severindringel

I am not familiar with Japanese cinema. In fact, I can count on one hand the number of films I have seen from that country. But all the buzz around Drive My Car over the course of this year's awards season has made me curious. What could be so great about watching three hours of people driving around in a red Saab 900 Turbo and talking to each other? Answer: When it comes to fascinating and lost souls, there's a lot going on.

At the beginning we get the impression that everything is going smoothly in the marriage of Oto and Yusuke. After waking up in bed, they harmoniously go about their rituals, which they use to show their love for each other. As the film progresses, however, we are shown revelations that make us question what we have seen so far. Suddenly, another event happens that turns the entire plot upside down. And then, 45 minutes into the film, the opening credits roll. And I ask myself: "Is this the beginning of the real film"? The first hour is like a prologue, which most films explain with exposition. Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi keeps the camera on every little detail and thus lets language speak. The epic running time can possibly be explained by the fact that Hamaguchi has enough time in the remaining two hours to tell the central story of the film. Why not then simply show extensively how it comes about in the first place? Because the core relationship of this film is not between the couple. It is between Yusuke and the young chauffeur Masaki. Two completely different generations coming together. The protagonist is also worlds apart from the ambitious actor Koji. The more exciting the dialogues between all the characters, the more thrilling the directions in which the relationships move. Even secondary characters are of immense importance to the plot and its significance despite limited time.

Hamaguchi manages to make much out of little in three hours. Although the action takes place mainly in three localities, the ingenious script makes you feel as if you are in all of them at the same time. In particular, the emotional states that Drive My Car traverses are eerily resonant. So authentic, so natural and so beautifully filmed that you would love to get into the red speedster yourself. A quiet and intimate masterpiece.

After the ape comes the bat: Matt Reeves is tackling his next project after his highly acclaimed Planet of the Apes trilogy. Batman is to become darker, Gotham dirtier and its inhabitants even more corrupt and vicious. Even more so than it all was in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight three-parter. An anti-superhero film, which actually only observes the hero and not the man under the mask, and shows how he sets out on his search for clues.

With the Riddler, Reeves introduces us to a villain who was last seen on screen in Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever. The Jim Carrey version was much more of a comic relief character than a bloodthirsty antagonist. Paul Dano plays a traumatised and mentally unstable avenger who seeks revenge on the city that has caused him so much pain. In parallel, corruption in Gotham around mob boss and mayor Carmine Falcone (John Turturro) is still a huge problem. Batman wants to put an end to all these tormentors. Robert Pattinson is the new Caped Crusader, although he always calls himself "Vengeance". Bruce Wayne is only in his second year as a crime fighter and is not a factor in Gotham in his life without a mask. He lives a reclusive life, is deeply sad and constantly focused in his head on his role as a hero. In this respect, Pattinson's version differs fundamentally from that of Christian Bale, for example, who played the arrogant pretty boy who was not too shy to make a grand entrance. In general, we hardly ever see Pattinson not in costume. When he inspects crime scenes with Lieutenant James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright), no one knows his identity. To the other cops, he's a freak who uses his fists more than his brains. To Catwoman (Zoe Kravitz), he is a mysterious introvert, but she immediately reads his privileged status in life. Kravitz carries this film in the first half with her confident portrayal of this internally fractured character. We see a Catwoman with a backstory and a clearly defined mission. So does the unrecognisable Colin Farrell as Falcone's right-hand man the Penguin. He provides most of the laughs in an otherwise humour-free film. Case in point: Pattinson's face shows something like a smile exactly once in three hours of running time. Andy Serkis, as the only human component in Bruce Wayne's life, suffers from the fact that this is a pure Batman film.

Judging by that, we get the character study of the title character that we never had in the Nolan films. To be that, the film puts too much focus on the investigation, interminable dialogue between characters and the depiction of filthy Gotham. Never has the city been so pessimistic and hopeless. It fits perfectly into The Batman, which makes you more depressed than happy. From a cinematic point of view, however, you can walk away from this film with a big grin on your face. Never has a superhero film been so beautifully filmed. The music by Michael Giacchino brings up thriller elements. And although the film is so long and at times sluggish, you sit riveted until the end. It's not packed with action (though one car chase is one of the best in film history), doesn't bristle with CGI effects and doesn't have a big showdown. It's the quiet, intimate superhero film we've never had.

Hardly anything is more difficult than bringing an acclaimed film series to a successful conclusion. There is always someone who disagrees with the ending, but on the other hand you also see happy faces. Christopher Nolan was thus faced with the virtually impossible challenge of ending the story of Bruce Wayne and Batman on a satisfying note. In the end, The Dark Knight Rises came out as arguably the most controversial hate and favourite film of an entire fan culture.

The template could not have been on a higher level for the final act of the three-parter. The Dark Knight is an all time fan favourite and for many almost a religion. Therefore, it was generally a lose-lose situation for Nolan. Yet the opening sequence of The Dark Knight Rises is the best of the entire trilogy. We get packed action on a plane and meet a new villain, the masked mercenary Banes, embodied by Tom Hardy. Apparently Hardy has stepped up his physical form in Warrior, because as Bane he is an absolute beast. As the impious terrorist, he is sheer terrifying and gives you the exact tension that such a visually seemingly indomitable villain should have about him. Above all, the threat he exudes on Gotham and Batman carries the film for long stretches. It's a pity that the protagonist comes up short in many moments for this reason. Nolan concentrates all the more on other new faces, such as Anne Hathaway's Catwoman, Marion Cotillard's Talia and Joseph Gordon-Levitt's John Blake. Not every one of them works; Cotillard is not particularly believable in the role and, after a certain scene, is more like a character who serves as a stopgap. Gordon-Levitt plays the role of the good-hearted policeman Blake with his usual charisma. However, the character is not interesting enough in relation to his screen time to completely pick me up. Only Hathaway manages to put her stamp on the iconic Catwoman with her desirable qualities. Although after a strong start, she suddenly all but disappears from the film and is merely used for convenience. Characters that were important in the first two films, such as Commissioner Gordon, Lucius Fox and even Alfred, come up slightly short because of the new characters.

Contrary to many others, I am not of the opinion that The Dark Knight Rises completely ruins the trilogy. The action is too great and the film enjoys too much the luxury of being able to rely on the virtues of its predecessors. So why is it the weakest film in the series and not really an ideal conclusion? Batman Begins is one of the few Nolan films that generates real emotion from its script. We get to know the inner life of Bruce Wayne and understand why he becomes this flawed vigilante hero. Nolan fails to evoke these emotions in The Dark Knight Rises. A troubled Batman on his final mission, he couldn't have picked a better premise for this. Instead, he distracts from the protagonist, plunges into plot lines that remain without real consequence and often make no sense in their logic. And then this ending...an ending that could hardly be more cheesy and unfair to this almost completely unromantic trilogy.