The Life Before This

Starring:Catherine O'Hara, Joe Pantoliano, Sarah Polley, Stephen Rea, Bernard Behrens, Martha Burns, Fab Filippo, Emily Hampshire, David Hewlett, Leslie Hope, Joel S. Keller, Dan Lett, Carl Marotte, Alison Pill, Callum Keith Rennie, Albert Schultz, Jacob Tierney, Alberta Watson, Nina Shock, Kirsten Kieferle
Director: Jerry Ciccoritti
Studio: Image Entertainment
Product Type: DVD

Customer Reviews:

superboy goes to germany.......2007-04-26

an utterly silly movie about school boys in the era of hitler youth. its hard to trivalize this era, but this cross twixt "rocky" and "loneliness of the long distance runner" succeeds. i shall waste no more time on it.

The schools of Hitler.......2007-04-12

The German title of this film is "Napola". Napola's were "National Political Institutes of Education", or Nationalpolitische Erziehungsanstalten. They were community education sites that appeared when the National Socialists came into power in 1933. (Not 1942 as another review indicates.) They had very strict entrance exams. The blind and deaf need not apply, and racial purity was of prime concern. Indeed, when Friedrich (Max Riemelt) enrolled, measurements of his head were taken, his eyes were "sized", and his hair was color coded. When finished, he was declared "Nordic Class One B". One glance at Friedrich, and the first word that would pop into most people's mind, especially when watching a German film, is "Aryan".

He had received attention while boxing, and his prowess gains him an invitation to the "community" Napola, even though it is unusual for students his age to be accepted. I'm guessing that he is about seventeen; I don't recall the film specifically giving an age. His father strictly forbids him, as he does not want to be associated with the Nazi's. He wants Friedrich to become an apprentice and work in the factories. But Friedrich has grander plans for himself. Departing silently in the middle of the night, he leaves two notes behind for his parents. To his mother, he is apologetic. To his father, he tells him that he forged his father's signature, and that if his father tries to take him out of the school he will tell the Gestapo what his father said about the Napola's. His father doesn't take this well, and unleashes his anger on Friedrich's bicycle.

Arriving at the Napola, Friedrich is awed by its physical beauty - the school is housed in a gorgeous castle - and by how smart and purposeful he looks in his uniform. In the opening day speech, the headmaster states that everyone here is equal, regardless of where they came from. Farmer's son, whatever, it doesn't matter. He also says that when final victory is achieved, Germany will need Governors - not only for herself and Austria, but also for Washington, London, Moscow, and Cape Cod. It's clear that they are grooming these boys not only to be soldiers, but also to be good little Nazi's. Friedrich's genuine smile and excitement is difficult to miss, and on such an innocent face it's difficult to see when looking back with the benefit of hindsight. One can't help but wonder how many students, like him, perfectly normal, became the Fuhrer's fools.

Instruction at the Napola is rigorous, both physically and academically, although when discussing evolution they don't so much discuss the theory of evolution as it pertains to science, but how it applies to Hitler's beliefs: the culling of the weak. Physically, they go through many of the same drills that we see our own Marines go through during training camp.

Friedrich meets a smaller boy, Albrecht (Tom Schilling), whom he immediately befriends. Throughout the film, Albrecht serves not only as Friedrich's conscience, but also as the film's moral center. Albrecht's father, Heinrich, is the Governor, and is firmly in Hitler's corner. Albrecht is his father's antithesis. Albrecht is an aesthete - and we are told at a memorial service for someone who committed suicide but is hailed instead as a hero that there is no room for aesthetes in Hitler's army - whereas Friedrich is blunt force. We see the differences between the boys when Albrecht invites Friedrich to come home with him for his father's birthday. Friedrich impresses Heinrich as he has heard much about his boxing. In, perhaps, drunken stupidity, the Governor has the two boys box down in the cellar. Friedrich has no desire to hit his friend, but Albrecht must impress his father and mounts a rather ineffective offensive. When one or two of his punches land, Friedrich puts him down with two punches. Heinrich and his friends are proud of Friedrich and ignore Albrecht.

The entrance of Heinrich serves as the introduction of the harsh realities of Nazism and Hitler's regime. The school itself has so far been but a tool for Hitler, and the children, remote and removed, know only their studies, themselves, and their training. One night a group of Russian prisoner's escapes into the woods surrounding this Napola, and Heinrich comes to them asking for help. The prisoners, he says, are "armed and dangerous" (so to speak), and sends the students into the woods after them, for the students know the woods better than anyone.

In the woods, the boys become men.

"Before the Fall" works very well in everything that it does. The boxing scenes are good and the strong friendship between Albrecht and Friedrich is believable. They are very different people. Albrecht comes from privilege, and doesn't necessarily want it, and Friedrich looks at the Napola as something that can give him access to privilege that his poor family could not. They are drawn together, perhaps because Friedrich senses that he has something to learn from Albrecht.

Both Schilling and Riemelt put in excellent performances. It would be easy to portray Albrecht as simply weak, but Schilling makes us believe that Albrecht is a young man with strong convictions. Riemelt is helped with his Aryan good looks, but he proves to be a fine actor as well. In an emotional scene between the two friends, it's difficult to see that either are acting - although I would give the edge in performance to Schilling. His eyes resonated with intellect and emotion.

How I became an Übermensch...and grew up.......2007-03-22

You may be a skilled laborer's son, but you win an athletic scholarship to the most prestigious school in the country, a school that guarantees a place as a Superhuman Leader.
Only, it's Nazi Germany, your dad hates the Nazis, but you are still in line to become an Übermensch. Just go to the school and meet the school's lofty standards. It's your Big Chance! You will become a Young Leader of the Thousand-year Reich.
So, you run away from home, enter the school and do your best. At first you are a true believer, then you start to see the inconsistencies behind the rhetoric.
You see good people, your friends, who kill themselves in heroic ways to save face as they fail to make the grade. They find ways to become the honored dead, National Heroes of the National Socialist Third Reich. Men who gave the supreme sacrifice. The speeches honoring them are glorious and exalting.
Next, you and the other students start to hunt and shoot unarmed Russian POW escapees in the woods around the school...
You begin to change as you wake up to what is really going on.

A remarkable film about an ambitious boy who is seduced by his dreams and then puts them aside when he become a man with integrity.
This is a great film.

Napola--Hitler's Future Elite Leaders for the Third Reich.......2007-03-13

No, this is not a gay movie. Since I've watched it in English and German I cannot understand what is the controversy here.

The film is about two main themes in the National Socialist era--that Hitler promoted the idea that all German Volk were equal (see Europa, Europa for more on this theme amongst German male youth), but that some were more equal than others--those chosen to attend the National-Politische Erzeihungs-Anstalt (NAPOLA), schools to harden the will and spirit of the future Gauleiters (Dr. Joseph Goebbels was the Gauleiter of Berlin)--a form of political division of the anticipated future large German Reich. As one states to the students in the castle school--who will be the future Gauleiters of Washington, D.C., of London?

In other words, there was a bit of Animal Farm in Germany. The main theme--contrasting the lower class youth recruited from the boxing rings of Berlin in 1942, and the sensitive son of a local Gauleiter--is well done. All of the films production values are right-on in all details, from the drill-sergeant to the recruiter, to the savage Gauleiter and the wife who tears up--quietly--upon hearing of the death of the sensitive son Albrecht. Ironically, the German word for WEAK is often used to denote homosexual; but this was not the usage in 1942 when the Gauleiter mutters about his son, "Er war schwach." Hitler said no less of the German people (see Downfall), who did not deserve to win the war in which there were no "civilians" (Zivilisten). Max Riemelt and Jonas Jagermeyr give stunning performances.

What a huge misunderstanding here...........2007-02-18

... i am sure i didnt read all the commends about this movie.. but alone the category amazon itself puts it in is so totally wrong it is unbelievable.... there is nothing.. nothing nothing gay about this movie!!!.. it shows how the nazis influenced the school education of teenage boys.. to be a thinking person was nothing.. to be a fighting one everything.. it just showed how an intelligent thinking boy aged 16 was declared "to weak" for the system.. only because he didnt believe in fighting and brutal unjust actions ordered by the higher "leaders".. where a maybe not quite so intelligent boy same age was first blinded by the "glorious" uniforms and the so called possiblities he was given just because he was good in boxing.. he found out the hard way what a brain washing institution he was in...
so people tell me.. what is gay about it..
and amazon.. ? did anyone of your people actually see the movie?
you did a total injustice to this movie to lable it gay.. as a gay tag...
(by the way .. check the german amazon page.. where this movie was put in the same category as for example "sophie scholl".. is that gay???
you must be kidding me...

Average customer rating:

It's been said before by better directors and writers
..and here we are again.
..and here we are again.
A Thought Provoking Art Film from Canada

The Life Before This
Starring: Catherine O'Hara , Joe Pantoliano , Sarah Polley , Stephen Rea , and Bernard Behrens
Director: Jerry Ciccoritti
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00005AFSI
Release Date: 2001-04-17

Description

Tomorrow is never a sure thing--when today may be your last. Several innocent bystanders are hurt or killed when a casino heist gone wrong spills into the neighboring cafe. We are then taken back in time to the morning of the shooting and follow the lives of the bystanders throughout their day to see what choices, in an alternate reality, would change the outcome of the impending doom.

Customer Reviews:

It's been said before by better directors and writers.......2004-02-01

The 'what if'/'if only I had known' genre is not served by this badly-written, badly-directed 92 minutes of my life that I will never get back.

Catherine O'Hara and Joey Pants are splendid as always, but there are too many characters given equal importance, leading to a choppy and unresolved story.

For the best of the genre, check out 'Memento' and 'American Beauty' instead.

..and here we are again........2001-04-17

"The Life Before This," never before has tradegy been displayed so beautifully. Out of jest one night, I was pacing up and down the aisles at the local video store. Nothing was looking good at all, and after just skimming titles, I decided to get 'int depth' about certain movies that looked appealing, yet none that were quite mainstream. So after doing so, I just saw the cover of this box. It seemed to display a story already just from the simple imagery on the cover. Right away I was enticed to see what this tale was about... to sum it up, you know when you have a decidsion or you nee to decide what to do for a certain evening, and I'm sure we've all had these moments where we can't decide between the two or so more options give. Well imagine going with one...just see what happens that night. Good or bad, it's a given. Now imagine if you were to do the latent of the two, the other thought that you had in mind..if only you've stuck with that one, where would it take you?

'The Life Before This,' deals with that. It takes this small circle of charcaters whose life all communicate with eachother in someway, and it takes the last night of their tragic death and transforms it into a fairytale, if they were only to do one simpe thing different the day of their passing. This movie yes, isn't the most uplifting, but it has a beauty to it that could never be describe with the most of elegant words. It starts off displaying the ending, but take syou througha dream of sadness, happiness, life and regret through each different standpoint allowed... what if this were your last day to breathe? Would it end in a peaceful fashion, or one which you'd always wish you'd have said more... 'The Life Before This' is recommended for any seeking anything from a deeper philosophical meaning, to just someone whom just appreciates a good movie. It is most definitely, not the type to let down.

..and here we are again........2001-04-17

A Thought Provoking Art Film from Canada.......2000-11-01

"My Life Before This" is one of those movies (usually relegated to the "arthouse" movement these days!) that really leaves you thinking about what you have just watched, and you will be thinking about this film long after the movie has ended! The film deals with the impact of our choices and decisions in our lives. Even the most mundane and seemingly "unimportant" choices can have life-altering, and even catastrophic results, as the characters in this artfully crafted drama soon find out! The film begins in a coffeshop, where we are introduced to most of the films main characters. The lives of everyone in the coffeshop is forever changed when a crime being committed in a nearby building spils over into their midst. Next, the film switches gears and takes us back in time, showing us an "alternate" view of what COULD have happened that day in the coffeshop, if only different, seemingly "unimportant" choices had been made by some of those involved. The film then ends back in the coffeshop, showing us the results of this "alternate" set of choices. The film's message will really stay with you. It will really make you consider the decisions that you make in day to day life, and how those decisions may effect others. The film shows a hint of influence from the great Canadian director Atom Egoyan, and so I was not suprised to see some familiar faces from Egoyan films, namely Sarah Polley and Alberta Watson, who previously appeared together in Egoyan's masterful "The Sweet Hereafter". Another familiar face to art-film buffs will be Stephen Rea, who previously appeared with Polley in the underrated "Guinevere". (And was also excellent as a faded rock star in "Still Crazy".) The whole cast is quite good in their roles, and comic actress Catherine O' Hara (of "Second City TV" and "Home Alone" fame) takes on a slightly more serious role as a bridal shop worker who is herself, unlucky in love. (She does manage to get in a few of the films only comical lines). One thing I must say is that if you don't plan to pay attention to this film, then don't even bother! With its interweving characters and plotlines, this film will need your full attention to be truly appreciated. That being said, I would highly recommend this film to anyone who enjoys thought-provoking arthouse cinema...But be prepared to think after you watch!

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