Friday, 15 July 2011

Auf der Anderen Seite
[Edge of Heaven;
On the Other Side]
(2007)

RATING:60%
TECHNICAL QUALITY:DVD

Clever and emotional film that relies on far too many coincidences to be completely convincing. However, the high quality of the acting makes it so compelling that you almost buy it.

An exercise in identity politics and the search for same in the context of contemporary European culture that never quite manages to get to the heart of this ongoing problem. Composed of abstractions made flesh, the characters never quite come alive since the story is not solidly-based on actual lived experience but rather more on theoretical propositions.

Having said that, the movie contains some of the very best European actors around – who never bore. It also requires a box of tissues despite the fact that the intertitles tell you what is going to happen – and it is not pretty. This inherent lack of suspense makes this movie also an essay in tragic inevitability.

Copyright © 2011 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.
Posted by Frank TALKER™ at 09:43
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Science:



No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.



Jacob Bronowski… (1908 - 74), British scientist, author. Encounter (London, July 1971).


Sleep of Reason:



The dream of reason produces monsters. Imagination deserted by reason creates impossible, useless thoughts. United with reason, imagination is the mother of all art and the source of all its beauty.



Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes… (1746-1828), Spanish painter. Caption to Caprichos, number 43, a series of eighty etchings completed in 1798, satirical and grotesque in form.


Humans & Aliens:



I am human and let nothing human be alien to me.



Terence… (circa 190-159 BC), Roman dramatist. Chremes, in The Self-Tormentor [Heauton Timorumenos], act 1, scene 1.


Führerprinzip:



One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves… There is no organ of conciliation or mediation interposed between the leader and the people, nothing in fact but the apparatus - in other words, the party - which is the emanation of the leader and the tool of his will to oppress. In this way the first and sole principle of this degraded form of mysticism is born, the Führerprinzip, which restores idolatry and a debased deity to the world of nihilism.



Albert Camus… (1913-60), French-Algerian writer & philosopher. The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt: New York: Vintage Books, (1984; page 182.)