Ein Freund von mir

The movie business in general tries to stick to the formulas that are known to work, and German films are no exception. Sometime in the mid-90s, Till Schweiger started to mass-produce comedy-drama hybrid movies and it seems that this is the way to go nowadays. "A Friend Of Mine" is full of great cinematography, moody and melancholic songs, a very slow pace and a lot of pseudo-philosophical garbage. But taking a few typical, well worn-out formulas doesn't always make for a great film. You can have a slow, subtle and gentle movie and it's brilliant ("Before Sunrise") and you can do the same and fail miserably ("A Friend Of Mine"). The story line is extremely uneventful and the characters unconvincing. Many parts of the script don't relate to the evolution of the story at all and are just puzzling at best. One thing proved: It takes a Jim Jarmusch to turn a story going nowhere into something very watchable.

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.

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

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!!

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!