger, a high school teacher who uses a social experiment to explain the autocratic methods. He accidentally starts a movement known as "The Wave," but it soon gets out of hand as students start acting in an authoritarian manner and create a dangerous, exclusive a group. Tragic consequences follow when the experiment turns to violence. The movie looks at issues like authority, conformity, and how easily fascist ideas may spread.
(Key Character)
Rainer Wenger - teacher who conducts out of control the wave experiment ending in his arrest.
Tim Stoltefuss - Schoolboy in die welle class the was once a lonly nerdy boy however gained power as die welle progresses. End up killng himslef due to die welle ending
Anke Wenger - Wife of Rainer Wenger
Karo - Marcos girlfriend, skeptical of die welle from the beginning, doesnt want to align with the rules.
Marco - Boyfriend of Karo, popular typical teenage boy, ends up with following Karo’s lead with opposing The Wave.
-Genre-
Coming of age - the film explores a lot of personal growth and moral development of the students as the experiment continues.
Psychological Thriller - the psychology of how people act in powerful groups and how they loose their individuality is a big theme in Die Welle.
-Who made it?-
Die Welle was directed and screen-wrote by Dennis Gansel.
Gansel has also directed lots of other films but none reached the same popularity as Die Welle.
Berlin, I Love You (2019)
Mechanic: Resurrection (2016)
The Fourth State (2012)
We Are The Night (2010)
Before The Fall (2004)
Girls On Top (2001)
The Phantom (2000)
-Representation-
The way the characters are portrayed in the Wave varies depending on their gender; the female characters are shown to be capable and independent. The best example is Karo, who is quite capable of handling things on her own and enjoys having control, but when she is alone without the group, she is also presented as more stereotypically weak.
Age is also presented in a certain way, all the people who join the movement are young teens and apart from the leader everyone else is young. This is also proves a point about Wenger, he is shown from the start as a kid in an adults body which makes it clear that it takes someone out of the ordinary to do something like this. This focus on youth also is used to emphasise how young people can be manipulated a lot more easily and warns of the dangers of the appeal to young people of fascim.
-Techniques-
The film features a cold harsh aesthetic which provides a monotone, boring undertone which is done to make it so the settings look like they could happen anywhere.
Gansel also uses very wide camera angles to provide a wide view of the school and crowds, this is used to show the scale of the white shirt movement, this is especially useful in classroom scenes when it gives us a large view of the whole classroom.
-Personal Opinion-
Personally the film wasn’t amazing and I wasn’t a fan of how predictable the events were.
I rate the film 3/5 stars.