marchrijo

A fine German winter relationship & skiing movie. Taking place in the beginning of the 80s, some very different young people, some with kids, meet in an Alps tourist cabin. When informed that the leader of both the "volleyballers` and the "political agitators` has been arrested on a demonstration in Germany (therefore he can't join the vacation), the group splits. We see very clearly now, that the youngs at least have one thing in common: working on their momentary relationships and centres of life through the dynamics of the groups. Soon the mood becomes aggressive, the ski teacher, who just wants to have fun, flirting with the girlfriend of the actual prisoner Knut, is attacked by the "political` friends, and love hurts all the way long. People part and come together, that's the way the cookie crumbles. This is an good example for the momentary German trends both to "real life` chamber plays like "Halbe Treppe` and to reflections about the immediate (more and more not only Eastern!) German past like "Liegen lernen`. The acting is very close to the viewer's eyes, the characters accord to our everyday experiences. Although, it's never boring to see this, because the dynamics inside the group produce a subtle sort of suspense. But it could have been more ideas in the script, especially courage for more stirring dialogues. The years around 1980 had been high tide for political action and discussion. The Red Army Fraction, the squatters, the conservative renaissance with Helmut Kohl, some of the subjects very exciting for German society in these days. The movie is very clever in showing the opening divide between engaged and hedonistic approach to the contingent present. Perhaps the main thesis is a little bit unfair to the advocates of the political utopia, which is mainly showed as strange and naive.

7/10

Of the recent-years-"coal and music"-films (Brassed Off, The Full Monty), this is probably the best, and that's because of the acting and the human warmth in characterization. Jamie Bell (look at his reactions reading the letter from the Royal Ballet School, for instance!) gives one of the best performances I've ever seen by a child of this age. More than the other movies it tells the story of strong, "emotionless" people, who "find themselves" by losing their identities as miners and workers, by searching for a last exit from their helplessness and sadness. The career of Billy Elliot is born from despair. This is the key to understand the political and historical implications of the movie. It produces an integrative patriotic myth of the nation, by bringing together opposite cultures: coal and castles, workers and middle-class (Julie Walters!) strike and strikebreaker, boxing and ballet, not at least old sexual standards and new sexual frankness (Michael!). In a way, "Billy Elliot" neutralizes the great divide in british society: the sportive elegance of the ballet reflects the pragmatic flexibility of the Tony Blair England, which reconciles the Tories with labour, and the miners with the Thatcher tradition. In the very end, everybody comes together in a big national theatre and smiles at each other. Are the people just spectators of a political play, or do they form a national discussion group? It depends on death or survival of the "swan" Tony Blair!