Das Versprechen

I can only praise the makers of this film, because many people did not experience it and unhappily, some do not want to hear about it. A female friend of mine recently told me, that now she knows why the Berlin Wall was built. Why, I asked. "Because the Russians didn't want the Americans to come in." It would be laughable, if it wasn't so sad. This is a person with university education and supposedly she never heard of people trying to get out of East Berlin or other communist countries. Most people form their opinions in their youth and many are not able to change their minds and admit to themselves, let alone to others, that they were wrong. Simply they ignore the facts. By the way, even after the wall went up, the Americans still could go to East Berlin, if they so desired. It was built to keep ordinary people in, because East Germans were leaving through Berlin in alarming numbers.

This is a great movie that many people can enjoy. I have seen the movie a few times and never get tired of it. It is a wonderful love story set in a terrible time. This film definitely caught the feeling of the era and I would definitely recommend this movie. Some people would be turned off because of the subtitles....but all I have to say is just give the movie a chance. The acting is top notch and the style of filming is quite good. It is a nice change from the constant Hollywood style that is usually forced upon us.

Portraying several friends separated by the Berlin Wall, "Das Versprechen" - called "The Promise" in English - hits you right where it hurts. I thought that it was very interesting how the movie picks up about every ten years, showing the historical context each time (specifically the sign saying "Victory to the Vietnamese Revolution" in 1968, during Prague Spring). To my generation, the Berlin Wall remains part of history (I was only five when it fell), so we have to rely on movies like this to understand the whole thing. All in all, director Margarethe von Trotta did a very good job here, as did the whole cast. Definitely worth seeing.

Ms. von Trotta directs with a very sure hand this very large canvas political drama about the divisions the German wall put between friends on both sides and how foolish its arbitrariness was. Wonderful acting and well worth spending time with. Stunningly photographed, as well.

In an interview at the time of the release of this film Margarete von Trotta rather bragged about the fact that this was the first German (after unification) film after the fall of the Berlin wall that dealt with the 28 years of history on the East side of the wall. This remains to be seen, but if so, is that a good reason to come up with this dim, tepid and obligatory romantic drama that is predictable from scene 1? A drama in which the viewer no cliche spared?

The film looks more a kaleidoscope of political events in which the two main characters just happened to be a part of. The film never is a real drama and lacks every dramatic tension. The two main characters are simply boring people (not helped much by the casting); all other characters are one-dimensional. Some bad writing is also present: some characters, like the aunt, simply disappear from the story. As to direction and filmmaking there are plenty of uneasy moments as well. In the Prague scene the girl waits on the wrong spot for her friend; well, they just wait, but then "pop" a short scene in which she asks where this or that place is and then "pop": yes, there he is! The scene of the father in hospital also just seems to come from nowhere.

It all looks like as Von Trotta really wanted to show how very, very concerned she was about the 28 years of history and by that overplaying her hand. She should either have elaborated the drama more, or have taken the trouble for a more thorough interpretation of the political situation. As it is now it is a "everything political happens to poor us" drama. (5/10)