The lives of others

This is the one I watched first among the four I brought home, and it took me a week before I was ready to view it for the second, third, and the fourth time. I was simply, mesmerised.

Yes, there are loopholes where the scripts could be developed further to make it even more convincing - especially when the captain decided against following his instinct and duties. After all, after 20 years in the business, the outcome of his investigations is nothing new to him? So why change now? And to risk his own career and life?

However if we could push this bugging question aside (more of this later), the film is a super masterpiece - and I could not think of any other words to describe it - other than telling my friends that it is the best being made in recent years.

Apart from the captivating story, and the very subtle performance by all - both on and behind the camera, the core quality of the masterpiece is the incredible performance by Ulrich Muhe, who I could recognise but could not quite place where I last saw him - until my second viewing. This man is a real master of performance - or shall we say, he was capable of making us sympathise with the character with 'super control and understatement'. Hints of dramatic interior changes were usually suggested by a subtle gesture or tear drops that could be barely detected in a small screen of a television. Apparently he is also an extremely intelligent man - as all the answers he was giving during the interview included in the special feature reveal.

It made the viewing all the more poignant to know that the film partially reflected his own personal experience and the fact he died soon after the success of the film - which made him known for the first time outside his native Germany.

Back to the argument that the script could have made a strong case on why the captain experienced change at that particular moment. I gather we will just have to take the director's words for it that he was trying to show the power of music, and the fact we humans are capable of change. From a more personal point of view, I think the change is credible - just look at my father - a hardcore communist who must have done a lot of damages in his career as a political instructor and army representative. But because of his integrity (yes, it is there despite everything said about a communist) and his belief in the greater good, I imagine he is also a 'whistle blower' who was capable of making a decision that might jeopardise his cause - because he believed in the greater good and was therefore able to change...

Alice in the cities

I thought I had lost patience with Wim Wenders, I was however pleasantly surprised last night when I found myself hooked by these two unlikely protagonists - neither of whom seemed to be making an effort to interact or entertain each other on their long journey homes.

Typical of Wim Wenders, story was not its intention or strength, and for the first 15 minutes, we were kept in the dark on what this is all about. But once the title role Alice is involved, the film seemed to gain a different dimension despite itself and soon, we just want to know if Philp, the photographer/writer could eventually find the way home for Alice who was left to his care by her mother without his knowledge.

At more than one points, I believe the director is working towards keeping a historical record of what places were like then and there, for without much dialogue and with a rather loose plot, our attention was drawn towards the landscape along the way home of the protagonists. But the theme music that appeared every now and then seemed to suggest that the landscape was reflecting the human inside of the protagonists and we became more concerned over the fate of the two that had been thrown together by a mother's negligence.

Intriguing is the word that left in my mouth after watching it.