The Notebook

Yes I know I am fully into love stories right now, but sometimes is just has to be...So here we go. An old man reads out of a notebook to an old lady. He is reading the love story of a young couple that meets in the summer holidays. She is rich and he is poor, to say it in short terms. And after the summer they split but, good luck, they can´t forget each other. But the mother of the girl doesn´t agree with her choice. We find out during the movie that the love story is the story of the two old people. The old man reads the sory again and again because she doesn´t know who she is and who he is anymore. But sometimes, in very short moments she remembers, that´s why he is with her. I know I know it is helpless unrealistic but soooooo sad and touching. Girls, take some chocolate and some papers to blow your nose. Enjoy.

The story of us

Ben Jordan (Bruce Willis) and Katie Jordan (Michelle Pfeiffer) are married since 15 years. They have two lovely american kids but somehow the love got lost along the way. So what are they doing? Right, they send their wonderful kids to this holiday camp and then they split. And while boney american beauty Katie alias Michelle Pfeiffer is doing everything she does anwayway Ben alias Bruce Willis lies in bed in a hotel watching TV. Sometimes they meet with friends, seperatly of course. They both look amazingly good living with the desperation. Katie starts having dates with a charming, divorced dentist. Ben finds a house where he moves into. In between the two actors are telling us in outcut scences how they feel, why all these things are happening and how they hurt each other. And of course only the other one is to blame. But what would Hollywood be without a happy end? Actually this movie is made quite nice, having the difficulty of a long relationship as the main topic, so it starts where most love stories and. And even though it is Holloywood through and through it is authentic made. Bruce Willis is doing a good job out of action stuff.

Maria Montessori: una vita per i bambini (2007)

These days I've been watching a twofold Italian TV film about Maria Montessori, the founder of the Montessori schools. As you can tell by the subtitle - una vita per i bambini - it's the kind of historic movie that's all in ochre and sunbathed colours, where even the real poor children beating each other up in the streets make you long for the good old times when life was so slow and colourful, before cars arrived and people started to sit with crooked backs like me right now. Because Maria Montessori (charismatic Paola Cortellesi) has a very straight back, you know. She also has a very strong character, especially in dialogue with the masses of men (Maria Montessori was the first woman in Italy to study medicine) that have no idea children don't need only clean beds but also warmth and affection - and a patient and warm side to it that makes all the rioting children come circle around her feet when she sits down in a corner with a baby in her arms. If only life was that easy for me! If only I was like that! - It's always nice to watch a movie where you can rely on the main character to remain true to (especially) her-self whatever dictator comes up. The impersonation of a pretty thought...

Requiem

Anneliese Michel grows up in a small catholic village in Bavaria. Her parents are very religious, the family goes to church every sunday and prays before the melas and before going to sleep. We get to know Anneliese when she is 21 years old and she just got the acceptance of the university in Tübingen. Her mother doesn´t want her to go but her father supports his daughter. Annelies starts to study and enjoys her freedom. But then the the seizures start again. Voices are screaming at her, she is panicking, she has epileptic seizures. They are worse than ever before. Anneliese goes from one doctor to another but she is not paying attention to the advice to go to a psycho analyst. She is convinced that won´t help. She starts to think she is possessed by some evil power, by deamonds or devils. So she starts an Exorzismus. This movie is after a true story that happened in the 70s. The main actress Sandra Hueller is just amazing. Watch it.

The Heartbreak Kid

We all know Ben Stiller, I like him very much and he is in my opinion one of the funniest actors. So here we are, Ben Stiller is Eddie Cantrow, a buisness man in his fourties, the owner of an outdoor-sport shop. He visits the wedding of his ex-girlfriend, a quite depressing thing, but for us of course very amusing. However, he meets this women, he falls for her and so on. After six weeks they marry and drive to their honeymoon. Soon he has to discover that his wife isn´t quite as loveley as he thought (brutal sex, no money but a lot of debts,not the same hobbies, a clitoris piercing, a hole in her nasal septum from her koks-past;...), but good luck, he meets Miranda. And falls for her. But of course she find out about him being married and then the story has this unexpected turn. He doesn´t get her, his angry wife stole all his cards and he sits somewhere in Mexico, no papers to go home, but he tries anyway illegal. Not succesfull but when he finally arrives at Mirandas house she is married. Bad luck. I won´t say how it ends, but I was laughing my head of.

Breach/Enttarnt

The FBI has found out that one of their secret agents is a spy for Russia. Robert Hansen (Chris Cooper) works for the FBI since 28 years. He is clever and better than a lie detector, he can smell when somebody lies at him. Agent Kate Burroughs (Laura Linney) sends Eric O'Neill (Ryan Phillipe), an overmotivated guy who wants to become agent, as the new assistent into Hansens office. He starts to adore the secret agent for his life, his attitudes his faith. He doubts he can do the spy job properly, till he finds out about the "real" Hanson. The movie is made after a true story, of course very american like, but no big action, no explosions, it´s about the relationship of the two men. I liked it though I wasn´t very impressed, it sometimes even becomes a little boring. I found it a little too superficial, the characters could have been worked out a lot better. But anyway, it is nice entertainmant.

The Messenger

Children see what adults can´t. The Solomon family moves from Chicago to a house in the middle of nowhere. The normal problems appear that parents have with their teenage daughter. So here we go, Jess finds out that there are ghost in the house but of course none of her parents believes her. Her little brother, that stopped talking after an accident can also see those paranormal phenomenas. They both walk through the house at night, trying to find/ trying to be found. The scary happenings become rough, what is in this strange cellar going on and who is the guy that helps the father with the sunflower crop? I liked this movie very much and I would not have guessed so, I watched it in the Sneak Preview. First most of the action happen during daytime while the sun is shining, but it is still so scary. The the plot (even though I thought so in the beginning) is not clear and there are some surprises. The start is the best: big zoom, black and white, sreaming and killing. Nothing about building up tension slowly. Some things are stolen from other horrormovies, but it´s ok, I can accept that.

La science des rêves (2006)

Director:

Michel Gondry (2007) From the director of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind " another film that finds relationships stuck somewhere between reality and fiction. I find it "bolder" than "Eternal..." in terms of assuming a surrealist type of storytelling but somewhat of a lesser story. It seems that the director himself was a bit lost ...probably because this film is more personal than the other. [at least that`s my impression]. But still, it has a diary like feeling, that makes it charming and makes the character very loveable in his confusion .

This is England (2006)

Director:

Shane Meadows

Writer:

Shane Meadows

Release Date: 27 April 2007 (UK)

Some say that this is a skinhead film whatever that means...and reading some of these "skinhead theory" reviews I was obviously expecting raw violence, spilled blood etc. etc.

But this is actually a film about growing up in England when your father is dead in a war overseas that you cannot understand, about confused rebellious and frustrated young people, a weird combination of skinheads and hippies, people that don`t know what to believe in...it`s a film about truly living the words "who the f*** knows?".

But most of all, it`s the honest, moving story of a kid that goes through all these problems because he lives in England and...this IS England.

What I really liked is that you can feel that the story is told by someone who went through all that and I was not surprised to find out that the film is inspired from the director`s actual life.

It has the feeling of a story told in a circle of friends but still has the power to ask important questions and that is quite rare in films these days.

I definitely recommend this film.

Sommarnattens leende - Smiles of a Summer's Night (1955)

A "romantic comedy" by Ingmar Bergman. How, you might wonder, does a romantic comedy by Ingmar Bergman look? Oh, it's easy. Do keep the deep thoughts and concerned people, even the old wise ones, even the mean and the young desperate ones, just have them all laugh at each other; also set up some coincidences (my favourite scene is the one where trying to hang himself on an ill-chosen piece of tube, the son falls against the hidden knob that causes his secret love aka wife of his father, angelically sleeping in her bed, to slide into the room) --- and you're all set.

Paradise Now (2005)

Set in West Bank/Israel, this movie tells the story of two brothers who have volunteered to be suicide bombers. When they are told that the next day the mission is to be fulfilled in Tel-Aviv, their faith in Allah seems unshaken. Stepping in is a young, sort of enlightened (or enpeaced) and also very pretty woman who has grown up in France and Morocco; Her line goes along the critique of the old testament, "the Israelis will have to give in once we stop fighting back", whereas Said and Khaled understand the conflict more as a war, and the "imprisoned life" as pointless anyway. But on their way to Tel-Aviv some complications occur and they gain time to think about it. The movie won quite some awards (among which the Golden Calf). Possibly because of its pace which is very slow, creating an athmosphere that can be both very intimate and very tense. There's lots of time to observe in Said's face changes of thought - a very attentive movie, in that sense. Actually it's much more obvious that he's thinking hard than what it is he's deciding. Maybe that makes him a character to empathise with as it is obviously not obvious what to decide. I found interesting also how little talk takes place in terms of clarification. The frames in which they live are clear enough to everyone. The soldier lets you pass by a slight movement of the head. Also sending away a boy that begs for more money is done without words: there is a dialogue of glances, eyebrow lifts and slight head movements that settles the matter. Said seems to tell his mother about the suicide plan (which is supposed to stay secret even to the family) also by looks and slight head shaking... Showing a very close community. Also very calm and peaceful (again, the pace), not hateful or aggressive in any way, not even against Israelis (that part is somehow spared from the movie); the suicide bombing as a reasonable thing to do on the grounds of the common interpretation of Allah's word and facing the Israelis' thread. (I wonder why does that surprise me!? I probably expected the wild bearded guys.) Overall: recommended.

1408

What Mike Enslin would like to see the most is a ghost, but he never saw one even though he published lots of books about these paranormal phenomenos. He visits all places that seem to have ghosts but he always comes back disappointed. Then he gets this message, not to enter room 1408 in the "Dolphine Hotel". So of course he becomes curious but doesn´t really believe in anyhing authentic. But he isn´t able to rent the room, the owner of the hotel is acting very strange and wants to convince him to take another room. So of course he gets the room and after he has been inside the movie looses what I think belongs to a good horror movie. All these ghosts walking to the windows again and again to kill themselves, all his obvious fears that he was suppressing before, and the worst is when the ghost of his father appears, from whom we only know that he must have done something wrong with his son. Well, well, that´s more or less it, still some things happen that are weather logical nor scary (what is the essence of horror). So, don´t worry about missing it.

Surf´s Up

"Find your way cause that´s what winners do", since "Big Z", the most famous surfer spoke to him, Cody want´s to become like him. Not so easy if you work in a fish factory and live far away from where the sufer-competition takes place. But this year he is lucky and so he arrives at the beautiful beach far away from home and has to learn first that a big ego is not enough to win. Ashamed he hides from the others till he finds out what surfing is really about. And we get an impression about the philosophy of surfing. I liked this movie, it is really not exiting but sweet and made for big and small children with a good soundtrack which guides us through the waves.

Full Metal Village/ Ein Heimatfilm

Wacken. A small village in north germany. Many farmers, mainly old people. Young girls that dream of a model career, a lot of cows. Nothing special, nothing exiting. But then, once a year the metal fans from all over the world travel to this small unexiting small village to celebrate one of the most famous metal festivals worldwide. The idyll of the village is disturbed for a few days, the old ladys philosophise about blood rituals while they are having their cup of coffee and the metal fans run over the supermarket for beer. This movie from the japanese Sung-Hyung Cho shows two completely different worlds that meet once a year. When you bring patience for the slow motion you will enjoy it. It is absolutly worth watching.

Muxmäuschenstill

Mux wants to change the peoples mind. He wants to make a better world and gets help from Gerd who didn´t have a job ever. Gerd is holding a camera while Mux uses his very personal methods to help the offender regret his cirme. Graffiti sprayers have to come along with their own coulours in theis faces, burning in their eyes and it might happen they get killed by a train they obviously couldn´t see. Or a lady who has to eat the shit of her dog that she didn´t clean on the footpath. And Mux is successful, his "company" expanses and he becomes popular. But this sweet inocent girl he met is still on his mind, till he has to find out she is not the way he imagined her. And in the end (maybe even before) the spectator aks him/herself if Muxs is any better then the other offenders. A schocking realistic movie that comes along without any special effects.

Prinzessinnenbad (2007)

We went yesterday to the movies in Kreuzberg, where this documentary is set. My first thought when I got out of the cinema was how little I know about the kind of world interpretation that happens just about where I was walking. The plot: there isn't much of one actually. The camera (and I wonder what person behind it, probably somebody much less morally challenged than me) follows three 15-year-old girls through their routine, through their growing-up. Lots of relationships and lots of experienced judgment on different kinds of men (I wasn't aware, for instance, that Germans are seriously out of fashion), no minced manners certainly (telling your ma "if you marry, i move out"), a demanding and annoyed attitude to life. I perceived it as radically different from my growing up which was so safe and sheltered. Yet - there seems to exist a parallel between them ("the kids today are exposed to too much. [The kind of bitch-vocab they use] Me at age 8 I was still playing with dolls. Well maybe 7") and me here (having the impression I still did with 15 - or do I now?). I guess what struck me most is how distinctly the lines are drawn. All three girls are amazingly conscious about what they won't be able to do, considering the lack of abitur, in fact it seemed to me they know this before they start making plans in the first place. It leaves the spectator to wonder whether to agree with them or not. In somma, a good milieu movie.

Taxi Driver (1976)

Taxi Driver is hailed by many as the best '70s movie, best Martin Scorsese, best Robert De Niro. I am unable to do sweeping remarks like these but I would agree that Taxi Driver is a movie worth seeing. I am reluctant about Scorsese in general but I liked what he did this time. I have no idea where exactly a director's job stops and other people (cinematographer, screenplay writer, editor, even composer) have their say. However, I would assume that I can count on an overall decision that the director would make, the combination of elements as well as some sort of essence in the form and content of the work that he is supposed to agree to. I do believe that Scorsese's intuitions were right this time. I loved the cinematography that reflected the sleepless nights of the main character, the pace that slowly built the tension. Travis is the criminal next door, disturbed and unstable, lacking social skills – he invites a first date girl to a porn cinema. He ends up being praised as a hero when he kills a bunch of people and 'saves' Jodie Foster when he actually gestured towards killing a senator before and got away without being caught. The fiction 'inspired' a Jodie Foster's later fan who attempted to kill President Reagan to impress her. She must have been overwhelmed. In Taxi Driver, Iris is a twelve years old prostitute who 'sells her little pussy for nothing' as Travis lectures and believes strongly in the horoscope. Jodie Foster, fourteen at the time, is charming in the part. She snickers and giggles at the stern Travis while explaining she does not really want to be saved and she gave that impression only because she was stoned.

The Godfather: Part II (1974)

This celebrated film stars in fact Al Pacino and it is a great bla bla bla music - Nino Rota, image, bla, acting, bla bla. I'll try to stay focused on DeNiro. The 1972 'first' Godfather stared in the role of the older Don Vito the well-known forty-eight years old Marlon Brando who won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role Oscar. The part was heavily worked and Brando's deep involvement is known. At 31 Robert DeNiro creates Vito Corleone in 'The Godfather:Part II' and wins the Best Actor in a Supporting Role Oscar (Coppola accepted the award at the ceremony as DeNiro was not attending). DeNiro filled graciously Brando's shoes even in the fragmentary flash back the narrative allows. There is a quality in the silent Vito that I cannot find a word for. He is not exceptionally smart nor exceptional in other ways. If possible I would call him very mediocre: he displays a certain combination of ambition, focus and values that bring him in the forefront. He is not a man that shows much, that one can easily read. Yet one can feel a vibe that renders him special when you meet him. He would not shine if the camera would not pay attention. DeNiro plays the part with great restraint and conveys a subtle power that generates relations and events like ripples around his character. Even if praised to death The Godfather is one of the must see movies for many internal reasons, and, if nothing else, for the deep influence it had.

Mean Streats(1973)

Thanks to consta 'Mean streets' is the first in a longer list of movies staring Robert DeNiro. The lead part in this movie belongs to Harvey Keitel who plays Charlie Cappa, a special type of a mafia guy. Charlie is a sensitive guy caught in the cognitive dissonance of his church-going and mafia-business caretaker ambitions. The movie opens before the credits with Charlie's voice over announcing the theme and the development of the movie: ' You don't make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets, you do it at home. The rest is bullshit and you know it.' John 'Johnny Boy' Civello (De Niro) is crazy. The character is impenetrable to us and to his world. He talks funny, he acts funny, he brakes the rules in a random way, he's totally imp revisable. I would say there might be something in common with Godfather but not too much. Mean Streets seems to me much less focused on the story order, events seem to happen without reason in a way that renders atmosphere. The de-centered narrative gives an impression of 'that corner' in the 70s and it is loosely brought together by the main character. And 'that corner' of the 70s happens mostly out of the daylight: night, bars, cinema, restaurants. The music enhances the random 'like-life' effects. Martin Scorsese directed, wrote the story and the screen play and appears (according to imdb) to have a personal interest to explore this type of theme. It is a movie worth watching again.

Blood Diamond (2006)

People say 'Blood diamond' is a good movie and DiCaprio is a great actor. That may be true for them but I beg to disagree: I do not know who to blame for the movie so I will pick on just a few things like lDiCaprio. The movie is supposed to be close to others like Hotel Rwanda, Munich etc. capturing supposedly a tragic story of Sierra Leone. I usually get all emotional in front of such things even when badly made but this time all the questions I had in the first place about this type of theme gave me an unpleasant visceral reaction. Why are we making entertainment out of such things? It is almost as if the movie presents an extended version of the five o'clock violent news bulleting. It achieves exactly the same: we say 'poor people' and think 'why is this news?'. After all there is no news that people die and that we can be incredible cruel to each other. I have no idea what I am talking about but I see what we do without being in a war, even to people we call friends. I would like to see totally insane scenarios where diamonds do not matter to anyone and where people live in pace and harmony. That would be some news and I would run up to the first person on the street and I would slap them hard in the face just to see how they turn the other cheek and hug me in tears. I will then go off to make trouble to the establishment by hiding the salt at the table, the paper from the toilets and inject silicon in random faces to confuse the hell out of interpersonal communication. Until these fun times I will be doubtful of movies eliciting cheap emotional flow. DiCaprio. I do not know what I miss in this guy. Wait. I know. I do not 'believe' his manliness. It might be his voice but I really do not really believe he smokes. He is just ridiculous when he does the rough killer as kindergarten children planing a terrorist attack on some cherry tree in the neighborhood. His death manages to light a generous smirk if not a honest grin. He boldly claims without any relevant context 'I like to get kissed before I get fucked'. Does it ring any (better sounding) bell? I mean... Sonny (Al Pacino 1975) and Danny Archer (DiCaprio 2006) have exactly this line in common and there is nothing but a glaring confirmation of the two movies and actors' quality. I will add (to be fair) that DiCaprio did a good job in Catch Me If You Can (2002) and very good as Rimbaud in Total Eclipse (1995). Another ludicrous part: Amsterdam Vallon in Gangs of New York (2002). Is there a pattern? Take a look at the picture – is he to be taken seriously? I would not watch Blood Diamond again even if Djimon Hounsou makes a nice Solomon Vandy and even if I like Jennifer Connelly. As a girl. Which makes me think there is more potential in her that I could see so far.

Zwartboek (2006)

'Black Book' is the work of Paul Verhoeven and Gerard Soeteman. The word goes they worked for more then twenty years to what became a description of the essence of the Second World war in Holland. For example the main performer, Carice van Houten, builds a mixture of Anne Frank, Dora Paulsen, Kitty van der Have and Ans van Dijk. (for a review covering the historical aspect check here) The film reminds me of a discussion about realism: Dostoyevsky believed he was a ' higher realist' because he would try to get to the essence of the real and not necessarily describe everyday events. Here too the story is stylized and as if abstract but pressures successfully the reality it points to. The movie shows quality all over and the big budget could be part of the explanation. On the other hand, a big budget was never enough for a good movie and this one is good. Carice van Houten, Sebastian Koch, Thom Hoffman, Halina Reijn, Derek de Lint, Waldemar Kobus all do a clean job, the image is sparkling, the sound is crystal. The characters (like Ronnie) sometimes appear to be one sided and superficial but it looks as if they are pushed by the events to be depthless and they struggle in their own trimmed features. The movie is plot driven and that gives it a Hollywood scent but its structure reminds me more of David Lynch because of the heavy clarity; things appear to be going on at several levels all the time and the action springs from various depths creating a multi layered web that is both easy to follow and difficult to analyze. Nice.

We feed the world (2005)

This is a good movie, I recommend to watch it. It portrays several ways and places where the food we eat is produced: the fishermen in Bretagne (according to EU regulations all fishing will be industrialized in a few years), the huge greenhouse plantations in southern spain (from which every European citizen consumes an average 10kg every year), the stubbed rainforest in Brasil (where soy beans grow that are fed to European cattle while European wheat and corn isn't worth more than road chippings and is burned for heat)... I could go on. And the life of chickens of course! The movie is done very well, it doesn't seek to overpower you with facts. The shooting is very slow and relies mostly on the images themselves, following the Bretagne fishers through a whole usual fishing day for instance, the early rising in the morning, the monotonous movements, the pride about a big fish... (it made me think about the comforting way lives can go and pass in this routine, and with a lot of water around them too). Also, the movie doesn't hint the apocalypse of globalisation at all, it's not accusing. Wagenhofer (pic) works towards a Zivilcourage or consumer courage rather where it's not necessary to emphasize that the Nestlé chef is a bad bad guy. As Jean Ziegler (the UNO Sonderbeauftragter - special emissary, I looked it up - for the right to nutrition) puts it: the Nestlé chef is a likeable tanned guy who makes a lot of sense to himself in his surroundings (which made me think how it seems the biggest responsibility one has nowadays might be to choose one's surroundings well. God, take me out of this linguistics class! :) In any case, I'm more aware of this again... and better informed, which is also not irrelevant. I'm going shopping now!

Agnes und seine Bruder (2004)

The christian-romantic ideal of a relationship always starts with (and in) purity and compatibility and it romantically follows with 'And they lived happily ever after.' 'Agnes and her brothers' supports an different view: the relationship is more of a process that indeed purifies the individuals. The partners clearly do not 'live happily ever after' but work hard for every second of being happy and pure. They are more on the way to happiness (auf dem Weg ins Glück). Agnes (interpreted with great sensitivity by Martin Weiß) is in a post-relationship phase on several levels, Herbert Knaup in the rough middle of one and Moritz Bleibtreu at the door of another. All of them go through difficult times and I have to say I could not choose who has the hardest moments. Now, if I put the three brothers together I'll find a very dark image of relationship and life. The film is great and it makes me want to talk to someone about it so if you want to see it or manage to watch this Oskar Roehler' work, let me know.

The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)

It is not a bad movie. At least because Will Smith does a great Chris Gardner and the directors also has a lot to say with the images. Having the chance to watch some European movies lately I would say this film lacks depth in spite of Muccino's Italian origin. The acting creates the tension but the plot just solves everything in ridiculous ways such that at some point I had a feeling that nothing bad really happens. For example I learned after the movie that most of the homeless people were real, taken..well..of the streets. They actually made some money of this gig. I was more impressed by this fact than by the situations they were in the movie. I think here it is mostly the plot to blame because it is so focused on the central characters that the context is a distanced background. In this respect European movies seem to use more of a sfumato. PS: Will Smith's son is really his son, Jaden Smith

The Birds

WOO-HAA, I just watched the birds. Raphael came over some time, apparently i was breathing hard and calling my God on to help. Some very scary scenes I find, the everywhereness of the birds is quite potent. Though at the same time it's funny to notice the technical difference 1963 movies make, wooo, and the moon breaking through the clouds to light all the birds on the courtyard and branch the right way. Not to speak of the beautiful look 'Miss Daniels' gives her saviour when she awakens from the coma. Wish I could put eyeliner that well. Tippi Hedren I liked a lot, she reminded me of the Danish Sofie, by the way of allowing words out of her mouth only cautiously, also I liked her voice very much. And the way she and 'Mitch' speak so confidently from the start. It's very witty and explicit by being so fast, yet... implicit. PS. I also wish I would keep my legs that way when I'm really scared.

Casino Royale (2006)

I had low expectations before the movie so guess what...I liked it. I think it is one of the best Bond movies I've seen. It uses modern techniques and it is very dynamic. The story moves fast, there is plenty of tension right from the beginning, Eva Green (of The Dreamers)is simply bellissima; her falling in love scene almost made me reciprocate. Daniel Craig does a good job at being the new Bond, James Bond. It is interesting to see how (yet again) a 'really' strong man has a marshmallow core. But not too much; the character receives some humane features to be sure - see the shower scene...he might be J. Bond but he got the basic knowledge that in order to warm someone under the shower it just might be useful/helpfull to turn on the hot watter. Most of all I noticed the way the narrative focuses on the main character which directs our attention to what is important in the scene. There is something new about the types of cuts and the mixture of images Martin Campbell organized in Casino Royal. It may be that the lines were not that great, that some things could have been left for us to understand and this makes the whole movie based only on the dynamic; it does not matter what happens (I actually don't remember a lot of the story) but the way things move is well done and at least entertaining. I also have to mention the performances of Mads Mikkelsen as Le Chiffre and Judi Dench as M. In this context the bad guy was quite good moving from one extreme state to the other within a very restricted area, and M was the perfect mom/accomplished business woman/wise person/stern but kind and understanding. Yeap...it's a movie to share with friends.

300 (2006)

Too long, too explicit, far too easy. The story teller's voice is booming comenting what I can see or I should be able to see. These devices make less of a possible interesting plot. It is as if everything about people happens in public, in the open. There is no depth to it except maybe Xerses's generated and godly voice. Also 300 looks clearly like a post-Matrix movie: the battle scenes are all peppered with the fast-slow technique used in Matrix. It doesn't look that bad but it's been done to death and it doesn't show even an attempt to make it appriate for the context. It is copy-pasting like the structure of the plot. Overall...I did not like it.

Sibirskiy tsiryulnik (1998)

I hear Mihalkov's Сибирский цирюльник (The Barber of Siberia) met a raging critic audience on the account that he gave in to Hollywoodean taste. The Barber of Siberia may not be Oci ciornie [Dark eyes] (1987) or Neokonchennaya pyesa dlya mekhanicheskogo pianino [An Unfinished Piece for a Mechanical Piano] (1977). But it has more in common with what Mihalkov did before than with any Hollywood movie I can think of. There are some tensions, some way of using time and space that one can never find in Hollywood. I liked every minute of the 180 of Mihalkov 1998 film even if it has not a Stalker's deep and dense fabric of signs; it just a nice serious, a bit fairy-like account of Russian life in contact with some western feeling -which really says nothing about what the movie is. I liked it.

Freedom Writers (2007)

'Freedom Writers' is centered around Anne Frank's Diary. The movie re-presents life events that took place just years ago (the book was actually published in 1999). It is not a very good movie and it made me think how odd it is to depict reality in film. On the other hand I have to admit I fought back some tears. By the 'tears' standard the movie gets closer to Hotel Rwanda but it is sloppier and I found the acting less convincing. But...the defects and the problems make the film more convincing at the level where I know real life constitutes bad acting. I am not sure I want to watch it again. I may focus too much on the aesthetic problems and the tension between the technique and plot may just increase. In any case it was a good experience to watch it. PS: If you are willing to see it online let me know. PPS: the photo is the cover of the published book and not taken from the movie.

The Devil's Den (2006)

This is probably a low budget movie and I would include it in the B/rented-VHS class - meaning movies you might watch with your friends to be with your friends and have some (gory) fun. For its class The Devil's Den is quite good: there are some collage segments, some acceptable self-ironic one liners, even some turns of plot unexpected for the class. For me it is quite a revelation that certain techniques penetrated down to this type. It is almost as if you watch a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie with a (post)modern touch.

Skenbart - en film om tåg (2003)

Also knows as 'Illusive Tracks' this one is simply delicious. I had no idea Swedes can have such a good sense of humor. It is amazing how much timing is important to make a good comedy and the actors take their time to get the rhythm just right. The plot is about a train ride from Stockholm for Berlin right after the war and about doing good and being idealistic again. Lots happen during that night. There are no characters, no deep imagery but Peter Dalle's dialog is brilliant for the context. It could be a sort of slapstick with Wittgenstein as a guiding idea. You'll love it.

Esma's Secret - Grbavica (2006)

Nothing extraordinary happens in this film but there is something that makes me feel all the movies to be like this. I also remembered that there are things I will never know. Not because lack of time or resources but simply because I am me and nobody else. It makes me feel generaly alone and appreciate moments when I feel togetherness even if it is over trivial things like asking for a bier and getting the bier. 'Grbavica' won the Golden Berlin Bear in 2006.

Paul und Paula

It's nice. Also it's about GDR. Paula is all feeling and Sehnsucht, and also she's in love with Paul. She has children which she rather accidentally acquired in the search of men before. Paul is very honest and good-hearted, that's why his wife cheats on him. He loves Paula because she never would, but he also loves his son. But he also loves Paula. I liked how laconically and curtly the story is told, especially at the beginning when both their first partnerships are elapsing in the rhythms of some seemingly universal pattern, from which Paula's dreams then fly to surreal places of flower-covered drifting; and how the movie ends, just as laconically, yet warm.

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

The movie is about how hard is to get there even when 'there' is nowhere important. I would probably like the movie if it would be less pretentious: there are times when the cheesiest things happen and I am just not there. I know that in 'real life' cheesy things happen all the time and I am fine with that. But this is a movie and I want them to acknowledge that and cover the very obvious morals. I am not the kind of public that appreciates it. Otherwise the movie is almost nice, a normal life type of surreal suffuses the events in spite of the happy end. I would be curious what other people feel/think about it. It won two Oscars one of which for the screenplay - was Babel or El laberinto del fauno or The queen worse than this one? I am not sure. All I can say is that the movie appeals to imdbs.

The City Of Lost Children

Imagine a man that is not able to draem, so he becomes old very quick. That is why he kidnaps children to steal there dreams. This man lives at a platform out in the sea with cloned brothers, Madmoiselle Bismuth and Irvin, the brain (which lives in an aquarium filled with green water with an ovjective, representing his eyes). So sometimes children disapear from the city whom nobody misses, but one day they steal Denrée. His big brother the cyclop(who found Denrée in the garbage when he was a baby) starts to pursue the kidnappers to find out where they bring his little brother. He gets help from a streetgirl , the nine years old Miette, who lives in an orphanage, which is run by two strange and cruel twin sisters. A weard fantasy movie not for children.

Lucky Number Slevin

I love stories where things are happening and you don´t know how everything fits together, but in the end the circle closes. So of course you watch the movie a second time to look for hints and to find out if you could have known before. Lucky Number Slevin is such a movie, probably the first one in which i like Josh Hartnett, who plays really funny with dry humor. Bruce Willis alias Cold Cat is a cool murderer as we know and love him, with a good side, what is almoust unnecessary to mention. So there is this sweet guy called Slevin (Josh Harnett)who gets into this circle of bad luck. He loses his job, his grilfriend betrayes him, he goes to visit an old friend Nick. On the way his portmonai gets robbed by a thief who brakes his nose. And then he is in the appartment of his friend, who somehow doesn´t appear. Suddenly he (actually Nick) ows a lot of money to two powerful figures (called the Boss and the Rabbi), and he can´t prove that he isn´t Nick, because his portmonai got stolen. And of course he is not able to pay back the imense amount of money. It is too funny how Josh Hartnett alias Slevin walkes only dressed in a purple towel through the black dark building and even though (or maybe because) the movie is quite brutal it is filled with dry and absurd humor. Nice one.

Animatrix

The Animatrix DVD is a collection of nine short stories about the Matrix, which I am a big fan of, espacially of the first movie, even though I don´t like Keanau Reeves too much. The DVD a mixture of comic and computeranimation. The stories are made by famous japanese anime producers. It is a real pleasure to watch, you get a lot more detailed information how the matrix arised, about unknown characteres living in the matrix and so on. The drawings are nice and obviously made by japanese, who have a very specific style. It is just fun get a different, well overthought view what I was missing in the last two movies. Enjoy.

Was nützt die Liebe in Gedanken

I couldn´t find the translation for this movie, maybe something like "What ist the use of love only in thoughts". Well, I know there are famous german actors taking part like Daniel Brühl, August Diel and Jana Pallaske, but somehow it didn´t catch me. The pictures are slow, beautiful and clean, the people young and everything is lulled into a summer atmosphere. The main topic love is discussed in a very superficial way, actually the main reason why I was disapointed. The story: Two young men say they want to kill themselves when they couldn´t feel love anymore and the people who are the reason for this. The movie is based on a real story and starts with the end. The one friend has killed himself and his lover, the other friend is still alive. Daniel Brühl alias Paul Krantz tells the police what happened. But to my surprise i liked the movie when I just smoked a joint. Maybe a drug movie, so I wouldn´t recomend it to children.

Das Leben der Anderen (2006)

Tanja reminded me that I wanted for a long time to write about several German movies. 'The life of others' (I assume this would be an acceptable translation - if not, German friends, bitte, hilfe) won the 2007 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year and it is arguably a better film than The Departed. I also liked it very much. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck is the director and the writer of this East-German story and he does it all quite well. I like how the moments develop in measured military step to a culminating double-beat ending and I love the fact that the tension is never (not even at the very end) completely released. Fact which probably makes the Film stay with you as well as the clear lines that shape de characters. Most of all I love the way characters shift. For this I have to thank also to Martina Gedeck, Sebastian Koch and especially Ulrich Mühe. Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler is a complex part and U. Mühe does it with the right tension. It almost appears that the character is always surprised by his own change but this surprise stays well inside the part of STASI officer who deals with it...professionally. Thanks to Kaspar for recommending it.

Pulse (2006)

A 'horror' one this time. Or in any case terrible. I am not so sure how the green hue that pervades the film is supposed to make it scary or technical or smth. I noticed that some of the sci-fi/computer/electricity centered pieces tend to be greenish. Why is that? Is electricity supposed to be green, does one feel green when electrocuted? I never did and I had my share but the colour is always indeterminate. There might be a taste but it wouldn't be green. In any case, the movie electrocuted me into boredom which might as well be of that tone of green. I disliked the acting a lot. It's not that the people are not good actors (I have no idea about that) it's just this movie and the parts they did in general. Some of the scenes were terribly stereotypical..you have to be a genius to get out of there in one piece. I found the directing (or the editing-who knows which is which) not only wrongly paced but also simply mistaken. I call mistakes things that do not amount to something appear to be in contradiction with the 'whole' in that they disturb what appears to 'support' the 'whole'. An example here would be the number of times when a tension was broken a bit too early or could not be build because of the 'noise' around. As about the 'whole'- don't bother. Unless you want to comment me.

Nightwatch

Actually this movie is an old one from 1994, but there is also a new version from 1995 with Even McGregor. I liked the old one better. When I watched it the first time I had to switch channels in between because I could´t stand the tension. Maybe this movie is boring for the fans of the horror genre, but I love how it starts very slowly, takes time for the main characters. And then somehow one thing after the other is happenig. The story is quite simple. It´s about the student Martin who starts to work as a nightwatcher in a mortuary. First he is scared of all the corps lying in this building but he is getting used to it. And the strange things start to happen. As the one watching the movie you know already that something is wrong in this uncomfortable and cold mortuary. Has it something to do with this strange bet with his friend, to go to the limit, he was ok with? What about the murderer going around in the media, who takes the skill of his female victims? I couldn´t remember the full movie, so only in the end it gets clear who the guilty guy is. I won´t tell, just in case you will watch it.

Hoodwinked/Die Rotkäppchen-Verschwörung

We all know the famous farytale of the little girl with the red head that goes through the dark forest to her grandmother, to bring her wine and cake. The big, dangerous wolf wants to eat the innocent girl. He observes her in the forest, but she runs away. So he disguises as grandmother and is placing himself in her bed. So far everything is the same. But then the chained grandmother falls out of the cupboard while the wolf is trying to deceive the girl, directly after this a strong man with an axe jumps through the window into the room. The police arrives, a special agent is talking to everybody to find out what really happened and if someone of them is the thief of the recipts, that are stolen everywhere. Because of this crime all the bakeries have to close. Is the lovely grandmother as lovely as it seems at first sight? Is the wolf as frightening as we know him? Why did the girl come to the house of her grandmother? And what is the role of the guy with the axe? I liked this movie, many new and entertaining ideas, but in the end it is becoming too long and i was a little bored. Anyway, it is worth to watch at home with some Haribo and beer. Cheers.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

     Here is one that I have long avoided...I don't know, it might have been the long title, the enthusiasm of people I knew to be romantic or something like that. Well...indeed, it has a sweetly romantic beginning, it shows good romantic the-whole-world-is-a-mess when a tragedy has befollen me, it ends with a romantic touch. But it has a jumpy narrative line (the movie might be worth watching only for this) with almost as nice side story.      Let me tell you what happens:(Spoiler Spoiler) two people meet (in this case Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet - both doing a good job). And fall in love, have a relationship which feels like 'not the right thing for me at this moment'. And, what do you know, they can go through a funny little medical procedure to 'move over' erasing completely the other from memory. And they do it. [But], it just happens that they meet again and, what do you know, fall in love again and do the whole thing over and over for a while. Finaly they learn at some point that they did that and,w d y k, this time decide to try and go through it again. It is not a big fancy well thought decision but it makes me think that, why not, it may just be that normality and healthy realtion is exactly this one: meet, love, erase and do it again. We're doing this already so...why not. It may not seem like all the happiness in the world but think of it this way: even if we are erasing everything we would still like to go through it again. Could it be? What in the world am I saying? Naturly it could not. Needless to say that the movie has a lot of success among people with a special someone whom they would never erase.

Freedomland (2006)

     I hear this movie is advertised as a thriller and the tag line going with is "His streets. His rules." There is nothing more misleading than these labels. The movie is 'thrilling' but it is marginal to what I understand to be that genre - not much action, not enough explosions of all sorts...raising definitely not the same kind of emotions.      I mostly liked Julianne Moore who does a great job at creating tensions: there is even a surprisingly long monologue that she sustains brilliantly. I read a review saying she does not fit the character in the book (there seems to be a book about this) because she is too week when she should have been stronger because 'she lived in that neighbourhood'. There is a point there but I can also go for the crashed, bordering insane mother who lost her child. Bottom line - I liked what she did. I would also mention Edie Falco. She acts the rough women, very close to vigilante type. I find her a bit inflexible but I can see her as type of Brenda (Julianne Moore) ten years later.     The story is of some interest to me also because it touches upon issues like racism and justice. This secondary line has enough power to come through and it almost feels like the emotional release from the tension that J. Moore and Samuel L. Jackson create.... which I find particularly interesting since it is a tensed situation in itself. The plot is nicely interwoven such that connections appear when you least expected and (some) things are fused together which gives more weight to individual threads.      Yeap...I'd watch it again.

Babel (2006)

      Alejandro González Iñárritu is also the director of 2003 movie '21 Grams' (which I could not bring myself to watch yet, even if I hear good things about it). I liked Babel. It is clean and it has great pacing. I liked most of all the way the stories move in the plot, the fact that even if loosely connected the three stories are given different weight. There is some sort of a central story (with Brad Pitt in it) but I watched with even more interest the story from Japan which is almost not connected by solid links to the rest but mainly by a whole atmosphere. The characters in all the story share something else than things and family or social relationships.      The moral of the whole thing has been criticised to be a little too obvious but the movie is done so well that I couldn't care less. One issue that can be discussed is why would you cast known actors in a movie where they can hinder the message if the moral is supposed to be the one stated above. Surely, I can perfectly imagine this film completely with unknown actors. On the other hand, one can say that this is exactly the point: (film)stars are connected to the rest in the same way. And 'American citizens' are in any case a type of star nowadays so it might be that Americans as a people are connected to Muslims and Japanese. In any case, this movie is much more about the whole world then about particular actors.      When you watch this one also listen to its music. Gustavo Santaolalla wrote the music as well for 21 Grams and for Amores perros (2000) and this would probably be another good reason to check out these movies.

Touch of Evil (1958)

An Orson Welles film-noir (people say one of the last of this genre) which did not impress me much. The movie is noir indeed, so much so that it seems the screen is tuned up to maximum contrast: no soft tones only cutting shadows, the day light has nothing smooth in it, there is almost no transition from light to dark. I did watch again the seemingly famous tracking shot at the beginning and I do think it pays to see it but the rest I would not watch another time. Charlton Heston is not doing a good job in his acting a Mexican(does he look Mexican at all to you?!) policeman. I only became aware of his resemblance to Sergiu Nicolaescu(S.N. is a dinosaur of Romanian cinema). Orson Welles himself does a much better job impersonating the corrupt and generally finished cop. He drinks, he smokes continuously and does not seen the ever shower. In a word he is disgustingly ugly. When the camera looks up at him, which happens almost always, I feel he is invading my personal space - always too close.

Any Given Sunday (1999)

      I have no idea what american football is but I am sure it could not be as great as this movie shows it. I watched it a few years ago for the first time and many times after that and always my  hair will get up ... the music, the crazy editting, the cast  (except the girls) are just fantastic.       Here's some names: Oliver Stone is directing, Al Pacino, Dennis Quaid, James Woods,  Jammie Fox.  It is clearly one of the most energetic movies I have ever seen and it attempts to extract great things out of football. Overall it is a great experience and if you do not know the movie yet - go get it and watch it twice. It worths mach more than many of the movies on this list.