Life is All You Get (1997) User Reviews

Outstanding film - if you only see one German film, see this one

[bedlam_beggar · 8/10 · 4 December 2004]

This is my favourite German film - if you get a chance to watch 'Goodbye Lenin' and 'Berlin Nachtgestalten' as well, you have pretty much a 360 degree panorama of life in Berlin after the Wende. Superb acting, and very funny, too. The beautiful thing about this film is that the humour, being largely visual, makes it very accessible to viewers whose German isn't so fluent.

Storming performance by Ricky Tomlinson

If you only see one German film, see this one, not some pretentious tosh like 'Lola Rennt' or the uniquitous Verlorene Ehre von Katharina Blum

One Of The Best Films I Have Ever Seen

[jaws-23 · 17 December 2000]

I Came Across This Movie on night at 2 o'clock in the morning on the local Multicultural chanel and was totally blown away, Vera is the best chariter in the film because you never really know what she's about, and that guy that looks like Buddy Holly is Cool. Also In Australia the film is called 'Life Is A Constrution Site' instead of 'Life Is All You Get'

One of the best "slice of life" movies I've seen

[dicto_x_paradise · 9/10 · 15 October 2006]

Set in the newly reunified Berlin of the 90's, "Life is All You Get" (english title)is one of those really excellent movies that tell a story of not only some interesting people, but of the time & place in which they live. Jan is struggling to get by, working in a slaughterhouse, staying with his sister, her smart & funny little girl, and her lout of a husband. A series of major upsets impacts his life: His ex-girlfriend tells him she's got AIDS, his father dies face down in a plate of ravioli, and, while accidentally caught up in a street riot, Jan knocks down a couple of guys chasing a woman (named Vera) - not knowing that they're plain-clothes cops trying to arrest her. He loses his job at this time, too, and faces a nearly impossible task of paying the heavy fine for assaulting the cops. On the bright side, he and Vera begin a relationship - haltingly, and (for him) clumsily - as they negotiate life in a city experiencing the very awkward transition between two political worlds. The characters & situations beautifully straddle the line between the wholly believable and the hysterically quirky. It's really a shame that this film didn't get an official U.S. release - it's well worth your time.

Like a bottle of wine, this movie gets better with age.

[zamp52 · 9/10 · 12 April 2011]

"Life is a construction site" huh? Well, first of all that title held absolutely no meaning to me whatsoever. Even now I must admit that I still do not fully comprehend such a strange movie title. I saw the parallels between the title and the renovation of Berlin and of course the ever ongoing dilemmas that the characters seemed (for some masochistic reason) to repeatedly place themselves into. In the beginning of the film I found myself completely turned off by the characters. I quickly lost any feelings of sympathy that I first experienced when I witnessed what a terrible life the lead character was slowly being suffocated by. Not only was he irresponsible and in through my eyes just plain weird (I mean who would leave their father's corpse to rot while they went out on a date, seriously?) but most of his suffering seemed to be self-inflicted. He had to have know how bad Vera was for him and his already deteriorating life. His first encounter with her landed him and jail and an incredibly hefty fine. I think that I first realized how little value Jan placed on his life when he didn't even bother to speak up and defend himself in court. He at least wasn't guilty of shoplifting or rioting the rioting charges that were surely placed upon him but he just accepted his punishment without even so much as a bat of an eyelash. Again, who does this? Jan obviously had very little desire for happiness or stability and Vera only served to pull him even further down into his abyss... in the beginning anyways. There were small pockets of the movie that teased us just with an inkling of hope, of potential happiness. The first scene of the movie that I remember Jan smiling was while running from the police with Vera. Even though he didn't know her he defended and left with her and he did it with passion and a smile. Who in their right mind would do this? The moments spent between Jan and his niece also offered some redemption from the ever enclosing darkness that continued to move towards Jan. Something about their relationship seemed off though, like they would be wrong if viewed from a different perspective. Perhaps it was the childlike nature of Jan or the elevated maturity level of his niece but at times it almost seemed as if they were in a relationship. This dirty feeling left me feeling anxious whenever they were alone together. When she crawled in bed with him and he placed his arm around her in a very spoon like position I had to turn away from the film for a moment. The entire scene just felt wrong which of course fit perfectly with most of the other off putting scenes in the film. And the ending? I haven't been this upset over a film's ending since Die Weisse Band. Nothing I felt was fully resolved, I had no answers to the multitude of questions that the film dumped on me like yesterday's trash. BUT with all of this said, with all of the dingy, tainted moments that the filmed possessed and kept shoveling off the screen onto us there was always this very, very, very faint glimmer of hope. I found myself latching onto to this small ray in the darkness like a breath of fresh air while I was slowly drowning in a sea of sludge. After I walked away from the film I swore to never, ever watch this again. Over the last week however my mind has slowly changed. I began to feel like there was more truth here than I first realized. Jan's cluttered life and severe depression in some ways reminded me of my own life and how I have just up and walked away from my problems (never from a decaying corpse though!) to try and eke out some sort of distraction from life. Good or bad distractions, it didn't matter. As long as I had some sort of consistency, as long as I could still chase that one ray of hope in the darkness then almost magically I could find the strength to keep moving, to fight of the worst of evils: stagnancy and apathy. And this is truly what I believe Jan was doing throughout the film; he trying to keep moving. As soon as we stop moving we die and just by making his choices (even though most of them were terrible) Jan was telling us that he wanted to be happy, that he wanted to live. I suppose in a construction site if you stand still you will inevitably be run over by a piece of machinery or some heavy object will fall and crush you so you have to keep moving, keep building, even if your foundation isn't as secure as some others. Now I think I understand why it's called "Life is a construction site".

Something of a dud

[rooprect · 3/10 · 21 March 2006]

As I'm a fan of contemporary German cinema (Becker, Tykwer, Wenders), I was thrilled to find a copy of this unknown work. The first 10 minutes sets up a fantastic premise (not your usual boy-meets-girl in a coffee shop), and the next 30 minutes draws us into the odd lives of 4 mysterious, unemployed dreamers who meet each other in equally strange ways. Sounds great, right? Add to this the creative style of Wolfgang Becker and Tom Tykwer, and how can it go wrong?

Well, I'm not sure how it went wrong, but it definitely did.

In a classic example of "good idea, no substance", this film begins to deflate around the halfway mark with no backbone to hold it up. The interesting lives we had been led to anticipate turn out to be rather commonplace. Dialogue is so sparse it's negligible. And the plot falls back to a series of boring clichés--the kinds which you can overhear in any bar at closing time if you're patient enough to listen. It reminds me very much of Wim Wenders' early unscripted work (Paris Texas) which begins famously but thins out into oblivion. Or maybe it's like a Lenny Kravitz song that starts with a cool guitar riff but goes nowhere but boredom.

I would recommend this film to fans of "mood" rather than "substance". If you are a fan of Godard, Bela Tarr, or movies where Ethan Hawke plays the lead (Reality Bites, Before Sunset), then you may enjoy this. However if you're a fan of Kieslowsky, Kubrick, Herzog or typically the filmmakers who pack a hidden message, I would suggest you pass on this one.

Yet another great movie from Germany

[stinky_ · 19 May 2001]

I stumbled upon this film late last night on Dutch tv. Smitten I was! A story filled with sub-plots, symbolism and engagement. A love story in Berlin after "die Wende" dealing with kapitalism and aids and more things that hit the "Ossies" by surprise. Filled with lots of lovely and funny characters, all displayed by great acting performances. A MUST SEE!

Boring construction site

[6325 · 4/10 · 10 June 2003]

As the title suggests: 'Life is a construction site', this whole movie seems to be a construction site - one that won't be finished. The movie spectator has to watch dull characters wander through a boring script, but very rarely he is likely to sense a spark of sympathy or an emotional reaction. The character of the greek girl alone is played with carefulness and emotion but apart from that, most of the movie is a waste of time.

If you like to watch movies about the topic of people desperately looking for love in a cold world I'd strongly suggest Pedro Almodovars 'All about my mother' or 'Magnolia' instead! I'd also suggest an alternative German movie: Watch 'Train Birds' a.k.a. 'Zugvögel... einmal nach Inari' by Peter Lichtefeld - a brilliant masterpiece.

people should be warned

[liviaccruz · 1/10 · 25 July 2006]

we want our 2 hours of life back. no story, bad acting, made one of the best cities in the world look bad, dark, ugly and dirty. did the guy run out of money and couldn't finish the movie or something?! cause there was clearly no end, actually, no beginning, no climax, no sense. it's like they got random people and showed a clip from their life with no conclusion and apparently they chose a not so exciting time of the people's life. besides... would you really leave your dead father with his face on a plate of noodles but run out to go on a date and then take your date back to his place and LAUGH with her while you carry the dead body? if you only watch one German movie, make sure this isn't it! and if you do make the mistake of watching this one, don't be discourage... there're other German movies that are actually "watchable" and very "likeable"! even that crazy, loud Lola chick is better.

Inportant subject, but potential not fulfilled

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 3 November 2016]

"Das Leben ist eine Baustelle." is a German movie from 1997, so this one will have its 20th anniversary next year. The writer and director is Wolfgang Becker and he got help with the script from Tom Tykwer here. The cast includes a handful known names, such as Jürgen Vogel, Martina Gedeck, Christiane Paul, Armin Rohde and Andrea Sawatzki, all people who are still (maybe even more than back then) very well-known here in Germany for their work in the last over 2 decades. Vogel plays the main character, a man whose life crumbles no matter where he looks. His girlfriend leaves him, he has no stable long-term relationships with women, his father dies, he loses his job etc. So yeah, he is pretty screwed. But from these ruins, a new love and new friends emerge as well and they may help him in finding happiness and stability once again in his life. But then, a truly dangerous suspicion arises. Does he have the HIV virus? This virus was still seen entirely different back in the 1990s compared to how people see it today (not just in medicine, but by everybody). These references were maybe also the best thing about the film, even if including an HIV positive beggar in the subway may not have been the most subtle and intelligent way honestly and the ex-girlfriend with the virus being randomly in the subway too is just one coincidence too many for sure. On another negative note, I never really ended up caring for the main character's life or fate at all, but this may also have to do with the fact that I am not a great fan of Vogel's early works. And lets be honest: The relationship story with Paul's character was never working at all. They did not fit together at all and I felt zero chemistry there, which made it impossible for me to cheer for them becoming an item. As a whole, despite a solid moment here and there, the negative outweighs the positive and the film also has some lengths at almost two hours. I give it a thumbs-down and I cannot share the praise. I especially wonder what the German Film Awards were thinking. it must have been a very weak year if Vogel wins Best Actor for this. You can watch "Life is All You Get" (completely different title than the original "Life is a construction site.") to understand that I am 100% correct with this review, but I suggest you save yourself the time and watch something better instead. Maybe I also ended up not liking this one because I found Becker's (and Tykwer's) work generally not too inspiring.