Excellent, a Must See
Boring
Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.
View MoreThere are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.
View MoreLara grew up with two deaf parents. She translates for her parents and also shows her rebellious side against her father. Her clarinet playing aunt interests her in the clarinet with which she becomes successful. It's a success that her parents cannot share. The separation between child and parents grows which is exacerbated by the conflict between the aunt and the father. The aunt is also hiding a secret from the family.It's a complex movie about a family dealing with handicap. The compelling part is that the father is no saint. The parents' handicap has real consequences. The misunderstandings are real. The girl is not simply a brat. There are several sides to the same story. It's all handled with care. The girl's deliberate mistranslations are hilarious. She's cute and quite charismatic. The girl becomes a young woman midway in the movie. The aunt adds another layer to the story. It's a family that feels real.
View Morei first saw this movie over 5 years ago when i was working at walt Disney world. after i first saw it i walked out of the theater in wonder... and the comments that i heard from others that saw it - they thought that it was just as good as i did!coming from a background in Deaf education i can tell you that German sign language and asl are not the same. they are similar however... enough for me to know most of what was being said after watching the movie for a while.i lived at a deaf school for a year and so to see the relationships between lara and her parents... well, let me tell you that was done quite nicely. and i just love the scene with tom and lara and the song 'i will survive'!! it made me laugh so hard!!!for a while after i saw the movie i looked to buy it. i could not find it anywhere for quite some time. i finally found it available online and bought it on VHS. yes, there is a soundtrack, as i have that as well.
View MoreJenseits der Stille (Beyond Silence) is an excellent film. I wish I had seen (or heard about) this film years ago! I am a big fan of German cinema and have worked closely with the Deaf community in Canada. The performances were outstanding and the story realistic. I hope to see more works by these actors, the writer and director.Chad
View MoreLara, A hearing girl with deaf parents, is struggling to be an adult before her time. She is often called upon to do many tasks for her parents that require her to interact with adults. The very nature of this tends to upset the parent-child balance and we see scenes where the petulant child takes a very liberal view of how and what to interpret for her parents. Lara's aunt is, to the girl, the pinnacle of sophistication and independence. The girl is thrilled with the gift of her aunt's old clarinet. He father is less enthusiastic with the his daughter's attachment to his estranged sister. Lara, now 18, has become torn between the desires she has for her own life and the needs of her family.The more I think about this movie the more it reminds me of `The Little Mermaid'. I'm not trying to be funny, it just kept striking me about the girl who longs to be part of that world' of music and yet is drawn to the world of silence where her parents live.I should have read the box on this a little more carefully. I didn't realize that it was in German when I rented it. Those guys from Miramax are very clever about not playing up those little points. I wonder if GSL is similar enough to ASL for American signers to follow the plot without the sub-titles.
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