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Funeral in Berlin (Widescreen) |
Canada - Product Guide |
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Home: You are here: Funeral in Berlin (Widescreen) |
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Funeral in Berlin (Widescreen)  Rating: Rating:  - Good Spy StoryIf you have ever worked for a government bureaucracy and you keep up with history and current evets, this movie will bear out greater believeability than the more popular blockbuster spy movies. Got to be watching it for the story itself, though ( there are NO massive explosions, intense car chases, hot sex scenes, etc.) Rating: - Way to go, Harry.While not as good as The Ipcress File, Harry is still in fine form. FIB is clever, well acted and well written. Every character is interesting. Its much, much better than the spy movies they make now. If I had to find fault, its with the annoying and inappropriate soundtrack. Even Marvin Hamlisch would have trouble coming up with something this sappy and intrusive. Still, the movie is very entertaining. Very cool. Rating:  - Gruelling to watch, but features at least one amazing quip.A film as visually and narratively downbeat as the ethically murky moral world of espionage it portrays. The good guys are cynical compromisers, the idealistic are chilling murderers, the charming are totalitarian stooges, the hero's struggling moral awareness is totally impotent. Berlin has never looked grimmer; action and morality are as enervatingly obscure as the most disenchanted film noir. The Harry Palmer series is usually seen as the antithesis of James Bond, with his macho flash, gadget-driven action and cartoonish ideology. This is true to an extent. Harry does get beautiful women, but usually because they want to use him - in his crumpled mac, he is more of a seedy voyeur than a superspy. His line in quips is very mundane, his thick glasses and flat Cockney accent are hardly glamorous, and he has to walk or take lifts rather than drive a snazzy car. However, there is a lack of plodding, le Carre-like detail, a lack of true moral neutrality (when one amiable character is revealed as a villain, he becomes more recognisably a Hollywood baddie) that suggests a cop out. Unlike the books of le Carre or the films of Melville, whose accumulation of seemingly pedantic or irrelevant details can lead to exciting narrative momentum, 'Funeral' is content to stay flat and gray. Which is admirable, but difficult to watch. Two good things, though - the Brecht/Weill pastiche score; and Harry's immortal line to his totty as she makes breakfast - 'You're useless in the kitchen; why don't you come back to bed?' (!) Rating:  - Specs,sex,and the Berlin WallLen Deighton's working class spy Harry Palmer returns to DVD in the second installment of the series,"Funeral in Berlin".Palmer was created by Deighton as a sort of anti-Bond in a series of books with plots more coplicated than the wiring on a British sports car,Palmer was insolent,insubordinant,and only survived by his wits and intelligence,with nary a gadget in sight."Funeral in Berlin" was the second in the series,and most spy fans consider it the best of them,pretty much neck and neck with the outstanding "Ipcress File".The DVD looks pretty good,the picture and sound are certainly watchable considering the age of the movies,It's also nice to see the movies in their OAR,both movies used the widescreen format pretty creatively,and suffered from being "panned and scanned".Unfortuneatly,"Funeral" doesn't have the excellent extra's "Ipcress" did,the only extra is the trailer.Still,it's an entertaining DVD,both Michael Caine(Palmer) and Oscar Homolka(Col Strok) give great performances,and Eva Renzi is certainly easy on the eyes.The great Guy Doleman returns from "Ipcress",albeit n a smaller role.It would be hard to discuss the plot without giving too much,but suffice to say,in Harry Palmer's world,nothing goes as planned,and nothing is as it seems.The film also does a nice job of portraying Berlin when it was still fragmented by the wall.All in all,viewer's looking for a cerebral spy thriller with no explosions and gunfights will enjoy Deighton's byzantine plot.Mention should also be made again of Oscar Holmoka's amazing performance,it's really worth the price of the DVD alone.You just don't see faces like that in movies(well,maybe on "The Soprano's").An although Caine became something of a joke in the 70's and 80's,he always made a good Harry Palmer. 1 2
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