Reviews
Red Sands (2009)
Not a great movie
This movie is about a few soldiers alone in the desert who either kill each other or die mysteriously. The end.
This movie lacks the cause then effect that a horror movie needs in order to create tension and suspense. (and interest!) There is absolutely no connection between the incident with the statue and what follows in the movie. None. If you didn't read the press release, you'd never geddit.
The continuity of the movie is so bad you can snip it up and watch the scenes in any sequence. The story doesn't develop at all.
No new facts come to light as the movie progresses. At the end, we are in the same position as at the beginning, so it's kinda pointless that the director puts the last scene at the beginning.
There is no realization, no new understanding, no process of discovery. The only clues are provided by Shane West's dreams - and even then, they are sketchy anecdotes that fade too soon.
Mercedes Masohn's role could have been deleted from the movie without losing anything at all.
The deleted scenes on the DVD include a longer version of the Goat Herder scene that connects better to the rest of the movie.
Maybe I'm just too intelligent to be watching this genre?
Der Himmel über Berlin (1987)
My fav movie of all time
I first saw this movie in '88 and have seen it 3 more times since then. In my opinion it is Wim Wenders magnum opus, drawing on mythology, psychological archetypes and the primary mental states we all experience at some time in our lives. Who hasn't felt lonely and wondered whether there are guardian angels watching us and what 'life' might be like for them, listening in on our thoughts, yet not really empowered to change anything we do.
The transition from black-and-white to colour is indeed a rebirth and simultaneously, a coming to earth. How much more profound a juxtaposition can one get than that!?
The use of Peter Falk as himself only adds to the authenticity of the events as they onfold. And Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds appearance, with it's depressing lyrics, only serves to emphasize the female lead's state of mind before the moment she has waited for her entire life...
"As das kind, kind wa..." (When a child is a child...) the movie narrative begins...