What to Do in Case of Fire? (2001)
What To Do In Case of Fire? tells the humorous and touching story of six former creative anarchists who lived as house squatters in Berlin during its heyday in the 80s when Berlin was still an island in the middle of the former eastern Germany. At the end of the 80s they went their separate ways with the exception of Tim and Hotte, who have remained true to their ideals and continue to fight the issues they did as a group. In 2000, with Berlin as Germany's new capital, an event happens forcing the group out of existential reason to reunite and, ultimately, come to grips with the reason they separated 12 years ago.
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I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows
Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
This was quite a good movie. Perhaps I'm partial for German films, but this was even better because it wasn't about typical German film themes like racial tolerance, finding a lost love from the East-West separation, etc. The film told the story of a five anarchists who set a bomb in a government building in Berlin. The bomb's timer "stopped" and when tampered with 10 or so years later, begins where it left off. Suddenly it blows up the now-abandoned building and these five anarchists who are now older and more conservative must reunite and find a way to once again "smash the system" in order not to get caught. The film concentrated more on plot and less on cinemetography. There were a few nice cinemagraphic scenes however, and at the end, proved to be a heart-warming film. However, the movie was completely unrealistic and didn't touch on the differences of political ideologies as much as the back cover said it would. I think it would have been better if the characters were struggling to identify with each others' new political ideologies while having to work together to realisitically save themselves from their younger anarchistic days.
No matter what good things people may say about this film, What to do in case of fire is just one step far from becoming a dull experience. It's spine bone is made out of contrivances, holes and cliché characters. It's not as ironic or clever as I thought it would be based on the plot read on the back cover, and this group of so called "idealistic" people don't catch our attention because there's no way you can feel their commitment neither back then, when they performed minor terrorist acts in the twilight of the eighties, nor now, when they must stop police's investigation about a delayed home made bomb that set off in 2000, and links the bunch with it. Now, almost fifteen years later, they all have changed but two, whom stay "true to the cause": one is a lawyer, other is a yuppie, one more is a teacher or so, and other one is a mother. Can this changed minds reunite to stop what started when their ideals were radical? You'd be better off never finding out (although you guess the ending long before the end). German movies has put me down in the past and I ought knew this one shouldn't be different (the most recent being Das experiment). I´ll never learn. Usually, they start up with a nice welcome, but as the story unfolds, they loose ground and focus on narrative; I think they just don't know how to tell a story properly 'cause that is exactly what happens here: the beginning perhaps is not a compelling one but at least seems like fun, but then, the movie rolls on and you find out this amateur effort in every possible way is going nowhere. Now, in What..., the visual matters may find every now and then some good eye candy stuff, but overall, just when the end credits starts to roll, you realize this none other thing but a waste of time and money. The one you paid to see it, and the one they spent on it. They say two times in the movie: "what to do in case of fire?", "let it burn". Well then, let's just follow it's advice and set on fire this one to let it burn until it's consumed to ashes.
My sister and I rented this movie becuase she was searching for someother movie to watch in German class besides "Europa, Europa". I didn't come into the movie with any expectations, and was really pleasantly surprised by how fun and compeling it was. I know nothing about German anarchists, maybe they were terrorits and shouldn't be sympathized with, but I was definatly rooting for them to get away. There were some less than perfect stuff (the rekindling of a romance is not well handled, nor is the love-interest interesting at all), but there were so many good things, they are easily overlooked by less nit-picking movie watchers.The German punk soundtrack is a definate plus.Jean
Good German movies are hard to find. Especially if they rely too heavily on big names with limited acting capabilities like Til Schweiger. Fortunately, this movie is an exception to both. Excellent camera work, a well-designed script throwing in a punchline here and there but not overdoing it, and a cast which doesn't favour anyone over the other, all add up to one of the best German movies I have seen lately.The female characters are a little weak, with a former and a beginning love story left unexplored, and some of the others a bit entangled in cliché, but the emotions conveyed are genuine and the storyline has enough surprises left in stock to make for an entertaining experience.If you plan to see any German movie this year, this should be it.Rating: 10/12 (4 stars)