Le quatrième pouvoir

I found this to be a oretty good reflection of current day Russia and would urge anyone thinking of going there to watch this as an education of what not to donor say whist there.

The lead character was naive to put it mildly. The storyline and acting was very good and the film could have been better if the dialogue in Russian was either in English or at least subtitles could have been provided. Overall worth the time though.

By watching this movie the one can think that the cold war never ended or is it just a thought? This movie was mostly about persuasive way to portray the East in the style that western propaganda is serving the Russian story to their brain-washed audience. Nothing more than that because the plot looks like the badly developed scenario for the cold war thriller and directing is pretty mediocre. Without the brilliant Moritz Bleibtreu this would be just a piece of junk. The director got lost in the conspiracy theories behind the Russian military actions in Chechenia with the apparently stolen idea on the staged terrorist actions of CIA regarding Sept.11 developed by Michael Moore in Fahrenheit 9/11. In several moments the director tries to explain where did he get the idea of implying such things after all, when showing us 9/11 photos among the father's stuff but remains silent on that part. Pretty transparent and pathetic.

I try to avoid reading or watching anything about the movies I'm going to watch, as was the case with this movie here. That's why I guess I expected something different only knowing the title. The movie came to be a neat little conspiracy thriller, based a bit on experiences the filmmaker himself had when he visited Russia. He does mention this in the Audio Commentary which can be found on the German release of the movie (which was shot in English).

Moritz Bleibtreu, a very well known and accomplished actor in Germany, does a decent job, playing an everyman (his character being a journalist). The story moves along fine, but it should have tried to stay focused on its main theme. As it is the usual downfalls (coincidences and convenient momentum) do not help the movie, but it still is a nice little entry into the conspiracy movie "genre".

Dennis Gansel unites with Max Riemelt for the fifth time in five outings (the talented Riemelt this time finds himself in a fun, but somewhat unchallenging supporting role), and goes to Moscow to make a film in the vein of the political paranoia thrillers of the 1970s. The subject material, a fictionalized story about the conflict between Chechens and Russians, is potentially controversial, which was why most of the filming was done in Ukraine and Berlin. However, if there's any controversy in Gansel's script, it's arguably only in the eyes of Russian censors. That is to say, despite some elegant moves and meanderings, this is all well-trodden stuff in terms of narrative progression and plot lines. Every character serves his or her familiar purpose, which takes away some of the potential for fresh, authentic relations and developments. Still, thanks to Moritz Bleibtreu's industrious and believable lead and Gansel's workmanship, this is a highly watchable look at modern Russia.

"The Naive German Moron In Russia". yes, i'm serious about this and not joking at all. from the very beginning of this movie, i knew it's a very good movie with all the proper casting all over. the young guy, the main character in this movie is such a naive moron who came from Germany to work for a Russian celebrity magazine. but his naivety and his loneliness made him lose his alertness as a foreigner, a stranger in a strange land. he allow his 'little head' doing all the stupid things that he should not do in the first place. this guy made me feel pity on him but at the same time, i think what he later encountered served him right. this is a highly ideological movie, portraying the current situation in Russia. it's also a warning to all the younger people who are interested in politics that passion is a very dangerous thing once government and government policies are involved. like what this German moron said when he was in bed with his newly found love: "it seems that he's doing nothing but protesting." there are indeed so many young guys who actually do nothing but only interested in demonstrations or protests against the reigning government. they think that peoples' power is the weapon against police or military forces. by yelling and screaming, they can achieve what they wanted, but what they got are either prison time or bullets in the head. the first thing that all the politicians in power would do is how to maintain their power and how to suppress the dissidents. this movie would allow you to understand why most Chinese young people would never like to do anything against their Chinese communist run government after Tien-An-Men Square massacre. because passion simply cannot stop a bullet.