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DVD Sophie Scholl - The Final Days
Through its simplicity and scrupulous attention to historical detail, Sophie Scholl: The Final Days proves to be both thrillingly suspenseful and emotionally devastating. During the peak of the Third Reich, Sophie Scholl (Julia Jentsch, The Edukators), along with her brother Hans and other students in Munich, formed a resistance group called the White Rose and distributed anti-Nazi leaflets. Sophie Scholl begins on a crisp winter day, with Sophie and Hans distributing leaflets around the empty halls of a university before class is let out. The tension only increases as they are arrested, interrogated, and swiftly convicted in a brutal show trial. The heart of the film are the scenes between Sophie and her interrogator, Robert Mohr (Gerald Alexander Held), a loyal Nazi who nonetheless respected and perhaps even admired Sophie. Their arguments, distilled down from hours of historical record, crackle with emotion and resonate throughout history, from Communist totalitarianism to the Bush administration condemning critics of the Iraq war as traitors. Jentsch's restrained performance only grows more and more moving over the movie's course. A deeply engaging and powerful movie. --Bret Fetzer
I highly recommend this movie to anyone who has an interest in courage, WWII, and the Nazi period in German history.
The Scholls' along with Anne Frank, Oskar Schlinder, and Raoul Wallenberg stand out as icons of the unspeakable tragedy that was the National Socialist regime. In order to understand the Nazis, one must study the life and actions of the persons' above.
The movie itself was emotional wrenching, simple in its production, but terribly authentic in its presentation and historical accuracy. This movie belongs with "Down Fall" and "Schlinders List" on any list of movies about the Nazis'.
A must for Americans of the Bush era
They say that "God writes lousy theater," but sometimes extraordinary individuals whose actual words are recorded can be more dramatic and affecting than the products of a playwright's or script writer's imagination. This is not an easy movie to watch, since most of us know from the very first frame what's going to happen to the idealistic young woman and her friends, and the movie's gripping suspense comes largely from watching the inevitable unfold.
But it's important for Americans in this day and age to watch it, and to remember that the dialog they're hearing comes from actual Gestapo and trial transcripts, not from someone's 20/20 hindsight. So when the judge berates the members of the White Rose for "demoralizing the troops" and "encouraging the enemy," remember that this is not a winking allusion to the rantings of people like Bill O'Reilly and Ann Coulter. It's the same argument, being made for the same reasons, by Hitler's willing executioners.
Sophie Scholl and her fellow White Rose members never fired a shot, threw a Molotov cocktail or even possessed weapons. They committed their acts of "treason" with words, paper, copying machines and postage stamps. They warned that atrocities were taking place, and that Germany, after the devastating defeat at Stalingrad could not win the war but only prolong it. There are people today who say, and claim not to be joking, that speech like that is treason and should be punished as such; they wanted to see legal action against journalists who publicized the horrors of Abu Ghraib and the existence of "black site" prisons. Ann Coulter said in apparent seriousness that John Walker Lindt should get the death penalty as a lesson to liberals, to demonstrate that they too could be killed. Today, actions, tomorrow speech, the next day, thoughts. Just because the U.S. hasn't sent anyone to the guillotine yet for dissenting speech, don't kid yourself for a minute that it couldn't happen here.
Beliefs and Bravery
SOPHIE SCHOOL - THE FINAL DAYS is one of those films made more powerful by the understated production values. The script, yes, the story itself, is so powerful that it doesn't need big battle scenes or full-fledged staged crowd scenes to make it work: the dialogue among the actors speaks volumes.
Written by Fred Breinersdorfer based on documents from life and directed with enormous sensitivity by Marc Rothemund the film takes place in the last days of the lives of members of the anti-Nazi resistance movement The White Rose in 1943. Sophie Scholl (Julia Jentsch), her brother Hans (Fabian Hinrichs) and their friend Christoph (Florian Stetter) are organizers for creating leaflets warning the populace of Germany of the ills ahead should Hitler and his Hessians remain in power. They are caught, imprisoned and interrogated. Sophie's interrogator Robert Mohr (Gerald Alexander Held), though strong, does seem to understand Sophie's explanations for her denial of participation in the spreading of leaflets, but Sophie has the courage to speak out against the current government. Hans is likewise interrogated and when he confesses to the leaflet incident he is implicating both Sophie and Christoph and the three are brought before a vicious tribunal. Christoph pleads for his life and Sophie and Hans request that his life as a father be spared but the charges are made of iron and the three are convicted and immediately executed.
The fact that the story is true makes it all the more moving. Observing the inordinate amount of courage in standing firm for beliefs - especially in Sophie's case - is humbling for the viewer. How many of us, under similar circumstances would have that degree of conviction of ideals and bravery?
The acting by everyone involved is first rate, with Julia Jentsch and Gerald Alexander Held being especially fine. The pacing, scoring, lighting and direction of this film are keyed to the atmosphere of the times in 1943 Germany, creating a sense of claustrophobia in the visual and the emotional aspects of the film. It is a brilliant work and deserves a very wide audience. In German with English subtitles. Grady Harp, December 06
Joyeux Noel captures a rare moment of grace from one of the worst wars in the history of mankind, World War I. On Christmas Eve, 1914, as German, French, and Scottish regiments face each other from their respective trenches, a musical call-and-response turns into an impromptu cease-fire, trading chocolates and champagne, playing soccer, and comparing pictures of their wives. But when Christmas ends, the war returns...Joyeux Noel has been justly accused of sentimentality, but if any subject warrants such an earnest and hopeful treatment, it's the horrors of trench warfare. The largely unknown cast--the more familiar faces include Diane Kruger (Troy), Daniel Bruhl (Good Bye Lenin!), Benno Furmann (The Princess and the Warrior), and Gary Lewis (Billy... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 14 November 2006 Usually ships in 4 to 11 days
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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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many thanks to paramount, the edition is very very good and the bonus interesting. finally one of the most important italian fims of all time has been edited. More Info about this DVD Director(s): Bernardo Bertolucci DVD Release Date: Released the 05 December 2006 Usually ships in 24 hours
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1900 is one of Bernardo Bertolucci's adventures in epic filmmaking that never found the reception he had hoped for. Originally more than six hours long, it was chopped down to four hours for its U.S. release and as a result looked, well, choppy. Eventually, he restored it to five hours--but one wonders at all the effort on behalf of this alternately muddled and stunning story. The film, with a decidedly socialist agenda, examines two lives that begin the same year in rural Italy: the weak-willed son of the aristocracy (Robert De Niro) and the hardy, courageous son of peasants (Gerard Depardieu). They grow up as best friends on the same estate, until class differences pull them apart and then the era's fascist politics divide them for good. Despite strong performances by both leads,... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Bernardo Bertolucci DVD Release Date: Released the 05 December 2006 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Warren Beatty's lengthy 1981 drama about American Communist John Reed and his relationships with both the Russian Revolution and a writer named Louise Bryant (Diane Keaton) is a compelling piece of little-known history told in a uniquely personal way. Beatty plays Reed as he did the title gangster in Bugsy and Senator in Bulworth, as a visionary likely to die before anyone fully recognizes the progressiveness of the vision, including those who are supposed to be on the same page. Jack Nicholson has an interesting part as fellow intellectual Eugene O'Neill, and the late author Jerzy Kosinski--himself a refugee from then-Soviet-controlled Poland--makes a strong impression as Reed's problematic Russian liaison. --Tom KeoghMore Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 17 October 2006 Usually ships in 24 hours
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