Sophie Scholl, anyone?
Got beeped and asked if I wanted to see this show. Coincidentally, I was planning on seeing it (and now, have already seen it) Pretty good show, considering how bad the subtitles were on my copy of the film. I wonder if the DVD's already out?
I was quite surprised at the length (116 mins I think), pretty long for a show that covers the last few days of Sophie Scholl's life. At the start of the film I was expecting a bit more background or bit of history, but the film dove right into the specific act that got Sophie and her brother caught by the Gestapo.
But then again, Hard Candy was pretty long for a show about 2 people in a house, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.
Julia Jentsch bears quite a bit of a resemblance to the real Sophie Scholl, I realized after doing a bit of googling... oh I meant, after doing a few Google searches. (Last I heard, the search engine bigwigs aren't too happy about people using google as a verb as opposed to a noun. They're gonna start suing people soon, mark my words...) I'm too lazy to post pictures for comparison, so go check them out yourself.
I never heard of Sophie Scholl before this. Tsk tsk to myself, SS was a legendary German anti-Nazi activist. And I don't understand German except for 'thank you', 'one more time please', 'very good' and 'not good' (all thanks to my German lesson-taking piano teacher trying to practise her German and making me do my scales over and over again).
But I figure she's probably one heck of a brave woman. (And of course Jentsch is a superb actress as well.) The dialogue scenes between her and Mohr(?), the guy interrogating her (played by Alexendar Held) were nothing short of riveting. As she expertly crafts her alibis and vehemently denies involvement in the distribution of anti-Nazi flyers, I almost want to believe her, except I
know she's lying. Little wonder Mohr believes her and almost releases her, until a search of her home turns up a bunch of incriminating evidence, and then Held simply blows up in frustration at her nonchalant denial and supposed disinterest in all things political.
It's quite sad for Mohr though. From his sessions with Sophie, he is clearly impressed by her intelligence, courage, persistence and brutal honesty, and even offers her a way out in exchange for the names of her other White Rose members, an offer that she declines. The poor guy is stuck in a situation where he admires the girl's qualities and wants to give her a lighter sentence, but she adamantly refuses to cave in and continues to criticize his beloved Hitler and the Third Reich, whom he feels he owes his current job and status to.
Oh, and there's this chief justice or judge guy who's in charge of her sham of a trial, who pretty much hurls abuses at Sophie & co. during the trial. Obviously he's supposed to be the 'bad guy' sort of character and viewers are just supposed to want to kill him (which I really felt like), but gosh, he looks and sounds like he's gonna either have an aneurysm or just collapse from anger while he's talking to Sophie & co. about their 'crimes'.
It's a long show, and not without the slower, less eventful parts, but it's really in these moments e.g. when Sophie's alone in her cell, when she's talking to her cellmate, that you really see the emotional strength in her character. You know she's freaked out as hell (I know I would, with the Gestapo convinced I was guilty of treason... dude, it's Hitler's Third Reich!) but she exudes a sense of quiet dignity and courage while in Gestapo custody. Slowly, you start seeing through the façade, though, through the little smiles she exchanges with her brother when they pass in the corridor, or when she talks to her cell-mate about her fiancé who's been fighting on the Eastern front for the past 6 months, who doesn't agree with her methods of activism, but still loves her as unconditionally as she does, him. Or when she forces herself not to cry after bidding her parents goodbye for the last time, knowing that they understand all that she did, and that she would do the same thing over again if she had a choice. It is through all these little things that you start to look beyond the tough exterior of a war heroine and notice her vulnerability, her Christian beliefs, the longing that she's got hidden away because of her political ideals and her love for the German people.
------------------------Spent half a day at the Moving Minds forum yesterday, and listened to a bunch of (sort of) flim-related people, including co-directors of Talking Cock: the movie and the website. Don't usually read the stuff at talkingcock.com, but still, I decided to take a look after the forum yesterday, and came across this hilariously penned, I mean typed, article:
STB Aims to Attract More Hungry GhostsThe Singapore Tourism Board today announced a multimillion hell-dollar campaign to attract more Hungry Ghosts to attend the Hungry Ghost Festival.
“Every year, the Hungry Ghost or Seventh Month Festival attracts thousands of spirits to Singapore,” said STB spokesman Ms Hooyagonna Kaur. “We aim to pump resources into boosting visits, sorry, sorry, visitation figures over the next few years.”
According to Ms. Kaur, the STB will concentrate on providing a wider variety of tourism options for visitors from beyond. “For instance, we can innovate much more in terms of dining options for spectral visitors than the current buffet of fruit, roast meats and steamed pastries. Why not add chili crab, prata, fish head curry and satay too? I mean, these ghosts are supposed to be hungry, right?”
Ms. Kaur was pleased to note that local getais and auctions are a great draw for phantom tourists. “Many MediaCorp artistes are involved in getais and who should know better about delivering a hellish entertainment experience than MediaCorp?”
“We also want to attract more than just Chinese ghosts,” added Ms. Kaur. “We want to attract spectres from all over the world and make Singapore a real global haunted hub.”
To that end, the STB will be setting up a tourist information booth in Hell using the slogan, “Go to Singapore!”
Preliminary indications are that the campaign will be a success.
Said supernatural sightseer Mr. Yeow Kwee, “I already come to Singapore every year, because it’s a great place for spooks. I mean it’s full of zombies, and run by all these shadowy figures in white - some even say the devil himself - so they really understand our needs.”
Some non-Asian horrors, however, remain unpersuaded, like Dr. A. Cula of Transylvania. “For zer people vhere I come from,” he explained. “Ve vant to suck a lot of blutt. But ve hear zat zer Gafferment of Zingapore has already sucked most of the blutt from zer people, so zat is not a great incentive.”
------------------------HAHAHAHAHA!!
(The original article can be found
here.)
Wingardium Leviosa!!
