Cinema Cycle - Faraway, So Close

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE: 11/04/2014

TITLE: Faraway, So Close

FORMAT: LaserDisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 2 hours 26 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 32.6 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 670.9 miles

SYNOPSIS: An angel in recently reunified Berlin becomes mortal and learns of the pleasures and perils of human existence.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: There are things that are unseen that we once knew of but long since been forgotten.  We were put on this earth to learn and love, but have lost our way.

PROS AND CONS: An interesting film that was not quite what I expected.  This is a complex film that has a lot of sub-plots and themes.  There are several different languages spoken in the film, English, French, German (but there are English subtitles) which underscores the multinational makeup of the city and the cast.  

What I thought was going to be a deep brooding look at the German psyche through the eyes of the angel who becomes mortal isn’t quite what happened.  While this was part of the overall effect of the film, it wandered into plots that were surprising.  

Namely that there are numerous ‘fallen’ angels among us that make up a sort of disenfranchised underground and there are some mortals who can sense the angels among us.  Add to this, a plot of underground gun running and dealing with the stigma of Germany’s Nazi past and you have a plot and an ending that is unexpected.

A beautifully filmed movie with a very good cast that is also somewhat unexpected (Lou Reed, Peter Falk, Mikhail Gorbachev, Willem Defoe), along with a soundtrack that frames the world of the film well.

To read an overview of this project, check out the initial post for this series.

This film is a part of my LaserDisc Collection.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) entry for this film. 

This film was viewed while exercising on my recumbent cycle.  A summary of my time spent working out on my journey through movie-land can be found on Strava.com.

The summary of the project and a glimpse of what is coming up next can be found on my public LaserDisc spreadsheet.