Ein Freund von mir

Namely, the German teeth belonging to Jürgen Vogel are one of the most unpalatable aspects of this unpalatable film. I never could quite understand the US criticism of the state of British teeth when there are people like Herr Vogel showing off their horrible nashers on the widescreen. German dentistry leaves a lot to be desired on this evidence.

I had the misfortune of watching this piece of pretentious tripe with German subtitles. I didn't get it at all. Hans is repulsive so why was the pseudoVicar so smitten? X-filme deserve to go down the toilet for this rubbish. How l-o-n-g since the triumph of Lola Rennt? (Run Lola Run?) Too long! What a load of carp!!

Definitively one of the ten best, to my opinion most likely The best movie produced and released in Germany this year. A masterpiece, story-, acting-, picture- and sound-wise. Vogel as Hans is hilariously funny, Brühl outstanding as his real counterpart and a compelling Simone Timoteo. Entertaining and moving. Once again and even more than the first time Schipper has proved his outstanding talent for subtle storytelling.

I saw it in a crowded cinema, the audience was laughing through half of the movie, though it reminded me of Ozus evenness as much as of van Sants verité - style (e.g. the long, uncut shots) without being documentary or raw at all (absolutely NO dogma movie). If you think Gerry (Gus van Sant) was beautiful but somehow boring (at least when watching it a second time), watch this one - you will like it. A movie as simple as ambiguous done with an outstanding reliable sense of style.

either life is nothing or it must be everything

Still on the middle of watching it and having a great time, I find difficult to read negative comments on such a beautiful work, but I know people have their perspective, expectation and taste, not to mention their moments. Perhaps if I had seen this tomorrow last or next year, my assessment of it would have been different. Today I'm very much enjoying the pace, the dialogs, the interaction. So I'll close my laptop and sink fully into it. Well almost I'm told there isn't enough lines to finish! quantity over quality! I have not been laughing for the last five minutes which shows this film does not rely on laugh only as I'm still enjoying it!

When you watch movies like this, sometimes you want to do the jobs in these movies. You want to drive car from some place to another place. You don't think about the hard parts of the job. You have to get up early, sometimes you drive old cars, maybe you have a road accident. But they are not important. It's a good thing if some movie makes you think like that. I don't even know exactly what their job is. But it's not that important if you don't think or realize this question when you watch the movie. Of course it is an illusion. But cinema is illusion. We can say this movie is successful from this point of view.

Usually I tend to avoid German movies for reasons that are rather dubious, but yesterday I let my friend drag me into "Ein Freund von mir" - and I'm glad that he did.

"Ein Freund von mir" is a slow-paced film that tells the story of young urban professional Karl (Daniel Brühl) who by chance gets to know casual labourer Hans (Jürgen Vogel). The movie is almost entirely devoted to showing the development of their friendship and the numerous tests it has to pass. I think the director keeps an excellent balance between dialog and visuals throughout the whole movie - it is neither dialog-heavy nor does it shy away from showing very authentic conversations when they are necessary. Authenticity for me is probably the most important quality of the film. Not once did I have the feeling that a scene couldn't have easily happened "in real life". While this does not necessarily make a good movie (after all, real life can be pretty boring), it adds immensely to this one because much of its appeal consists of identifying oneself with various situations in the movie. In that sense, many many scenes really worked for me.

"Ein Freund von mir" is a thoughtful, moving but still quite funny movie that never has to try hard to get its story across, for me the best film I've seen since Linklater's "Before Sunrise".