The Business of Being Born

I wish I could get every expecting couple to watch this movie. We have been completly douped by the medical establishment. For instance, did you know that the US has the second worst newborn death rate in modern world?

hat-tip: Chair of Bowlies

a must see movie clip

Microsoft Feels Your Pain : here
Hat Tip: Eric

DOWNFALL (Der Untergang)

I found myself getting really uncomfortable during this movie because Hitler was painted in a light unlike that of any other movie on Hitler I have seen. Unlike in Max where Hitler is portrayed as either unstable or psycho, Down Fall portrayed Hitler as Human, and at times even likeable. In spite of the fact that he was not portrayed as a seething Jew hater as we like (and rightly so) to view him here in the west, I think the story was probably truer then any I've seen about Hitler.

For the most part the movie chronicles the last couple of weeks of Hitler's life. The story was partially told from the perspective of his personal secretary Traudl Jung. On a side note if you want to see a good documentary on Traudl Jung then check out Blind Spot. It is an insightful documentary on how an innocent girl got sucked into the heart of WWII. I might do a post on Blind spot at some point but not right now.

There were several really moving scenes in Down Fall, but by far the one that was most moving took place after the suicide of Hitler. Upon hearing of his death Frau Goebbels murdered her six children as they slept in their bunk beds. The scene was far less disturbing than the Andrea Yates murders, but none the less it brought to life the reality of a despotic ideology running its course.

If you are looking for a good movie to pick up this weekend that will get you thinking then this is the one for you. If you are with the right group when watching this movie it should lead to a very interesting conversation.

If you end up seeing it let me know what you think.

Click to see the Down Fall (Der Untergang) trailer

The Girl from Paris

The Girl from Paris was a good movie with a simple story and good character development. French with English subtitles it is about a woman name Sandrine who has had enough of her IT profession and decides to head back to school to get a degree in agriculture.

The majority of the movie takes place in the Rhône-Alps region of France where Sandrine buys a goat farm from a retiring farmer. The only stipulations Adrien (former owner) had was that he had to be able to live on the farm for 18 months and that the cherry tree and pear tree were his. Adrien is a grumpy old man who lost his wife of 35 years some 10 years earlier. The movie is about the friendship that develops between Adrien and Sandrine as she gets the business up and running.

The fact that there was no nudity and little or no bad language was a refreshing break from the typical foreign film. I have to say, even if the movie was bad it might be worth watching just for the scenery. I am definitely going to add the Rhône-Alps to the itinerary if and when we get to go back to Europe.

three movies

Something I'm going to start doing on my blog is making a list of movies I've seen. I have an extremely short memory and I forget what movies I've seen and what they were about, so this should help me when I need a quick reference.

For some reason I unintentional picked up three subtitled movies. Here they are:

• Maria Full of Grace
• Broken Wings (Knafayim Shvurot)
• To Be and to Have (Être et avoir)

Maria Full of Grace

Maria Full of Grace:

If anyone else has seen this movie I would love to hear your comments it. I don't want to make the movie out to be more than it was but it was a very good movie. I did not expect it being that it was an HBO movie. I even started the movie a little ticked at the blatant HBO movie trailers at the beginning. I always get a little aggravated when I am forced to watch the trailers at the beginning of a DVD, and this movie had one of those beginnings. Besides all that this movie totally sucked me in and disarmed me. It was not until a day or two later that I even thought about my previous feelings on illegal immigration and the like.

I don't want to give too much of the movie away but the movie was about a girl who through a series of events ends up being hired on as a mule. For those who don't know a mule is a person who smuggles drugs into a country by swallowing large grape size packages of the drug. I have known what a mule was for several years but never thought about what was involved in being a mule. The movie was rather graphic but very eye-opening.

My only regret with this movie was that I did not get to watch the director's interview at the end. Leslie and Ben both saw it and said it was very good. Like I said if you get a chance to watch Maria Full of Grace I would love to hear your comments on it.

Broken Wings (Knafayim Shvurot)

Broken Wings was one of the saddest movies I have seen in a very long time. I'm really not sure if I have ever seen a movie as sad as this one. I would recommend it. There was a bit of language in the movie, which could have been done without but all in all I would recommend it.

It does not take too much for me to get a little watery eyed, but I'm not sure when the last time was that I've teared up watching a movie. About 20 minutes before it was over I just had to stop the movie before the tears started rolling down my face. I looked over to state the obvious to Leslie and to give myself a few second to recoup. When I looked over at Leslie she was silently balling with Elliot in her lap so not to wake him up.

I think this is the first Israeli film I've seen. It was in Hebrew and obviously subtitled. The movie was about a family learning to cope with the loss of their father. As a father I think the importance of our role is something we easily forget. Well, I do at least. It is so easy for me to go through a work a day life and forget that God has placed me as the head of my home to help be an anchor. This movie just struck me anew with the importance of my role as a father, and I hope that I can keep that at the forefront of my mind while rearing my little ones.

To Be and to Have (Être et avoir)

I picked up (To Be and To Have) Être et avoir after reading the back cover. It said that it was the highest grossing French documentary of all time or something like that, so I figured it had to be good. It was Okay. There was a lot of nice scenery in the movie and the compassion of the teacher was much more evident at the end verse the beginning. Though, I kind of wonder if you need to be French or a Francophile to completely get this movie.

In short the documentary was about Goerges Lopez a teacher in a one room school house somewhere in the French country side and the lives of the handful of students he teaches. His students were kindergarteners through pre middle schoolers and all seemed to be very unique.

I don't think I would go as far as not recommending this movie because the interpersonal relationships were interesting and it was an interesting look into life in a one room schoolhouse.

I would be interested in hearing some bodies else's take on this movie.

one more Napoleon Dynamite post

If you did not catch the Napoleon Dynamite top 10 on Dave Letterman then here it is.

Top Ten Signs You're Not The Most Popular Guy In Your High School presented by Napoleon Dynamite
10. Your yearbook photo caption reads, "Unidentified Sophomore."
9. Your only friend is the one you built in shop class.
8. School song includes phrase about how much you suck.
7. Every time you talk to a girl, the conversation inevitably drifts to your frequent nosebleeds.
6. The stupid kid who gets his tater tots stolen every day? He steals your tater tots.
5. Everyone's jealous of your tetherball skills.
4. Not only did you take your mom to the prom, you had to pay her 20 bucks.
3. You can't dance like this.
2. "Lord of the Rings" figurines-50, friends-0.
1. How would I know? I'm like the coolest kid in school.

It is much funnier with Nopoleon doing the top ten. Here is the only link I could find link(please don't visit any other link on this site).

Napolean Dynamite and Good Bye Lenin!

Update

I was thinking about this post this morning and what it was that I liked about Good Bye Lenin. I think it has to do with the character development that took place in the movie. There was just more to the movie than what appeared on the surface. I don't want to ruin the movie for you if you have not seen it but it was interesting how the son grew up to be a liar and an activist just like his mother. Even though no one knew she was living a lie. I think what it is that I like about foreign films is that compared to the vast majority of American films they are more akin to reading a book. There is just a depth to the movies that leaves me thinking when the movie is over.

While doing this post I realize that I should have taken a few more of those liberal arts classes in college. Does anyone know what the term is that describes the relationship between characters in a story that goes beyond just the plot? I guess I'm talking about the one that describes the second meaning in a story or reading between the lines.

End Update

It had been a while since Leslie and I took the time to rent any movies and since our schedule had cleared up a bit Leslie sent me on a mission to pick up some movies from Blockbuster. The two movies I picked out, I picked out after reading about them on a blogs.

The first one I got was Napolean Dynamite. I could have sworn I read about it on Michael's blog, but after searching his past posts I could not find it. It seems rare these days to have a movie that is rated PG. In my opinion they try to throw in nudity and language just to get the R rating. I think they figure that a PG movie just does not have the draw that an R rating does. Napolean Dynamite was a funny movie and worth renting.

The second movie we rented was Good Bye Lenin. It was a really good film. I decided to rent it after reading this post on the D'oh's and Woo Hoo's of Life. There was one brief nudity scene in the movie and a few choice words that could have been easily left out but over all it was a good movie. I would recommend it. I guess I could give a bit of explanation of the movie but I would just be repeating what was said on D'oh's and Woo Hoo's of Life so you can just go read it there.

I'm not sure what it is but Leslie and I just love European films. I'm not sure we've ever seen a European film where at the end we did not have to stop talk about it. They just seem either intelligent or thoughtful. I'm not sure I could put it into words exactly what it is, but there is something different about them.

I was talking to Ben at lunch today and he thinks it's because the only foreign films we see here in the states are the films that were good enough to make it here. I'm not so sure he's right. Though, he might be. I think it might have more to do with the fact that they are not trying to create the next big block buster with every film they make. I think when you are not focusing on throwing millions of bucks at special effects you can take the time to have a good story. I don't know. Does anybody else have an opinion?

movie

Dietrich Bonhoeffer After Tony's we went to Blockbuster to rent a movie. We really could not find much to rent. We were hoping the Luther movie was out but is was not. I did find a nice documentary on Bonhoeffer. I know it does not sound like a romantic anniversary move to rent, and it was not, but one thing about Leslie and I is that we normally try to rent foreign films or documentary if we can. I did not know anything about Bonhoeffer, but had heard quotes from him. We were nervous that we would not get the true story of his life and that the movie was made by some history changing, God's name deluding individual whose agenda would be antithetical to mine. Don't get me wrong, I dislike movies, documentaries, and literature that do not tell the whole truth. I think in the Christian community, journalist and authors tend to focus on the good aspects of a story and miss the truly human side of life. One thing I love about the bible is that it always tells the full story. You hear about king David's whole life good and the bad, and get to see how God still loved him and pursued him.

...back to the movie.

I had always wondered where the German church was during world war II. I always wondered why they did not try to stand up to Hitler. That being the case this movie answered a few questions I had about the German Church during World War II. I look forward to reading Bonhoeffer book on ethics it should be a good read. The documentary was pretty high level, but good nonetheless it was plenty enough to get me interested.