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drama

Heaven * Tom Tykwer * 2002

Tykwer is making a varried filmography with “Die Tödliche Maria” (heavy drama), “Lola Rennt” (fast and hip), “Der Krieger Und Die Kaisering” (fairytale like drama) and now this crime-film. He even managed to get nobody less than Cate Blanchett in the main part. Blanchett who probably looks so much like herself that I hardly recognised her.

Philippa (Blanchett) is an English schoolteacher in Italy who sees her children getting in touch with drugs and even die from that daily. Her husband knows the big man from the drugsscene which knowledge gets him killed. Time and time again Philippa tells the police, but a few higher in rank there are also involved and nothing is done. Then Philippa decides to take justice in her own hand and tries to kill the drugs-boss in the office of his ‘normal occupation’. Things go wrong, Philippa ends up in jail, wins the heart of the young Filipo who helps her escape and a nice story with several unexpected turns (especially by lack of information by the way) bring this short film (96 min) to a very strange end.
For the large part a nice tv-film, with an end that most tv-junkies will be unsatisfied with but those who know Tykwers older work will be used to some ‘unconventionallity’. Not Tykwers best film, but still nice.

Hable Con Ella * Pedro Almodóvar * 2002

Talk To Her

This film has been on my ‘wanting-to-see-list’ for a long time, but not so high that I saw it soon. Another Spanish drama, parts of the lives of different people coming together and not really leading anyway. I won’t tell you about the story, that would take away too much, I can tell you that this is another very nice drama with a very nice story and very good acting. Of course in Spanish and if you liked the other titles I reviewed, I asume this one won’t disappoint you.

The Green Mile * Frank Darabont * 1999

“Based on a book by Stephen King”. Not a very promising tagline, right? Of all the Stephen King films there are only two or three worth watching. Especially those who King wrote the actual script for are horrid.

Anyway, this is the reason that I never bothered to watch The Green Mile until a copy was put into my hands. Three hours?! Well, I have watched the whole thing, but I am not particularly impressed. The film is about section E of an American prison in 1935 which is the section for prisoners waiting to be fried on the electric chair. Tom Hanks (not exactly my favourite actor) plays the main character Paul Edgecomb who is head of the section and suffers from a serious inflammation of the bladder. When a new prisoner is brought to “the green mile” everybody is impressed by the size of the feebleminded John Coffey who is sentenced for the brutal killing of two young girls. Coffey turns out to have a curing gift and after curing Edgecomb and revive an impudent mouse, he is taken out of prison to also cure the bosses wifes braintumor. In the process Coffey also gets rid off two “bad men” in prison, one fellow prisoner, one pain-in-the-ass guard.
However “The Green Mile” fortunately didn’t turn out in an over-paranormal monstrosity and it is entertaining, it is really nothing special. Also I think that they could have easily told the story in two hours or less.

Good Bye Lenin! * Wolfgang Becker * 2003

This German film caused a revival in ‘socialist products’ when people saw that not everything was bad in the old DDR and people got either nostalgic or interested in products from these times. “Good Bye, Lenin!” tells the story of a young man living in East Berlin before the fall of the wall. He wants Easter Germany to become part of the rest and his over-fanatic socialist mother gets a heartattack seeing him at a protest-march. Mother gets in a coma, waking up after the fall of the wall. Because the doctor says his mother would not survive another stroke, every possible arousal should be avoided. Alexander decides to let the DDR live on within the bedroom of his motherm, faking grocery and even the news. Eventually this DDR becomes more of the ideal socialist state of Alex instead of that of his mother.

An amusing film giving a nice historical view of the changes in Berlin in the time of the joining-together of the two Germanies and the problems before and after this major event.

The Goddess Of 1967 * Clara Law * 2000

I remember that this film played in our local filmhouse and that I wanted to see it, but apparently not with a high enough priority to actually go and see it. After that I have had the film in my hands a few times, but not until a few days ago that I actually rented it.

“The Goddess of 1967” is a car, a Citroën DS (French: “Déesee” of Goddess). A young and rich Japanese (“JM” Japanese man?) has wanted such a car since he saw it in a film he loves. He finds one with help of the internet and travels to Australia to pick it up. Arriving he finds out that the man who sells it, shot himself and he takes the redhaired and blind girl “BG” (‘blind girl’?) for a drive accross Australia. A very nice and original drama / roadmovie follows. The flashback do not always make things clearer, but do make you learn the stories behind the main characters. Very nice.

Girlfight * Karyn Kusama * 2000

Diana is a fairly violent and frustrated girl. Against her fathers will, she goes training in a boxing school and causes a mixed boxing amateur competition which she of course wins. “Girlfight” is the first and last film of Kusama and a nice film about a girl who falls in love with a boy which she eventually has to fight in the finals of the competition. Quite predictable, but quite amusing.

Girl, Interrupted * James Mangold * 1999

I had wanted to see this film since it played in the cinemas. Then it came on DVD and video and still I didn’t come to watch it and already now it is played in TV. I didn’t really know what to expect, either a heavy film like Heavenly Creatures or The Virgin Suicides or a lighter more comedy-like film. It proved to be something in the middle.

Susanna Kaysen (it took a while before I recognised Winona Ryder looking very youthfull) is a depressed teenager that tries to commit suicide with sleeping pills and Wodka. This doesn’t work and she is sent to a mental hospital. Here she meets a whole range of crazy girls and nurse Valerie Owens (a surprisingly good part by Woopie Goldberg). Susanna eventually becomes friends with the most impossible inmate being Lisa Row (I totally hadn’t recognised Angelina Joly!).

Anyway, drama, joy, problems and a good end for Susanne and a very nice film if you want to see a good drama some time.

Gemini * Shinya Tsukamoto * 1999

Yep, another Japanese film. No horror/thriller this time though. Well, no “Ringu” anyway.

Both the story of and the film “Gemini” (not in the internet movie database ?!?) itself are pretty strange. You get to see the life of a Japanese married couple that gets into a mess. I am afraid that anything I say will give away the content the story and we don’t want that. So I will only mention that “Gemini” is a drama with a few thriller-elements and a couple of extremely dark scenes that we love the Japanese films for. The film is shot nice and vague and has a lot of flashbacks. The story is about a ‘German style doctor’ and his wife, is told nicely and unravels as the film goes. A very good Japanese film and also a very nice insight in the daily life Japan.

Gadjo Dilo * Tony Gatlif * 1997

I had seen this film before, but I didn’t review it for some reason. I have known about it since it came out, but didn’t go to see it when it played in the cinemas. For on tv it is nice enough to watch though.

“Gadjo Dilo” means “the crazy stranger” and this seems to be the American title for the film too. It is a Romanian film playing in Romania. Stéphane is a french young man whose father had travelled all across the globe looking for authentic folkloristic music which he recorded. In the days before he died he played nothing but one gypsy-song that he loved. Stéphane is destined to find the singer of that song, so we find him travelling in Romania without a clue where to look. He ends up in a gypsy community and the film is almost entirely about the differences between the cultures. Stéphane only speaks French, the gypsies (except one young woman) only Romani. You get a very good idea of the gypsy life, their overemotionality (actually they overdo everything), etc. A nice film with funny moments first at an easy pace, at the end a lot of music and dancing.

Fucking Åmål * Lucas Moodysson * 1998

Ever since this film came out I wanted to see it, but this took so long that I finally saw it from TV. Fucking Åmål shows the lives of teenagers of the small Swedisch town Åmål. Agnes (Rebecka Liljeberg) moved there one and a half year ago and has problems making friends and her fancying girls instead of boys making her extra insecure. She leads a withdraws life with her music an her diary.
Elin (Alexandra Dahlström) on the other hand is a popular girl at school, because she is quite beautiful and everybody wants to be her friend. Her best friend -though- is her older sister Jessica (Erica Carlson). Elin is also not too happy with her life. Åmål is the most boring place and so retarted that by the time something is hip and cool there, there is already something new in the rest of the world. She fears a future in Åmål that is as boring as her life so far. When Agnes and Elin more or less as a joke meet at Agnes’ birthday and the two sisters find out about Agnes’ homosexuality, the sisters bet that Elin doesn’t dare to kiss her which she does, leaving Agnes in even greater distress and she even becomes the laugh of the school when everybody gets to know of her sexuallity. Elin on the other hand initually think being a lesbian is quite cool and since she wants to be different from the rest, she first makes jokes about becoming lesbian herself, but finding out that this would cost her the life with lots of friends and attention that she got used to, she represses the idea by starting to date a boy that has a crush on her. In the end she dumps Johan (Mathias Rust) in favour of Agnes.

I always thought that Fucking Åmål was a feel-good kind of light comedy, but I actually found it quite heavy. Two girls in difficult periods of their lives brings ideas of films like Heavenly Creatures or The Virgin Suicides. Another thing is that when things finally get better for the two girls after they came together, the film suddenly stops, not showing what ‘the world’ thinks of the two lesbian teenagers or how the relationship developes. Quite strange actually. The film is also really short, a little under 1,5 hour.

Overall I found Fucking Åmål nice, but not too great definately in comparison with Heavenly Creatures and The Virgin Suicides. <3>