KIRSCHBLÜTEN = HANAMI = CHERRY BLOSSOMS
Directed and written by Doris Doerrie
2008, 127 minutes
This is one of the most moving film i have seen in last couple of months!
How often do we take our parents for granted, think they live forever, and find out later in life, or even after they died, how we miss them, how we loved them. this film is also about the beauty of discovering the meaning of life and death.
Doris Dörrie (born 26 May 1955, Hannover) is a German film director, producer and author.
... her life before she started out in the film business ... Doris Dörrie completed her secondary education ("Abitur") at a humanist Gymnasium. In 1973 she began a two-year attendance in film studies, in the drama department of the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. She then studied at the New School of Social Research in New York. She worked odd jobs in cafés and as film presenter in New York's Goethe House.
In 1975, back in Germany, she began to study at the University of Television and Film Munich, and wrote film reviews for the Süddeutsche Zeitung, where she was also assistant editor. Subsequently Dörrie worked as a volunteer for various television stations, and filmed short documentaries. Her numerous works of fiction, unlike her films, were greeted with a mixed reception.
MUNICH, GERMANY - MARCH 06: (L-R) Director Doris Doerrie, actress Hannelore Elsner and actor Elmar Wepper attend the 'Kirschblueten Hanami' premiere on March 6, 2008 in Munich, Germany. The movie of Doris Doerrie was part of the 2008 Berlin Film Fest Berlinale.
Review by Susan Meehan
"Cherry Blossoms: Hanami" is a beautiful life-affirming and enhancing film inspired by Yasujiro Ozu's "Tokyo Story." The series of stunning shots of the Bavarian landscape, early on in the film, could have come straight from a German tourist board film.
Rudi (Elmar Wepper), according to his wife Trudi (Hannelore Elsner), has no sense of adventure and is a man of routine. He's done the same job for 30-some years, commuted on the same train and maintained the same lunch routine, living within his comfort zone in a beautiful Bavarian town. Discovering she is terminally ill, and keeping this information secret, Trudi persuades him to embark with her on a trip to Berlin to visit their daughter and son.
Rudi and Trudi's children have little time for their parents and wonder why they're visiting them, in fact. It is their partners who show the greater kindness and empathy, confirming the adage from "Tokyo Story" – "As long as life goes on, relationships between parents and children will bring boundless joy and endless grief." In a poignant scene, Rudi admits that he doesn't know his children anymore despite remembering them so well as kids.
The couple decide to continue their holiday in a Black Sea resort where Trudi unexpectedly dies in her sleep. A grief-stricken Rudi embarks on a visit to Tokyo to visit their other son, Karl (Maximillian Brueckner), in honour of Trudi who never got to see her cherished Mount Fuji and who loved butoh dancing.
Rudi's escapades in Tokyo echo those of Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray in Sofia Coppola's "Lost in Translation." Left largely to himself by workaholic Karl, Rudi begins to explore Tokyo alone, often encountering the seedier side of life in the way of snack bars and "soaplands."
Finding an empathetic friend in Yu (Aya Irizuki), a teenage butoh dancer, Rudi is able to talk to her about Trudi. The blossoming of the friendship culminates in a trip to Mount Fuji to see the sometimes elusive mountain, beloved of Trudi.
FOUND AT THE JAPAN SOCIETY - FILM
if you liked this film, you might like the following ones as well ;)
Men… (Männer…) (1985), the most-seen German film that year, which launched her into the spotlight; starring: Uwe Ochsenknecht, Heiner Lauterbach, Ulrike Kriener
Money (Geld) (1989); starring: Billie Zöckler, Uwe Ochsenknecht, Sybille Waury
Paradise (Paradies) (1986); starring: Katharina Thalbach, Heiner Lauterbach, Sunnyi Melles
Me and Him (1989); starring: Griffin Dunne, Ellen Green, Kelly Bishop, Carey Lowell
Happy Birthday, Türke (1992); starring: Hansa Czypionka, Meret Becker, Joachim Król
Nobody Loves Me (Keiner liebt mich)de:Keiner liebt mich(1994); starring: Maria Schrader, Joachim Król .... [The drama Happy became the film Nackt/Naked (2002), and the collection of short stories Für immer und ewig/Forever and Always was made into the film Keiner liebt mich/Nobody Loves Me (1993).
Dörrie's husband, cinematographer Helge Weindler, died during the shooting of Bin ich schön?/Am I Beautiful? (1996). It was not until six years later that Doris Dörrie was able to formulate her loss in the novel Das blaue Kleid/The Blue Dress, which is not a book of mourning, but rather one of consolation: wit and imagination lead her out of the maze. The funeral ceremony on Bali proceeds unwaveringly despite a cloudburst ... This look at unfamiliar rituals gave death a face again, broke one of our society's taboos.
Am I Beautiful? (Bin ich schön?) (1998); starring: Franka Potente, Uwe Ochsenknecht
Enlightenment Guaranteed (Erleuchtung garantiert) (2002), starring the actors from Men…
Naked (Nackt) (2002)
How To Cook Your Life (2007), a documentary about Zen chef Edward Espe Brown
Cherry Blossoms (Kirschblüten - Hanami) (2008)
Die Friseuse (2010}
a very interesting view on life and death as well ... by Deepak Chopra
thanks to all of you who give us more insight in what's life about ... wonderful inspiration! we can give it to each other, every day we live here, on this planet, on the way to another stage of being. ;)
love and hugs
Very interested in seeing Cherry Blossoms. Judging from the trailer, it's a story of a rebirth of sorts stemming from sadness. And, it looks like the story telling is most powerful. Gerry.
DISCOVERIES ...