The Worst Film Ever

Simply Perfect

Fresh and Exciting

Absolutely brilliant

"Jenseits der Stille" is an almost 20-year-old German movie by Caroline Link. This film here scored an Academy Award nomination, but lost to the Dutch entry. However, 5 years later Link triumphed ("Nirgendwo in Afrika") and she was pretty young back then as in 2015 she is 50 years old. The story here is simply. A girl has deaf parents and helps them with coping in everyday life as good as she can, but her ability to hear makes her long for a more meaningful life. She becomes a musician and longs for the support of her family, especially her dad's, but he cannot really accept and appreciate what his daughter does as he cannot hear it. He says in one scene that he would actually have preferred her to be deaf as well.During these roughly 105 minutes, we also meet some other family members and watch how the protagonist has to deal with the loss of a beloved person. The first 40 minutes or so are about the central character's life as a child and how she gets into playing the clarinet. The transformation from girl to woman (if you can say that) happens during a concert as there is a time jump of roughly 10 years. Sylvie Testud takes over at this point. She won a German Film Award for her performance here. If you have seen Marion Cotillard's Oscar winning turn in "La môme", you will have come across Testud there as well. That is possibly her most famous movie.Anyway, I have to say I enjoyed this film and there is really not much wrong with it. I especially enjoyed the first 45 minutes because the child actress Tatjana Trieb is very good and the writing is excellent there as well when we get to watch how she constantly interprets between her parents and everybody else or helps her mother in watching old romance movies. I did like the ending from an emotional perspective, but the reunion between her and her dad could have been even more effective if they had taken a more subtle approach. Even I was thinking that she finally needs to play during the audition instead of constantly talking to her father and ignoring the professors. There is a very successful French movie named "La famille Bélier" out right now and there are really quite a few parallels between these two films. If you saw this new film, give the old one "Jenseits der Stille" a chance as well. You will most likely not be disappointed. Also it has excellent music. Recommended.

when you totally give in to a movie, let down your guards, and are completely absorbed in the life of the characters, this is a good movie. i do not have deaf parents, i have a daughter (and the father daughter relationship was very touching for me, personally)but i just surrendered and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. i'd like to take this opportunity to thank my video store for having a foreign film library. i couldn't help but think of two things while watching this movie; 1.(and apparently many of you were thinking the same)is sign language the same in all countries? and don't laugh, 2. how this film compared to flashdance(bear with me)...and how it is obvious how flashdance was such a good idea on paper, but the translation to film was a complete failure. well..not complete, i liked it for one sit down. i will watch jenseits der stille again, as i do most subtitled films and enjoy it again. thank you ms. link, the cast and especially tatjana trieb and sylvie testud. you touched me.

One person asked whether German Sign Language is the same as American Sign Language, and, knowing just a bit of ASL, I can tell you that it appears to be the same. (French SL is almost identical, and I presume it's similar throughout the western countries.)As for the movie, it's one of the best I've seen. Two things I especially liked about it: 1. The story is totally individual, and it isn't part of any genre -- it's just a real-people story. (I remember thinking this about "Fearless" as well.) 2. The story is so well written around the main character, Lara -- she herself has many facets to her personality, but no other character sees all of them. Each person understands and evokes only one side of her. This creates conflicts within the character, which the actresses do a great job of expressing.What a terrific movie.

I recently rented the movie, "Beyond the Silence," and I thoroughly enjoyed it.As a sign language interpreter, I have read many books about CODA's (Children of Deaf Adults). I think that "Beyond the Silence" does a pretty good job of showing the difficulty and extra responsibilities that a child with deaf parents experiences.If you enjoyed this movie, I would suggest reading the book "At a Loss for Words." It's a very touching story about a girl growing up with deaf parents and coming to terms with her feeling of guilt and anger and also love for them.I'm not trying to be "preachy," but PLEASE don't call deaf people "mute." That term is negative and out-of-date.