Everyone Else - Birgit Minichmayr

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka 'Everyone Else')

Directed by Maren Ade
Germany 2009

A young couple's relationship is pushed to the brink while vacationing in the Mediterranean in this smart, sexy drama from acclaimed new filmmaker Maren Ade. A Critic's Pick in The New York Times which noted "the film's uninflected realism and unforced beauty alone make it worthy of exploring and revisiting.

****

“Everyone Else,” a sun-kissed German film about a young couple in love and in doubt, might not be perfect, but so much is right and true in this lovely, delicate work that it comes breathtakingly close. Written and directed by Maren Ade, it involves Gitti (Birgit Minichmayr) and Chris (Lars Eidinger), who are vacationing at his parents’ Sardinian villa. When the film opens, his sister is whisking her family off, leaving the couple alone. It’s an ideal setup for Gitti and Chris, who can’t keep their hands off each other, and in whose half-dressed bodies you can see and feel the heat of the island, the eroticism too.

Not much happens even as an entire world opens up. It soon becomes clear that the couple haven’t been together long. That might explain the insistence of their caresses, or at least the somewhat exploratory way that Gitti’s hands travel over Chris’s body in an early scene as he tries to read one afternoon and he struggles, barely perceptively, not to get irritated. They’re lying outside — as she often is, Gitti is in a bikini while Chris is stripped to the waist — and the Mediterranean light brushes their skin with a warm gold. Ms. Ade shoots the scene in a medium close-up so you’re near enough to see, almost intuit, the pleasure and hesitation tugging at Chris’s mouth as Gitti’s face erupts in radiant laughter.

The intimacy of the image feels casual, yet there’s nothing careless about the shot, which reverberates with meaning. It’s important for the couple’s dynamic and to Ms. Ade’s point of view — perhaps even to her point of view as a female filmmaker — that Chris is initially foregrounded in the scene, which means you’re looking at his body stretched across the frame rather than Gitti’s.

Excerpt from Manohla Dargis at the NY Times located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: February 9th, 2009 - Berlin International Film Festival

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DVD Review: Cinema Guild - Region 1 - NTSC

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Cinema Guild - Region 1 - NTSC
Runtime	2:03:48
Video	1.85:1 Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 4.76 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate:
Audio	German/Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0)
Subtitles	English, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Cinema Guild Aspect Ratio: Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1 Edition Details: • A Summer Without Gitti, a short film, recut from the film material by Maren Ade (9:37) • Interviews with Cast and Crew (14:16) • Deleted Scenes (6:10) - Outtakes (7:57) • Theatrical Trailer(1:41) • 4-page liner notes with an essay by Mark Peranson, Editor of Cinema Scope DVD Release Date: October 26th, 2010 Keep Case Chapters: 11

Comments:

There is something very Romer-esque about Everyone Else - with Lars Eidinger and Birgit Minichmayr as a couple wound together in the throes of a declining relationship...one that seems worthy of saving. The Art-House pacing and notability as a Festival favorite won't suit all tastes but Maren Ade's feature lingers long after viewing - the sign of greatness - and it is there - seething beneath the scorching Mediterranean sun. This is quite an exceptional film.

Cinema Guild's SD-DVD image quality is superb - a dual-layered, progressive and anamorphic 1.85:1 transfer that exports healthy detail, solid contrast under the natural sunlight and only some minor noise as a detraction. It can appear a shade fragile - but shows depth and plays very well in-motion to create an impressive presentation. It probably can't look much better in this format.

Audio gives only a German stereo, 2.0 channel, track but being almost exclusively dialogue-driven the film exports no requirements for surround separations. There are optional English subtitles on the region 1 encoded NTSC DVD.

Solid extras are offered with this Cinema Guild release including A Summer Without Gitti, a short film by Maren Ade - reportedly recut from the feature film material. It lasts about 10-minutes and is a looks like a treatise for Everyone Else with the same cast (Lars Eidinger, Hans-Jochen Wagner and Birgit Minichmayr). There is also about 1/2 hour's worth of more supplements including some cast and crew interviews - both 'Deleted Scenes' + 'Outtakes' and a theatrical trailer. Included in the keep case is a 4-page liner notes leaflet with an excellent essay by Mark Peranson, Editor of Cinema Scope.

Since the demise of New Yorker Video, Cinema Guild has continued releasing excellent world cinema films but drastically improved with expert transfers. I suggest that they should go into Blu-ray production as well but their current SD-DVD quality is exceptional - extremely worthy to support the magnificent films they are releasing. This is fabulous news for devotees of lauded festival cinema and those unable to venture there. Everyone Else is brilliant and a DVD we can strongly recommend for any digital collection.