It's summertime in Hamburg, and while it's a time for most people to go away on holiday, Daniel (Moritz Bleibtreu), a serious young teacher, is stuck at home. A bohemian young woman named Juli (Christiane Paul) has her sights set on Daniel, but Daniel spoils Juli's plans by meeting Melek, a traveling Turkish woman (Idil Uner). When Melek leaves for Budapest the next day, Daniel impulsively decides to follow her, and he bumps into Juli as she hitchhikes out of town. Juli makes a habit of taking a hitchhiking holiday every summer, and her destination is always left to chance--she goes wherever the passing cars take her.
"In July" is basically an on-the-road romance. The viewer knows that Juli is attracted to Daniel, but Daniel is blissfully unaware of this. He's so determined to meet a mystery woman under the Bosporus Bridge that he overlooks Juli entirely. As they pass through Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania on the way to Budapest, Daniel and Juli suffer a series of misadventures, and at every misfortune, Daniel becomes less straitlaced and more uninhibited.
While the film is rather predictable, it's salvaged by completely unexpected moments of originality. The heavy use of coincidence is forgiven by the plot's emphasis on fate. Juli's free spirited character is nicely balanced by Daniel's stability and occasional stodginess. Slated to be a popular foreign romance film, "In July" is directed by Fatih Akin--in German with English subtitles--displacedhuman
"Is That The Sun?" - When Fate And the Stars Aren't Enough
Note: German with English subtitles.
Daniel (Moritz Bleibtreu), a naive student teacher from Hamburg is pursuaded to buy an antique ring adorned with the image of the sun by a street vendor. July (Christiane Paul) the pretty girl selling the item tells him he will soon meet a woman wearing the same symbol. She will be his one true love.
July plans to be that true love, but Daniel bumps into someone else first wearing the sunburst symbol on her tanktop. She spends one night with him before leaving for Istanbul. He decides to pursue her and as fate would have it, July inadvertantly joins in the journey. And so the romantic adventure begins.
This is an absolutely fantastic film. Beautiful cinematography, wonderfully infectious music, great storyline and three beautiful girls. Besides the two actors already mentioned I want to also credit Mehmet Kurtulus and Idil Uner for their first rate supporting roles.
I could watch this film over and over again. My favorite German language movie by far!
Good stuff
This movie is a comedy/drama that is about a dull nerdy guy that doesn't have a snowball's chance getting a girl. A necklace suddenly changes all of that, and he goes on a wild ride to Turkey. This is definately good stuff from Bleibtreu. He does a lot more acting in this than Run Lola Run. I understand German pretty well, but there are a couple of spots that I went back and turned on the subtitles. The accents sometimes get a little thick from the cast of characters he encouters.
Contemporary comedies rarely stretch themselves beyond a bickering romantic couple or a bickering couple and a bucket of bodily fluids, which makes the ambition and intelligence of Good bye, Lenin! not simply entertaining but downright refreshing. The movie starts in East Germany before the fall of communism; our hero, Alex (Daniel Bruhl), describes how his mother (Katrin Sass), a true believer in the communist cause, has a heart attack when she sees him being clubbed by police at a protest. She falls into a coma for eight months--during which the Berlin Wall comes down. When she awakens, her fragile health must avoid any shocks, so Alex creates an illusive reality around his bedridden mother to convince her that communism is still alive. Good bye, Lenin! delicately balances... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Wolfgang Becker (II) DVD Release Date: Released the 10 August 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The structure of the movie reminded me of "Eleni", a weaving of the past and present as a child goes back to investigate the horrors that were the parent's past. Starts slowly but settles into a pace that can be truly savored. This is a movie that I will find myself revisiting again and again. More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Katja Riemann - Maria Schrader - Jutta Lampe - Svea Lohde Director(s): Margarethe von Trotta DVD Release Date: Released the 18 January 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Both epic and heartbreakingly intimate, Nowhere in Africa begins with a Jewish woman named Jettel Redlich fleeing Nazi Germany with her daughter Regina, to join her husband, Walter, on a farm in Kenya. At first, Jettel refuses to adjust to her new circumstances (she brought with her a set of china dishes and an evening gown), while Regina adapts readily to this new world, forming a strong bond with her father's cook, an African named Owuor. But this is only the beginning of a series of uprootings, and as the surface of their lives is torn away, Walter and Jettel find they have little in common, and must--under tumultuous circumstances--build their marriage anew. With incredible skill and passion, Nowhere in Africa manages to bring you fully into every change in... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Juliane Köhler - Merab Ninidze - Matthias Habich Director(s): Caroline Link DVD Release Date: Released the 30 September 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Mostly Martha is a rich addition to the recent banquet of movies about food. Martha (Martina Gedeck), the domineering chef at a fancy restaurant, has her rigid routine broken when her sister dies in a car wreck, leaving behind her 9-year-old daughter Lina (Maxime Foerste). Martha takes the girl in, but has no gift for maternal expression; she offers Lina food, but Lina refuses to eat. Meanwhile, her control over her kitchen is threatened when her boss hires a buoyant Italian named Mario (Sergio Castellitto) to assist, and Martha finds herself flailing in an effort to reestablish control of her life. While Mostly Martha may not hold many surprises, the writing, direction, and particularly the acting are as sumptuous and sensual as the cooking and eating. The... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Martina Gedeck - Maxime Foerste - Sergio Castellitto Director(s): Sandra Nettelbeck DVD Release Date: Released the 18 February 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Four tough women in a German penitentiary join forces to form a rock band. When administrators take them to perform at a policeman's ball, the prisoners escape, kidnapping a convenient boy-toy hostage (Werner Schreyer), along the way. Their band, Bandits, becomes a national sensation as the women continue to evade the police. The movie is a wild ride, with quite a respectable score of rock songs--some catchy, some haunting--composed and performed by Bandits members themselves. All are sung in English (which seems to be the universal language of rock & roll). But although the picture is a lot of fun, it's no Spice World; there's a harder edge, a deeper agenda here. These women were all prisoners for a reason. Each fugitive's story is gradually revealed as the plot progresses.... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Katja Riemann - Jasmin Tabatabai - Nicolette Krebitz - Jutta Hoffmann Director(s): Katja von Garnier DVD Release Date: Released the 21 March 2000 This item is currently not available.
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