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Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 12:28 am
by The Original BJ
I thought The Counterfeiters was solid enough but mostly conventional. It's less mawkish than the weakest aspects of Life is Beautiful (and good god, it's light years better than Tsotsi), but the treatment felt overly familiar when, as you say, the material is anything but. (There's even a sequence lifted directly from Schindler's List.) It's not a bad film, but given the bevy of popular choices left off the ballot, it's still a bummer of a winner in this category.
That being said, thank god it triumphed over Beaufort, the only other film I've seen in this category. Here's a film about the boredom of waiting during war...that is a complete and total snooze that ultimately amounts to nothing.
Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 7:54 pm
by dws1982
Saw The Counterfeiters today, and it's good. The lead is played by an actor (a good actor) who would've been cast as one of the Nazis by almost any other director. August Diehl, in a supporting/second-lead role is excellent--he has the charisma (and probably the looks, although it's hard to tell here) to be a breakout star. The music was god-awful. Somehow, as well made and well acted as it is, it never quite grabbed me the way it should have, and probably was meant to; scenes towards the end (two in particular) that were probably meant to be devastating didn't quite hit me on that level.
I don't want to undersell it, because it has a lot of good qualities, and anyone interested in history (especially Holocaust) will be fascinated, as I was, by a Holocaust story that tells a story that you probably haven't heard about. As far as recent foreign film winners go, it's a cut below The Lives of Others, but miles and miles ahead of Tsotsi.
Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 12:59 am
by Damien
Lest we forget . . .
Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 12:18 am
by dws1982
Sonic Youth wrote:I just realized four of the nominees are war films.
Apparently, the other one (12), has wartime flashbacks. And it's also an adaptation of 12 Angry Men, although I never would've guessed either of those things in the short clip they showed.
Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2008 10:44 pm
by Sonic Youth
I just realized four of the nominees are war films.
Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2008 10:44 pm
by OscarGuy
Crap. I had to second guess myself. I said early on that it's Holocaust, it will win...damn.
Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2008 10:43 pm
by OscarGuy
The Counterfeiters - Austria