Twin Sisters

Starring:Stephanie Kramer
Studio: Platinum Disc
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

Potent, subtle, elegant
wonderful movie
A Dutch Bestseller About Separated Twins Turned Into An Oscar Nominated Film About War And Sacrifice
"I came for her."
The Princess and the maid

Twin Sisters
Starring: Sina Richardt , Julia Koopmans , Thekla Reuten , Nadja Uhl , and Ellen Vogel
Director: Ben Sombogaart
Manufacturer: Miramax
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0009X75S8
Release Date: 2005-09-13

Description

Nominated for an Academy Award® (Best Foreign Language Film, 2003), TWIN SISTERS (DE TWEELING) is the emotional and provocative story that tells the tale of two sisters who must come to terms with their fate amid the heat of World War II. Lotte and Anna become orphans by the age of six. One is sent to live a life of privilege with wealthy relatives in the Netherlands, while the other stays in Germany to face a harsh existence on her uncle's farm. When they reconnect years later, they not only discover that their lives have taken drastically different paths but, following Germany's invasion of Holland, they find themselves pitted on opposite sides of the war. Powerful and thought provoking, this award-winning motion picture earned worldwide critical acclaim!

Customer Reviews:

Potent, subtle, elegant.......2007-06-12

Wow, there are some poorly written reviews here. This is a beautiful film, lovely and tender and careful and sensitive. And worthy of more than a lengthy plot synopsis. That plot, hacked to bits by others here, does not need repeating. But the themes, barely touched, are timeless. And wonderfully presented. While a "Holocaust" film, it is not a grim parade of stacked corpses or incinerators. It is a film of gradual opening, as new things become clear, and people realize that their environments and their choices have led them to places they'd rather not be. And it again reminds us just how potent true evil is when it faces those who do not believe in its existence, who ignore and excuse and explain and justify.

What complicity does one have when evil is done in one's name without one's full knowledge? And when do we forgive those who have hurt us? Hard questions indeed. This film's answer is that love transcends complicity. Love says "I accept you, no matter what you've done. Come home." How beautiful. And how freeing.

So many delightful details, carefully and wondrously presented, make this a film that is both sad and yet joyous. The three pair of actresses are uniformly wonderful. The look is a treasure, as we move between comfort and filth. Life has been frightfully hard for many in the 20th Century, and yet those people, residents of cities that ceased to exist, or sole survivors of extended families that were exterminated, or scarred veterans who witnessed the horrors of battle, came back, cleaned up, rebuilt, and started over. When we see the contents of Ann's life in that little suitcase, consisting of fewer clothes than we have in a load of laundry, a single photo, some letters and a mother's handkerchief, our hearts are torn by how much this poor woman has lost. And yet she persevered, though rejected, scorned, and abused. Our world that knows nothing of patience, endurance, or resilience, calls that bravery, but Anna would never have so described herself. She just went on, as she had to. How beautiful. And when she finally gets the acceptance -- not forgiveness, for she has done nothing wrong -- she seeks, we triumph with her. How can people carry grudges to their grave? What do they get but an ego salved at the expense of so much else? We all fail. We all fall. We need an extended hand, and when it comes, oh, how soothing it is.

wonderful movie.......2007-01-15

I loved this movie and it was very thought provoking. Great acting and highly recommend it!

A Dutch Bestseller About Separated Twins Turned Into An Oscar Nominated Film About War And Sacrifice.......2007-01-04

Trying to catch up on some of the significant international cinema of the last few years, I stumbled across the Dutch epic "Twin Sisters." Based on an enormously popular bestseller, this is a much honored film that represented the Netherlands at the 2004 Academy Awards. While set largely during World War II, and having much to say about the subject, this is first and foremost a study of sisterly love and commitment. For even though the characters are separated through the bulk of the picture, the loss and the bond that these sisters have infuse every scene and every decision that they make.

The film starts with a brilliant setup. When two young girls are left orphans in Germany, they are wanted by two different sets of in-laws. The German in-laws are a poor farming family who need free labor, while the rich in-laws live in the Netherlands and want to bring the girls up properly. A concession is made that pleases neither, but eliminates further debate. Lotte, who has consumption, is given away to the Dutch family who can try to cure her and Anna, the healthy one, is kept on the German farm. It is that random--the course of your whole existence decided in a split second. It's an interesting and thought-provoking topic.

Lotte is cured and leads a life of privilege. Playing the piano, luxuriating on yachts, and finding romance and engagement with a family friend--you can't help but envy her lifestyle. Anna, meanwhile, is kept from school by being declared "retarded," worked, and brutalized on the farm. The two girls lose complete track of one another, their "parents" have each made independent decisions that it is best if they don't communicate. Eventually realizing they are each still alive, they reconnect--but much has changed, including the rise of Nazism. The film looks at Anna's life as a German, she is a maid and supports her country. And the film examines Lotte's life. While still a German, she sees things from the outside--and, in fact, her fiance is Jewish.

The beauty of "Twin Sisters" is that you see these girls evolve as products of their environments. Each has much to be admired, but each makes terrible mistakes. Your allegiance flip-flops back and forth as you inevitably get caught up in their stories. The cast is impeccable. Through different ages, and through a narrative flashback structure, there is a lot of story to be told here. Occasionally, I wished to be able to spend more time in a certain sequence--to really feel its import. But there is no question that the film packs an emotional wallop. I respected "Twin Sisters," it's a serious minded film for people who like adult entertainment. The ultimate moral dilemma is posed, what if things were different? What if the roles had been reversed, would the outcome have been the same? Good stuff. KGHarris, 01/07.

"I came for her.".......2006-09-03

Following the deaths of their parents in Germany in 1925, twin sisters Lotte and Anna are separated by battling relatives. Lotte remains in Germany with her Catholic aunt and uncle on their farm, and here she's used as unpaid labour. Lotte isn't even allowed to attend school, and her aunt declares Lotte mentally deficient in order to avoid school officials. In contrast, Anna, who has consumption, is raised with love and privilege in Holland. Both sets of relatives decide to sever the relationship between the girls, so Anna's letters to Lotte are never posted.

The plot follows the vastly different lives of Lotte (Thekla Reuten) and Anna (Nadja Uhl). Lotte is an adult in Nazi Germany, and she's initially attracted to Nazi ideals. On the other hand, Anna in Holland is horrified by Hitler's rise to power, and her fiance is Jewish. Just what happens to these two young women, and how the war alters their lives is the heart of this film. The film offers a slightly different, and interesting, view of war by examining how the sisters reconnect and how their relationship is severed by circumstances controlled by WWII. A telepathic connection is implied in several scenes, and although these sisters in childhood are inseparable, their efforts to reconnect in adulthood are tainted by ideology. War inevitably brings catastrophic results and sweeps the lives of these sisters along with it.

"Twin Sisters" is an epic tearjerker, so bring your hankies for this one. The film is at its weakest as it draws to its conclusion, and the ending is packed with rather mawkish sentiment and an all-too neat conclusion. Based on the best-selling novel by Tessa de Loo, "Twin Sisters" directed by Ben Sombogaart is in Dutch and German with English subtitles--displacedhuman

The Princess and the maid.......2006-07-03

There is something sick about being drawn to Holocaust set films, this genre of human suffering. No people eating plants or monsters. No buckets of blood and gauged out eyes and mangled bodies that do great advertising for things like chainsaws. Just looking in the face of human evil in its worst intellectual form knowing this is all real.

I loved the scenery. The middle class dutch home with its lovely white tile kitchen. The Bavarian farm nice and scenic. The street scenes give the viewer a feel for the time. The crouded train station with all the soldiers preparing to go off to war. The Countess's mansion quite authentic. Indeed one can readily close one's eyes and feel as if one is actually there. The women properly dressed unlike most women today. So lovely.

The story itself is quite sad. Neither girl is Jewish, they're twins broken up but their lives are ripped apart in consequence to Hitler's actions with tragic results.

After their father dies, sickly Lotte is taken by Dutch relatives and taken into their family to be nursed back to health to grow up into a spoiled trousered little middle class princess (and like women like that of the time, she probably smokes). A telling scene of her character is as Germany invades Holland, she insists this should not get in the way of her going out sailing. Anna on the other hand gets it bad. Taken by her German relatives to live with them on their farm, she is not taken into their family. She is treated just as labor. They report her as sickly and retarded to collect social payments and so they don't have to send her to school and pay for supplies and things like that for her education. Her uncle is an ardent anti-nazi who beats her while his wife mistreats her. When she falls in love with an idealistic young blacksmith drawn to the nazis he almost kills her. The parish priest removes her from the premesis and takes her to a shelter. Later the nazis decide to sterilize her based on the filings of her uncle claiming she is retarded.

Eventually the two sisters briefly reunite. Anna goes to work as a maid for a nazi sympathizer. Lotte visits and becomes appalled at her sister. When she returns to Holland she decides she doesn't want to have 'anything to do with that German thing'. Perhaps as much for what she has become in mind as well as her social status as a maid, someone beneath Lotte's social station.

Anna can not understand why her own sister, her only flesh and blood could turn on her.

Both fall in love. Lotte falls for a Jew. Anna falls for a kind Austrian conscript who eventually becomes an SS officer. And both lose their loves to the war. Lotte's love dies in Auschwitz. Anna's on the Russian front. After the war, Anna tries to reconcile with her sister. Lotte drives her out.

As old women they meet in a health spa. Anna, naive and forgiving, tries desperatly to reconcile with her sister.

Eventually, while lost in a woods, Lotte realizes that had circumstances been different she would have been in her sister's place. By which time Anna dies from her ill health.

Average customer rating:

Twin Sisters
Starring: Susan Almgren , James Brolin , Lawrence Z. Dane , Frederic Forrest , and Stephanie Kramer
Director: Tom Berry
Manufacturer: Platinum Disc
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00008G8MT
Release Date: 1999-06-29

Average customer rating:

Twin Sisters
Starring: Xiaoqiu Zheng , Zhiyuan Tan , Jinglin Xuan , Meijun Gu , and Die Hu
Director: Zhengqiu Zheng
Manufacturer: Guangzhou Beauty Culture Communication Co.Ltd
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Description

Dabao and Erbao were twin sisters. Their father Zhao Da abandoned his wife and went to faraway places with Erbao. Therefore, the two girls were separated when they were young. When the two girls grew up, Erbao became the seventh concubine of a warlord and led an extravagant life while Dabao married a poor but honest carpenter Taoge......

Twin Sisters (De Tweeling) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Netherlands ]

Average customer rating:

great film about twin sisters

Twin Sisters (De Tweeling) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Netherlands ]
Director: Ben Sombogaart
Manufacturer: RCV
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Product Description

Netherlands released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. Languages: o Dutch (subtitles) o English (subtitles) o Dutch (Dolby Digital 5.1) Synopsis: Dutch family-oriented filmmaker Ben Sombogaart directs De Tweeling (Twin Sisters), based on the best-selling novel by Tessa de Loo. Using black-and-white and color film stocks to establish the interwoven time periods, the story concerns twin sisters who grow up during WWII. In 1926, orphans Lotte and Anna are separated and forbidden to contact each other. Lotte is taken by a Dutch couple to recover from tuberculosis and Anna is sent to work on a farm in Germany. Right before the war starts, the cultured young Lotte (Thekla Reuten) marries the nice Jewish boy David (Jeroen Spitzenberger) in Holland. Meanwhile, hard-working young Anna (Nadja Uhl) becomes a maid and marries Austrian officer Martin (Roman Knizka). When the war breaks out, both sisters lose their men and develop a spiteful animosity toward each other. Eventually, as two old ladies in a beauty parlor, Lotte (Ellen Vogel) and Anna (Gudrun Okras) are finally able to settle their differences. Special Features: o Behind the scenes footage o Deleted Scenes o Documentary o Interactive Menu o Making Of o Trailer(s)

Customer Reviews:

great film about twin sisters.......2006-01-09

This is an excellent film set in the 1940s about twin sisters who are separated when they are young, one is adopted by a wealthy family in Holland, the other by a poor Catholic farmer in Germany. The film shows the different trajectories the girls' lives take based on their upbringing. The women meet up as adults and discover why they have not spoken in years. Overall it's an excellent film about WWII which examines the personal impact of the war.

Twin Sisters (Original Dutch and Germain Version With English Subtitles)

Average customer rating:

Excellent Film
twin sisters separated during WWII

Twin Sisters (Original Dutch and Germain Version With English Subtitles)

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Product Description

1920s Germany. Two Sisters aged six years, no sooner see their remaining parent buried when they are torn apart. Lotte goes to live with her upper middle class Dutch aunt in Holland, Anna to work as a farm hand on her German uncle's rural farm. The story follows their lives as they try to reconcile their differences while World War II impacts each of them on their lives and finally in old age when they meet again, with the hope that the differences in their youht can finally be reconciled.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Film.......2006-07-26

Tho very sad at times, this is a very well done film and helped me understand more about the Second World War.

twin sisters separated during WWII.......2006-03-01

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