Grave Decisions

Dear European movie lovers, now I am going to review Wer Fruher Stirbt Ist Langer Tot, one of German comedy with deep meaning. This movie cited as comedy because the main story is whole about to make you laughing a lot from your seat, especially the theatrical scenes each night while the main character dreaming, but frightening about what he has been done at the day. The main story is so simple, is all about the imagination of a kid, who lost his mother while gave birth to him, so that friends, especially his brother made him frightened that he was the one who killed the mother. Sleeping so close to the theater club, this kid is starting to imagine in the Last Judgement, being punished, etc, so that he be friended with local radio announcer to get more positive energy and also to help his father has new girlfriend to replace her mother. The plots to finish this duty is so funny, a really German comedy with sense of religious-critic, sex scenes, and also the relationship among characters that makes this movie so adorable, funny, but having deep meaning about our life, than perhaps the Universe is just going along that way, without any personal consequences to us, but it is us who make some points complicated. Have fun with this German movie!!

I was a little wary of this movie, German comedy is often too shallow and unimaginative. But Rosenmüller went the other way instead, choosing to make a deliberately whacky and funnily dark movie about a kid seeking immortality to escape eternal punishment for his mother's death. That's a great concept, the movie plays it for what it's worth and the Bavarian setting in all it's strangeness helps a lot. For me, there is a problem, though: the leading role. Finding a 11-year old who can act is hard, I personally can think of only one or two movies with boys figuring prominently that they didn't sink. Girls seem to do a better job of it somehow.

Anyway, Markus Krojer is no exception to the rule. His acting is wooden, he barely seems to be able to act his role rather than himself (or at least it seems like that. Never met him.) He's just a kid, so no blame there, but it hurts the movie.

Fundamentally, Bavarian comedy is an exception from the "Germans have no sense of humor"-rule. At their best, they live up to the Brits. "Wer früher stirbt..." is proof of that once again.

I couldn't disagree more with the previous commentator. I saw this movie last night at the German Film Festival in Washington DC and was absolutely blown away (as was the person I watched it with). It is one of the most beautifully written movies we have ever seen. Set in rural Bavaria, the audience follows the adventures and thought processes of an 11-year old boy (played by a brilliant actor). The plot fits together perfectly, captures you completely, makes you laugh out loud hysterically at times and cry at others. The vivid portrayal of the community surrounding the boy lets you become a part of it. There was not a moment of boredom for me, and the first thing I said to my companion after the film was that I wanted to get it on DVD to watch it again. While the characterizations are larger than life, they are the farthest thing from clichés. This is a brave movie that has some of the best treatment of both youth and death that I have seen.

I'd never have thought that a German, well it's actually more a Bavarian movie, could be this exceptional anymore. But it continues the line of rare Bavarian films that capture life in all its facets, in the great tradition of Franz Xaver Bogner's "Irgendwie & Sowieso" from the 1980s. It's true and funny, sad and heartwarming, telling a grand story with an outstandingly authentic cast, an exceptionally good soundtrack in beautiful pictures. If you want to be entertained well for an evening and you want more than just a cheap laugh, go see this movie (despite its strange title, meaning something like "The sooner you die, the longer you'll be dead") and see Bavaria beyond all kitsch!

This movie took me completely by surprise. I had read a favorably inclined review in which it was mentioned that the film gave an interesting outlook on the effects of catholicism on children. It does so indeed, yet without ever ridiculing its subject or characters. And as if that were not enough, the film is at the same time incredibly funny.

11-year-old Sebastian is the main character who learns from his elder brother that their mother died when Sebastian was born. While this was intended as some sort of punishment for some mischief the boy was up to, the impact this news has on him was not to be foreseen... afraid of having to end up in purgatory for his sin, Sebastian is looking for ways to make himself immortal. The solutions that are suggested to him by his immediate environment are mostly questionable - yet Sebastian is more than willing to heed any advice to redeem himself.

What follows is a wild goose chase for salvation, leaving the spectator marveling at Sebastian's ingenuity and laughing about the misinterpretations that may occur when parents and teachers try to understand their children.