★ 7 / 10
This features a collection of stories featuring the
CinemaSerf
This features a collection of stories featuring the members of the “Lunies” family. Father “Gerdi” (Hans-Uwe Bauer) is suffering the near terminal effects of…
This features a collection of stories featuring the members of the “Lunies” family. Father “Gerdi” (Hans-Uwe Bauer) is suffering the near terminal effects of Parkinson’s and lives with his wife “Lissy” (Corinna Harfouch) who isn’t really faring all that much better. Their son “Tom” (Lars Eidinger) is a composer working in an emotionally charged environment with his lifelong friend and composer “Bernard” (Robert Gwisdek) who has recently completed a piece called “Dying”; whilst his sister “Ellen” (Lilith Stangenberg) lives a life as a dental assistant peppered with a great deal of booze and some random sex, increasingly with her married colleague “Sebastian” (Ronald Vogel). The family are fairly disjointed, and when the father dies we see how they reconcile with home truths abounding, the failings of electric cars made pretty clear and the virtues of forest funerals advertised too! There is a considerable degree of energy from both siblings here. Eidinger’s side of the coin involves a torrid relationship with his mother and delivers one of the most entertainingly frank conversations you’re ever likely to see, all while he is caught up in a love triangle with his ex-girlfriend and her newborn baby and the baby’s father whom she would rather he was than “Moritz” (Nico Holonics). “Ellen”, well she’s a bit of a firebrand and let’s also say that if you are at all squeamish about dentists, drills, masks and… well, just suffice to say that there are some scenes that really did make me very grateful I was the only person at this screening! You wouldn’t want to take her to a concert neither! There is lots of humour here, but it’s not comedy nor is it laugh out loud. It’s much more scenario and character-based and the strong performances cleverly interweave the strands towards the ending in a fashion that guarantees that an happy ending is the last thing we can expect. It is a long film, but it is structured in a way that keeps it engaging, touching, at times quite sad and at times realistically poignant as family life is put under a microscope. We are also treated to quite an orchestral treat at the end, too, as this maelstrom of human emotions moves on to new chapters.
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★ 8 / 10
Dying as a theme but shows Truths to existing
ORoseThouArtSick1794
I have read in a user review of another film, Bolero, that it is a film about a composer and music. Well, this is the case here, with Dying, I feel, and it…
I have read in a user review of another film, Bolero, that it is a film about a composer and music. Well, this is the case here, with Dying, I feel, and it maybe does it even better than Bolero. It is more interesting to see the hard work and failures of the composition being performed than knocking it out of the park. This film really takes us inside both a composer's and a conductor's lives, to good effect.While the theme of the film concerns dying, it has a corollary in showing us how we live. The film does this across two generations and it doesn't pull punches about the experiences of life. For example, what old age is like, or finding that you don't love your child, or that you live life in a destructively hard way. The film is rich with such Truths of existing. Indeed, this and the film's title, Dying, puts me in mind that with each breath we take, we are dying a little, and I love this film for making me reflect on this. To also have the temporailty of a musical composition frame this all also speaks to life's passing.The film accordingly shows existence and dying as being thematically strong, and associated. I find this movie thus prompts reflection about lives lived. Its runtime at near three hours passes quickly, which is a sure sign of a good movie, and I quite like the film for its achievements.
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★ 7 / 10
Dying
CinemaSerf
This features a collection of stories featuring the members of the "Lunies" family. Father "Gerdi" (Hans-Uwe Bauer) is suffering the near terminal effects of…
This features a collection of stories featuring the members of the "Lunies" family. Father "Gerdi" (Hans-Uwe Bauer) is suffering the near terminal effects of Parkinson's and lives with his wife "Lissy" (Corinna Harfouch) who isn't really faring all that much better. Their son "Tom" (Lars Eidinger) is a composer working in an emotionally charged environment with his lifelong friend and composer "Bernard" (Robert Gwisdek) who has recently completed a piece called "Dying"; whilst his sister "Ellen" (Lilith Stangenberg) lives a life as a dental assistant peppered with a great deal of booze and some random sex, increasingly with her married colleague "Sebastian" (Ronald Vogel). The family are fairly disjointed, and when the father dies we see how they reconcile with home truths abounding, the failings of electric cars made pretty clear and the virtues of forest funerals advertised too! There is a considerable degree of energy from both siblings here. Eidinger's side of the coin involves a torrid relationship with his mother and delivers one of the most entertainingly frank conversations you're ever likely to see, all while he is caught up in a love triangle with his ex-girlfriend and her newborn baby and the baby's father whom she would rather he was than "Moritz" (Nico Holonics). "Ellen", well she's a bit of a firebrand and let's also say that if you are at all squeamish about dentists, drills, masks and... well, just suffice to say that there are some scenes that really did make me very grateful I was the only person at this screening! You wouldn't want to take her to a concert neither! There is lots of humour here, but it's not comedy nor is it laugh out loud. It's much more scenario and character-based and the strong performances cleverly interweave the strands towards the ending in a fashion that guarantees that an happy ending is the last thing we can expect. It is a long film, but it is structured in a way that keeps it engaging, touching, at times quite sad and at times realistically poignant as family life is put under a microscope. We are also treated to quite an orchestral treat at the end, too, as this maelstrom of human emotions moves on to new chapters.
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AUDIENCE
7.4/10
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Thanks for the subtitles! - yifysubtitles