BellaOnline Forums Travel and Culture German Culture German movies.

Has anyone seen Vaya Con Dios with Daniel Bruhl. Despite the name it is a German movie.I have kinda forgotten a lot of German but listening to it has brought some of it back. It is a super flick!!! What other German movies has anybody else seen lately?

Yes Vaya Con Dios is a fascinating film Ancient Flaxman, as well as being one that disproves the theory that German people don�t have a sense of humour don�t you think?

Apart from the brilliant acting and beautiful scenery, loved the music and Gregorian chants that run through it, and the way it was a present day parable for the various divisions in life, East and West Germany, the physical and spiritual, secular and religious etc..

Many good German films just don�t make it onto the international market but two very recent ones that have, and which I have seen, were The Reader and The White Ribbon. Had already read �The Reader� so knew what to expect but the subject matter for both seemed to be guilt interpreted in different ways, so although they were worth seeing they were certainly quite �heavy�, and more thought provoking than �feel good� movies.

Thoroughly enjoyed �Goodbye, Lenin!� all those years ago, it was brilliant on so many levels, and of course Das Leben der Anderen, �The Lives of Others�, was not only worthy of its Oscar win as the Best Foreign Language Film but also an outstanding film to watch, and will be difficult to forget. Did you happen to see either of them?

I have not seen them Francine but they sound interesting. Please let me comment on Germans and sometimes how others view them. I came from a family of very gentle loving people. Americans sometimes think of the Germans as a cold, abrupt, and humorless. I know a little bit about them. There are, of course, some of those just as there are in any culture but I also know that they are a people that are deep thinkers, compassionate, and behind a seeming front of "matter of factness" are a people that hold some things very dear. Family, a deep connection to their Vaterland, hard work, and a very spiritual group behind their assumed frankness. I have talked recently to kids from Deutschland and they are very upbeat, concerned about the earth {rette die erde} and kinda have a no nonsense approach to life, education, family, and work. I love to meet with them and talk. A few years back we had a kid from Berlin come to stay over Christmas. When I spoke to him in German he laughed. I said'"was ist?" He replied with the fact that my German sounds like his Omas {Grandmothers}. I replied with the fact that it is my Grandparents German that I speak as I learned it when I was young in this country. He then understood. He was a cool kid and we had fun!!!

Agree with your opinion ancient flaxman, and thoroughly enjoy the people, the country and its culture. And as you say the young people are certainly very aware of their responsibilities to this earth of ours.

Must admit despite the fact that I had travelled, lived in various countries and cultures, and met many and various German folk on my travels, in the beginning actually living in a German city was for many reasons more than a bit of a culture shock.

Not in Berlin of the time which was, as it still is and probably always has been, a very open, cosmopolitan and international society, but in a �normal� city.

As you say all cultures have some �strange� folk in them, and unfortunately we certainly seemed to corner the market in them as we were surrounded by those whose behaviour was not at all like any German people I had ever met before, and as I subsequently found out not at all representative of either Germans or Germany, so the experience was definitely a baptism of fire one way or another.

Nevertheless that was a long time ago and times, people and opinions change, and I become very defensive these days when I hear the country and/or its people being criticised unfairly.

The young man who stayed with you sounds fun, was it some type of exchange visit?

Francine, He was an exchange student staying with another family but because we spoke German and celebrated Christmas more as he remembered it he asked if he could stay with us over the holidays. We would argue over German words and phrases. When I asked him,"was ist gesagt?" he would look at me like I had two heads and reply sternly,"Was has du gesagt?" I would tell him that that is the German I learned long before he was born. He again said sternley that it is incorrect!! Then we would both laugh. I learned a lot and I really appreciated his T shirt that said,"Rette die erde" on it. We are so antiquated in our thinking in the States about energy. He had some great ideas about how we could improve on our energy efficiency and conservation. You know Francine, even though he was very modern in his thinking when we met with our friends and sampled our Gluhwein and various other christmas traditions that many younger kids don't know about he felt very comfortable with our celebration. He even remarked that even though it was different from what it is celebrated today he somehow felt like he had always known about what we shared with him. He was a very aware little guy and his heritage meant a great deal to him as it does to us. He spoke exceptional English but while he was speaking German I had a little bit of trouble following his Berliner dialect. We muddled through it anyway and had fun. My wife made Bayrische Sauerbraten und rote kraut mit spaetzel for us for dinner and he asked us if we ate like this every day. We said no, we made it for him. I don't think he enjoyed it too much even though he thanked us for making it as he was very health conscious. When he found out that we were very holistic in our lifestyle we all had a good laugh. I told him that this stuff will clog your arteries and he agreed. We laughed so much we almost choked on our feast. He was a cool kid!!