Neighborly spheres stitched together in “Bis Gleich”
Photo by Daniel Cheon
The relationship between two neighbors living in a city can often be a very distant one. Even though they carry out the rituals of everyday life within the same spot of atmosphere, a verbal connection is sometimes never actually made. “Bis Gleich,” a short film written by Tara Lynn Orr and directed by Benjamin Wolff, examines the relationship between two neighbors watching the world from their window seats, and observes what happens when the illusory barrier between the two is broken.
Set in Berlin, Germany, the movie stars Gertrude Roll and Horst Westphal as two elderly neighbors who live across the street from each other and share a daily morning ritual of sitting beside their windows, looking down to observe the world below them. Their relationship is a little shy, a little apprehensive and not clearly defined. A shy half-wave and a slight smile or catch of the eye capture the nature of their distant connection. With minimal dialogue between the two main characters, the majority of communication happens through gestures, eye contact and feeling portrayed by the camera work.
In the street below, life happens as you might expect in a big city — a couple is on the rocks of a relationship, a group of teenage girls wear tight clothes and have sassy attitudes, and a group of construction workers seem to do hardly any constructing. Each of these vignettes is seen through the point of view of these two neighbors in an almost anthropological way. Every once in a while, they share a smile or meaningful glance as they take in the world together.
The second part of the film examines what happens when the lives of these two neighbors come together, their world colliding with the outside one of the street in the process. It is believable, it is sweet and it is a bit heart wrenching to watch as these two close the distance between themselves, taking the physical steps across the street that so many of us never venture to take.
Throughout the film, the soundtrack sets the mood for which of the separate worlds the viewer has entered into. While set from above, watching from windows, the piano guides us along through the nuances of the wordless relationship being examined. But when the camera cuts to the view from the street, the harsh noise of a jackhammer and yells from arguing lovers signals a shift in atmosphere.
Just 20 minutes long, “Bis Gleich” defines that obscure neighborly relationship, contrasts it to the nature of street life below and stitches it all together in an elegant yet human way, showing viewers what could happen if they’d only reach out from their own worlds to connect with one another.
