Honest_Man#1 Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 Yet to watch Blade Runner but it doesn't really look like my thing tbh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SweeperDee Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 Aye okay, truth hurts, don't it? "Don't it?" What are you? A Shite 80s New York cop throw back? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoda Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 I can see why people don't like Blade Runner, even though I like it. I'm a fan of that classic "film noir" genre so Blade Runner really draws me in. I went to see the "Final Cut" at the cinema with my stepdad, and he found it to be slow, meandering, and just difficult to get into. If you're going to watch it, ignore every version but "The Final Cut". And don't compare it to "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Brightside Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 "Don't it?" What are you? A Shite 80s New York cop throw back? ^^^ trying too hard, as usual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AberdeenBud Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 "Don't it?" What are you? A Shite 80s New York cop throw back? pretty darn sad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albino Rover Posted July 5, 2015 Author Share Posted July 5, 2015 10. The Lives Of Others “I’m your audience.” #10 on the list is the debut film by writer-director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, a drama set in a country that no longer exists, but whose message is every bit as powerful today. For much of this film, Gerd Wiesler sits alone in a little room, listening to the lives of others through a set of headphones. The story begins in 1984, and Wiesler is Big Brother, a captain in the East German Stasi, sitting above the same apartment every day, eavesdropping on playwright Georg Dreyman and his lover, the star of his latest play, Christa-Maria Sieland. Dreyman is something of a rarity in East Germany: an artist who is both loyal to his own communist government and popular West of the Wall. That alone draws suspicion from the Stasi, who conclude that his success is too good to be true, and that he must be up to something. Wiesler has Dreyman's flat wired and puts him under constant secret surveillance. But he doesn't report anything. Clean, vice-free and a Communist Party member, by all accounts Dreyman supports the East German ideology, but the Stasi cannot seem to accept that. They appear to look for dissent and subversion not just because they suspect it, but because they expect it. Dreyman seems to believe in East Germany more than they do. Later we find out that the government has a sleazy ulterior motive, that the Culture Minister Bruno Hempf has taken a liking to Christa-Maria, and is enthusiastically behind Wiesler's inquiry as a means to get rid of Dreyman. Wiesler knows that pinning anything he can on Dreyman would be an excellent career move, and so he has to make a decision whether to be true to what he thinks is right, or to be false in order to prove his loyalty to the increasingly sinister and corrupt state. The film follows the workings of the East German regime, but progressively it becomes about Wiesler. He is expressionless as he patiently pursues Dreyman and Christa-Maria- but that's the most exciting part of his life. He has no friends, no pastimes, no flavour in his dinner. It comes as no surprise that he begins to obsess about the lives of Dreyman and Christa-Maria, because he has no life of his own. His job becomes his reason to live. So why, when he finds it, does Wiesler decide not to reveal Dreyman’s secret? We discover that after an anti-government writer was unjustly blacklisted by the State, and hanged himself, Dreyman decided to write a secret, dissenting article to be published, anonymously, in the West. Furthermore, there's hard evidence of it in the apartment. When Wiesler finds out, he covers it up. It becomes clear then that as a lonely man in a miserable job, watching his own government get more dangerous, he has grown disillusioned with the regime he's a part of, and can't get out of. Protecting Dreyman appears to be the only act of good he feels he can do. The tragedy is that it’s a thankless task. He can tell no one- because in a state of sheer paranoia, where saying the wrong thing can have serious consequences, he can trust no one. In a memorable scene in the Stasi cafeteria, an officer harmlessly but foolishly tells a joke about the government. His Lt. Colonel next to him briefly laughs, and then, dead-eyed, asks him for his name and rank. This was a time and place when freedom of speech was severely compromised, and from the close-up shots of Wiesler's frozen face - you really have to be finely tuned into the subtle looks and movements - accentuated only by the smallest visual indications, we can tell that he knows and fears a fate worse than the threat made to the young officer. The film continues all the way through the fall of the Berlin Wall, and into the ‘90s, all leading up to the last line, a conclusive and ironic double-entendre, which brings a sense of satisfaction and relief to a story full of tension and paranoia. It is a historic drama, but it remains a lesson for us today, as governments continue to live up to George Orwell’s warning: no one is above suspicion, and the wiretapping of phone and internet conversations is now commonplace- not to mention the violent interrogations, and ostracisation of those who reveal secrets that weren't supposed to be known. That set-up was a failure in East Germany, because it turned the people against the state. The Lives Of Others makes a lesson of history, but it's also a personal story about hidden thoughts and secrets, and about the importance and significance of doing the right thing even in the most difficult of circumstances. Wiesler is played by the late Ulrich Mühe, who himself guarded the Wall as a young man, then as an artist dissented the Communist regime in the 1980s. His real-life wife was a secret Stasi informant. When asked how he prepared for his role in this film, he answered, harrowingly: “I remembered.” He worked on this film whilst suffering from his fatal stomach cancer. He was a fascinating man, Donnersmarck wrote him the role of a lifetime, and together they made the German masterpiece of a generation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
invergowrie arab Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 My number 3. Can't add much more to another amazing write up. I had never even heard of it until a tour guide in Berlin recommended I check it out. Any movie that beats Pans Labyrinth to an Oscar has to be worth seeing. German cinema is something that seems to fly under the radar but there have been some amazing movies in the past 20 years. This is top of the tree for me but downfall, baader meinhof syndrome, das experiment, Goodbye Lenin,run Lola run, Stalingrad etc are all fantastic too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AberdeenBud Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 Great write up and a wonderful, wonderful, film. Can't recommend it highly enough, quite probably my favourite film of all time at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludo*1 Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 Must admit, I'd never even heard of this one. Totally bypassed me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustOneCornetto Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 Hadn't heard of this either but must admit that there are some terrific German films out there, although most of the ones I'm familiar with are from the New Wave period of the 70's and 80's. I'll need to add this to my list along with The Tin Drum and Run Lola Run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Co.Down Hibee Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 Never seen it or have even heard of it..... This really has been a very unpredictable list so far IMO, The 80s and 90s ones were much more mainstream. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AberdeenBud Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 I'm not normally much of a Weeper, but not ashamed to admit I was in bits at the end. Even though it's set in the past there's still plenty of relevant themes to take from it, including the power of the state and the extent to which we are happy for our liberty to be eroded in the name of security. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Gaines Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 I'd suggest that if you haven't heard of this movie then you go and find it somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Psychosis Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 Obviously this is your opinion,but I'm curious as to what you find terrible about it? The Dark Knight is pretty good but its too long and in need of some editing (at least one moral dilemma too many) and if Heath Ledger hadn't died it definitely wouldn't be as popular as it is. For me the first of the Nolan Batman films is by far the best. The third one is crap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Gaines Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 I thought the first and third ones were actually quite good. The third one is a bit tedious at times, and really predictable, but it at least kept me into it. And unlike a lot of Nolan movies, it actually had a satisfying, if a bit OTT, ending. The problem with The Dark Knight is that it relied pretty much on one great character. Could have been two if they had given Two Face more time, as Eckhart struck me as someone who could possibly have stolen the show, given what he did with what he had, which was a bit part player essentially. Bale gave easily his worst performance on the big screen in it, and not many faired much better. It was overlong and the more it went on, the more it just fell into utter shit territory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YassinMoutaouakil Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 Can someone explain what I'm missing in Shawshank that makes it so amazing? Admittedly I've only seen it once but it's pretty meh. A bit of ridiculous "flawless good guy beats over the top evil villains" story, which Stephen King just about carried in the novella, and none of the performances really caught my eye. A solid 7/10 that never really got boring but I'd expect more from "gut wrenchingly brilliant cinema". Morgan Freeman is a dick as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Gaines Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 I just like it. It's a fairly simple movie about hope. They drive it into you and it's melodramatic as yoda notes, but I think that really works with the plot and the performances are terrific. Plus, it's got Captain Hadley, who's a great character too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomGuy. Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 I thought the first and third ones were actually quite good. The third one is a bit tedious at times, and really predictable, but it at least kept me into it. And unlike a lot of Nolan movies, it actually had a satisfying, if a bit OTT, ending. The problem with The Dark Knight is that it relied pretty much on one great character. Could have been two if they had given Two Face more time, as Eckhart struck me as someone who could possibly have stolen the show, given what he did with what he had, which was a bit part player essentially. Bale gave easily his worst performance on the big screen in it, and not many faired much better. It was overlong and the more it went on, the more it just fell into utter shit territory. The plan was for Eckhart to be a more prominent figure in the third film, but Ledgers death changed the whole plan and they introduced the Bane storyline instead Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Gaines Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 Suppose that makes sense given the way the character went in the second half. If he did get a better showing in the third, it'd certainly have helped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
11thHour Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 Never even heard of The Lives of Others. Definitely has been an unpredictable list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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