Cecil says: The best film I have seen in years. Wonderful characterisation, thought-provoking, atmospheric - so reminiscent of those 1980s movies you don't see anymore: you know, the road movie, the films that make you really assess where you are in life...
Six main characters; 3 main relationships: elderly Turkish man living in Germany and his young academic son, Turkish/German, who needs to go back to Turkey and reconnect; young Turkish woman and young German woman; same young German woman and her mother (the fantastic Hanna Schygulla - though it was Bea, not me, who recognised her). The 6th person is the mother of the young Turkish woman and she hitches up for a while with old Turkish man.
All about inter-connections, cross-cultural replationships, self-discovery. Same old, same old, you might say, but it does not feel the same as other films of that genre. Totally engrossing, moving. So many scenes were evocative of personal experience: chance encounters that can change your life, the safe haven of a familiar bookshop in a foreign land, staring out to sea and contemplating life, grief, remorse, the befriending of political activists from another country. Oh, and another big question raised by this film: where CAN you buy those very handy cherry stone extractors???
Bea says: Quite by accident Cecil and I have in common that we both love German cinema circa 1970s and 80s. Neither of us knew that this film would be so evocative of this era (although completely set in the present day), and the film's big themes and the inclusion of Schygulla is surely a conscious nod to Germany's relatively recent film-making past, with an interesting cultural twist as the film is also about concepts like the meaning of home, migration, language and cultural belonging/not belonging.
During this weekend in Paris, Cecil and I began to wonder if 6 is a magic number for characters in films; but out of all the films we saw, this one was most interested in character and character development. Much, much more than just a "finding yourself" film, it explored how the self changes at any age during key turning points in life. Told in the triptych format it explored similar events from different perspectives, a narrative device that really worked for this film, and for me. Hanna Schygulla's performance was outstanding, and really put every other piece of acting I saw this weekend in the shade. A master at work.
Much much more to say - these are just a few of my highlights of this film.
Rating *****
Six main characters; 3 main relationships: elderly Turkish man living in Germany and his young academic son, Turkish/German, who needs to go back to Turkey and reconnect; young Turkish woman and young German woman; same young German woman and her mother (the fantastic Hanna Schygulla - though it was Bea, not me, who recognised her). The 6th person is the mother of the young Turkish woman and she hitches up for a while with old Turkish man.
All about inter-connections, cross-cultural replationships, self-discovery. Same old, same old, you might say, but it does not feel the same as other films of that genre. Totally engrossing, moving. So many scenes were evocative of personal experience: chance encounters that can change your life, the safe haven of a familiar bookshop in a foreign land, staring out to sea and contemplating life, grief, remorse, the befriending of political activists from another country. Oh, and another big question raised by this film: where CAN you buy those very handy cherry stone extractors???
Bea says: Quite by accident Cecil and I have in common that we both love German cinema circa 1970s and 80s. Neither of us knew that this film would be so evocative of this era (although completely set in the present day), and the film's big themes and the inclusion of Schygulla is surely a conscious nod to Germany's relatively recent film-making past, with an interesting cultural twist as the film is also about concepts like the meaning of home, migration, language and cultural belonging/not belonging.
During this weekend in Paris, Cecil and I began to wonder if 6 is a magic number for characters in films; but out of all the films we saw, this one was most interested in character and character development. Much, much more than just a "finding yourself" film, it explored how the self changes at any age during key turning points in life. Told in the triptych format it explored similar events from different perspectives, a narrative device that really worked for this film, and for me. Hanna Schygulla's performance was outstanding, and really put every other piece of acting I saw this weekend in the shade. A master at work.
Much much more to say - these are just a few of my highlights of this film.
Rating *****
No comments:
Post a Comment