Firebowl

Just saw "My Suicide" at the Berlin Film Festival, where it was hidden in the "Generation" section for children's and youth-related movies. It is hard to describe the story and visual experience of this movie in just a few lines, so to spare you an extensive review, I'll just say this: "My Suicide" is one of the most powerful, most inventive and most thought-provoking movies in years, constructed in a tour-de-force of virtuoso editing (finishing this movie after principal photography took three years) that will blow the mind of any real film lover on this planet. And it is the most insightful, intelligent movie I have ever seen on the topic of teenage suicide. "My Suicide" is surely not only the best film of the entire festival, but one of the best films of this year - if somebody is daring enough to pick it up and distribute it properly. I pray for all movie freaks out there that somebody does.

I strongly disagree with the earlier comment from the user Buscherl. I think "Klassentreffen" is an exquisite example for all the strong points of a good German TV movie, producing great work under the constraints of a very limited budget, and thus concentrating on narration and characters.

It has a story anyone can relate to, provided one is open enough to empathize with the strong, realistic characters who are greatly developed by the actors and the dialog writing. The amazing script brings an interesting twist to the movie with its structural device of telling the multi-character story not completely chronological, but for one character after another - an ingenious narrative technique, which adds suspense and gives better opportunity to get to know and judge the characters one at a time. The subtle direction is also very good, reaching a touching highpoint with a nostalgic scene in a music classroom that borders on pure movie magic.

Perfected by a great ensemble cast performance, "Klassentreffen" is an outstanding German TV movie and a definite recommendation for everyone who has learned that life doesn't always turn out as planned or expected - shortly, for all of us.

Having seen "Matrix Revolutions" today at a press screening in Germany, I can't help to be disappointed, and very much so. Considering the vast possibilities of the storyline after the end of "Reloaded" (when the idea of a Matrix within the Matrix seemed almost certain and the fate of Neo had just gained an immensely multi-layered dimension), what the Wachowski Brothers now present as a conclusion is too simple and easy to believe. It almost feels like their audience understood better what potential lay in their story than they did themselves. And that can never be a good thing.

An O.K. movie if you just take it for itself and judge it by the usual standards - and if you can still enjoy the awesome visual style and the pitch-perfect action sequences - "Matrix Revolutions" is almost a complete failure seen as the closure of the trilogy that has already revolutionized modern cinema. Seldom have I felt this let down by a movie that was supposed to fulfill high expectations. The Wachowskis, after all, may not be as brilliant as we always thought them to be. Sad, but true.