Yesterday we went to see the Bourne Supremacy. I remember liking the first one well enough, though I don't remember any specifics. But we decided to go see this one in the theatre rather than waiting for rental because a large part of the movie is filmed in Berlin.
I enjoyed seeing the sweeping panoramas of Alex and Mitte (I did a lot of quick "Can we see our house from here?"), as well as the random shots of Ostbahnhof. Oh, and I especially liked the demonstration that gets in the way during an abduction on Alexanderplatz; a few hundred people with banners and attac posters; it was a fake demo but the "Bildung ist keine Ware" signs would have fit right in last fall and winter. (I felt such glee to see attac on the screen. How excellent.)
And then, we started to pick things apart. The major chase scene through Berlin (I guess this counts as a spoiler? Not really.), for example, starts at the S-bahn at Zoo, but cuts to Friedrichstrasse when they need him to make a daring jump off a bridge and onto a passing barge. I spent a few beats thinking, wait, there's no water like that at Zoo, right?
The photography of Berlin is pretty limited to making downtown Mitte look a little post-Soviet shabby, so much that when the film moves on to Moscow it's sometimes hard to tell they've switched cities.
Overall, I must say I enjoyed the feeling of a return to the Spy Movies I liked to watch as a kid. Only in this one, the Germans aren't bad, it's—oh wait, it's the Russians. Never mind. But there are bad Americans in it, too.
Comments
I gotta go see it! Sounds like the Run Lola Run experience -- that maybe being "in" on how they re-create the landscape is part of the fun?
Posted by: Libby at July 27, 2004 06:14 AM