Movies set in Germany seem to be a special pleasure to watch. I saw one recently, which reminded me of another one I had seen some years ago. Both these movies have poignant themes and build progressively towards a gently tearful ending. They spend a lot of time showing activities of every day life and through this the dramatic points are driven in. While one dealt with the life under communism in the erstwhile East Germany, the other deals with the effects of the occurrences in World War II on different people. The former is the German movie called "The Lives of Others", which I had an opportunity to see earlier and the latter "The Reader", which I watched only recently.
Many years ago, I had the good fortune to read the book "The Chamber" by John Grisham. In general, I do not like Grisham's books. I find them too fluffy and have not bothered reading any of his books for the past 15 odd years. But "The Chamber" is very different from "The Firm" or other books of Grisham's that I am aware of. It dealt with the topic of a man awaiting his turn at the gas chamber for a racist killing he had committed 25 years earlier. In these 25 odd years, the man and his ideologies had changed. One could feel that he has turned into a good person and is repenting for his past. The way this is presented and built is very beautiful and really touched my heart. It is a fine book on why capital punishment should not be given to anyone. Though I really do not agree with that thought process, for a brief period my feelings turned to anti-capital punishment. That, in my view, is a big success for the author; though the book itself was not very successful is what I understand. The movie "The Reader" is another example wherein the viewers tend to sympathize with a wrong-doer. Like the book, this movie brings out that it is not possible to categorize people as good or bad. The world is full of grey and not black and white.
The movie takes place in the post world war II Germany, starting off a few years after the war and going on till the turn of the century. It starts off with a relationship developing between a mid-teen boy and a middle aged woman. It traverses the path followed by these two characters due to effects of the lady's past actions. To me, it brought out how a set of events have different effects on different individuals and how each of them have their reasons for their actions. The right and wrong that someone has in judging others is not the same when judging self. For me, it also said that we should probably think from the other person's point of view before judging him/her. It at least gives us an idea of the other person's thinking and this might hone our own judgement.
The movie has Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes in it and that is good enough for me to watch it. The younger version of Ralph Fiennes is acted by a young German actor called David Kross and he comes across very well too. The film is constructed leisurely and the scenes flow into each other, which makes it like a watching a poetry.
The intent of the movie comes out from the statement that comes half way through the movie.
"Societies think they operate by something called morality but they don't. They operate by something called law. You are not guilty by merely working at Auschwitz; 8000 people worked there. Precisely 19 have been convicted, 6 for murder. To prove murder you have to prove intent. That's the law. The question is never was it wrong but was it legal. And not by our laws, no - by the laws at the time."
The movie takes place in the post world war II Germany, starting off a few years after the war and going on till the turn of the century. It starts off with a relationship developing between a mid-teen boy and a middle aged woman. It traverses the path followed by these two characters due to effects of the lady's past actions. To me, it brought out how a set of events have different effects on different individuals and how each of them have their reasons for their actions. The right and wrong that someone has in judging others is not the same when judging self. For me, it also said that we should probably think from the other person's point of view before judging him/her. It at least gives us an idea of the other person's thinking and this might hone our own judgement.
The movie has Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes in it and that is good enough for me to watch it. The younger version of Ralph Fiennes is acted by a young German actor called David Kross and he comes across very well too. The film is constructed leisurely and the scenes flow into each other, which makes it like a watching a poetry.
The intent of the movie comes out from the statement that comes half way through the movie.
"Societies think they operate by something called morality but they don't. They operate by something called law. You are not guilty by merely working at Auschwitz; 8000 people worked there. Precisely 19 have been convicted, 6 for murder. To prove murder you have to prove intent. That's the law. The question is never was it wrong but was it legal. And not by our laws, no - by the laws at the time."
