email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

RELEASES Portugal

Silent monks and Stasi spies: Different lives onscreen

by 

Proving that German productions are reaching higher visibility abroad, two very different German titles hit today local screens. They both carry the quality stamp of the latest European Film Awards (see news), which gave Philip Groning's Into Great Silence [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Philip Groening
film profile
]
the Arte Award for the Best Documentary of 2006 and Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's debut The Lives of Others [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Florian Henckel von Donners…
interview: Ulrich Muehe
film profile
]
three major prizes, including Best Film, Best Screenplay and Best Actor for Ulrich Mühe.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

Into Great Silence (see Focus) is the first documentary released by Atalanta in 2007, after the unexpected success of last year's local documentary Lisboetas (see news).

In three intervals between 2002 and 2003, Gröning filmed 120 hours of the daily lives of the monks from the Grande Chartreuse of Grenoble, the oldest and most important Carthusian monastery of Europe. Those days were then reduced to a 166-minute film in which there is no place for music except for the chants in the monastery, no commentary or extraneous material.

After its success at the European Film Awards, The Lives of Others is now one of the favourite titles in the running for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Von Donnersmarck wrote and directed an austere film about an officer of the Stasi (the GDR service secret) who spies on a writer, a potential danger to the regime. Mühe's award-winning performance reveals a man torn between his duties towards the regime and his uncomfortable, emerging doubts.

One of Germany's local hits of 2006, the film is now conquering audiences across national borders. Vitoria Filmes is distributing the film theatrically.

The third European release comes not from Germany but from neighbouring France: My Best Friend [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
by Patrice Leconte (see interview), starring Daniel Auteuil, is being brought to theatres by the Lusomundo studio.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

Privacy Policy