i remember quite clearly in 2007 when florian henckel von donnersmarck walked on stage to accept the oscar for best foreign language film i was very confused. the narrative before that night seemed to suggest that guillermo del toro’s pan’s labyrinth was a shoe in to take the prize having been nominated in multiple categories… and get the upset came.

and my young cinephile brain thought: ‘well, i better get in the damn car, head to fox towers (in portland, oregon) and see this damn movie then!’

when it finally ended i remember turning to my friend who met me at the theater and just said out loud something to the effects of ‘fuck, that was fantastic’.

hadn’t seen it since then until tonight and once it ended again i thought to myself: fuck, that’s still fantastic.

there is no fat on this story. henckel von donnersmarck’s writing and direction is so assured, absolutely thrilling and pulsating with information from the first frame to the last that it’s hard to believe it was his feature film debut. it’s even harder to believe he followed up this richly made film with the tourist staring johnny depp and angelina jolie. i just can’t seem to square the transition - it’ll always be one of the many mysteries to me.

he’s made one other decent film since then with never look away - a movie i don’t think comes close to the exacto-knife precision of this brilliant movie but it’s heading in the right direction after his epic hollywood flop. 

here’s hoping he’s got another the lives of others in him… or two.