Tags: Films
Date: 02 December 2008 22:23:53
While we were off line at the beginning of November, the time I would probably have spent blogging was profitably used attending a few German films which were part of the town's annual film festival.
Emmas Glück (Emma's bliss) was about an independent-minded young woman who continued to manage the family's pig farm on a shoestring. One night, a young man literally crashed into her life by driving his car over a cliff into her farmyard. She rescued him but then gave into the temptation of deceit when she noticed a box full of money in his car. She stole the money and torched his car so that he would think the money had all burned.
The pair fall in love (of course) but this is no ordinary girl-meets-boy story, partly because of the money issue, partly because the man knows he is dying and partly because Emma is not a conventional young woman....
The next film starred the same male lead as in Emmas Glück - i.e. Jürgen Vogel. In this story, Die Welle (The Wave) he plays a teacher who challenges his students to consider how easy it might be to replicate a totalitarian state. At first the students, who have studied and talked about the Third Reich ad nauseam at school, are not interested in the idea. But gradually, they become more fascinated and see the benefits of working together with common ideals and shared values. The whole experiment begins to engulf the school and the teacher starts to wonder if he hasn't bitten off more than he can chew.
The screenplay is based on a real event which apparently occurred in California in the late 60s. There are a few points made which are useful reminders of what can happen when people get swept up with the emotion and solidarity of a movement - but the film does not present much of a dilemma and it is a bit heavy handed as it bulldozes its way towards a fairly predictable ending.
Auf der anderen Seite (translated as something like "The other side of heaven", I think... I can't remember exactly. The German means "on the other side) is the second film in a trilogy by the Turkish-German director Fatih Akin. I saw the first film in this series, Gegen die Wand (translated as "Head on") which was pretty gritty. And this one was no walk in the park, either. The plot is far too complicated to try to explain but involved a series of German and Turkish characters whose lives became entwined through major events but only very loosely entwined, in a sense. It reminded me a little of the premise used in "Sliding Doors" with Gwyneth Paltrow and John Hannah - i.e. the idea that we can pass like ships in the night, entirely unaware of another's presence but one small incident such as missing a train - or indeed catching the intended one - can set a whole series of events into action and the course of your life can alter immeasurably.
Not a barrel of laughs but a well-made film, I thought and one I would be happy to see again sometime.
The final film was not a light evening's entertainment either: Der Baader-Meinhof Komplex (now on general release). I was vaguely aware of the Baader-Meinhof Gang when I was growing up but had not realised that their activities continued until the 1990s. Nor had I realised how brutal a terrorist faction it was. So that gives you a few clues as to the content. The sound track is extremely noisy and I found myself having to read the subtitles to "hear" the dialogue. The subtitlers had crammed in lots of words rather than summarising the exchanges making it all quite dense which meant you had to read quite fast. I felt I missed the action on screen on occasion because I couldn't look in two places at once. Would I recommend it? Well, if you like action, blood and guts, then it might be your thing but I felt quite drained at the end of it all.