BECAUSE OF THE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW WE STRONGLY ADVISE TO WATCH THE FILM FIRST.
Dream and reality interweave in this surrealist short film belonging to director Vanessa Aab. The story is that of two characters, Franz and Greta, who appear to be cousins and in love with each other. However, as the director herself describes it, due to social conventions the relationship between the two falls into heresy being condemned by the church itself. It is unclear what personal demons change Greta’s mind and make her leave Franz, but he will fall never to recover again.
Greta and Franz are two very common German names – if we think about it – so they could as well represent the archetype of the common people driven by passion and raw instincts trying to break the preconceptions and manifest freely. So, it is unfortunate that the two are cousins but this is somehow pushing them to live their love in their imagination and therefore to undermine the conventions that forbid their love in real life. The word Traume (which means Dream) oftenly appears in the film so we thought this explains a lot of the surreal side of it, practically justifying its positioning in the imaginary. Everything that happens in the film is on the exact borderline between ‘reality’ and ‘imagination’.
As we mentioned before, something eventually happens with Greta that makes her change her mind regarding Franz and this will push the poor man into unbearable sorrow. He will feel so betrayed that he will start doubting anything he thought Greta had felt for him was true. This is most obviously suggested by his incapacity to imagine anything else with Greta after the ‘treason’. However, human passion is foamy like a frappe and hard to reign – especially when it comes down to erotic leanings – which will doom Franz to be forever haunted by the one fantasy he won’t be able to ‘own’, and that in the end he will never know if he ever did.
It is also interesting to know that Frollein Frappé is shot on 16mm by one of the most acclaimed German cinematographers, Thomas Mauch – well known for his collaboration with German director Werner Herzog on the popular ‘Fitzcarraldo’.
Put your mind to twist with this surreal film experience.
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