Heimat (1984)
Country: GER
Technical: bw/col 924m
Director: Edgar Reitz
Cast: Marita Breuer, Michael Lesch
Synopsis:
The fortunes of a German family in the Hunsruck from the close of the First World War to the 1960s, settling on the character of Hermann whose life is embellished in the sequels Heimat 2 and The Third Heimat (qv.).
Review:
Relentlessly detailed saga whose unprecedented theatrical length was justified by its conception as a television miniseries production. It blends elements of the family drama, which always makes for compelling viewing, with the historic sweep of a 1900, but begs the question of whether it is great cinema or great television. In the end one has to acknowledge it is both, possessing bravura visual style in its subtle shifts between colour and monochrome, or its virtuosic crane shots, and managing to compress the vast into the concise in spite of the length, making it ultimately easier to digest in fewer sittings in the cinema than at home. On the other hand it certainly raised the bar of aspiration for TV series, leading to productions such as Band of Brothers, The Sopranos or Rome in later decades. In the end its major achievement lies in not only making the viewer feel that to have made a shorter film on such an important subject would have been unthinkable, but in leaving him with the vague dissatisfaction of not having seen enough.
Country: GER
Technical: bw/col 924m
Director: Edgar Reitz
Cast: Marita Breuer, Michael Lesch
Synopsis:
The fortunes of a German family in the Hunsruck from the close of the First World War to the 1960s, settling on the character of Hermann whose life is embellished in the sequels Heimat 2 and The Third Heimat (qv.).
Review:
Relentlessly detailed saga whose unprecedented theatrical length was justified by its conception as a television miniseries production. It blends elements of the family drama, which always makes for compelling viewing, with the historic sweep of a 1900, but begs the question of whether it is great cinema or great television. In the end one has to acknowledge it is both, possessing bravura visual style in its subtle shifts between colour and monochrome, or its virtuosic crane shots, and managing to compress the vast into the concise in spite of the length, making it ultimately easier to digest in fewer sittings in the cinema than at home. On the other hand it certainly raised the bar of aspiration for TV series, leading to productions such as Band of Brothers, The Sopranos or Rome in later decades. In the end its major achievement lies in not only making the viewer feel that to have made a shorter film on such an important subject would have been unthinkable, but in leaving him with the vague dissatisfaction of not having seen enough.
Country: GER
Technical: bw/col 924m
Director: Edgar Reitz
Cast: Marita Breuer, Michael Lesch
Synopsis:
The fortunes of a German family in the Hunsruck from the close of the First World War to the 1960s, settling on the character of Hermann whose life is embellished in the sequels Heimat 2 and The Third Heimat (qv.).
Review:
Relentlessly detailed saga whose unprecedented theatrical length was justified by its conception as a television miniseries production. It blends elements of the family drama, which always makes for compelling viewing, with the historic sweep of a 1900, but begs the question of whether it is great cinema or great television. In the end one has to acknowledge it is both, possessing bravura visual style in its subtle shifts between colour and monochrome, or its virtuosic crane shots, and managing to compress the vast into the concise in spite of the length, making it ultimately easier to digest in fewer sittings in the cinema than at home. On the other hand it certainly raised the bar of aspiration for TV series, leading to productions such as Band of Brothers, The Sopranos or Rome in later decades. In the end its major achievement lies in not only making the viewer feel that to have made a shorter film on such an important subject would have been unthinkable, but in leaving him with the vague dissatisfaction of not having seen enough.