The Lives of Others (Ger: Das Leben der Anderen) (2006)
Writer & Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
German with English Subtitles

This film is excellent.  Really excellent.  One of the best foreign films I have ever seen.  It won the Oscar in 2006 for best foreign film, beating Pan's Labyrinth which in this case I think is a good measure.
The story is set in 80's East Germany, following the parrallel lives of two protagonists.  The first is a well-renowned playwrite and his girlfriend, struggling to express their artistry while under the constant scrutiny of the government.  Their parrallel is the man commissioned with the job of eaves dropping on their entire life for several months.

The characterisations are accurate and sympathetic.  You really begin to care about their stories and the acting, it goes without saying is pitch-perfect.
The direction is excellent.  The feeling of oppression and tension is expertly realised on screen - it is not overplayed or exaggerated but brooding and malicious.  This is aided by both a minimal yet moving score and the delicacy with which the main characters handle their situations.
There is a great sense of humanity in this film also.  It is not merely a bleak look at oppression and the futility of rebellion.  It gives hope and empathy, while also stirring a horror at the things man is capable of.
Rent this out now.  Watch it and enjoy it.

5/5.

British Film Box Set. Pretty bargainous. Just thought it was a nice present idea for someone

My OH brought this a few weeks ago after his boss recommended it's one of those films you've got to see! The main language is French although you can alter than in your DVD Player/Blu-Ray settings so it's dubbed in English - like I did!

To me, this film was very surreal and in some parts didn't make sense to me so I plan to watch it again sometime. I could also imagine it would sound better in French with English subtitles so I could get a better sense of the characters. Probably not for everyone, but still pretty good!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112682/

Must see this film!!!!

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The Tenant (1976)
Dir:  Roman Polanski

As one may expect from a Polanski film, this film verges into the surreal, so I write this review without having reached a clear conclusion.  Having said that, it is a brilliant work of suspense that builds slowly so that the understated climaxes it reaches (understated by today's standards) are truly unnerving and terrifying.
The homages to Hitchcock are obvious, in particular to Rear Window and Psycho, not only in the physical sense (hence my choice of picture above to illustrate the similarity with Rear Window) but in dealing with the same themes - paranoia, claustrophobia and insanity.
The plot is fairly simple - about a man (played by Polanski himself) who moves into the apartment of a girl who attempted suicide.  He slowly comes to believe that it were the other tenants who drove her to her death and who are now attempting to do the same to him.  But is everything as it seems?
The main score is pretty generic (reminiscent of Poirot, actually), but it is the stabby, synchopated plucking of strings during the tensest periods that have you shifting in your seat.  There is also the familar Polanski-ism of using an unnervingly beautiful female co-star, who accompanies other, bizarre and oppressive characters that seem to inhabit his twisted world.
The direction may seem patchy and out-moded to many more modern film-goers.  The character development is often left to the audience to imagine and the 1970s style of scene transitions may leave some wondering what time lapses have recently occured.
But these effects can be positive.  For someone unused to this style of film-making, the uncertainty lends itself to a more anguish filled and introverted witnessing of a man cirlcing the drain of his own horror.  Go see it, just to appreciate an excellent example of 1970s psychological thriller, but it may leave you unable to think straight for a few hours.