Not in this particular case. More to do with Hollywoodâs requirement to have a happy ending. ExampleâŠThe VanishingâŠmade in Holland, remade in Hollywood with a totally different endingâŠsame director.
Youâve hit the nail on the head.
In a Hollywood movie, no matter how âcontroversialâ, âsubversiveâ, etc., etc., the bad guy gets his just desserts. Every single time.
The sole exception that I can ever remember is Woody Allenâs Crimes and Misdemeanours. In that film the murderer gets away with his crime and lives happily ever after. One of Woodyâs very best IMO.
I went and saw an Argentinian film last night, and for once, it wasnât a film you wanted to slit your wrists after like The Secret in Their Eyes or El Clan or the one about the Jewish family with the rotten father I saw a few months ago.
This was Unexpected Love (El Amor Menos Pensado) with the perennial Ricardo DarĂn and Mercedes MorĂĄn. Theyâre a happily married couple of 25 years whose only son has gone to study in Spain, and they find themselves at a loose end, wondering what big event will be the next one they look forward to, and of course, all their friends are splitting up and having affairs.
So they separate and the film covers three years of their various attempts at love, some quite amusing.
Most enjoyable film. DarĂn is always great, whether dramatic or lighter fare, in Spain or in Argentina.
Saw another ripper tonightâŠGerman film nominated for the Oscars (won by CuarĂłnâs Roma). This was made by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck who made the wonderful The Lives of Others.
It has a lot of references to art (Kunst) in it, and stretches from 1937 in Dresden to about 1965 in DĂŒsseldorf. Young Kurt is taken everywhere by his young aunt, Elisabeth, but sheâs a little afflicted by mental issues (I mean, who doesnât play the piano in the nude in front of her 6-year old nephew?) and gets sent to one of the Reichâs âinstitutions â by Professor Seeband.
After the war, in a destroyed Dresden, Kurt goes to art school where he meets the gorgeous Ellie (Paula Beer from Bad Banks, streaming on SBS). Unfortunately, sheâs the only daughter of said professor.
It moves from Nazi art to Communist art to free Western art (and there are some right flogs at the school in DĂŒsseldorf), but is a very moving film, if a little long at just over 3 hours. Plenty of jig-a-jig to help those 3 hours move along though.
If Iâd seen this before seeing Roma, Iâd have called this a dead cert for best foreign film at the latest Oscars.
Zooey and Emily Deschanelâs dad, Caleb, was nominated for cinematography but again missed out to CuarĂłn.
What really gives me the shi+s about American movies is that [except for some kidsâ shows and romcoms] in almost every single farking one, someone always has to shoot someone or at the very least threaten them with a gun.
This really affects the publicâs mindset - it makes them not only think that this is normal behaviour, but the gun is not a murder weapon but is almost a magic wand that solves problems.
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That was a fun game to play with the fam, thanks.
No Disney, no rom-com.
Go.
The only one I remember from the last 30 years was a movie adapted from a stage play (so a bit rom-comish). It had Donald Sutherland but donât recall the name.
I mean even arthouse movies like Being John Malkovich had to have an otherwise irrelevant scene where the gun was used as a magic problem-solving device.
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Just went down the highest rated films on imdb and got to #36 before I was sure about there not being a gun.
Toy Story.
Thereâs Something About Mary was inexplicably higher, and I have a feeling thereâs a gun in that when the nerd reveals his stalkerness, but I couldnât swear to it.
Technically, Toy Story does have guns - held by the toy soldiers.
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This shouldnât be classed as an arthouse movie but it was in German and on SBS. I recorded it a couple of months ago, and just got around to watching it.
The film is Labyrinth of Lies and was made in 2014. I donât know any of the stars so wonât mention them.
Itâs 1958 in Frankfurt and a passerby recognises a schoolteacher as an important player at Auschwitz. The statute of limitations has kicked in for all crimes committed during the war except for murder. And all trials of Nazis have been prosecuted by the Allies. No-one in the general populace has even heard of Auschwitz.
A junior prosecutor is pestered about this case by a journalist, but no-one else wants to go further on it. Heâs put in charge of the whole case by the attorney-general, Fritz Bauer, a Jew who already has history re Mengele and Eichmann.
He persists, but loses faith when he perceives that everyone was a Nazi, everyone was complicit and quits the case after alienating his girlfriend whose father also turned out to have been a Nazi.
The rest is history.
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In Melbourne for a couple of days so took the opportunity to see AlmĂłdovarâs semi-autographical film, Pain and Glory.
Antonio Banderas plays Salvador, whoâs in a rut because of back pain, when a 32-year old film is retouched by the cinema people and events from his younger, gayer days in Madrid resurface.
A lot of the film is played out with a little boy playing the young Salvador with Penélope Cruz as his mother.
Iâd give it my usual AlmĂłdovar score, 10/10
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Five winners of best foreign movie are on SBS World Movies this week.
The wonderful The Lives of Others is on tomorrow night. A Separation is another.
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Sad fact - Muhe who played the Captain in the Lives of Others - died the day after flying to LA to be at the Oscars when the film won best picture.
Sebastian Koch, who plays the surveilled guy, is one of the main stars of Never Look Away, von Donnersmarckâs next German film, which was nominated last year.
His character in that film is a very long way from sympathetic.
I, ahem, acquired a copy of that film, complete with some of the worst subtitling Iâve ever seen. Very cumbersome English, mixed in with German words when they couldnât translate.
Lives of Others is simply brilliant. I will be watching it avidly. It is my second favourite German film, after Das Boot.
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Try Wim Wendersâs Wings of Desire
Or if you prefer real cinema, the American remake City of Angels with Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan.
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Seen both, go for the orignal. A quality story.
I was being deliberately ridiculous and sarcastic about the Yank one.
As if Cage could put in a quality performance.
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l am well aware of your opinion of Nick Cage. l liked him in Raising Arizona and Wild at Heart, and that is about all. Very limited artist.
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My favourite of all time. P.S. I think you mean Wendersâ 
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