Film-Tech Cinema Systems
Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE


  
my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home
  next oldest topic   next newest topic
» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Community   » Film Handlers' Movie Reviews   » Nowhere In Africa

   
Author Topic: Nowhere In Africa
Gerard S. Cohen
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 975
From: Forest Hills, NY, USA
Registered: Sep 2001


 - posted 03-22-2003 11:13 PM      Profile for Gerard S. Cohen   Email Gerard S. Cohen   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I found this film beautiful and it absorbed my attention throughout its two hours and twenty minutes.
The story, by Stefan Zweig, a German Jewish novelist and short-story writer, treats the displacement from a comfortable, middle-class secular Jewish life in Germany to Nairobi, Kenya, escaping Hitler's repression, of a young couple and their child daughter.

This is an engaging study of marital strife and acculturation to Africa, to the Kenyan natives, language and culture,and to the British military and schooling.

Where, really, is home? This is a problem each confronts in a different way, and each character changes realistically in adapting existentially to circumstances. The African natives and the British are shown favorably. The dialog is in German,
the Kenyan language,and English, with a prayer in Hebrew. The English titles are succinct and easy reading, while the German is clear, with a softness like Yiddish that I found I could follow without understanding every word.

The beauty of the landscape, including Mount Kenya and Lake Nairobe in Cinemascope, and scenes of an attempt to ward off
a plague of locusts, were very moving. The nude scenes expressing sexual love were graphic and appropriate to the characters and action.

Caroline Link, the director, preserves the literary origin of the film by including some poems in English and German, including
the Lorelei by Heinrich Heine, and by the inclusion of such symbolic objects as a courtroom cloak, a dress, and a set of china that change meanings as the tale unfolds.

There is much love, yearning and heartache in this beautiful film.

Screened on 03/22/03 at the Kew Gardens Cinema (5 plex), Queens,
NYC. The feature was sharp, bright and clean, but the policy trailer was dirty and the Beckham trailer too loud. A slight rumble could be felt once or twice from the Long Island Railroad that runs below the theatre, and the house lights were too bright during the final credits. The huge screen was perfectly masked and illuminated.

 |  IP: Logged

Paul Linfesty
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1383
From: Bakersfield, CA, USA
Registered: Nov 1999


 - posted 09-22-2003 11:49 PM      Profile for Paul Linfesty   Email Paul Linfesty   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I just caught this film Friday (9-19-03) at a local foreign film society (FLICS) at the Fox Theatre. It is, as Gerard said, a beautiful film. The performances were wonderfully realized and understated, allowing the emotions of the characters to drive the story. Much deserved of last year's Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film.

 |  IP: Logged

Per Hauberg
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 883
From: Malling, Denmark
Registered: Jul 2000


 - posted 09-26-2003 05:43 PM      Profile for Per Hauberg   Author's Homepage   Email Per Hauberg   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Gerard & Paul:
I am glad to read Your positive words about this one. I have just tonite put on the trailer, and it sure gave me the creeps, looking like a complete rip-off from "Out of Africa". Your reviews make me somewhat more happy, having booked the film.

Per

 |  IP: Logged



All times are Central (GMT -6:00)  
   Close Topic    Move Topic    Delete Topic    next oldest topic   next newest topic
 - Printer-friendly view of this topic
Hop To:



Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM 6.3.1.2

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.

© 1999-2020 Film-Tech Cinema Systems, LLC. All rights reserved.