I do not have the language to write about this movie. Not because is a German movie with English sub titles but because it is a kind of spy movie with surveillance and informers and communism etc. But it touched me as well, not because it won best foreign film at the academy awards but because there is a basic element that transcends its genre.
Eastern Germany before the Berlin wall came down. A lonely loyal agent of the eastern German government gets put on an assignment to survey a writer whose wife is having an affair with a Minister. The Minister would like to get the writer out of the way so that he can have the writer’s wife, also an actress, all to himself. As agent goes deeper into the surveillance he starts connecting with the lives that he is surveying mostly because they have what he does not have, love and someone to hold at night. His mission is to find evidence that the writer is actually an enemy of the state and he should be able to prove that by getting recordings of conversations that the writer is not suppose to have or stories that he writes that are ‘counter revolutionary’ etc.
Anyway, things happen that he is a witness to and it comes to a point where he needs to make a decision to expose the writer or let the writer get away with it. The words, “all it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing” come to mind and his actions and inactions basically lets good triumph.
So I’m watching this movie thinking ‘o lord what the hell did I get myself into’, and checking the time to see how soon this movie would end and surprisingly, the end comes and I am balling my eyes out!?
It is just such a touching movie and one has to ask oneself, is one a spectator in this life or should one get their hands dirty and get in there, get blood in one’s hands so to speak. S
Never mind all the political questions about power and questions about honour and fame and far one would go to attain these? For me it was about what WOULD YOU sacrifice for something you believed in. Is there something?
I give this one four spoons, the one spoon is lost because I just do not appreciate the genre.
On another note, I have been searching and searching for probably over a year and today, of all places, Ii finally found the soundtrack to Rent. If you’ve seen, the film adaptation or maybe lucky enough to have seen the actual production of this amazing musical, you will understand my yearning for hearing again and again, Seasons of Love! Before the movie started at the Waterfront Cinema Nouveau, I had to check out CD Warehouse to see whether they had Heroes, the complete first Season. Alas CD Warehouse was no more, it was now Musica (apparently they are both owned by Clicks and Clicks decided to rename the place Musica!). This just goes to show the incestuous links that there is in Businesses these days. I have far less respect now for CD warehouse and Click for thinking that naming it Musica it would attract more customers. When I walked into the CD warehouse the first time I was impressed and gave respect to this, I thought was an independent place that had its customer as king! Anyway, I am sure Musica has the same philosophy, seeing as it is the same bloody owners! To get back to my story, they, (CD Warehouse/Musica) only had series one Part one of Heroes and I figures that SABC 3 is probable far ahead of part one. So as I usually do I check for the titles that I have been unable to find anywhere else and go straight to soundtracks and there it was! RENT! Suffice it to say my drive home was electric as I listened to how one measures a year. For me in this time of my life, it is sadly, probably in cups of coffee! Will be listening to this one for some time to come. I am sure Gnarles Berkley will be glad to get a break!
Sunday 21 October 2007
Sunday 14 October 2007
Star Dust
It is worth it to see Robert Dinero play a ruthless Captain Shakespeare - who really is a screaming queen that likes dressing up - on a flying pirate ship.
It is worth it to see Rupert Everett for about 2 minutes as a gorgeous prince, only to be killed by being pushed out of a window of a castle that stands as stall as the mountain Gandalf got stuck in before he was rescued by that giant eagle. For the rest of the movie poor Rupert forms a part of a line of ghostly siblings that killed each other off to be king.
It is worth it to see the Michelle Pfeiffer’s boob succumb to gravity in a split second.
Mostly the movie is funny, good funny. It also has that fairy tale element that you struggle to buy into even when watching the movie. But it does its job in terms of escaping the real world even if it is just for 2 seconds.
That’s it, that’s all!
Three spoons.
It is worth it to see Rupert Everett for about 2 minutes as a gorgeous prince, only to be killed by being pushed out of a window of a castle that stands as stall as the mountain Gandalf got stuck in before he was rescued by that giant eagle. For the rest of the movie poor Rupert forms a part of a line of ghostly siblings that killed each other off to be king.
It is worth it to see the Michelle Pfeiffer’s boob succumb to gravity in a split second.
Mostly the movie is funny, good funny. It also has that fairy tale element that you struggle to buy into even when watching the movie. But it does its job in terms of escaping the real world even if it is just for 2 seconds.
That’s it, that’s all!
Three spoons.
Taken
Did I ever post how much I love dvd nuoveau with its amazing collection of thousands of classic, foreign and rare to find dvd’s? Well I do.
This weekend was spent watching the last three discs, about 9 hours, of Taken. Background: So Steven Spielberg gathered a few directors to direct this incredible mini series about alien abductions. It is not a documentary, although I am inclined to believe. It is a fictional interpretation of the Roswell phenomenon, it gives a fascinating story line that travels through four generations of people that were touched by the alien landing.
I suppose the first thing that grabbed me about the series was the fact that Stephen Spielberg produced it. I do not know how much creative control he had in making it but I could recognise some of his signatures. If you ever watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind you will know what I am talking about.
More than just the bizarre story line and special effects, the series grabs you, kinda like following the Thorn Birds only this time there is an extra alien element.
More than just about alien encounters, you get to know the characters and feel for them, you have an emotional connection that when the story carries on without them you miss them, but you also get to know and enjoy the new characters that have taken their place.
After one of the episodes I caught myself clapping and cheering and going woohoo! Okay, I do that sometimes like when I watching the Oscars or Heroes (when the hell is Heroes coming on dvd? I ache after each episode ends because I have to wait 7 days for the next installment). Taken is for all you X-Files junkies (myself included) out there, broken when it ended, broken when they last watched the final episode of Star Trek. There is hope there is Taken, and it will transport you to the Outer bloody Limits.
It is an amazing series and whilst watching the last episode, I could not help but remember the heartbreaking finale of Six Feet Under when Claire started driving away and the lives of those she left behind are concluded in a poignant, appropriate way, like there was no other direction their life’s journey could have possibly taken.
Watch this one with the ones you love.
Five spoons.
This weekend was spent watching the last three discs, about 9 hours, of Taken. Background: So Steven Spielberg gathered a few directors to direct this incredible mini series about alien abductions. It is not a documentary, although I am inclined to believe. It is a fictional interpretation of the Roswell phenomenon, it gives a fascinating story line that travels through four generations of people that were touched by the alien landing.
I suppose the first thing that grabbed me about the series was the fact that Stephen Spielberg produced it. I do not know how much creative control he had in making it but I could recognise some of his signatures. If you ever watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind you will know what I am talking about.
More than just the bizarre story line and special effects, the series grabs you, kinda like following the Thorn Birds only this time there is an extra alien element.
More than just about alien encounters, you get to know the characters and feel for them, you have an emotional connection that when the story carries on without them you miss them, but you also get to know and enjoy the new characters that have taken their place.
After one of the episodes I caught myself clapping and cheering and going woohoo! Okay, I do that sometimes like when I watching the Oscars or Heroes (when the hell is Heroes coming on dvd? I ache after each episode ends because I have to wait 7 days for the next installment). Taken is for all you X-Files junkies (myself included) out there, broken when it ended, broken when they last watched the final episode of Star Trek. There is hope there is Taken, and it will transport you to the Outer bloody Limits.
It is an amazing series and whilst watching the last episode, I could not help but remember the heartbreaking finale of Six Feet Under when Claire started driving away and the lives of those she left behind are concluded in a poignant, appropriate way, like there was no other direction their life’s journey could have possibly taken.
Watch this one with the ones you love.
Five spoons.
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