Jerichow

Yet another variation on "The Postman Always Rings Twice". "Jerichow" is a Christian Petzold film so you know it's going to be a more esoteric, slightly off-the-wall thriller. Petzold is not a conventional director even if his plots tend to be. Thomas, (a taciturn Benno Furmann), a dishonorably discharged Afghanistan veteran, needs a job so after doing a favour for drunken businessman Hilmi Sozer, he ends up working for him and his beautiful, unhappy wife so you can imagine what happens next but, like "Transit", his very un-Casablanca like take on "Casablanca", this doesn't quite stick to the formula and perhaps you can tell that it won't from the unrelated opening scene.

Petzold doesn't really go for the big dramatic flourish so this tale of lust and murderous thoughts is surprisingly low-key but like the James M. Cain novel it's loosely based on, it all ends in tears. Indeed there are times when you wish Petzold would just opt for the more melodramatic course; as a thriller this is just a little short on suspense. The three leads are fine and there's a neat twist or two towards the end giving the film a more tragic dimension a more conventional ending would have lacked. Not Petzold's best film, then, but certainly worth seeing.

Jerichow is a region in a part of East Germany that faces the Baltic Sea--it used to be in the GDR. A dishonorably discharged Afghanistan veteran Thomas returns to his home village of Jerichow. There after witnessing a wreck with a guy who was drinking he meets Ali who hires him as a driver. Ali (Hilmi Sozer), a middle aged Turkish immigrant who owns of a snack-bar chain in Eastern German . Then Thomas meets Laura, his Turkish boss's young & attractive wife (Nina Hoss who is very beautiful). Thomas ( Benno Furmann) was in the Army during the war in Afghanistan he is at his mother's funeral & he has confrontation with business man he owes large sum of money to. So between them begins a classic love triangle. Petzold writes & directs a fine, tight film about 3 characters, each with a dark side to their character. It is a well directed & acted drama about a love & lust for the 3. The Ali character is the rich macho acting *ss*ole--he is not a happy man. The wife is the submissive beauty. Thomas is the quiet stoic strong army guy needing money & job. There is a resemblance to both versions of 'The Postman Always Rings Twice', also similar to the films by the late Reiner Werner Fassbinder Robert Bresson, & others.(as mentioned by others) This is an austere film making from director Petzold whose works are not well known in this country. The cinematography is really terrific & beautiful set in the desolate northeast Germany, where thick forests suddenly end on cliffs overlooking the Baltic Sea . The film also captures a social portrait of newly multicultural Germany, at least as it extends into the country's forgotten rural interior. The film does a good job giving us people in the dead ends they face & in the spiritual emptiness that causes people to do desperate things in search of happiness. In the end Ali ends up earning some of our sympathy is a testament to both Petzold's smart script & Sozer's deeply nuanced performance, a trait shared by his two co-actors.

This is really a movie which didn't need to be made. I watched it because I greatly admire Benno Fuhrmann's work in North Face and in Joyeux Noel (a wonderful film, BTW).

Enough folks here have done the comparisons with Double Indemnity, etc. etc. The acting and cinematography and realism of this film are all perfectly adequate. However, there isn't much character development, and therefore, not nearly enough to make me care about the 3 main characters. In fact, the one we get to know best is actually the Turkish husband, and I had more sympathy for him in a way that for the two protagonists, largely because we don't really know them. The movie isn't full of a bunch of intriguing plot twists, and the action is relatively slow-moving. The aspect of this film which most interested us was the setting in a part of Germany which none of us have seen. My husband is German, and the part we know is the extreme southwest, nothing northeast. We were also interested to see contemporary Germany actually being depicted. But, I'm sorry, this just isn't enough to justify the amount of time.

Producers and directors need to be reminded that people today have a host of other entertainment options available to them and any movie they make should be MORE interesting than say, watching a ballgame on TV, surfing the internet, playing video games, sex with spouse, camping in the woods, going out to dinner with friends, watching YouTube, etc. etc. In other words, having an interesting, entrancing story is, at least in my mind, a good half the value of a film. Unfortunately, so many movies today just don't seem to be aware of the demand for a decent story, and I don't get that. I read a lot of thriller novels, excellently written, all of which would make fantastic films, and furthermore, I know from the authors themselves that they have sold the rights to make a movie from the books. So, I ask myself, why aren't THESE stories becoming movies, instead of a lot of the ho-hum stuff that does become film?

Interesting variation of the The Postman Always Rings Twice story brings the tragedy realistically into a modern-day German setting, is suspenseful with a good cast, and comes up with its own new kind of twist) ending.

The Afghanistan veteran Thomas returns to his home village of Jerichow, in the former East Germany and meet Ali, a local Turkish-German businessman, owner of a snack-bar chain, who hires him as a driver and who lives with his attractive wife Laura (Nina Hoss). The story is a sort of remake of "The postman always rings twice" in the former East Germany, where you don't find good or bad guys, but just different characters struggling with life and fighting to survive. Released in 2008 the movie offers a good insight of the society of this area of Germany, which explains why AFD is gaining so much support in the former East Germany regions. Germany is still somewhat divided.