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sarahmoens
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12 Angry Men (1957)
Charged for being a magnificent movie
Great acting, great story... Beautiful in its simplicity, while being it extremely challenging to transcend to such a great quality movie for which most part takes place in just one room. A room filled with 12 diverse people who try to reach unanimity in deciding if an 18-year old man is guilty of killing his father. Just one person having doubt about his guilt, trying to convince the others to not take the decision of death penalty lightly and rethink all the evidence they have seen during the course of the trial. Every person having their own personal history coloring the way they look at one another, giving rise to prejudice, and guiding their interactions with others. Besides being a joy to watch the story and interactions unfold, it's a nice lesson in humidity and self-consciousness about how we can mislead ourselves, how we can be so certain, when the only certainty is uncertainty (although I realize this is a contradictio in terminis).
Die Wand (2012)
Connectedness by isolation
What a beautiful story this is. I can understand why Julian Pölsler wanted to film his favorite book of Marlen Haushofer, a book that I've now added to my to read list.
The scenery of Austria is so beautiful. Experiencing the country through all the seasons would have been enough for me to watch the movie. But the movie is so much more than just beautiful scenery. The plot made me profoundly think about humanity, nature, life... and if a movie succeeds in doing that it deserves merit. I also like that multiple interpretations can apply to the movie, since it has a certain symbolical feel to it, rather than being a science fiction or utopian/dystopian story. I for example see a lot of parallels with someone who has a depression, not being able to fight an invisible wall, struggling to do everyday tasks in order to survive, feeling alienated.
It's great how the connectedness with nature is illustrated. How we depend on nature and how nature depends on us. How we humans are gods who are able to choose to kill or let live, who can choose to kill the very nature that makes us survive.
Perhaps for people who have read the book, the movie doesn't add more than beautiful scenery and a good acting performance by Martina Gedeck and not to forget dog Luchs, but for me it's definitely worth the 8*.