Last night I went to The Duke Of Yorks and watched 2 films in a row, just like people did in the olden days. First you had a B-movie, which was a relatively short low-budget film, often sci-fi or horror. This was followed by the main feature, often a more serious and longer film. The 2 films last night worked well in this format, Sunshine was the sci-fi throwaway action B-movie, followed by the East Germany set drama The Lives of Others as the main feature.
Sunshine tells the tale of 8 people on a spaceship attempting to launch a bomb into the centre of the sun in order to reverse the effects of a weakened sun which are causing the world to freeze over. In this blog I don’t want to spoil the films, the idea is that you will watch them, so I won’t give any more of the plot, or indeed any of the plots of any films mentioned here, away. Instead I urge you to see this film as soon as possible in the cinema. The events that unfold in this film look spectacular on the big screen. The light from the sun is so bright the entire cinema lights up, as I went to the toilet on my usual halfway break i turned around and could see everyone, faces lit up, sitting in awe of the golden pulsating cgi sun.
This is very much in traditional Danny Boyle style, the characters display the same sense of desperation that ran through 28 Days Later, there are some beautiful sequences set to music as was seen in The Beach (both also Alex Garland collaborations) and there is some of the dance music fueled horror as seen in Trainspotting. Is it as good as his other work a friend asked me, yes it is, like his other work this is stylish good fun, nothing more, nothing less. 7/10 for the film, 9/10 for the cinematic experience.
In contrast The Lives of Others is not especially fun, but it is very engaging and rewarding. It starts slowly, and seems like it may become more complex than it does, fortunately. As the film progresses it drags you further and further into its tale of a Statsi (German Democratic Republic secret police) officer spying on a writer. The film paints a bleaker picture of East Germany than many before, and lacks the nostalgia of the wonderful Goodbye Lenin. Before watching this I had no idea how hard life was for people being watched under the glare of the Statsi, whose brutal methods of minimizing resistance are not well publicised. I have visited East Berlin twice and spoken to people who lived there before the wall fell and only ever heard positive things about the times then compared with today. The film also raised the point that the members of the government and secret police before the wall fell are now living alongside those who they may have terrorised or spied on. There were no punishments after the wall came down as there were for the Nazi party after the war. In fact, most people from the GDR are now very succesful, far more so than the ‘normal’ citizens of that time who often lacked the skills and education of people aligned with the party.
Interesting to read in Sight and Sound that the film is proving rather controversial in some quarters in Germany as it actually portrays the Statsi in a more positive way than they could ever feasibly been in those times. It is said to be an impossible fantasy, and one which aids the cause of the former Statsi who are currently campaigning against negative publicity.
The film is a good drama and raises interesting points in the mind. 8/10
I am that friend mentioned! Now I am named I am happier. Good stuff Mark, a good read and certainly something that took my mind of the 6 hour slog ahead of me to finish and type up my accounting assignment…to be handed in by 9am. And I have toothache which can be numbed with ibuprofen, but I have no ibuprofen. The misery awaits.
Chris Eames
April 20th, 2007