The Universal Theory

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Timm Kröger directs. Roland Stuprich behind the camera. Diego Ramos Rodriguez scores. Jann Anderegg cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France. Dialogue in German, English, French, Italian.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Shot for just $0.4M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
• 2Released 3 years ago.
• 3Dialogue crosses 4 languages: German, English, French, Italian.
• 4International production across 4 countries: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France.
• 5Directed by Timm Kröger, shot by Roland Stuprich. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 6Original score by Diego Ramos Rodriguez. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 7Editor Jann Anderegg shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 8Jan Bülow and Olivia Ross and Hanns Zischler carry the top of the cast.
• 9IMDB entry: tt18453866 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 10Only 64 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.
• 11Classified under 8 themes, including "narration", "jazz singer or musician", "black and white", "pianist".

The technical file

Cinematography

Roland Stuprich

Original score

Diego Ramos Rodriguez

Editing

Jann Anderegg

Production design

Cosima Vellenzer

Costume design

Pola Kardum

VFX supervisor

Adrian Meyer

Runtime

118 min · 1h 58m

Status

Released

Budget

$425,000

Box office

$561,322

Return

132% of budget

Original language

DE

IMDB

The Universal Theory (2023) ↗

Rotten Tomatoes

71% 🍅 Fresh

IMDB rating

6.1/10 · 995 votes

Also by

Timm Kröger

• 
  The Council of Birds

  2014 · ★ 8.0

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Official UK Trailer [Subtitled]

  Trailer · Official
• 

  ▶
  Official US Trailer [Subtitled]

  Trailer · Official
• 

  ▶
  Universal Theory Trailer - FEFFS 2023

  Trailer
• 

  ▶
  The Theory of Everything (Die Theorie Von Allem) new clip official - Venice Film Festival 2023

  Trailer

Community reviews

What people are saying

• CinemaSerf2024-12-17
  ★ 6/10

  Aspiring physicist "Johannes" (Jan Bülow) is traveling with his tutor "Strathen" (Hanns Zischler) to a conference in Switzerland, aware that his rather radical thinking has narked his professor who wishes him to conform to more established theories. Indeed things are distinctly tense between them when they encounter "Blumberg" (Gottfried Breitfuss) on their train. He has some past with "Strathen" which isn't exactly friendly, but they continue their journey together with the young man promised any help he needs to get his dissertation over the line. Once they arrive, "Johannes" gets caught up in one of the many storms that frequent their mountainside hotel and seeks refuge in a church. Likewise, a few moments later, does "Karin" (Olivia Ross). He's immediately smitten but she doesn't hang around for long enough to even exchange names. Luckily for him, she happens to play the piano in the hotel's jazz bar and so maybe a meeting can happen after all? It's almost simultaneous with their arrival that he starts to feel distinctively out-of-sorts. A sense of déjà-vu often seems to follow him as he feels he has met her before somewhere. her bauhaus vacillates between the distant and (very) friendly, which he doesn't really comprehend either. Also, his timelines seem to be jumping about and when the avuncular "Blumberg" falls foul of a tragedy his befuddlement takes on an whole new life of it's own? What is going on here? It's as if the mountain has it's own secrets to keep? Is it all just too much wine? Or is there something more sinister going on? His is a mind of the rational and the scientific - ill equipped for matters ethereal or superstitious, so when the police come calling asking questions about the enigmatic "Karin", what can he make of it all? There are some quite intriguing threads to the story, here, as it tries to intertwine the factual with the less easily explicable and the snowscapes, frosty characterisation of "Strathen" and monochrome presentation add effectively chilling elements as the plot reveals a sense of the we know that we are missing something, but we don't know what it is, and we might never know. Unfortunately, Bülow is a bit weak to carry this off, and the annoyingly fragmented story flits about too much to give us chance to really get our teeth into it. Sure, it's quirky, unpredictable and requires us to think on more than one plain at a time, but I found it just didn't give me enough pitons to climb the mountain without sliding down far too often to square one. It does look good and does remind us that perhaps science hasn't all the answers, but I left feeling a little like "Johannes". Bemused.

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  ZDF/Arte

  DE

• 

  ma.ja.de. Fiction

  DE

• 

  The Barricades

  DE

• 

  Panama Film

  AT

• 

  Catpics

  CH

• 

  ORF

  AT

• 

  SRF

  CH

• 

  Neue Visionen

  DE

• 

  UFO Production

  FR

Key crew

• ProducerDario Schoch
• ProducerDavid Bohun
• CastingUlrike Müller
• Production DesignCosima Vellenzer
• ProducerRajko Jazbec
• EditorJann Anderegg
• ProducerSarah Born
• Costume DesignPola Kardum
• ProducerLixi Frank
• ProducerHeino Deckert
• ProducerTina Börner
• ProducerTimm Kröger
• ProducerViktoria Stolpe
• Visual Effects SupervisorAdrian Meyer
• VFX ArtistKariem Saleh
• Set DecorationAnika Klatt
• Unit ManagerDaniel Ruprech

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• narration
• jazz singer or musician
• black and white
• pianist
• swiss alps
• avalanche
• 1960s
• multiverse

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical (limited)2024-09-27
• Digital2024-09-27

Also known as

International titles

• Die Theorie von AllemDE
• Теорія всьогоUA
• La théorie du toutFR