Written as though the original tone and plot are unimpeachable, with even the dialogue closely paralleled to the text, this twelve-hour presentation has little soul and no joie de vivre. Viewing this at a remove of 45 years, the direction, cinematography, and set design present little original or incisive; the acting choices remain staid and unpersuasive with little remarkable, even in the heightened moments of conflict. Obviously made for television and, likely, proposed as a teaching aid for younger readers of the German original or its translations, I fear that the four-CD series would offput anyone from reading far into the far better novel.
Reviews
3 Reviews
Empty Space
(II) (2016)
Walking out is the best choice
9 July 2017
I sat through the first 40 minutes of this film, getting more exasperated at the on-the-nose dialog and the mediocre acting. By the time Tom/Thomas meets his two female companions without reason for hanging together, I decided it was time for me to leave.
I don't believe that a reputable university film program would allow this film to pass as a junior project. If it were to be awarded production, at least one more rewrite would be necessary to clarify the points without banging the audience with direct explanations.
I don't believe that a reputable university film program would allow this film to pass as a junior project. If it were to be awarded production, at least one more rewrite would be necessary to clarify the points without banging the audience with direct explanations.
In the Crosswind
(2014)
Camera expresses the humanity affected by holocaust
3 January 2015
Warning: Spoilers
This black/white film successfully blends narrative style with artistic cinematography to depict the 1941 Soviet expulsion of native Estonians to labor camps and extermination camps in Siberia through 1945-1949.
The opening and closing sequences in pre-holocaust days consist of silent action over a spoken letter of a woman to her husband. As the expulsions start, the voice-over letter reading continues while the camera moves through tableaux of still figures, ever weaving as the populace is taken by cattle cars to Siberia and the labor camps. Every deprivation gains greater force through the expressive camera and its exploration of dozens of people involved in each event.
The opening and closing sequences in pre-holocaust days consist of silent action over a spoken letter of a woman to her husband. As the expulsions start, the voice-over letter reading continues while the camera moves through tableaux of still figures, ever weaving as the populace is taken by cattle cars to Siberia and the labor camps. Every deprivation gains greater force through the expressive camera and its exploration of dozens of people involved in each event.
Tell Your Friends