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It\u2019s a\u00a0truism to point out that trees, plants, rivers and all flora and fauna contain as much lifeforce as any human. Fortunately, Hungarian director, Ildik\u00f3 Enyedi, takes this perspective as a\u00a0jump off point for a\u00a0sophisticated if meandering meditation on how developing a\u00a0shared language (between humans and the natural world, as well as between our fellow humans) is not a\u00a0given, but rather is a\u00a0sublime, spiritual matter born out of patient and careful observation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n An ancient ginkgo tree on the grounds of the world\u2019s oldest university, The Philipps University of Marburg in Germany, is the only constant feature across three timelines as three different outsiders pursue private preoccupations with little company save for the titular silent friend.\u00a0In 2020<\/span>, a\u00a0neuroscientist from Hong Kong, Tony (Tony Leung), chooses to stay at the university, rolling around like a\u00a0lonely marble, after the Covid-19<\/span> pandemic turns it into a\u00a0ghost ship. His research into babies\u2019 brains segues into measuring the micro movements emitted by the ginkgo tree. Surveilled by a\u00a0suspicious groundskeeper and ditched by an assistant, he is empowered by Zoom conversations with a\u00a0French researcher (L\u00e9a Seydoux in an incongruous cameo).<\/span><\/p>\n This tree has been there since 1832<\/span>, and so it was there in 1908<\/span>, when the university admitted its first female student. Grete (Luna Wedler) triumphs despite the male interview board trying to humiliate her with a\u00a0niche hazing ritual based on the sexual promiscuity of plants. To make ends meet, Grete finds work as a\u00a0photographer\u2019s assistant and this brand new form of capturing \u2013 or is it doctoring? \u2013 reality slots neatly into the film\u2019s preoccupation with bearing witness.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The most gorgeous sequences take place in 1972<\/span> as foxy firebrand Gundula (Marlene Burow) invents an early version of the machine that Tony will\u00a0use to measure the movements of the ginkgo tree. She is using it to chart the mood of a\u00a0single purple geranium, beheld by the infatuated gaze of Hannes (Enzo Brumm), a\u00a0shy yet steadfast student prone to lying in fields reading Rilke. When she goes on a\u00a0trip and entrusts Hannes the geranium with a\u00a0stern handover on how to keep the experiment alive, he flourishes in this relative solitude, experiencing the flower as a\u00a0companion and a\u00a0cheerleader.<\/span><\/p>\n Gergely P\u00e1los\u2019s cinematography makes us feel the intimacy of watching someone who is watching you. The desire between Gundula and Hannes is intense, but rather than act on it, they look at each other, trying to understand what makes the other tick. In heady, sun-drunk sequences, the camera focuses on the movement of a\u00a0hand or sunlight catching body hairs. These scenes are so alive that it is a\u00a0wrench to leave them for the other timelines which tend to feel stiff and academic in contrast.<\/span><\/p>\n There are tenuous yet entertaining attempts to link this with the eroticism of plants. Indeed, the film is bookended by time-lapse footage of a\u00a0seedling pushing through a\u00a0bulbous sac. Enyedi roots her characters\u2019 bodily urges in nature and there is something that Tony Leung does in his climax that represents an inverse of his reserved character in <\/span>In The Mood For Love<\/span><\/i> for it shows pure liberation.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nGet more Little White\u00a0Lies<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n