Review of film: “TWIN SISTERS” + a DISCUSSION following the film

09-09-09:

Review of film:  “TWIN SISTERS”  + Report on the DISCUSSION following the film  =

              Families can be very destructive to our Upbringing

 

Rating:  9 of 10 stars (based on a showing at Chicago’s Cultural Center).

 

This film (“De Tweeling” in Dutch) was the 14th in the FREE every-Wednesday Summer series of 15 foreign films hosted by the CHICAGO INT’L. FILM FESTIVAL (= CIFF) at the Cultural Center...

...  This Dutch film (nominated for a Best Foreign Language Oscar in 2004) was introduced by the Consul-General of the Netherlands to another Full House crowd in Chicago…

…  He also pointed out how the country has just celebrated the 400th Anniversary of the Dutch discovery of Manhattan, NY, & kidded about how “apropos” it was that tonite’s film should be a FREE showing, since the Dutch have long been known for liking “bargains”…

… The film was based on a Dutch story of two German sisters whose parents have died, and how relatives fight over who will separately care for each child. Sickly Anna (played from child to elderly adult by SINA RICHARDT, then NADJA UHL, & then GUDRUN OKRAS) was taken in by very religious but “barbaric” poor farmers in Germany who beat her badly…

…  Her twin Lotte (JULIA KOOPMANS, then THEKLA REUTEN for most of the film, & then ELLEN VOGEL) is taken in by rich Dutch relatives and grows up in relative luxury, enjoying her life as a singer and student…

… The relatives purposely try to keep the sisters OUT of contact with each other, altho the sisters try to write letters to their sibling (which are then never sent). In time, Anna becomes a servant girl, surrounded by people who are supporting the rise of Adolph Hitler…

…  Lotte falls in love with a Jewish guy in Holland, &, when the young adult sisters finally get back in touch with each other, Lotte grows very upset at the apparent anti-Semitism of sister Anna…

…  Of course, all this gets involved in the rise of World War II, with the Nazi invasion of Holland which impacts the life of Lotte’s Jewish love. In time, the aftermath of the War causes Lotte to “DISOWN” her sister for her assumed Nazi-like connections, & the film leads to eventual attempts at RECONCILIATION…

…  It’s an unusually effective and touching story of the difficult lives suffered by millions of people. I was impressed by the believable accuracy of many of the portrayals: many decades after the War, I remember visiting Europe & talking to Dutch people who were still BITTER over the way the Nazis had treated their countrymen…

…  I also vividly recall meeting German teenagers who fervently & sincerely commented to me on how “ASHAMED” they were to BE German because of the way some of their compatriots had behaved towards others in the War (even tho it occurred decades before they themselves were even born)…    

[ Next week, the FREE 09-15-09 film will be the 1986 Mexican movie “FRIDA” about the life of artist Frida Kahlo & her relationship with muralist Diego Rivera;  it will be follwed by a post-screening DISCUSSION.  As usual, best to show up EARLY to get a good seat!… ]

 

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  (o_
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                      REPORT on DISCUSSION of the film:

After the film, there was a fascinating DISCUSSION held about the film, hosted by RON FALZONE of Columbia College & Talk Cinema…

…  Ron commented that, altho the word at times has a negative connotation, he feels this film was “a really GREAT MELODRAMA”, because of how it takes a complex drama & causes us to respond emotionally to the characters to the point that it asks us to in-effect “participate” in the story. By concentrating on the lives of the characters rather than the horrors of the War itself, it gives us a real “perspective” to how it affected people during that period…

…  At one point, Ron spoke of how WW2 was usually “TOO traumatic” to be easy to deal with, & thus early German films after the War tended to “allude” to the War without really TALKING much about specifics of what happened during it…

…   Then, as time went on, films in Europe started to deal with the situation with more realistic retrospect, & thus you eventually saw films such as the excellent Dutch film “BLACK BOX” which ANGRILY reassesses the event to the point of showing that circumstances at times required that there be a “DARK side” even to the RESISTANCE, & how not ALL Germans behaved badly or were aware of the atrocities at the time they occurred…

…  Thus, in time, Europe started producing some films of “RECONCILIATION”--  almost like WW2 having elements of our own classic CIVIL WAR type films. Ron said, certain films show women who were “forced” to move along with the currents of history, having little control over IDEOLOGICAL issues which were forced upon them by [a more inherently violent] MALE society…

…  Ron & people from the audience (who asked questions & made comments) spoke of how there are purposely ambiguous elements, such as whether or not there’s a “lesbian” undercurrent between servant Anna & the Countess she works for, & whether or not she was in-effect an “accidental” and / or misunderstood anti-Semite. There are so many cleverly-worked elements in the story, it’s thus a really “smart” melodrama…

…  A man in the audience spoke of how he was surprised at how EFFECTIVE the film turned out to be, such as how there were “sentimental” elements, but they didn’t come across as “treacle”. Ron agreed, & said, it’s always best to not “remind” people that the story being watched is a “movie” (rather than making it so believable, you don’t tend to “think” about that fact)…

…  Most in the audience agreed that, the film was indeed a film about RECONCILIATION.  As one person said, the movie “won” them over by the use of FLASHBACKS, which usually don’t have that effect. These were done so well, they clearly showed the thematic “progress” being made in the lives of those in the story…

…  Ron pointed to the story “RICH MAN, POOR MAN”, & spoke of how really effective melodramas in films initiate actions where further scenes “UP the ANTE” for what will happen, & that’s done very well in “TWIN SISTERS”:  “This movie never really taxes my credibility!”…

…  Continuing in his point, Ron commented, you always wonder WHY it is that Lotte “runs” from her twin sister Anna as they grow older. Thus, the film provides elements that are FUNDAMENTAL to good story-telling:  it provides a bunch of QUESTIONS thruout the film (such as, why didn’t the sisters TALK more as they grew older?), rather than just providing “answers”. The movie effectively covers themes of “WHAT IF’s”… 

…  At this point, Ron spoke of how much he loved a German film “RUN, LOLA, RUN” because of how well it handles its themes & covers “WHAT IF--” type elements.  A lady in the audience commented on how Lotte was set up to look comparatively “spoiled” & not very “sensible” in a lot of her behavior, compared to Anna. She liked the fact that there were various “ambiguous” elements in the film, such as the way Anna showed kindness to the forced laborers from Poland…

…  Ron referred people to the interesting film “WAIT A SECOND”, which reminded him a bit of “TWIN SISTERS” in that it has characters who were like “quicksilver”, &, in  tonite’s film, that in part helped make the reconciliation efforts more “believable”…

…   A guy in the audience spoke of how he himself is German, he has a wife who’s from a Dutch background, & he found the film very WELL-done, especially in how it showed accurate elements like how some Germans were sincerely “oblivious” to the horrors that weren’t widely known at the time…

…  At this point, Ron commented that, when he sees a film, “I want to FEEL something, and then wonder WHY I felt that way, that it ‘speaks’ to me—”.  In tonite’s film, he felt the director keeps the emotional situations “interesting”. He spoke of how he was reminded of the film “WRITTEN ON THE WIND”, which he loves…

…  A gentleman in the audience said, while he quite LIKED the film overall, he feels there are some “INACCURATE” elements in it that “bothered” him a bit, such as:  the undetailed way the Jewish situation was handled;  the way Anna was simply “too nice” to the Polish people (in that her attitude didn’t “fit” with the period & with how rich Germans would have reacted to her doing that in 1942)…

…. He also cited how prisoners would almost never be moved from Buchenwald to Auschwitz, it usually would have been the other way around.  Ron responded that, while that latter situation may well have been true, in the PUBLIC’S mind, it matches with what we nowadays think sounded worse in a “symbolic” way…

…  An audience member commented that, it seemed hard to believe that Anna would’ve carried some flowers as a gift in 1945, since, by that time, he feels there would have been NO flowers remaining in Germany to be given as gifts after the destructive fighting all around…

…   Also, he would’ve liked to see more shown ABOUT the War itself, since the film sort of “glossed” over the difficulties suffered by the populaces. Ron felt that was done on purpose, to instead highlight the personalities involved in the film. And, at one point, there was a certain “romanticism” that came out of elements of WW2…

…  To a comment by another audience member, Ron said, he feels Anna has little real “happiness” in her life, and thus the Countess’ family (the kids & all) in-effect BECAME her “family” at that time in her life…

…  He pointed out that, as director Godard once stated, “it’s impossible to make an ANTI-war film”, since showing war-like activity tends to “glorify” it in some peoples’ minds, because the subject “grabs” our eye & draws us “into” the situation...

…  Ron commented on how the writer of the original novel on which the story was based (Tessa de Loo) has been a very popular writer, & the Dutch film industry is comparatively small & has little money to make “big” films…

…  Thus, he was especially impressed by what the filmmakers were able to achieve with tonite’s film.  In the film, it’s clear that Anna has  allowed herself to have an “empty” life, & he feels the film was exceptionally well-cast, especially in the elderly versions of Anna & Lotte…

…  To a comment by another audience member about how it seemed somewhat strange in how Lotte remarried, Ron said that, from what he’s been able to learn, in the wartime era, it was comparatively COMMON for women to marry the brothers of those who’d died (& somewhat also the other way around)… 

…  In tonite’s film, you saw efforts to “reestablish contact with the ‘curse’ of who you are” in life.  He pointed out how Anna forgives her sister’s actions, but you don’t initially see that from Lotte’s side, in that Lotte usually kept her “old angers” from the past… 

…  All-in-all, an impressive film and a fascinatingly lively discussion afterwards!…

  (o_
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