#oliver hirschbiegel

[haveyouseenthismovie-poll]

[brokehorrorfan]

The Invasion will be released on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray on November 12 via Arrow Video. Tommy Pocket designed the new cover art for the 2007 sci-fi thriller; the original poster is on the reverse side.

The fourth adaptation of Jack Finney's 1955 novel The Body Snatchers is directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel (The Experiment) and written by David Kajganich (Suspiria). Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Jeremy Northam, and Jeffrey Wright star.

The Invasion is presented in 4K with Dolby Vision and original lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio. Special features are listed below, where you can also see more of the packaging.

Special features:

Audio commentary by The Faculty of Horror's Andrea Subisati and Alexandra West (new)

Body Snatchers and Beyond - Visual essay by film scholar Alexandra Heller Nicholas (new)

That Bug That’s Going Around - Visual essay exploring The Invasion as pandemic prophecy by film scholar Josh Nelson (new)

We’ve Been Snatched Before, an archival featurette from 2007

The Invasion: A New Story

The Invasion: On the Set

The Invasion: Snatched

Theatrical trailer

Image gallery

Booklet with new writing by film critics William Bibbiani and Sally Christie

Double-sided fold out poster with original and new artwork by Tommy Pocket

A space shuttle crashes to Earth carrying an alien organism. Soon people are changing, becoming detached and emotionless. People like CDC director Tucker Kaufman (Jeremy Northam) who is investigating the crash. Meanwhile his ex-wife, psychiatrist Carol Bennell (Nicole Kidman), sees the same behaviour in a friend of their son, and a patient claims that her husband is no longer her husband. As people all across Washington D.C. become infected and the insidious epidemic spreads, Carol must fight to protect herself and her son, who might just hold the key to stopping the escalating invasion.

Pre-order The Invasion.

[filmloversociety]

Downfall (Der Untergang), 2004

[adaptations-polls]

Which version of this do you prefer?

[rwpohl]

das experiment, oliver hirschbiegel 2001

träume, rio reiser, himmel & hölle 1995

das bischen kram hatte er einfach stehen lassen und den schlüssel in den briefkasten seines vermieters geworfen. nun saß er in einem zug, lehnte mit der stirn an der scheibe des fensters in seinem abteil. die arbeiter, die nicht mehr benötigte gleise wegräumten, die sah er nicht.

abreise_fragment, notizen leipzig 2006

härtefall_kahla edit 2014

material buw: semesterausstellung blind faces, e-werk weimar 1997

[cemyafilmarsiv]

13 Minutes directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel

[neovallense]

El hundimiento (Der Untergang, 2004)

[byneddiedingo]

Ulrich Matthes and Bruno Ganz in Downfall (Oliver Hirschbiegel, 2004)

Cast: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Laga, Corinna Harfouch, Ulrich Matthes, Juliane Köhler, Heino Ferch, Christian Berkel, Matthias Habich, Thomas Kretschmann, Michael Mendl, Ulrich Noethen. Screenplay: Bernd Eichinger, based on books by Joachim Fest and Traudl Junge and Melissa Müller. Cinematography: Rainer Klausmann. Production design: Bernd Lepel. Film editing: Hans Funck. Music: Stephan Zacharias.

Downfall may be best known today for memes: the video parodies that take parts of the film, particularly the ranting of Bruno Ganz's Hitler, and supply new subtitles that spoof everything from contemporary politics to the efforts of the producers to suppress the parodies on YouTube because of copyright concerns. The producers were misguided: The parodies probably led more people to watch the actual film than would have without their notoriety. It's a well-made film, particularly because it manages to deal with an inherent problem: Would a dramatization of the last days of Hitler and his coterie tend to glamorize their futile struggle to survive, turning it into something like heroism? Ganz's superb performance helps the film sidestep that danger: His Hitler is humanized, to be sure, even to the point of once shedding a tear, but ultimately it's a portrait of repellent fanaticism and megalomania. He's a twitchy old man, one hand held behind his back in a palsied claw, but it's easy to see how the rather beleaguered men and women who surround him could be filled with a terrified awe of the man. I'm not particularly happy with the framing of Downfall, however. I think the decision to see much of the story through the eyes of Hitler's pretty secretary, Traudl Junge (Alexandra Maria Laga), shifts the focus away from the desperate horror of the final days, using a somewhat glossy survival story to keep the audience entertained. The footage of the real Traudl Junge that begins and ends the film doesn't much help illuminate why the "ordinary" German could be hoodwinked by Nazism, and her insistence that she didn't know of the true horrors of the Reich feels a little specious. There are, however, some moments of genuine drama in the film that emphasize how foul a spell Hitler cast over his followers, particularly the hysterical collapse of the otherwise icy Magda Goebbels (Corinna Harfouch) at Hitler's feet when she realize the end is at hand. She pulls herself together and then proceeds to systematically murder her five children. I also liked the depiction of the cynicism of the Nazis who, when someone reminds them of the plight of the German people, sneeringly retort that it was their fault for bringing them to power in the first place. There's a lesson in the film somewhere for contemporary Americans, but I don't want to be the one to spell it out. Kudos to Stephan Zacharias for avoiding Wagnerian clichés in his score, although I thought the quotation from Purcell's aria "When I Am Laid in Earth" might have been a touch too sentimental.

[helmstone]

Constellation — Apple TV drops trailer and date for new sci-fi drama

Constellation — Apple TV drops trailer and date for new sci-fi drama

Apple TV+ has released a trailer for science fiction drama Constellation, coming to the streamer on February 21. They describe it as an eight-part conspiracy-based psychological thriller drama series starring Noomi Rapace and Emmy Award nominee Jonathan Banks. Created and written by Peter Harness, Constellation stars Rapace as Jo – an astronaut who returns to Earth after a disaster in space –…

[geekcavepodcast]

Constellation Trailer

After an disaster in space, astronaut Jo returns to Earth to find key pieces of her life missing. Desperate, she attempts to "expose the truth about the hidden history of space travel and recover all that she has lost." (Apple TV)

Constellation stars Noomi Rapace, Jonathan Banks, James D'Arcy, Julian Looman, Will Catlett, Barbara Sukowa, Rose Coleman, and Davina Coleman. The series is created and written by Peter Harness and directed by Michelle MacLaren, Oliver Hirschbiegel, and Joseph Cedar.

Constellation hits Apple TV+ on February 21, 2024.

[adamwatchesmovies]

The Invasion (2007)

While I didn't enjoy this film, that doesn't mean you won't. No matter what I say, the people involved in this project did it: they actually made a movie. That's something to be applauded. With that established...

When your remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers is significantly less entertaining than the mockbuster The Asylum created to leech off its release, you’re in trouble. 2007’s The Invasion attempts to reinterpret the original The Body Snatchers story in such bewildering ways you’ll wonder if a pod person wrote it.

After a Space Shuttle crashes on Earth, a fungus-like alien lifeform is discovered clinging to the remains. Psychiatrist Carol Bennell (Nicole Kidman) becomes suspicious of her ex-husband, Tucker (Jeremy Northam) when he suddenly becomes very interested in their son, Oliver (Jackson Bond). She believes the sudden change within him - and many others - is linked to the extraterrestrial.

In each of these adaptations of the story by Jack Finney, the title has always been the worst part. “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” tells you so much more than is needed but in every previous iteration of this story, it didn’t really matter. The slow trickle of suspense made you forget how much you already knew. This time around, David Kajganich tosses away all uncertainty and tension. He tells you from the first scene there’s an alien invasion happening. It’s a severe mistake. Now, every pod person can be singled out from a mile away, making Carol look like a complete moron for not catching on immediately. I know the characters in the movie don’t know they’re in a movie but even so, you grow frustrated waiting for them to get their act together.

When Carol and her friend Dr. Ben Driscoll (Daniel Craig) piece together what’s going on, different issues arise. It in’t the first time this story takes the “there’s still hope” stance but the way it’s done here is laughable. A method of combatting the attack is theorized and agreed upon so quickly your jaw will drop. An avalanche of exposition and techno jargon threatens to bury you alive and it’s nearly enough for you not to realize how contrived the remaining humans’ plan is. It all comes together in a final scene that asks you a question about whether the invasion should be stopped after all. I think it's supposed to stop us dead in our tracks. Instead, it means nothing. The entire movie told us one thing, now, we're told to reverse our position at the eleventh hour? Get out of here before you waste more of our time.

At its core The Invasion contains some inherently effective moments. No matter how badly it botches the story, there’s still something frightening about a woman nervously walking the streets, wondering if those around her are trustworthy, or hidden enemies. Those moments are brief and undone by the ending, the dialogue, the unconvincing plot and the editing too. The Invasion features some of the worst editing I’ve ever seen. You often can’t tell if you’re watching a montage of things happening in the present, or memories/flashbacks. Actions that would normally be shown are snipped out, making the reshoots obvious and awkward. It’ll have your head spinning.

At least The Invasion has the good graces of being consistently and obviously awful. As a bonus, it continuously finds new ways of being terrible, of butchering its tried-and-true story. Despite this, the film never graduates into becoming entertaining, even in a so-bad-it’s-good way. (On DVD, March 13, 2020)

[pintsizeddeepthoughts]

25 of 250: Favorite Film Reviews - Downfall

Not long ago, work colleagues and I got into a discussion about what our favorite films were. Given my categorical nature I could not resist writing down a list and, as a writing challenge, have decided to write 250 word reviews of my favorite 25 films of all-time. Note: these are my favorite films, not what I think are the best films of all time.

Directed by: Oliver Hirschbiegel Eichinger

Written by: Bernd Eichinger

Starring: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara

Year/Country: 2004, Germany

A valid question one asks when approaching this film is whether it’s wrong to portray Adolf Hitler as completely human. The answer is unequivocally no. Set in the last days of Hitler’s life, most of it takes place in his bunker under Berlin as the Soviet Army closes in. Director Oliver Hirschbiegal and writer Bernd Eichniger weave an impressive tableau of interlocking stories which examines arguably one of the most extreme places in recent history. The most prominent story is that of Hitler’s personal secretary, Traudl Junge (Alexandra Maria Lara). Shown early in the film to be eager to work for her country’s leader, by the final days Truadl’s feeling trapped. As hope fades and the delusions Hitler and the rest of the bunker collapse, the question becomes will Traudl (and by extension Germany) choose to leave Hitler behind? An even more important question might be, can they?

Review of this film rightfully focuses on the performance of Bruno Ganz as Hitler. The Swiss actor spent months studying audio recordings to nail Hitler’s mannerisms and tone. The effect is a three dimensional portrait of a sociopath whose world has collapsed, whose spell seemingly cannot be broken until he commits the ultimate betrayal to his people by taking his own life. It is a brutal truth, but this is a brutal movie. It does not flinch at depicting societal collapse in truly apocalyptic terms or flinch at the extremes people will go to survive - or to escape any way they can.

[gutierrezferreira]

agora. 📺

Diana (2013, Oliver Hirschbiegel)

[angelariasdominguez]

§ 3.316. Secuestradores de cuerpos (Abel Ferrara, 1993)

Tercera versión de un 'clasicazo'. Comenzado con La invasión de los ladrones de cuerpos (Don siegel, 1956) y continuando con La invasión de los ultracuerpos (Philip Kaufman, 1978). Al parecer hay una tercera versión previa a esta, que no he visto: Invasión (Oliver Hirschbiegel , 2007).

Indudablemente de peor corte y confección que las otras dos, especialmente la de Siegel, que quizá sea la mejor, y, sin duda, la que más me gusta.

Lastra mucho que sepas de qué va. No existe el elemento sorpresa, ni siquiera el seguimiento de la trama tiene aliciente. Tampoco se basa en efectos especiales que pudieran provocar en el espectador un sentimiento de zozobra o miedo más allá de lo usual. 

Tiene más de satisfacción personal del Director que de gran cinta. Seguramente Ferrara sea un fanático de las dos cintas y este es su homenaje particular. El cine está lleno de estos guiños.

Pero está vacía, hueca y huera. Amanerada y acartonada. Sin pulso. Sin brillo. Sencillamente no era una cinta para que le hiciese Ferrara, más acostumbrado a hacer otras cosas, transgresoras, delirantes, violentas y tamizadas tras la ingesta masiva de sustancias que 'harían vomitar a una cabra'. Me ha parecido demasiado corta. No sé, pero quizá si el planteamiento inicial hubiera sido más progresivo, si la presentación de los personajes hubiera estado más completa, y el escenario -la base militar, el empleo de los residuos químicos, etc.- mejor aliñado estaríamos hablando de otra cosa. 

Queda insulsa, como sosa. Y, desde luego, no es reconocible como de su director. Todas las que he visto de él pueden medirse con un cierto patrón estilístico. Ésta no. No me lo parece, al menos.

Algunos planos juega a ser Lynch, pero con la lentitud de un clásico de los años cincuenta americano. Cinta postmoderna en el tratamiento, pero clásica en la estructura. Algo no funciona. Las escenas más visualmente atrayentes son las de los ataques de los monstruos, de los 'ultracuerpos', y la persecución por las calles del padre con sus hijos.

[fusdbcom]

Constellation Serie (2024) Handlung, Kritik, Besetzung | Apple Tv+

Constellation Serie Die Serie Constellation ist eine britische Fernsehserie, die am 21. Februar 2024 Premiere feierte. Apple Tv ist eine Eigenproduktion. Die Serie, deren erste Staffel aus 8 Episoden besteht, ist in der Kategorie Thriller angesiedelt. Die Serie wurde von Peter Harness kreiert und von Michelle MacLaren, Oliver Hirschbiegel und Joseph Cedar inszeniert. Das Drehbuch stammt von…

[rwpohl]

das urteil, oliver hirschbiegel 1997