Customer Reviews

Summer Storm

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This film was significant in Germany because Robert Stadlober is a popular young actor and band member there whose coming out in the character of Tobi was unsettling. Certainly Kostja Ullmann as Achim, his buddy and secret love, is cute enough to win many hearts. And his pretend love interest, Alicja Bachleda-Curus as Anke, is sweet and beautiful enough to convince nearly anyone that being gay is NOT a lifestyle choice.

When another rowing team bold enough to call themselves the QueerStrokes (which actually exists) shows up, Tobi gets to see the spectrum of gay characters, from manly Malte to effeminate Nils; and Marlon Kittel as Leo sure takes in an eyeful of Tobi as he bides his time. Seeking refuge from a raging storm (and from an increasingly stormy relationship with Achim) in a closed hostel building brings some closer together, and drives others apart.

There isn't much new for American audiences in that there have been a number of equally well done coming out films here, but Summer Storm rings true because it is at least partly autobiographical for director and writer Marco Kreuzpaintner, and Stadtlober and Ullmann certainly have chemistry together to spare as mates. In fact the whole crew seemed to be having a really good time.

The film ends with Tobi arriving home from the summer rowing camp a changed boy. Stepping off the bus and facing his front door his stern look changes to a faint smile. A small touch, but a reason Robert Stadtlober has won awards, and why the film will win acclaim.

This is by far one of these best gay-themed films I have seen since "Beautiful Thing" (released in 1996) - and one of the best films (of any kind) that I have watched since "Crash".

You will laugh out loud, and cry as you feel the agony Tobi endures while coming to terms with his sexuality. Tobi (played flawlessly by Robert Stadlober) is the leader of his rowing team, and looked up to by his teammates for leadership. When his team is up against another rowing team comprised of an all-gay team, his inner feelings are realized. Tobi deals with his feelings and love for his best friend Achim, and eventually deals with the complications of coming out to him. All the while dealing with confused emotions for his girlfriend and a new boy he meets on the opposing team.

The film is genuine, well-directed, well-acted and goes head-on with the painful emotions most younger people must face when trying to understand their sexuality. THIS STORY IS REAL! And proves once again that we truly cannot help who we fall in love with. Love is about following your heart - it's about people, not the sex of the individual's involved.

The movie hails from Germany, and is in German with English subtitles. Even with having to read the film to understand it, the talent of the young actors shines through.

Not only was I impressed by the story, even the movies scenes and settings were delightful. Kudos to here! Films, Genius Products and Liberation Entertainment for producing this movie. It's a shame Hollywood USA can't (or doesn't have the courage) to produce this quality and style of film.

Coming of age movies are a dime a dozen; but well told, well scripted, well directed, and well acted coming of age movies are rare. This falls into the latter group. The rare one. This was excellent.

Truly, I expected stereotypes galore. The cover of the DVD itself screams, "I'm A Gay Movie". In the opening credits, Tobi (Robert Stadlober) and Achim (Kostja Ullmann) were jumping and twisting in the air for no apparent reason, and the camera centered mostly on their crotches, showing their t-shirts as they rose above the elastic of their shorts to reveal well toned stomach muscles and hints of underwear. I thought, perhaps that's why they're jumping - to titillate. But I judged too hastily.

The film reveals its true purpose immediately: to tell a story. And we get the impression that all the skin we've seen, are seeing, and are about to see is not gratuitous, but rather that it represents the hormonal surges that the young men themselves were feeling.

We witness is Tobi and Achim in the locker rooms (boat house?) wrestling and goofing around - boys will be boys. It's noted that Tobi is aroused, and they masturbate together. Achim speaks lustily of girls, but Tobi's eyes speak only of Achim. This might be confusing to some American audiences, who would immediately assume that Achim is gay because he's doing this with another guy. Well, one of the worst kept secrets between teenage guys is that this sort of thing is not uncommon, even when both - or, indeed, all - members are straight. I say worst kept secret because straight guys never grow up and tell their wives, but gay guys grow up and tell *everybody*.

Achim has a girlfriend, who he obviously adores. Tobi, as well, has some interest in Anke, and the filmmakers leave no question about his attraction when we first meet her. Tobi is struck nearly dumb at the sight of her in a shirt that displays her, um, "figure" off quite well. Tobi has difficulty keeping his eyes above her chest. Confused he might be, but let's give Tobi this: he has great taste. Achim and Anke are both beautiful.

They are all on the same rowing team, and they are preparing to go to summer camp, where they will compete for the Cup. Tobi is excited about spending time with Achim, and your heart breaks because you can see that Achim is excited about spending time with Sandra (I think that was her name...). Stadlober plays Tobi with so much understated emotion; I never once saw him act. He was the emotional center of the film - he had to be - and he succeeded brilliantly. Achim as well was strikingly believable. Ullmann needed to show more than just affection, he needed to show love for Tobi, and yet it needed to be friendly love. He did it. Without his spot-on portrayal, the film would have been weaker.

When they arrive at camp, another team, Queerstroke, a gay rowing team, is there and Tobi's emotions, once reserved only for Achim, which, perhaps, made it OK for him to rationalize, are brought to the surface. Queerstroke has its stereotypes: a macho "straight wrangler", and a feminine guy that dices up veggies well, but they laugh at and question these, which gives us a rare look at gay men (boys, really) intelligently discussing the stereotypes in front of them, some of which are of their own making. At first there is tension when the guys from Tobi's team realize that Queer means Gay, but they all fall into a comfortable familiarity, with a few exceptions that are fun to watch play out.

But that comfort can't last long. Not when Queerstroke's "straight wrangler" is making the moves on one of Tobi's teammates, Schorsi, who abhors the thought, and Tobi's feelings, bolstered perhaps by the confident acceptance that Queerstroke displays for their sexuality, are bubbling to the surface.

The discord between the two, perhaps, serves as a metaphor for the struggle that is going on within Tobi himself. It comes to head during a storm - a summer storm. On that night, the two teams come to blows, and Tobi makes powerful realizations. While he sits under a tree, sobbing as the rain pounds his back, Achim is at the same time making love to Sandra. The camera takes us back and forth between the two scenes, and their juxtaposition is poetic.

Everything has to go right in a coming of age movie to make it work, if only because there are so many coming of age movies out there. Here we're lucky to see everything running on all cylinders. It's a gorgeous film, and even those who rented it only to see good-looking young men running about without their shirts will be surprised when they find themselves deeply moved.

Certainly Marco Kreuzpaintner's Summer Storm does what it sets out to do. Moody and atmospheric, most of the film is set in the bucolic German landscape, with its picaresque woods, glassy lakes, green meadows and lots of sunshine. The crux of the story is the sexual politics that is played out over a summer of fun when three teams of championship rowers meet to go head to head with each other.

Will Tobi (Robert Stadlober) be able to hook up with Achim (Kostja Ullmann), his one true love? Tobi is gay - although he hasn't quite realized it yet, whilst the handsome young Achim is fiercely straight, but totally cool about gays and in love with a girl (Miriam Morgenstern). Of course, Achim's sexuality doesn't preclude a little fun-fuelled horseplay with Tobi on the locker room floor.

After confessing a love for each other, that doesn't include kissing and touching; the boys head off with the rest of their team members for a week in the country. Here the season melts into days of friendly camaraderie, the pitching of tents and lots of topless teenage muscle flexing. The boys then discover that one of the teams is called Queerstrokes, a gay team from Berlin.

As Tobi's sublimated desires begin to rise to the surface, the boys in Queerstrokes - and indeed most of the boys in the other teams - get naked together; spend languid hours exercising; mount each other in wrestling matches. For Achim it's all about male bonding but for Tobi it's all about coming out. While he's attracted to Tobi, he's also drawn the lads in Queerstrokes - call it a type of deep-seated affinity. Achim, of course thinks nothing of this. Tobi thinks about it all a little too much.

In Summer Storm the rocky road to true love and coming out is indeed plagued with anguish. There are the usual adolescent betrayals and jealous misunderstandings and a "summer storm" that signifies sexual awakening not just for Tobi, but also for some of the other characters. It's all very clichéd and generic, and plays out almost like a TV sitcom. And while all the actors are pretty - if a bit too adolescent looking - most of the characters are rather bland and are just not that interesting.

As The Village People's Go West and The Power of Love by Frankie Goes to Hollywood inexplicably begins to play, the sexual politics are played out and closet door flies open. Will Achim accept Tobi's affections? Will his straight rowing team learn a lesson in tolerance? Stadlober is believably awkward as Tobi, but his constant whining and emotional anguish becomes a bit tiresome. Coupled with the whimsical images of woodsy thunderstorms and birds flying off a lake, the film just gets a bit much after awhile.

Kreuzpaintner obviously has some talent as a director, but for a gay coming of age story, Summer Storm is remarkably straight and tame and is surprisingly as unoriginal as most straight sex comedies. Like a hardly legal pornography movie with extra plot thrown in for good measure, the movie is a perfect storm of clichés. Mike Leonard September 06.

Teenage hormones are at peak level in this nice little German film 'Sommersturm' or 'Summer Storm' and the result is a set of mini-crises that tumble young people all the time: first sexual attraction, the ambiguity of close friendships, the trials and lessons of first sexual encounters, and the manner in which teenagers survive their sexual decisions amongst their peers.

Director Marco Kreuzpaintner and writer (with Thomas Bahmann) set this attractive coming of age film on the playing field of crewing, a sport that demands full attention and intense cooperation from every team mate. Two teams from Bavaria, one of boys and the other of girls, take off for a summer camp training session where they encounter another crew from Berlin, a crew that just happens to be composed of gay young boys. The Bavarian boys' crew team is lead by two long-term friends - Tobi (Robert Stadlober) and Achim (Kostja Ullmann) - and while their friendship is strong, Tobi is discovering that his feelings for Achim go far deeper. The two share stories about their girlfriends - Anke (and beautiful Alicja Bachleda-Curus) and Sandra (Miriam Morgenstern) who head the girl's crew team. At the summer camp Tobi's feelings for Achim deepen and the influence of the team of very handsome young gay boys on the opposing team only serve to heighten the tension. Tobi eventually has an encounter with a particularly tender and understanding Leo (Marlon Kittel) and as the questions begin to arise a violent storm makes the entire group flee for cover. The manner in which Tobi comes out to his team and to Achim is the very tender dénouement of the story. The storm raging in Tobi (as well as in other members of the team) settles into the aftermath.

Some viewers may find this film too explicit for general viewing but for this viewer the encounters all around remain tasteful and touching. The director seems to be telling us that the 'first experience', whether that is gay or straight, is or can be traumatic as well as fulfilling. The cast does well: there are many very beautiful young boys and girls who play their roles with a natural simplicity and allure. For a young director (only 29 years old and this is his fifth film) Kreutzpainter seems to have a solid future. Grady Harp, September 06

Summer Storm is certainly one of the finer coming out films. The cast is excellent and the portayals have an emotional honesty that is often lacking in gay cinema. However, there are flaws that keep this from being a 5-star film. Some times the director chooses to avoid conversation and confrontation that would have added to the story. Some shots are heavy-handed with symbolism. Finally, the lead character is a selfish one and never apologizes for the emotional and physical pain he causes. This, though, is much like real life and so is a sad element that was probably intended. Otherwise, a film worthy of being on any gay man's shelf.

This realistic and refreshing movie made me remember my teenage years, coming of age times, in a delightful way. Although I grew up in Mexico City, in a less tolerant environment for homosexuality, I can relate to Summer Storm as a non-fictional story, full of aspects found in real life, emotionally open and tender. It is a beautiful achievment for Robert Stadlober. He managed to bring out the best acting qualities among the young cast.

"Summer Storm" is a very well written German production about the lives of several teens involved in a rowing competition. Tobi, the crew captain of his team, struggles with the deep love he has long felt for his best friend Achim. He fears their friendship will be forever changed as new love blossoms in Achim's life, and can't imagine life without his constant companionship. Achim on the other hand is naive and oblivious to Tobi's feelings for him, although Tobi has tried to show him in many ways. He has vowed that nothing will ever come between their friendship, but will he still feel the same when the truth of Tobi's heart is revealed?

The team is sent to summer training camp, where they are pitted against an all-gay team of rowers. They are all forced to face their desires, jealousy, fears, pride, hidden longings and prejudice as bad weather and tough competition ensues, in and out of the water. Tobi's feelings are intensified as Achim and his girlfriend Sandra fall deeply in love and move on to the kind of physical relationship Tobi has so longed for with Achim. As he sees the openly gay team members express their desires without difficulty, the storm inside of him begins to rage.

The lead actors, Robert Stadlober (Tobi), and Kostja Ullmann (Achim) give flawless performances in their roles. Ullmanns character goes from humor, sweetness and sensativity, to anger, hurt and hatred without so much as flinching. Stadlober's performance is shining as he runs the gamet of emotion that is typical for a teen faced with the various storms of tender youth and self discovery. The casting of this film, in my opinion, was superb, without exception.

The real star of this story for me, was the character of "Leo", played by an unnamed actor. A quiet, self assured member of the "queerstrokes", Leo quickly relates to Tobi's secret struggle and is instantly drawn to him to offer support, tender affection and unconditional love. While he secretly falls in love with Tobi, he gently pushes him to self acceptance, to help him come to terms with his love for Achim and the reality he must face. The young actor who played this part, was without doubt, one of the best I've seen. He "becomes" the character he portrays, and acts with such smoothness and realism. His eyes and expression of tender emotion make it appear that he and his character are "one".

Each viewers personal feelings are well represented by at least one particular character. As you find the one you most relate to, you are sure to fall in love with at least one of them. If you like films like "Beautiful Thing", you are gonna love "Summer Storm". Sound and video quality are excellent, the storm sequences are realistic and all filmed on location in a beautiful setting to make this production top notch all the way.

The downside to this film is without doubt, the subtitles. Any film with subtitles makes it more difficult to follow, especially when the dialogue moves along quickly. It IS however a German film, with a german speaking cast, therefore the language is of course the same. So if you speak english, you will get nothing from the film WITHOUT the subtitles. It is however a film worth putting up with subtitles to view. If english speaking filmmakers would produce more films of this quality, we would not have to look to foreign films for what "Summer Storm" offers it's viewers, with the english translation.

As stated on the DVD cover, with a quote from Jan Stuart of Newsday, "They don't come any sweeter or more appealing than this". I give this film a definate two thumbs (and a couple big toes) UP!

(.....just listen to the breathing........)

Cute......caring......and collected (at one with himself), the "out" and self-accepting 'Leo' (a wondrous Marlon Kittel) so knows who he is and so knows where 'Tobi' (an amazingly expressive Robert Stadlober) is coming from. Tobi is so......lucky to have Leo for his "first-time." And speaking of that time in most all our lives, this film gives us a "my-first-time" gay love scene which tops all others in the lengths to which it goes......at least in a movie with such youthful characters. It's tender and caring at the same time it's feverish and arousing. Just listen to the breathing......if you think there can be any intensity and turn-on missing from what Kittel and Stadlober bring to us in their dock-side love making scene, you'd have to be deaf, as well as blind. Again, just listen to the breathing......to the sounds of "catching breaths and sighs" (or TURN UP your system, will ya!). Would you say these guys were caught up in what they were doing, or not?

While the film's main relationship, between Tobi and Achim, has probably been a life-long one of fun and childhood loving/caring for one another, we watch as things begin to go terribly wrong when "another kind of love" starts rearing up, as part of this pair's growing up. We come to see that a straight Achim is too free and easy (with his feelings) to be just a friend to someone who's now discovering he is gay and in love. Achim, of course, is not be blamed for being who he's been all along; it's just that so much of who he is becomes misinterpreted by Tobi.

I like this movie for its credible acting so much I'd award it an easy 6-Stars.

PS--If anything at all disappointed in this work, it was the director's failure to give us, at film's end, a "boarding-the-bus-home" scene in which Leo and Tobi could say their goodbyes. It's inconceivable to me that Leo, so deeply affectionate of Tobi, would fail to take the time to do so. Obviously, we can expect little to come of their relationship, since a seemingly younger Tobi has a goodly amount of growing up and finding himself yet to do. However, I think of T. as being very aware of what he owes to Leo's help in making him much more comfortable with who he is. He just wouldn't have departed without a thank-you to Leo....something that would have been important for us to see.

PPS--Director Marco Kreuzpaintner sure gets the "teen angst" thing right, pulling an awful lot of it out of his young cast. But, then, at 25 or so when shooting, he's only about 5 years older than they. Looking at his bio-pics elsewhere on-line, it's easy to see how he, himself, could have handily assumed one of these attractive young player's roles.

****

The storm, in Summer Storm, takes place when Tobi falls for his best friend and crewmate Achim. The storm only grows larger when Achim in love with his girlfriend, Sandra, and Tobi's resentment for her grows, adding tension to his friendship with Achim. Meanwhile, Anke a beautiful female crewmember is after Tobi and throw in a gay crew team and you have the making of a comic, yet moving tale of friendship and acceptance. The writing swiftly builds the pace of the film and the complicated relationships bring frustration in each character and force the clashes that occur (hence the title Summer Storm).
Robert Stadlober does a wonderful job of carefully directing this film and keeping the actors true to form. The acting is terrific in this film, especially from such a young cast, but all the actors work well with each and become one fluid picture of acceptance and denial, frustration and forgiveness. The topic of this movie, acceptance of being gay in sports, is one that many movie-makers are really starting to explore and the prejudices that occur in the locker room hasn't changed much and seems resistant to change. The winds of Summer Storm bring in a light but refreshing look at young athletes trying to discover who they are, yet finding acceptance within their athletic circle. A great movie and one I would recommend whole-heartedly.