What about watching a remake at Christmas?

Make the most of your Christmastime: "life´s too short to get angry" – as Jo says at some point in the film – and think of the good things.

Happy Birthday, Ennio!

Today Ennio Morricone turns 90 and I think that it´s worth marking such a day because birthdays should always be celebrated but reaching the age of 90 and being in such a good shape is also a milestone that shouldn´t go unnoticed. Ennio Morricone has been on tour over the last moments and it seems that this is going to be the last tour of his career.

 Let´s celebrate his birthday by enjoying some of the best soundtracks in the history of cinema!

30th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall

Today we mark the 30^th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, that is, it´s been 30 years since the Berlin Wall fell. As time goes by, we run the risk of forgetting about those times and very often, recalling the old times is also or perhaps the only way of not making the same mistakes again. As usual, “a picture is worth a thousand words” and that´s why, watching a film can help us to understand what life was like in Germany thirty years ago. If you are interested in one of those films, I recommend watching The lives of Others. I wrote about this issue some time ago on the post “Our  recent history in clips” (10^th November 2014). Have a look at it if you wish to learn more about this film as well as the age the story is set in.

The Wall stood for 28 years and today it is the 30^th anniversary of its fall, which is a very special milestone, isn´t it? But above all, we shouldn´t forget that 150 people died or were killed while trying to jump over the wall.

The lives of Others is a poignant and accurate reflection of life in East Germany but there are other films which also reflect life in the divided-city during the cold-war era and here I would also like to mention a few of them such as The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1965) by Martin Ritt – the wall was built in 1961 – Torn Curtain (1966) by Alfred Hitchcock, Good Bye Lenin! (2003) by Wolfgang Becker and one of the last ones Bridge of Spies (2015) by Steven Spielberg.

Today, in Berlin, it is a day of remembrance and a day in which a message of reconciliation is stressed: since then – since the fall of the Berlin Wall – the  city of Berlin has become a symbol of freedom.