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The Last Silence - DVD

The Last Silence - DVD

Deutschland 2010 - with Ulrich Thomsen, Wotan Wilke Möhring, Sebastian Blomberg, Claudia Michelsen ...

Movie info

Genre:Drama, Thriller
Direction:Baran bo Odar
Sales launch:25.03.2011
Production country:Deutschland 2010
Running time:Approx. 114 min.
Rated:From 16 years
Number of discs:1
Languages:German (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Subtitles:Keine
Picture format:16:9 (2.35:1)
Bonus:Interviews, Trailer, TV-Spots
Region code:2
Label:Warner Home Video Germany / NFP
Web page:www.dasletzteschweigen-derfilm.de
Amazon Link : The Last Silence - DVD

Film: The novel "The Silence" by Hessian crime writer Jan Costin Wagner provides the template for one of the best German thrillers and ensemble dramas of recent times. "Das letzte Schweigen" by Baran bo Odar is a prime example that German television productions can also offer quite great cinema.

A gruesome crime shakes the inhabitants of an idyllic small town. Eleven-year-old Pia disappears, only her bicycle is found by a cornfield. Only when her body is discovered in a lake does the full extent of the unimaginable crime become clear. But the perpetrator or perpetrators are never found...

23 years later, young Sinikka disappears in exactly the same place as Pia once did. Newly retired police officer Christian Mittich (Burghart Klaußner) immediately realizes that this must be the same perpetrator and he wants to help his young colleague David Jahn (Sebastian Blomberg). But not only Mittich and Jahn are shaken by the disappearance of another girl. Family man Timo Friedrich (Wotan Wilke Möhring) is also torn from his well-behaved everyday life - after all, he murdered little Pia 23 years ago together with caretaker Peer Sommer (Ulrich Thomsen). Until now, he has been able to successfully suppress the crime. But now the past is haunting him...

"The Last Silence" is a great thriller that slowly but powerfully draws the audience into a harrowing story. Yet the murders of the girls Pia and Sinikka serve only as a framework for a much broader drama that delves deep into the psyches of the perpetrators, the investigators, and the parents of the victims. The fact that the identities of the perpetrators (of the first murder, at least) are known from the start is of little consequence. On the contrary, it intensifies the events all the more, as the film - like the book - is thus able to take apart the psyche of Timo Friedrich in particular, piece by piece, showing how the crime eats away at the family man from the inside out, without in any way coming to his defense.

While this film is also one of a series of productions from Germany with heavy television involvement, in this case ZDF (Das kleine Fernsehspiel) and arte. And yet Baran bo Odar's work is a real exception in that his psychological drama doesn't look like a small TV production, but like a first-class feature film. The camerawork, the editing, the worn but always gripping staging - all of it just works big time! The same goes for the convincing cast of actors, among whom Ulrich Thomsen in particular stands out.

Thomsen's Peer Sommer is a particularly terrifying perpetrator in that he comes across as completely normal, almost sympathetic on the outside, and you can't and won't believe what kind of monster lies within this unassuming janitor. Thomsen's performance is restrained and precisely because of that, incredibly intense. But also the other actors, like Sebastian Blomberg or Burghart Klaußner deserve great praise. No one in this great ensemble tries to play themselves into the foreground. Here, the actors act with each other and thus create a sometimes very harrowing overall picture that lingers long after the credits have rolled.

Thanks to the great camerawork, the subtly kept music and the sensitive, tense and dense staging and the fantastic ensemble in front of the camera, "Das letzte Schweigen" has become a must-see for all lovers of German cinema. A gripping thriller, a stirring drama, simply a good film - these are enough good reasons to watch "Das letzte Schweigen". Absolutely recommendable!

Picture + Sound: The brightness level of the picture has been artificially increased and the colors slightly alienated to give the film its very special atmosphere. This also comes across well in the home theater. Overall, the picture is very clean and the sharpness of detail is also spot on, though here and there, especially in the landscape shots, slight blurring and a certain amount of coarseness can be discerned. The sound remains very quiet entirely in keeping with the atmosphere of the film, with the subtle but effective use of ambient noise and the quiet soundtrack being convincing. Good!

Extras: Unfortunately, there are only four promotional interviews with actors Burghart Klaussner, Sebastian Blomberg, Katrin Sass and Wotan Wilke Möhring (total approx. 12 min.), the trailer and a TV spot, as well as some other trailers from the provider's program as an encore to the main film. For such a high-quality production simply far too little.

Conclusion: "The Last Silence" is unfortunately somewhat lost in the cinema. Remains now to hope that the great thriller will now find its deserved audience on DVD and Blu-Ray. The DVD is technically well implemented, only the weak bonus material disappoints. Overall: for lovers of good German thrillers and gripping dramas absolutely recommended!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp

Media:

Cinema trailer for the movie "The Last Silence - DVD (Deutschland 2010)"
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