What about a quickie about some movies? I know that I have a bad (?) habit of juggling words in different places, but hey, why not? It can be quite fun.
So before I go into these different movies, I must say that usually I am a flexible person, and I won't call a movie bad unless I really don't like it. So among the movies that I watched last week, none of them were bad, on the contrary, they were quite good. But having said that, if you are looking at it from a critic's eye maybe you are not impressed either. Why did I watch these movies? Let me describe the movies first, and then I'll explain.
The first movie is What a Man. I had watched this movie before, but without subtitles, and though I understand German fairly well, it was nice to watch this one with subs, since I could appreciate the movie much better. This is a movie about relationships, more like a comedy-drama. Now before you start decrying this whole class of movies, remember that how much 'no-nonsense' type we may pretend to be, sometimes you can be in a difficult situation where you don't know what to do. Some people might say, that has never been the case in their lives, and in that case, I'll reply that they have been lucky not to have to deal such issues. They haven't come, but it doesn't mean that such cases won't turn up!
Anyway, I am deviating from the subject under discussion. The movie is about a school teacher, Alex, who's in a relationship with a model, Caro. Alex is quirky, too nice, and at the start of the movie Caro is frustrated with him, because he is not 'manly enough' for her. She cheats on him, and throws him out of her house, and he goes to live with a childhood friend, Nele. Now, Nele has had feelings for him, but she also has a boyfriend, Etienne, at the moment of the movie. However, they are not too happy in their relationship either. So, Nele takes a lot of care of Alex, and the rekindle their romantic feelings for each other, but are too scared to admit it (even after sleeping together one night), since they are afraid it might ruin the friendship. Then, there to escape her feelings for Alex, Nele decides to fly with Etienne to China, where he works for an NGO. Alex meanwhile realizes that he cannot live without Nele, and overcomes his fear of flying to go after his sweetheart. There are some subplots, but this is the gross story.
Whats interesting about the story is that it is something thats ageless and timeless. You can set it anywhere and it would be a good story (even if not the best one) But the fact remains: these are things that we have to deal with our everyday lives. Various points arise:
a) if this is so mundane, why do you have to go and watch it in a movie?
b) such happy endings do not happen in real life, only in movies
c) ...
You could think about a lot of objections, but I won't respond. I didn't see this movie to raise objections, I saw it because it was a German movie (with nice actors/actresses), and I wanted to improve my listening skills, as well as my understanding of the culture. And it was totally worth it.
The next movie was also a one by Mathias Schweighoefer, called "Russendisko". It is a comedy-drama, set in 1990, about three guys who come from Moscow to Berlin, after the fall of the Soviet Union seeing no hope in Moscow and thinking of a better life in Berlin. The plot is extremely simple and straightforward, but what made the film attractive to me was the initial set-up in Berlin in the 1990's. One could see how Berlin became the cool place it is now. You could see the city squats, especially in the eastern parts, where most of the movie was set. You could make out the city struggling to come out of its stupor with simple people doing simple stupid things, havingno idea that by the two decades the city would become a political, cultural and creative powerhouse ofthe world.
So before I go into these different movies, I must say that usually I am a flexible person, and I won't call a movie bad unless I really don't like it. So among the movies that I watched last week, none of them were bad, on the contrary, they were quite good. But having said that, if you are looking at it from a critic's eye maybe you are not impressed either. Why did I watch these movies? Let me describe the movies first, and then I'll explain.
The first movie is What a Man. I had watched this movie before, but without subtitles, and though I understand German fairly well, it was nice to watch this one with subs, since I could appreciate the movie much better. This is a movie about relationships, more like a comedy-drama. Now before you start decrying this whole class of movies, remember that how much 'no-nonsense' type we may pretend to be, sometimes you can be in a difficult situation where you don't know what to do. Some people might say, that has never been the case in their lives, and in that case, I'll reply that they have been lucky not to have to deal such issues. They haven't come, but it doesn't mean that such cases won't turn up!
Anyway, I am deviating from the subject under discussion. The movie is about a school teacher, Alex, who's in a relationship with a model, Caro. Alex is quirky, too nice, and at the start of the movie Caro is frustrated with him, because he is not 'manly enough' for her. She cheats on him, and throws him out of her house, and he goes to live with a childhood friend, Nele. Now, Nele has had feelings for him, but she also has a boyfriend, Etienne, at the moment of the movie. However, they are not too happy in their relationship either. So, Nele takes a lot of care of Alex, and the rekindle their romantic feelings for each other, but are too scared to admit it (even after sleeping together one night), since they are afraid it might ruin the friendship. Then, there to escape her feelings for Alex, Nele decides to fly with Etienne to China, where he works for an NGO. Alex meanwhile realizes that he cannot live without Nele, and overcomes his fear of flying to go after his sweetheart. There are some subplots, but this is the gross story.
Whats interesting about the story is that it is something thats ageless and timeless. You can set it anywhere and it would be a good story (even if not the best one) But the fact remains: these are things that we have to deal with our everyday lives. Various points arise:
a) if this is so mundane, why do you have to go and watch it in a movie?
b) such happy endings do not happen in real life, only in movies
c) ...
You could think about a lot of objections, but I won't respond. I didn't see this movie to raise objections, I saw it because it was a German movie (with nice actors/actresses), and I wanted to improve my listening skills, as well as my understanding of the culture. And it was totally worth it.
The next movie was also a one by Mathias Schweighoefer, called "Russendisko". It is a comedy-drama, set in 1990, about three guys who come from Moscow to Berlin, after the fall of the Soviet Union seeing no hope in Moscow and thinking of a better life in Berlin. The plot is extremely simple and straightforward, but what made the film attractive to me was the initial set-up in Berlin in the 1990's. One could see how Berlin became the cool place it is now. You could see the city squats, especially in the eastern parts, where most of the movie was set. You could make out the city struggling to come out of its stupor with simple people doing simple stupid things, havingno idea that by the two decades the city would become a political, cultural and creative powerhouse ofthe world.
I am going to be quick now and move over to the third one. This one was actually special, since it was made by some time amateur filmmakers, and completely shot in black white. It's called "Dr Kettel", and is about a doctor who goes helping ordinary people in Neukoelln, after the failure of Germany's health care system. The plot is quite interesting, and sometimes the events that occur are a bit symbolic. It seems like this is a personal topic affecting the director in some way, since he dedicates the film to his father, who helped people who didn't have money for medical treatment and lived in Kreuzberg/Neukoelln. Its actually a smallish movie (80 mins), and is probably worth a watch if you are not doing something very important!
No comments:
Post a Comment