The Dark Knight

The old battle beetwen good and bad picurized in the new Batman movie. But how... I don´t know where to start, first, even though there were some questions left open in the end (like how did the Joker come to so much power, how did he manage to collect all these people around him and why did none of the policemen shoot during the chase in the tunnel???) I was overwhelmed, this is a great film. It contains love, hate, good, bad, drama, action, fear, revenge, insanity,....and so on. It´s just worth watching to see Heath Ledger in the role of the Joker. I was reading an interview with him about this character and he was saying, that he could invent this character all by himself, there were no fixed items but the clothes. Even the make up was his idea. Well, he does a very good job, he is by far the best actor here. He is so scary all the time because the Joker lives the theory of chaos, you can´t see through his madness and anarchy ideas, he´s completely crazy and highly intelligent at the same time. This coctail makes him so interessting. The battle he and Batman are fighting is the endless battle, because none of them can exist without the other. And sometimes it becomes clear how close they are, how tiny is the step from one side to the other, from love to hate, from good to bad and that sometimes you can´t even see what is what, because we are just humans. I also liked the role of Batman´s butler very much, with his smirk humor, the wise advices and his complete loyalty. The questions comes up, if Batman is fighting criminality in the rigth way, if it is defensible to answer to violence with violenec, even though the movie seems to answer this qustion with yes, it´s still there for me. Christian Bale as the Batman is doing a solid job by having a straight back, a handsome apperiance and a serious, stony face that sometimes shows a smile, but not too often. The dark hero, and dark is this whole film indeed. But we have another hero, Aaron Eckhart alias Harvey Dent is the white hero, the good guy and new district attorney that brings hope and humanity into Gotham City, not having the same abilities as Batman of course, but having a lot of power that he is using for the right and order. So he ist also a target for the Joker and it is Batmans who has to save the hope for the City. Will he succeed?

Lost in Translation

Bob Harris is doing a Spot for Whiskey for a lot of money and Charlotte accompanies her husband, a busy photographer, in Tokio. They are from America and stay in the same Hotel and meet one night at the bar, because they can´t sleep. Charlotte is a young woman, not sure about what she wants and married for just two years. Bob is an aged man, married since 25 years and tired of life. A friendship developes and they are obviously attracted to each other, but none of them makes a step. I liked a lot the sublimal irony, the subtle humor and the tragic. The combination works together very well. It´s nice to get an everyday impression of two very different people in a foreign country, just a cutting from their lifes. Nothing particularly special but very pointed, with many views on the faces.

Transsiberian

Roy and Jessie, a married amarican couple, were doing some childrens-help work in China. After they finished their work, as an adventure in between they take the Trans-Siberian train from China to Moscow. It´s winter in Russia. A couple is sharing the cabin with them, Abby and Carlos. We notice right away that Carlos and Abby are strange, two people you shouldn´t trust. But nevertheless Roy and Jessie come along with them very well, even though we observe the looks that Carlos gives Jessie. On one stop Roy gets lost, Jessie searches the whole train for him, but he vanished. At the next station she decides to wait for him, solidary as they are Carlos and Abby go off the train to wait with Jessie. While Abby is away Carlos and Jessie make a tour to some church ruin. Jessie got a call before that Roy is fine and was just doing some seightseeing. She and Carlos are somehow attracted to each other, but as she backs down he tries to rape her. Jessie is not the helpless little girl as we learned before, and as Carlos doesn´t let go she apparently kills him. When the next Trans-Siberian train stops, Roy and his wife meet again and drive on together accompanied by a police officer, who starts to make Jessie extremly nervous when she finds out that Carlos was in fact a drug dealer and had exchanged the inside of their suitcases while he had had a shower in Jessies room in the hotel. And the nightmare just starts, because the police officer is involved in the drug-dealing. A wintery, snowy and cold movie, somehow weared but fascinating at the same time.

Nirgendwo in Afrika

Nowhere in Africa. Germany during the second world war. Jettl and her daughter Regina follow Walter, Jettls husband and Reginas father, to Africa where Walter works on a farm. They escape from their homecountry Germany because they are jewish. When the two arrive at the farm Jettl is shocked and not willing to accept a long term stay. Walter and her start having troubles, they are not able to talk, Jettl misses their old and luxery life while Regina learns the language of the african people fast and developes a close friendship to their cook Owuor. Meanwhile the war in Germany goes on, the pursuance of the Jews is getting worse, more and more try to escape before it will become impossible. Jettls starts to realise why Walter decided to go to Africa, and even here the war catches up with them. They get incarcerate by the British Army in Namibia, just in case they are symphathizer of the Nazis. Jettl manages to organize a job for Walter and they move to another farm. But still the relationship is brittle. Once in while letters from the familymembers that had decided to stay in Germany arrive, and the news become worse each time. The movie shows in beautiful slow motion views how the life of this family developes during the years they stay in a foreign country, how they change and how different the experiences are for the parents compared to their daughter. The music is very nice and african like. Nothing is rushing, we have a lot of time to get to know the characters, what I like a lot.

Taken

Bryan was a spy for the governement and his wife Leonore and his daughter Kim left him, because he never was at home. Leonore married a rich man who has apparently a lot of time and money for her and her daughter, even though Leonore seems to be still in love with Bryan. The movie starts very much on the birthday of Kim who becomes 17. And soon after she and her best friend want to make a trip to Paris. Bryan is of course very suspicious, because Leonore and Kim don´t know anything about the bad world outside, Kim and her friend are only 17 and too young, and so on. But well, Kim gets the signature she needs from him to make her trip, and guess what, as soon as they arrive in Paris they meet the wrong people and get kiddnapped by slave traders. And now the movie starts to become interessting. Bryan uses all his skills he was trained to have for his further spy job, and promises to find the kidnappers. And he goes his way without compromising and we have no doubt that he will do anything and he really does anything. From here on the plot is very realistic, far away from beautiful pictures and dream-reality young enlsaved prostitudes are shown, under drugs not councious about their environment or not capable to fight anymore. The fury of a father is shown, who has nothing in mind but to fnd his daughter. Very convincing. Really. But the end is again a bit Hollywood-like. So women in the world, never travel alone, never let your daughter travel alone, be scared of men,.... This bores me. But appart from this the film is absolutly worth watching and Liam Neeson is proving his authentic abilities as a actor.

Across the universe

Jude is part of the working class in Ireland, he lives with his mother. His father disapeared to America and he follows him to find out who he is to let him know he has a son. He arrives at the the States to find out that his father is also a worker at a university and not a professor as he was hoping. But Jude meets Max and is thrown into the movement of the 1986, falls for Max sister Lucy and they live a life far from rules, with drugs and freedom. But then Max gets confiscated by the army and is send to Vietnam. So while Lucy gets involved into the protest movement that is getting more and more violent, Jude becomes an artist, but the relationship suffers under the different point of views, way of living, envy. The soundtrack is only Beatles new composed, very nicely made. The story is told in a kind-of-musical-way, lots of singing, dancing, art-hippie scenes, coloured and lively, switching between reality and drug-cognition, the war in Vietnam and the revoluton going on in America, but never failing to show the seriousness and violence that broke out.

Mongol/ The untold story of Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan is known as Khan (ruler) of the empire of Mongolia from 1206 to 1227, the largest empire in history. During his reign he occupied most af Asia. The movie shows the life of Genghis Khan from the time when he was a boy (and called Temujin) of 9 years and chose (was chosen, as Borte would say later) his bride Borte till he rose to full power. In a beautiful and unagitated way the wide and emty landscape of Mongolia is the stage for the story of a boy that grows up to be a cruel but respected/ feared Khan, that built his empire on strict rules: The mongol punishment will be one - Death. All Mongols are afraid of thunder, only Temujin learned to control his fear because he has no place to hide. The story is not only concentrated on the main plot but gives time to the culture, to the way of living, to the characters, to the landscape and to the soundtrack, that somehow mirrors the pictures in their scantiness.

Into the wild

Alex says: "I´ll paraphrase Thoreau here: Rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness, give me truth". Alex Supertramp went to Alaska, a longing for lonleyness, truth and ultimate freedom leaded his way. Growing up with violence and lies within the family his desire for another way of living rose. But this might just be the obvious explanation. He was looking for something he couldn´t find in society, "society man". He cut his ID, his cards, everything that could identify him or make his experience easier. He never called his family, his parents had to realise at some point that Alex simply didn´t want to be found, didn´t want any contact, maybe decided not to come back ever. He was heading to Alaska, Alaska, not the city Alaska. "Just be out there in it, you know? In the wild". He hitchhiked most of the time, worked at some point, tasted various ways of living far from richness in the sense of money-richness,lived in the desert for some time, canued illegally to Mexico and had some troubles to go back to the States. But always kept his dream, he never let somebody catch him. He had this idea in his mind, "Your just there in that moment, in that special place and time". Aside from his longing, when Alex finally made his way to Alaska, his dream was confronted with reality. It´s not that easy to shoot an elk in the summer and prepare the meat fast enough, so the flies don´t place their eggs. Or to shoot a reindeer with a calf, not matter how big the hunger is. The truth he finally found was this: Happiness is only real when shared. When he decided to head back from Alaska the river he had crossed in the winter had grown huge and wild, he wasn´t able to pass it. Two weeks after he had died moose hunters found hid dead body.