“Universal Theory” is a German film that blends science fiction and film noir tropes in a visually impressive manner recalling Hitchcock and Orson Welles at their best, but its narrative lacks the eccentricity and flashes of humor to make it truly memorable. It opens Friday, September 27 at the Quad Cinema in Manhattan. Go here for showtime and ticket information.

One problem, of course, involves the issue of representing complex physics equations to everyday filmgoers. We are usually presented with formulas on a huge blackboard as in the funny scene in the Cohen Brother’s 2009 film “A Serious Man.” We assume that a trained physicist was hired to provide the obscure text we see but for all we know it could just be nonsensical. A common plot point involves secret agents trying to gain access to the formulas coveted by villains (usually the former USSR). In Hitchcock’s 1996 “Torn Curtain,” a Russian physicist is tricked into correcting a formula chalked by a visiting American scientist played by Paul Newman. Newman’s character is seen trying to frantically memorize the solution before the Russian realizes he is a spy.

In “Universal Theory,” directed by Timm Kröger, a German physicist, Johannes Leinert (Jan Bülow) is seen, in 1974, being interviewed on a German talk show about his new novel. The sequence is filmed in desaturated color; two other male guests sit oddly close to each in Wes Anderson-style clothing. But it’s not a fiction book, Johannes demands–it’s all based on something that happened to him at a physics conference in the Swiss Alps in 1962. And it’s about the “multiverse.” Ridiculed by the host and the audience for his audacious claims, he storms off but not before pleading to the camera: “Karin, if you see this…”

Flashing back to 1962 the back story unfolds in high-contrast black-and-white CinemaScope, beautifully shot by cinematographer Roland Stuprich. Johannes, a graduate physics student travels with his stern Professor Julius Strathen (Hanns Zischler) to a conference in the Swiss Alps. Strathen thinks his thesis about multiverses is balderdash but Johannes finds a more sympathetic response from Professor Blumberg (Gottfried Breitfuss), a comical alcoholic figure and fan of the hallucinogenic fungi claviceps purpurea who claims that Strathen hates him because he stole his girlfriend in college and married her. (Both of them studied under Heisenberg in the 1930s and all of them may have collaborated for a time with the Nazis.)

The controversial thesis (which he claims he discovered in a dream) takes a backstage when Johannes meets a beautiful but evasive pianist, Karin (Olivia Ross), who knows everything about him though they have never met. The Iranian key speaker never arrives to the conference and a strange skin disease seems to be affecting all of the guests. Scientists die but then appear alive again as the desperate young Johannes tries to figure out a mystery that reminded me of the hypnotic intrigue of films like Orson Welles’ 1995 “Mr. Arkadin.” The unique enigmatic quality of that film was enhanced by Welles’ wit, humor and eccentric editing. “Universal Theory” relies instead on a brooding sense of sadness and lost opportunities, especially as we see the fate of the older Johannes. The acting and technical aspects of the film are stellar, including a Bernard Hermann-esque soundtrack that may be a bit too close to Hermann’s love theme for “Vertigo.” A sequence in a hidden tunnel with experimental graphics rivals some of the beauty and mystery of David Lynch’s last season of “Twin Peaks.” I haven’t seen Kröger’s first feature, “The Council of Birds,” but this work makes me want too check it out, even though the haunting tone of his new film may not work for every viewer.