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Reviews
Nattvardsgästerna (1963)
Highly recommended
This is a feature film, not a documentary, which makes a viewer find his/her own meaning of the presented story. Black and white picture also creates a certain mood and adds depth to the film. It tells a story about a pastor who doubts the existence of God. So, in this movie review, I will share my impressions while watching and the thoughts I stayed with afterward.
What attracted my attention at the beginning of the movie is people during the service. First of all, it is an extremely low number. I have noticed that the church is designed to accommodate a sufficient number of people while there were only about 6-7 people during the service, however, it is more about their behavior rather than quantity. They do not take the prayer seriously. One of the church workers is coughing and straightening the tie; an old lady sees an opportunity to sing than to turn to God; a man who recognizes that the Gospel of Mark is a good sleeping pill. Moreover, there was a child among all the other parishioners during the service, nevertheless, he was extremely bored and did not know what to do. It leads me to the idea that although his mother tried to instill the religion starting from childhood, she did not explain the point of what was happening around. In addition, during the scene at the school, you can see the cross on the piano in the classroom which also can support the idea of instilling Christianity in children. A musician who provided musical accompaniment on the organ and perceives this all as a part of routine work, constantly distracting, checking the clock and looking forward to the end of the service. By the end of the movie he also shares that the church was full of people when he was giving organ music concerts. So, taking into consideration all the beforementioned facts, I suppose that the director used these small details in order to show that people of that time did not take religion seriously and perceived the church not as a sacred place where they can establish a connection with God, but as a place of entertainment and a chance to socialize and communicate with other people. This is also important to take into account Thomas's recognition that no one is interested in him as a priest and those around him are only interested in his personal life.
The plot of the film also reveals the life of the priests from another side. What they do right after the prayer is the calculation of donations. They keep accurate records of all the received money. Nevertheless, it did not seem like they invest in church development. The director shows a scene in which the deplorable state of the sculpture of the crucifixion of Jesus can be visible. The presence of a new car at the church's reverend and the fact that Thomas was looking for a housekeeper also casts doubt on their honesty while, traditionally, the priests are perceived as an agent between man and God and the ones who renounce the worldly pleasures and desires.
One of the main themes of the movie were priest Tomas's personal feelings. As it was mentioned before, he is supposed to be a religious leader who performs rituals (i.e. prayers) and connects people with the deities. However, here the question arises: how he can be a connecting link if he doubts the existence of God? When a man with suicidal thoughts comes for advice, the priest suggests trusting God and, at the same time, he constantly says that "God seems to be so far away" or "I feel helplessness". In addition, he admitted that his parents wanted him to become a priest, it was not his personal choice. Throughout the plot of the film, Thomas goes from the disappointment in God after losing his wife, and the meaning of life with her, to gaining faith again. He felt the silence of God, but after talking to the church worker who just read a part of the Gospel of Mark about Jesus's death, I believe that he reconsidered his attitude towards this silence and put himself on the place of Jesus who also did not hear God. As a result, he held a prayer for his own sake, and not for parishioners, since no one came to the service at that time.
To sum all of the above, this movie is worth watching not only for those who take the religion course but for the common public also. Small details such as the color of the picture, character development and right depiction of the characters make this movie a true masterpiece where everyone can find his/her own explanation of what was happening in the film. To conclude, as it was discussed during the lectures and seminars, the common public did not fully understand the meaning of religion and followed it as a part of "herd instinct" and I believe that this was the main idea the director tried to demonstrate. On the other hand, it teaches to look at things much deeper and demonstrates that even the priest can doubt his faith, and everyone has his/her own way.
Erleuchtung garantiert (1999)
quite interesting, but sometimes boring
I have watched a documentary movie named "Enlightenment Guaranteed" by Doris Dorrie. At the first sight, I thought that this movie was produced by the students of any film academy because I was not familiar with German cinematograph before. Only after doing some research I realized that the cast consists of quite famous actors in Germany. I believe that my fist assumption appeared due to the reason that the beginning of the movie was boring. Generally speaking, a small number of dialogues makes the viewer bored and does not involve him in the course of the movie. Moreover, slow development of the story also forces to turn the movie off as soon as possible. I would like to watch more about the process of coming to the enlightenment rather than family dramas or drunk adventures in Japan.
Speaking about the essence of the film, I can say that it was pretty interesting. A typical story of rivalry between two brothers makes each person to see him- or herself in the place of main character. The younger one have always tried to be perfect compared to elder because of the fictional and self-imposed complex that parents love one child more than another. Against the backdrop of that complex brotherhood relationships were strained enough and the younger brother Gustav decided to turn to religion. However, I think that it was just a tool as he still had bad habits and anger towards his brother Uve while the true Buddhist, trying to get good karma and increase merit, tries to completely clean the mind of bad things.
Gustav was going to go to the trip to Japanese monastery named Mon Zen when the Uve's wife leaved him. After a number of absurd circumstances, both brothers went to Japan as they believed that Uve will get distracted from the problems in his personal life. On the contrary, he started to hate her wife more and more and on the day of arrival they went to a bar and, as a result, got lost in the large metropolis without money. However, they were lucky to meet a countrywoman in a completely foreign country who helped the brothers to reunite and reach the monastery.
Uve always disregarded Buddhism and laughed at Gustav but when he met so many problems in one moment he began to see the meaning in the Buddha's words and other sutras. If Gustav was aware of monastery life, then for Uve it was something new and confusing because monks have completely different lifestyle. Brothers were immersed in the search of who they really are, meditated, read sutras and so on. But surprisingly, Uve made much greater progress that Gustav. I believe that this happened because he focused on the real problems, inner thoughts and attempts to understand himself while his brother though about physical pain and was not motivated at all. Moreover, in my opinion, for Gustav Buddhism is more a lifestyle and instruction set about how to live while for Uve is like a rescue.
In conclusion, I think that this movie is really good and understandable regardless the shooting quality and directing work. Many concepts, such as Four Noble Truth and sungha, were explained by simple words and on the real life examples that might help us. In addition, there was a drop of humor and drama that diversified the film a little bit. What I liked most is that each viewer might see himself or his problems like cheating of Gustav's wife, divorce or again drunk problems. In addition, some scenes shot in the form of video diary caused interest inside of me.