BERLIN 1945-9th November 1989

Song of Childhood
By Peter Handke


When the child was a child
It walked with its arms swinging,
wanted the brook to be a river,
the river to be a torrent,
and this puddle to be the sea.

When the child was a child,
it didn?t know that it was a child,
everything was soulful,
and all souls were one.

When the child was a child,
it had no opinion about anything,
had no habits,
it often sat cross-legged,
took off running,
had a cowlick in its hair,
and made no faces when photographed.

When the child was a child,
It was the time for these questions:
Why am I me, and why not you?
Why am I here, and why not there?
When did time begin, and where does space end?
Is life under the sun not just a dream?
Is what I see and hear and smell
not just an illusion of a world before the world?
Given the facts of evil and people.
does evil really exist?
How can it be that I, who I am,
didn?t exist before I came to be,
and that, someday, I, who I am,
will no longer be who I am?

When the child was a child,
It choked on spinach, on peas, on rice pudding,
and on steamed cauliflower,
and eats all of those now, and not just because it has to.

When the child was a child,
it awoke once in a strange bed,
and now does so again and again.
Many people, then, seemed beautiful,
and now only a few do, by sheer luck.

It had visualized a clear image of Paradise,
and now can at most guess,
could not conceive of nothingness,
and shudders today at the thought.

When the child was a child,
It played with enthusiasm,
and, now, has just as much excitement as then,
but only when it concerns its work.

When the child was a child,
It was enough for it to eat an apple, ? bread,
And so it is even now.

When the child was a child,
Berries filled its hand as only berries do,
and do even now,
Fresh walnuts made its tongue raw,
and do even now,
it had, on every mountaintop,
the longing for a higher mountain yet,
and in every city,
the longing for an even greater city,
and that is still so,
It reached for cherries in topmost branches of trees
with an elation it still has today,
has a shyness in front of strangers,
and has that even now.
It awaited the first snow,
And waits that way even now.

When the child was a child,
It threw a stick like a lance against a tree,
And it quivers there still today.

Set in 1984 East Germany, the movie splits its perspective between Georg Dreyman , a faithful socialist playwright, and Gerd Wiesler , the Stasi officer assigned to spy on him. The movie's most surprising aspect is how faithfully it adapts to Wiesler's perspective. Director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck wants to engage sympathies on both sides, but it feels more evasive than generous. In the wake of the movie's domestic success, the German press has spent months trying to dig up a real-life analogue to Wiesler without success, indicating that von Donnersmarck's creation is wishful thinking at best. That's not revisionist history: It's fantasy. By Sam Adams.

Of cource there is blood and action, BUT film based on honour and dignity.

Crafted with a dedicated eye for detail by director Max Färberböck, A Woman in Berlin is adapted from a German woman's best-selling diaries, published anonymously in 1954. This film sees Färberböck return to the nightmarish vision of wartorn Berlin that provided the backdrop for forbidden love in his cinematic Aimée & Jaguar.

It is April 1945, and the Red Army is invading Berlin. A photographer and journalist (eloquently played by award-winning actor Nina Hoss) becomes the victim of a traumatic sexual assault at the hands of her purported liberators. She grows desperate to find someone who can protect and comfort her, and meets a Soviet officer named Andrej, with whom she soon develops a powerful relationship. However, their passion is forbidden. As enemies, how can they be lovers?

A Woman in Berlin is a stirring and visually striking experience providing insight into events that we can know only through textbooks. It is also a captivating love story about a ?deal with the devil? that is brilliantly portrayed by the leading actors, who ensure that the emotions at play are never reduced to simplistic terms.

Depicting the end of the Second World War ? and all the compromises it required ? with a decidedly lucid approach, the film offers a rare perspective on the women of Berlin who were left with nothing. Highly reminiscent of the rubble film cycle, which dealt with the impact of the war on European cities, the film is characterized by its evocative use of bombed urban spaces to convey the realities of the survivors' ravaged lives.

A Woman in Berlin blurs the lines between friend, lover and enemy. With echoes that resonate in more recent conflicts from Bosnia to Rwanda, this vital film shows the treacherous dilemmas that women must navigate in times of war.

The sister of a British officer disappears in East Berlin without a trace.

subject is moving to Vienna rather than Berlin, but good film about cold war term.

MacNamara is a managing director for Coca Cola in West Berlin in 1961, just before the Wall is put up. When Scarlett, the daughter of his boss, comes to West Berlin, MacNamara has to look after her, but this turns out to be a difficult task. After MacNamara has found out that Scarlett is seeing an East German communist named Otto, he goes to extreme lengths trying to conceal this from the girl's father in order to save his job.

Based on the novel by John Le Carre, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is closer to the dour, chilling world of Harry Palmer than the glossy glamorous lifestyle of James Bond. Le Carre's best-selling novel provides the basis for this breathtaking Cold War thriller of espionage, intrigue, crosses and double-crosses. A tension-packed and brilliantly plotted screenplay matches brooding first-rate performances from the entire cast, with masterful semi-documentary style direction from Martin Ritt.

1986 version is much better. where is person who will put it in Flixster ?????????????????