Tag Archives: Movie

Das weisse Band – Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte aka The White Ribbon (2009) A German Mystery

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From July, 1913 to the outbreak of World War I, a series of incidents take place in a German village. A horse trips on a wire and throws the rider; a woman falls to her death through rotted planks; the local baron’s son is hung upside down in a mill; parents slap and bully their children; a man is cruel to his long-suffering lover; another sexually abuses his daughter. People disappear. A callow teacher, who courts a nanny in the baron’s household, narrates the story and tries to investigate the connections among these accidents and crimes. What is foreshadowed? Are the children holy innocents? God may be in His heaven, but all is not right with the world; the center cannot hold.

The German movie The White Ribbon has won many prizes. It is labelled “mystery” and “drama”. For me this was a mystery with a very ghostly feel. Perfect for the R.I.P Challenge.

I was curious. I did not know much, just that the movie takes place in a German village, from July 1913 until the beginning of the first world war. Strange things happen in this village. The doctor has an accident because someone has set a trap for him. A woman dies. Children disappear and are found again injured, showing signs of torture. A bird gets savagely mutilated. The mother of a boy with down syndrome leaves without telling anyone. To say the least, this is a dark, gloomy and disturbing movie. An illustration of the so-called Poisonous or Black Pedagogy that was applied in Germany for a very long time. Most people in this movie are mean and cruel. If they don’t hurt each other with actions they do it with words. Things are not outspoken, everything happens behind closed doors. This is a society that is afraid of eternal sin but still commits so many daily crimes. In one of the last sequences people hear at church that war broke out. They cheer.

I did not enjoy this movie but must admit that it is very good. I have read a lot about this time and it is very accurate. The actors are outstanding and the black and white cinematography is atmospheric. It is also a very literary movie as the teacher who looks back on these events narrates many parts as if reading his memoirs.

I think The White Ribbon is a fascinating but very depressing movie. Don’t watch it if you need cheering up. As for the mystery part… Nothing is really resolved. I have my theories and would be glad to share them with someone who has seen it too. But to avoid spoilers I will keep quiet about it for now.

Desperate Romantics (2009) The Miniseries on the Pre-Raphaelites

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Do you know this feeling, you love something so much you don’t even want to watch or read the last bit to make it last? And then, because you like it too much, you rush through it and then… It is over. That is how I felt with Desperate Romantics. I think this is the best mini-series I have ever seen. It had everything I like. Art, 19 century London, dark alleys, pre-technology, beautiful interiors, idealism, eccentrics, intellectuals, beauty, passion, tragedy… I admire the work of the Pre-Raphaelites. I do love their paintings. John Millais´ Ophelia has haunted me since I can think (yes, I know Reviving Ophelia…).

The series starts way before Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who is the leader of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, has come to any fame. Hunt and Millais are the famous ones. Especially Millais. But Millais hasn’t painted his Ophelia yet so his greatest achievement is still to come.

One day a young journalist, knowing that the brotherhood is always on the look-out for models, sees the young  and beautiful Elizabeth Siddal in a shop. He tells the brotherhood about her and from the moment they lay eyes on her, all their fates will change for ever. Lizzie will become the Pre-Raphaelites´most famous model, the model for Millais´ Ophelia, she will become Rossetti’s muse and lover and she will become the protegé of John Ruskin the eminent art critic. It was one of her greatest wishes to paint herself and Rossetti teaches her.

Lizzie is a tragic figure. She is desperately in love with Rossetti who is all but faithful. Most models are young and extremely good-looking prostitutes. To be surrounded by them is a temptation for a week man like Rossetti.

Apart from following the story closely, Desperate Romantics captures the atmosphere and translates the intensity of the brotherhood and their life into something that is understandable for us today. These guys rock, as we would say today. I think the score that is very modern but still fitting contributes to make this such great viewing. Even though it is intense and tragic at times, it is also a very funny series. Millais was apparently a great painter but silly and very naive. We also encounter Dickens and learn a lot about the Victorian society. The Pre-Raphaelites were true non-conformists. They were excessive and experimented with drugs and explored alternative lifestyles. A bit like the hippies later.

I liked it so much that I am not even sure if I will watch it again, if you know what I mean.

I will certainly start those two books very soon:

Desperate Romantics by Fanny Moyle and

Lizzie Siddal: The Tragedy of a Pre-Raphaelite Supermodel by Lucinda Hawksley

I few years ago I read  a novel by the French writer Philippe Delerm, Autumn. I´m afraid it has not been translated and that is a shame as it captures the world of the Pre-Raphaelites so well and describes it in a  haunting and very poetical manner.

F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu – A Symphony of Horror aka Nosferatu – Eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922)

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Murnau’s Nosferatu is the first horror movie that has ever been made. I think it is not the first vampire movie. There was another one that is forgotten by now, but Nosferatu is the first to be based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

The German movie Nosferatu has written cinema history for many reasons. I had wanted to see it since years and thought I take the opportunity of the R.I.P. challenge to do so.

Murnau’s Nosferatu is one of the oldest movies  I have ever seen. As I am not such a fan of silent movies I was really sceptical. No need for that. Nosferatu is highly watchable. And very spooky. I got the restored version and it looks brilliant, the black and white is toned with different colours. Murnau chose to follow Bram Stoker’s Dracula very closely. Since it is a silent movie much of the horror is conveyed through facial expressions. If you have never seen a silent movie it takes some getting used to but then it is fascinating. It is quite relaxing to hear music and no talking for a change. If it was only for the figure of Nosferatu himself the movie would already be worth watching. The role made Max Schreck famous. Nosferatu is not a beautiful or erotic vampire although the element of sexual attraction is present. Murnau’s Nosferatu is dark and scary.

Hutter, the young assistant of a real estate agent, travels to Transylvania to close a contract with the ominous count Orlok. Orlok wants to buy an old house that is located opposite to where Ellen, Hutter’s young fiancée, lives.  The moment Hutter arrives in Transylvania there are many signs that point to something dark and evil. The castle in which Orlok lives towers gloomily over the city and no one wants to accompany young Hutter when he asks for a guide. When Hutter finally meets the count he let’s him see a picture of his bride and Orlok falls instantly in love. He can’t wait to get to Germany and boards a ship immediately. Hutter sees a horse carriage loaded with coffins and is shocked. He senses that his bride might be in danger.

Both travel to back to Germany as fast as they can. One by ship, the other one on horseback. When the ship arrives, the crew is found dead and rats are running all over the ship’s planks. When the dead are examined they have little marks on their necks and show all the signs of having died from the plague. Soon the whole town is struck by the plague.

Many of you know the story but for those who don’t I will stop here.

There are many elements that contribute to make this movie scary. The rats and the plague. The faces of the actors, heavily made-up with dark make-up around the eyes. The black and white pictures that make the scary elements look much more threatening. The locations, Bremen and other original places in Eastern Europe. Nothing was filmed in the studio. But there is more to it. We can feel a really dark undercurrent in this movie since it was meant to allude to the Spanish flu epidemic that had afflicted and traumatized Germany (and many other countries) from 1918-1919 and cost more lives than the Great War. And it also reflected the German’s fear of the Slavic people stemming from their experience of the war in Serbia.

Nosferatu is a truly haunting and very expressive movie that should be discovered or rediscovered by many.

I would be curious to know if anyone else has seen Nosferatu or what you think of the trailer.

The Young Victoria (2009) The Early Years of Queen Victoria. A Gorgeous Period Drama

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This movie is a gift. It is gorgeous, sumptuous, enchanting and simply uplifting. Emily Blunt as the young Queen Victoria is such a good choice. She is really lovely. No one who enjoys this period, the style, those wonderful clothes should miss this movie. It makes you dream. I am enthusiastic about the colors they chose for her dresses, always very strong colors, purple, emerald-green, ruby-red, saffron yellow and sapphire blue. She wears them with matching headdresses and exquisite jewellery.

The Young Victoria follows the early years of the young queen. It starts shortly before she becomes Queen and shows how she had to fight for her right to become Queen despite her young age (she was only 18 years old). Her mother was her worst enemy at the time, although she herself was under the influence of another. She controlled and manipulated young Victoria to an unimaginable extent. Once Queen, Victoria freed herself. Lord Melbourne, her Prime Minister, helped her and assisted her in all her duties. She was a very spirited young woman and I enjoyed to see how capable she was to fight for herself. The love story between Victoria and her German cousin Albert is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. They are really a cute couple. It wasn’t a head over heels passion but a strong fondness from the beginning. After initial struggles they reigned together for twenty years. I had no idea about any of this, frankly. I did not know that they loved each other so much until his early death parted them. I did not know that she was the first sovereign to live in Buckingham Palace.

The Young Victoria is really a must-see for everyone who loves period drama, this particular era and the story of a strong woman and a true love.

Enid (2009) TV BBC 4: The Complex Personality of Enid Blyton

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How I loved this movie. Enid is absolutely great and I am glad I bought it as I will watch it again very soon.

I am such a fan of Helena Bonham-Carter and have always been ever since I first saw her in A Room with a View that gorgeous Merchant-Ivory production. And I am also a fan of period drama and movies about the lives of authors. I totally enjoyed Finding Neverland and was enchanted by Miss Potter. A BBC production about the life of Enid Blyton seemed just the thing to look forward to. I was not disappointed. It is very good and Helena Bonham-Carter is, as so often, at her very best. However, as good as it is, it was absolutely not what I had expected. Of course, like most children, I did read Enid Blyton. Maybe not as many books as a British child would read but still quite a few. I had no idea what kind of a person she was. At best I thought of her as a Beatrix Potter type of woman or maybe like Astrid Lindgren who invented Pippi Longstocking. Enid Blyton was nothing like this. She was a complex, tormented and at times frankly mean person if we should believe this movie. Still she is fascinating and to look into the life of a writer is always interesting.

When she was a young girl her father, whom she was very attached to, left the family. It seems as if she never recovered from this trauma and fled into her dream world where she dwelt in a never-ending childhood full of adventures. At an early age she started to write down those stories. Being also a very determined person, she managed to find an editor who later became her first husband. As much as she loved her little readers and was totally addicted to her fan mail, she hated babies and did not get along with  her own children that she treated like trained monkeys.

She constantly escaped into her dream world and lied about a lot of things to herself and to others. When her mother dies she is really shattered. And so is her family since no one knew she had still been alive.

Enid Blyton wrote some 750 novels. She wrote 6000 words a day. At a certain point of her career she was accused of not writing all of her novels herself. She was almost devastated by this rumor. All in all, we see a very fragile person, a very self-centered and selfish person too. But still someone with a great talent.

The movie is beautifully filmed. The way she dresses, paired with  her eccentric ways, make the Enid of this movie appear like a fairytale character. Sure,  a bit of a wicked witch, but far from the ordinary. Despite the depiction of the negative aspects of Enid´s character, all these elements together make this a very enchanting movie.