"Satte Farben vor Schwarz" or "Colors in the Dark" is a German movie from 2010 written and directed by Sophie Heldman and actually it is her most recent work despite seven years having passed by already and this makes me a bit sad as I think she did a fine job here, especially with the screenplay. But first things first: The cast includes Bruno Ganz and Senta Berger while the younger characters (i.e. their children) are played by the likes of Barnaby Metschurat and Leonie Benesch and I must say with the exception of Berger I like them all. I never saw much range in Berger admittedly and while she has good moments in here too, this film does not change my opinion at all. But luckily Benesch is really good and I started liking her on "Das weiße Band" already. Metschurat still should at least be as famous here in Germany as he was 10 years ago. And then there is Bruno Ganz and there is no need to say anything about him. He is not only among the very best from his age group when it comes to Germany or Europe even, but the whole world probably. And what is even better is that he has great material to work with in this film and he plays a dying man and he also makes all the other actors stronger too. I personally especially enjoyed the scenes with his children, even if the Abiball sequences were pretty nice too.
There is nothing in here that I really did not like and while I also would say that the film probably never reached any real greatness it was still a convincing watch from start to finish. It runs for 80 minutes (not counting credits), so it is not a long movie by any means, but that's not a problem at all as it speaks for the film's great focus. So yeah, this one is definitely criminally underseen looking at the quantity of votes here on IMDb and I am pretty sure it also had no great audience numbers at theaters back then. A bit of a shame. I also think young audiences should watch this even if the subject may sound pretty unappealing to them, but the earlier you deal with the subject of aging in your life the easier will it be to cope with your own mortality and also with the mortality of your close ones. I hope by now you are convinced that you want to see this one. The ending is pretty bold and powerful and takes the film again on another level and this was probably when Berger's acting was on her best in this entire movie. So in case Heldman ever reads this review, then I want to say it's high times she makes another film because I was genuinely impressed by this one here, especially with all the great subtleties we get to see. It's also worth seeing more than once. Don't miss out.
There is nothing in here that I really did not like and while I also would say that the film probably never reached any real greatness it was still a convincing watch from start to finish. It runs for 80 minutes (not counting credits), so it is not a long movie by any means, but that's not a problem at all as it speaks for the film's great focus. So yeah, this one is definitely criminally underseen looking at the quantity of votes here on IMDb and I am pretty sure it also had no great audience numbers at theaters back then. A bit of a shame. I also think young audiences should watch this even if the subject may sound pretty unappealing to them, but the earlier you deal with the subject of aging in your life the easier will it be to cope with your own mortality and also with the mortality of your close ones. I hope by now you are convinced that you want to see this one. The ending is pretty bold and powerful and takes the film again on another level and this was probably when Berger's acting was on her best in this entire movie. So in case Heldman ever reads this review, then I want to say it's high times she makes another film because I was genuinely impressed by this one here, especially with all the great subtleties we get to see. It's also worth seeing more than once. Don't miss out.