''The Universal Theory'' (german: Die Theorie von Allem, lit=The Theory of Everything) is a 2023

mystery Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters *Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange'' Films * ''Mystery'' (2012 film), a 2012 Chinese drama film * ''Mystery'' ( ...

thriller Thriller may refer to: * Thriller (genre), a broad genre of literature, film and television ** Thriller film, a film genre under the general thriller genre Comics * ''Thriller'' (DC Comics), a comic book series published 1983–84 by DC Comics i ...

film directed by

Timm Kröger Timm Kröger (born 17 November 1985) is a German film director, screenwriter, cinematographer, producer and film editor. Life and career Born in Itzehoe, Kröger studied at the European Film College in Ebeltoft, Denmark and at the Film Academy ...

, from a screenplay written by Kröger with Roderick Warich. The film was selected to compete for the

Golden Lion The Golden Lion ( it, Leone d'oro) is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguishe ...

at the

80th Venice International Film Festival 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...

, where it premiered on 3 September 2023.

Plot

In 1962, physicist Johannes travels with his doctoral supervisor to a scientific congress in the Swiss Alps. It is there that he meets Karin, a jazz pianist, who is suspiciously knowledgeable about Johannes. A series of mysterious deaths occur at the mountainous site, and the two venture to uncover the secrets hidden below. The story includes an Iranian guest, a strange cloud formation in the sky and

quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, ...

Cast

Production

''The Universal Theory'' was produced by Germany's Ma.ja.de. Fiction and The Barricades, in co-production with Austria's Panama Film and Switzerland's Catpics AG.

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

began in January 2022 at the ski resort of St. Jakob in Defereggen, Austria. The film was shot in

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

using

CinemaScope CinemaScope is an anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter. Its creation in 1953 by ...

. Filming was projected to wrap at the end of February.

Release

''The Universal Theory'' was selected to compete for the

at the

, where it had its world premiere on 3 September 2023. International sales are handled by Paris-based company Charades. The film was theatrically released in Germany on 26 October 2023 by Neue Visionen.

Reception

Critical response

On the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 79% based on 14 reviews, with an average rating of 6.8/10.

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 63 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

Accolades

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Universal Theory, The 2023 films 2023 thriller films 2020s French-language films 2020s German films 2020s German-language films 2020s mystery thriller films Austrian black-and-white films Austrian mystery films Austrian thriller films CinemaScope films Films about physicists Films set in 1962 Films set in the Alps Films set in Switzerland German black-and-white films German mystery thriller films Swiss black-and-white films Swiss German-language films Swiss mystery films Swiss thriller films