The wonderful Julia Jentsch finds herself in a movie that really goes downhill with the move to London and the loss of any cohesion and credibility that it might initially have had, although even the first half had the stamp of pretentious hollowness.
Reviews
10 Reviews
Unauthorized Living
(2018–2020)
Soap opera
23 March 2021
This crime series/family drama has the values and style of a soap opera, albeit with a superior budget. It doesn't really aspire to be anything else with its glossiness, cardboard characters and an array of completely absurd plot developments. Good fun.
Victim Number 8
(2018)
Enjoyable tosh with an engaging cast of cardboard characters and a hatful of daft plot holes.
10 February 2021
Good fun as long as you accept that, whatever its own pretensions might be, this is not a serious crime drama. You can make a nice collection of plot holes; episode 4 is a particularly good hunting ground. Most of the characters are good value and kept a smile on my face. There is fine exploration of the urban landscape of Bilbao.
DNA
(I) (2019– )
Awful drama with some good cinematography.
17 November 2020
The theme is emotional and worth many dramas. Just not this one. At times the police are so stupid that I laughed and the decisions, actions and plot developments at certain points are, literally, beyond belief. The timeline is flawed and the moving ending is heavily signposted and manipulative in that it asks you to swallow a unrealistic denouement. It has nice cinematography. It has the curse of a multinational production. It is, in part, a star vehicle for a star I admire but who is too old for the role.
A 1970s Tatort that almost feels made for the cinema.
14 October 2015
Wolfgang Staudte, the director of this episode of the German crime series, Tatort, was the director of the first significant post-war German film; 'Die Mörder sind unter uns' ('Murderers among us'). Zwei Leben has the feel of a piece directed by a 'real' film director. It has high production values, some very stylish takes and, with a classical soundtrack, it is not handicapped by dated period music. The plot is engaging and the film features solid, spare performances from the whole cast. The lead guest rôle is played by Heinz Bennent who worked with both Truffaut and Costa-Gavras. His character, the apparently innocuous owner of photography studio, is moved to drastic action after a foreigner visits his shop. Well worth a watch.
Property and Berlin's troubled past
3 January 2013
Warning: Spoilers
Low key and excellently led by Gunter Lamprecht as the Berlin police inspector, Franz Markowitz, this Tatort episode delves into the issues of property arising both from the reunification of Germany and from the forced sale of Jewish property in the Nazi era. The heir to the former owner of an apartment block in East Berlin might get back his property rights with unification of Germany, but what had his father done during the Nazi era? How strong were his moral rights to the property? Could he be challenged by the heirs of the original Jewish owners? And what social justice was there in the drive to redevelopment in post-unification East Berlin? An interesting detective story made in the immediate post-unification period with many glimpses of Berlin as it then was.
An extraordinary documentary on the fate of a village in the Kuban region under Stalin's collectivisation policy.
16 January 2011
Warning: Spoilers
This is a very powerful piece of work. Those familiar with the terrible fate of the soviet peasantry in the era of collectivisation and persecution of the Kulaks will not be surprised at the story of Leningradskaya, a village in the Kuban region in southern Russia. However, three elements make this documentary exceptional. Firstly, there is an extraordinary sense of place; the camera lingers over the landscape - and over its inhabitants and their lives. Secondly, there is the heightened impact created by the leisurely pace of the story; nothing is rushed and the full horror of the events unfolds slowly through the memory of elderly peasants. Thirdly, there is the probing humanity of the interviewing team; it brings out stories which many of the interviewees clearly found very difficult to talk about.
There is no better piece on this subject.
There is no better piece on this subject.
An excellent example of the German Polizeiruf series.
18 December 2007
This is an excellent example of the German Polizeiruf series in which Peter Przybylski's cinematography and Hendrik Handloegten's direction combine to caress the landscape of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern with the languid heat of summer being almost palpable.
There are strong performances all round and there is a solid script. Uwe Steimle puts in a typical performance (of which there a large number in the Polizeiruf series) as the eccentric blond-haired Kriminalhauptkommissar Jens Hinrichs, with light notes off-setting the police procedure and criminal investigation.
Overall, though, the great merit of this episode is its transmission of a sense of ambiance and environment. Well worth a watch for anyone with sufficient German.
There are strong performances all round and there is a solid script. Uwe Steimle puts in a typical performance (of which there a large number in the Polizeiruf series) as the eccentric blond-haired Kriminalhauptkommissar Jens Hinrichs, with light notes off-setting the police procedure and criminal investigation.
Overall, though, the great merit of this episode is its transmission of a sense of ambiance and environment. Well worth a watch for anyone with sufficient German.
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