Head-On (2004)

Gegen die Wand

We follow Turkish in Germany, and the cultural clashes are at least as interesting and important as the rest of the story. As it is; from the initial setting of Turkish culture and our two unlikely leads thrown together after their failed suicidal attempts, writer and director Fatih Akin follows a path we've seen taken many times. Original is far from the best description, and the story suffers from its predictability.

I do however like both leads, and the take on both sex and drug scenes. It's often intense as well as realistic, but the story lacks some depth as well as curve-balls.

M (1931)

M

This review is based on the 110 min edition.

A city of four and a half million people can easily be scared; just let a child predator loose on their streets. Fritz Lang knew this very well on the back of several cases throughout Germany were they struggled with it, and 80 years later his movie on the subject holds a well deserved masterpiece status.

The opening scenes alone are well worth the hype. From the kids singing in the streets about the man in black to the mothers worrying and then Elsie Beckmann. The acting involved in smaller parts like Elsie's is one of the main reason this works so much better for me than another old movie with masterpiece status for many, Bicycle Thieves did. Here Lang bring class to the smaller parts as well, while the amateur support of Bicycle Thieves remained amateurs in everybody's heads.

There's of course a lot of other reasons this works a lot better than a movie I gave a 7/10. Lang have a stunning child murderer in Peter Lorre, and dare to give him a balanced life with emotions all over the place. M also brings a town in terror, and we get to see many scenes where the nerve plays as much part of the scene as the dialogue and acting. Add a whistling that bring to mind many great scores later used in the industry, thieves protecting their domain and a bunch of smaller details, and you got yourself a must see experience with well deserved status. I simply loved it, and look forward to get to know Lang better in the future.

The Lives of Others (2006)

Das Leben der Anderen

The Lives of Others won Oscar for best foreign language film of the year in competition with among others the more known Pan's Labyrinth, and is a very interesting movie from writer and director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. It takes us back to 1984 and East-Germany. The secret police, Stasi, keeps an eye on everyone and the western influence is anything but welcome.

It's a depressing movie because it paints the picture of the country and time so well, but that's among the reasons it's such a great movie as well. I don't like German. I don't think it's a beautiful language, unlike Spanish, Italian and French, but I really didn't mind this time. It gets the story out even better. The gray feels even grayer in German.

The acting is great. There's no need to take it to the screen with huge emotional acting, and the director is fully aware. They play their parts with the quiet it requires, but it never feel staged, fake or mechanic.

I really don't want to say much about the story. It's not a historical movie about Stasi and their methods. There's a story there about people, but it's an experience I leave for you to discover. It's just an experience I recommend strongly. Well aware of Stasi history during this time, it's still very powerful to get it delivered on screen like in this movie.

I suspect it'll stay with me for quite a while.