I'm a non-Switzy who lives in Switzerland (although not for very long yet), and I am uncertain about what this country is really like. Of course there are all the stereotypes about cleanliness and orderliness and blind adherence to the rules, but then there is the daily reality of what I see here (which isn't as neurotic as you would imagine). I really enjoyed Die Schweizermacher. It was funny and interesting and the characters were likable (except Bodmer, of course, who was so endearingly and reliably unlikeable). The man shooting pigeons and Bodmer going home every night to eat the dinner made by his mother were simple and inconspicuous ironies, and the friendly nature of the other cop (whose name I've forgotten) was a pleasing contrast. I can't help but believe, though, that it was all based in a murky and xenophobic truth about Switzies and that secretly nothing has changed. Aah the Swiss. They're so strange.
Reviews
3 Reviews
Prime
(2005)
I just didn't care
7 May 2007
I like Uma Thurman, I like Meryl Streep, the plot of this movie sounded promising. Sadly, it didn't really live up to my expectations. I just didn't care about the characters. I didn't care about Uma, I didn't care about her boyfriend, I didn't care if they stayed together or not, I didn't care if his career as an artist took off or not, I didn't care about Meryl Streep's hysteria over aging, non-Jewish potential relatives. There was the possibility that the moral issues that Meryl faced as a psychologist might have been discussed, which I would have been interested to see, but that didn't really eventuate very well either. I really think the script did the movie a disservice, because it was a good premise that failed to be executed in an interesting, sympathetic way.
Severance
(2006)
good, but better now that it's over
7 May 2007
Warning: Spoilers
There's nothing I hate more than suspense and torment and grisly violence (or the suggestion of it). So you might think I didn't enjoy this movie. At the time I was watching it, I kind of didn't, really, but now that's over I am a lot fonder of it.
Severance had all the predictable elements that you would hope for in a mock horror type movie, I think, as well as a lot of charming sort of humour that you would expect, and even some that you wouldn't (was it just me who thought the scene with the leg in the bear trap was kind of funny? My boyfriend, who I was watching this movie with, didn't. But he's Swiss and therefore humourless). The penultimate scene was the funniest thing I have seen in ages.
The characters were realistic enough that I liked them and didn't want them all to die grisly, horrible deaths. The grisliness was there enough that I didn't want to watch, and implied (ie. off screen) enough that I kept watching.
I would definitely give this movie at least one thumb up, although I think the marketing comparisons to Shaun Of The Dead do it a bit of a disservice (because I thought SotD was a far better movie).
Severance had all the predictable elements that you would hope for in a mock horror type movie, I think, as well as a lot of charming sort of humour that you would expect, and even some that you wouldn't (was it just me who thought the scene with the leg in the bear trap was kind of funny? My boyfriend, who I was watching this movie with, didn't. But he's Swiss and therefore humourless). The penultimate scene was the funniest thing I have seen in ages.
The characters were realistic enough that I liked them and didn't want them all to die grisly, horrible deaths. The grisliness was there enough that I didn't want to watch, and implied (ie. off screen) enough that I kept watching.
I would definitely give this movie at least one thumb up, although I think the marketing comparisons to Shaun Of The Dead do it a bit of a disservice (because I thought SotD was a far better movie).
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