• Home
  • Reviews
  • Interviews
  • Lists
    • Yearly Top Tens
    • Trailers
Menu

World of Reel

Street Address
City, State, Zip
Phone Number
Home
IMG_7047.jpg
Margot Robbie to Star in Tim Burton’s ‘Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman’
att.yGl5r9OpoOWt_AD8S5_v2dun2ra1k7eNa0gUewEeVeo.jpg
Park Chan-Wook’s ‘No Other Choice’ Has A Trailer, Ahead of Expected Venice Premiere
att.12Q4WuFyximL5utq8xHaMIo4h_H3i6qfnWjRgBjWYSk.jpg
Neon Unveils Teaser for Osgood Perkins’ ‘Keeper,’ His Second Horror Film of 2025
IMG_7037.jpg
Taylor Russell to Star in Frank Ocean’s Directorial Debut
IMG_7035.jpg
Dan Trachtenberg’s ‘Predator: Badlands' Trailer Drops Online
Featured
Capture.PNG
Aug 19, 2019
3-Hour ‘Midsommar' Director's Cut Screened in NYC
Aug 19, 2019

This year’s 12th edition of the Scary Movies festival at Film at Lincoln Center premiered Ari Aster’s extended version of “Midsommar” this past Saturday.

Aug 19, 2019

World of Reel

  • Home
  • Reviews
  • Interviews
  • Lists
  • More
    • Yearly Top Tens
    • Trailers

‘Sound of Falling’ Gets Bogged Down by Heavy Symbolism [Cannes]

May 14, 2025 Jordan Ruimy

Mascha Schilinski, a relatively unknown German filmmaker making her first appearance in the Cannes competition, arrives with “Sound of Falling,” a film that aspires to sweep across generations but ends up buried under the weight of its own ambitions.

Many critics are sold on the film, including IndieWire, Variety, THR, and Deadline — but I’m telling you it will be, for many, a real chore to sit through.

We begin with a photograph—more precisely, the curiosity of a seven-year-old girl named Alma who wonders why her image already occupies a place on the family’s dining room altar, alongside the dearly departed. Her question is simple, almost innocent, but it sets off a journey that spans over a century, threading through the lives of women named Angelika, Lenka, and Emma, all seemingly tethered to the same patch of rural farmland.

The timeline drifts from Prussian era to post-war neglect, from the ghosts of the 1970s to the present-day playing of wireless earbuds. Each character, each era, carries its own shadow of trauma and existential wondering, but the echoes are too often drowned out by the film’s heavy usage of symbolism and abstraction. By the time a creepy uncle enters the picture, the film has already asked more questions than it cares to answer.

“Sound of Falling” is filled with the kinds of visual cues that hint at Terrence Malick’s brand of otherworldliness— flies buzzing, rivers whispering, arms floating lifeless in the water. These aren’t merely eerie flourishes; they’re breadcrumbs, clues to when the narrative is shifting or a soul has migrated. Characters die and are reborn, it seems, in other bodies, in other times, and yet the burdens they carry remain stubbornly familiar.

Visually, the film teeters between the surreal and the unintelligible. Scenes fade to black without warning, the camera lingers too long in the haze, and when it isn’t blurring our view, it’s losing us in mazes of straw and shadow. Schilinski gives the film a spectral patina that is intended to evoke a kind of mythic timelessness, but instead creates a cinematic chore.

Yet for all its metaphysical musings, “Sound of Falling” never quite makes its case. It’s a formally bold film that wants to say something profound about life, death, and the legacy of family, but its message is muffled beneath layers of pretension. It’s a totally opaque experience.

In the end, Schilinski’s reach exceeds her grasp. “Sound of Falling” wants to haunt us—but it mostly confuses us.

← Roman Polanski, 91, Set to Shoot New Film in Poland This Year‘Superman’ Trailer Releases Online →

FOLLOW US!


Trending

Featured
IMG_6851.jpg
‘Superman’ Soars in U.S., Stumbles Overseas: David Zaslav Celebrates, Touting DCU’s “Bold Ten-Year Plan”
Screenshot 2025-07-10 161520.png
Directors Who Haven’t Released a Film in Over a Decade
Screenshot 2025-07-10 142841.png
The 10 Best Superhero Movies of the 21st Century
IMG_6778.jpg
Ryan Coogler’s ‘Sinners’ Tops Gold Derby’s Best Picture Odds — Months Before the Race Even Starts
IMG_6772.jpg
Sean Baker’s Next Film Will Be a Comedy — But He Says the Pressure After Anora Is “Scary”

Critics Polls

Featured
Capture.PNG
Critics Poll: ‘Vertigo’ Named Best Film of the 1950s, Over 120 Participants
B16BAC21-5652-44F6-9E83-A1A5C5DF61D7.jpeg
Critics Poll: Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ Tops Our 1960s Critics Poll
Capture.PNG
Critics Poll: ‘The Godfather’ Named Best Movie of the 1970s
public.jpeg
Critics Poll: ‘Do the Right Thing' Named Best Movie of the 1980s
Critics Poll: ‘Mulholland Drive' Named Best Film of the 2000s
g4.jpg
Critics' Poll: ‘Goodfellas' Named Best Movie of the 1990s
Critics Poll: ‘Mad Max: Fury Road' Named Best Movie of the 2010s
World of Reel tagline.PNG
 

Content

Contribute

Hire me

 

Support

Advertise

Donate

 

About

Team

Contact

Privacy Policy

Site designed by Jordan Ruimy © 2023