I know, I'm at least as surprised as you. Believe you me, I'm one of the greatest ... wait let me rephrase that: I'm one of the most fierce critics when it comes to German movies. I detect bad acting and bad dialog and just go for the throat when that happens. Sometimes (often actually) being maybe a bit too harsh to those movies, especially considering the rating they get here or other places. In this case though, things are different as you can see.
Let me begin though with one thing: I've never seen the now over 40 year old Berlin Alexanderplatz. But I'm in good company because one of the main characters hadn't seen it either, before they filmed this. And he says it helped him with his performance. And that man is Schuch - one half of a self destroying pair!
Now the runtime may be a bit too much for some viewers. We are now used to watch shorter movies or rather our concentration does usually not hold up for a long period of time. On the other hand and also because this is split into 5 part, just perceive this as binge watching.
And while there are movies where I think: anyone can do that, come on. This is one of those showcases where I'm like "damn that is some tight filmmaking and acting - you actually need talented people to pull stuff like this off! So kudos to those involved and sorry if you hoped I could compare this to the novel or the previous incarnation on film - which I surely will watch in the future, just not sure when! So many things on my list
Let me begin though with one thing: I've never seen the now over 40 year old Berlin Alexanderplatz. But I'm in good company because one of the main characters hadn't seen it either, before they filmed this. And he says it helped him with his performance. And that man is Schuch - one half of a self destroying pair!
Now the runtime may be a bit too much for some viewers. We are now used to watch shorter movies or rather our concentration does usually not hold up for a long period of time. On the other hand and also because this is split into 5 part, just perceive this as binge watching.
And while there are movies where I think: anyone can do that, come on. This is one of those showcases where I'm like "damn that is some tight filmmaking and acting - you actually need talented people to pull stuff like this off! So kudos to those involved and sorry if you hoped I could compare this to the novel or the previous incarnation on film - which I surely will watch in the future, just not sure when! So many things on my list