Reviews

A million ways to abuse a jewish child in east Europe through the events of WWII. Maybe this would be the plot summary this movie needs. Its been a month i saw this movie at the very first screening in Venice and ... oh man... this movie is really unique. I never saw anything like this movie. It will take all your energy and after three hours of horror-rollercoaster you will sit there and ask yourself: What did i just watch? Did you just watch one of the most beautiful and solid cinematography of this year? Yes, you did. Did you just sit there 3 hours and experienced more disgusting horror you can take? Oh yes, you did. Do you want to watch this movie again? No way! Are you happy you experienced it? Yes, you did.

For me it is a movie every cineast has to see, because it will be a mark to reach for every european war movie thats coming. Yes, it will go down in history as the movie, that made half of the audience leave, but the other half has a story to tell and every other person will experience their own story of leaving people by watching this movie. What i most like about this movie: You can talk about it for hours and hours, and although it was not my favorite movie in Venice, it is the one i like to talk about the most.

Go and Watch it! And after you did: Never do it again...

Babyteeth is summed up pretty fast: A young teenage girl is falling in love with a drug dealer and her parents don't like that. Babyteeth was a movie i didn't really looked forward to, when i heard it will be screened in Venice. But for me it was one of the biggest surprise. It has a nice heartwarming story, focusing on family, love and the big changes in life. The story is kind of mind-blowing in some twists, especially if you only know the plot-summary above and the characters are great. The main character: Milla is beautiful crafted and everybody can understand her actions...okay, maybe not all of them, but the movie often asks the viewer to ask yourself: How would you act in this situations? What would you do? It is a movie, which extends your view on love, life and family. Her parents Henry and Anna are just very warm and nice persons, they create a beautiful and familiar atmosphere for the viewer. You get the feeling you are sucked into the situation and can understand them. Her big love Moses is just like your typical drug dealer guy, but what makes the difference here to other movie drug dealers is the character development. You see yourself coming of Age with this character as the story moves on. You start to feel with him and understand him. So to sum it up at this point: Story, characters and of course the actors are great. (the award for best newcomer for Moses actor Toby Wallace was so well deserved!) The ending ist heartbreaking and so beautiful. I loved it! Okay, so why just 8 points? For me this movie has big leaks, when it comes to cinematography and pace. The cinematography was just normal and never blew me away. The pace of the story and within this the directing was too unbalanced in pace and continuity. Many parts of the movie felt very slow and boring. 20 Minutes less, would have been better.

So finally: I loved the movie, as a character movie, telling a story about love and life. But it fails to become a all around great movie, because of the leaks in the technical aspects.

When it comes to good spy movies, there are more than i can count. The genre is big and people love it. Saturday Fiction is a very special type of movie in this genre. I was lucky enough to see this movie at the very first screening at the Venice Filmfestival. Critics didn't like the movie, but i loved it. The movie tells the story of a young actress, who is working for the Allies to collect informations about the Japanese. When she is coming to 1941-Shanghai, she has a special mission... I don't want to give away to much plot at this point, because the story is beautiful narrated and is the most enjoyable by watching it yourself. The movie has beautiful and artistic cinematography and is far far away from the mainstream spy genre. You have multiple characters, which are well developed (at least the main characters) and the story is tricky and feeds with nice little twist. The acting(especially Gong Li) is phenomenal and the music fits perfectly. For me it is one of the most perfectly balanced movies i have ever seen. It is never trying to be super creativ or super artistic. It stays true to himself, tells a interesting story in a perfect way and it will suck you into the story and blows your mind with the third Act, in which all the tension building up going to be set free in one of the most thrilling movie finals i have ever seen. A must-see for fans of asian movies and arthouse movies.