Schatten der Vergangenheit

I didn't catch this one until it hit a discount theatre in Miami Beach, but I'm glad I did. Whatever the status of Branagh and Thompson's relationship at the time, they project a fantastic chemistry as lovers karmically doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over again, or so we are led to believe. Branagh has a fantastic directorial sense, honed in his years with Shakespearian theatre, and the intertwining of black-and white and colour footage to evoke different time periods works to great effect. Supporting players Derek Jacobi, Robin Williams, and Andy Garcia put in excellent performances, and the serviceable plot is made transcendant by this fine group of actors. Although some of the gore is a bit heavy, it doesn't overwhelm the story, something Branagh learned no doubt from the films of Alfred Hitchcock, and like the works of Hitchcock, even after the mystery is finally sorted out, the film continues to reward with repeat viewings. So, if the last copy of Blair Witch is out, and you're looking for a bit of suspense that isn't all blood and guts, give this one a try. You'll feel enlightened.

An incredibly well done stylish thriller. Performances, direction, script, etc., were all fantastic. Contains one of the best jump scares ever and it is entirely created by the score and Emma Thompson's reaction to something Kenneth Branagh says. Such a great film.

Dead Again is categorized as Mystery / Romance / Thriller and it does very well in all three categories. It begins as a mystery, develops into a romance and ends up very thrilling. It is also Gothic, film noir, sometimes melodramatic and often humorous: an unusual mix that really works. The opening credits show 1948 news stories about symphony conductor, Roman Strauss (Kenneth Branagh), who was executed for murdering his wife, Margaret (Emma Thompson). The film was in Black and White. Then the film switches to the present and to colour and we find Emma Thompson in a Catholics boys' home, mute and suffering from nightmares and amnesia. The priest in charge elicits free help from Mike Church (Kenneth Branagh), a private detective who specializes in missing persons and was brought up in that home. "Grace" (a name that she and Mike use because she does not know her real name) ends up staying with Mike while he tries to sort things out. An advertisement brings Franklyn Madson (Derek Jacobi), who offers to discover her past through hypnotic regression. He ends up regressing her into a past life. At this point, if one does not believe in reincarnation, as Mike Church did not, then one can add Fantasy to the list of the film's categories; it does very well in that category also.

As fate would have it, Mike and Grace grow closer and fall in love, an event that is undoubtedly made more convincing by the fact that Branagh and Watson were happily married at the time that the film was made. The style of the modern romance contrasts with the melodrama of the 1940's marriage, in which Roman gives Margaret an anklet and says, "The man I bought it from explained to me that when a husband gives this to his wife, they become two halves of the same person. Nothing can separate them, not even death." That idea helped to clarify the most surprising plot twist of all, one that is disclosed visually. The plot is one of the cleverest mystery plots that I have witnessed. One is never sure of what to think. Did Roman kill Margaret? If not then who did? Many look suspicious. What is the relationship between the past lovers, Roman and Margaret, and the present lovers, Mike and Grace? The plot has many twists and turns, all of which appear to be realistic. Clues drop like rain. There are many strong roles and the acting is excellent throughout. Many actors have roles in both stories.

Now I don't think Dead Again is a classic or a masterpiece, but I did find it very entertaining. One flaw with the film is that it is a little too long, by about four or so minutes. The other flaw I had was that I felt the ending was overdone, though not as overdone as the remake of The Wicker Man thank goodness. Still Dead Again is stylish, dark and entertaining, with stunning cinematography and film noir and Hitchockian elements, eccentric plotting, the usual twists and turns and a good script.

Another strong asset was the score, the opening theme was very bombastic and haunting. The direction is decent, and the acting was fine. Kenneth Branagh acquits himself well in a very difficult dual role, one of the cynical LA private detective and the other of the composer executed for the murder of his wife back in 1949, while Emma Thompson is terrific also in a dual role as an amnesiac woman obsessed with scissors and is suffering from nightmares of somebody else's life and the composer's wife.

Andy Garcia, Derek Jacobi, Robin Williams and Wayne Knight are also fine in their supporting roles, Jacobi especially. Overall, this is definitely worth watching even with its flaws. 8/10 Bethany Cox

This movie is about dual parallel stories occurring in Los Angeles in the late forties and again four decades later in the early nineties. The segments that make up 1948-1949 portion are in black and white flashbacks, and focus on the tragic love affair of music composer and conductor Roman (Kenneth Branagh) and pianist Margaret Strauss (Emma Thompson). The opening montage is made of compiled newspaper headlines and clippings that scream about the murder of Margaret (MURDER . . . TRIAL . . . GUILTY . . .). We quickly learn that Roman was convicted and executed for the scissor-murder of his wife. Roman goes to the electric chair proclaiming his innocence. Margaret had been suspicious that ominous housekeeper Inga (Hanna Schygulla) and her strange and stuttering son Frankie (Gregor Hesse) may have stolen jewelry items from Roman. But Inga had saved Roman from Hitler, so she kept her position. In turn, Roman was unhappy that his wife seemed to have taken an inordinate amount of interest with newspaper writer Gray Baker (Andy Garcia).

The early 1990s part involves private investigator Mike Church (Branagh again), who has been asked by Father Timothy (Richard Easton), a priest, to unearth the identity of a woman (Thompson again) who has lost both her voice and her memory. She experiences terrible nightmares. Church had intended to drop off Thompson at the local madhouse, but after seeing conditions there he decided to put her up for a night or two. He gives her a faux-name, "Grace." Helpful newspaper man Piccolo Pete (Wayne Knight) puts her photograph in the local rag. Peculiar hypnotist (and antique dealer on the side!), Franklyn Madison (Derek Jacobi) responds quickly. Now Franklyn believes that a trauma from the woman's past is causing mute amnesia. When Franklyn, with permission from Mike Church, places Grace under hypnotism, she begins to have visions from the 1940s, i.e., Roman and Margaret's life (before Grace was born). Grace soon regains her voice, but not her memory. As she begins to grow closer to Mike, she notices the similarities between their lives and the previous ones of Roman and Margaret. As she looks even deeper into her past, she begins to fear Mike, feeling that – like Roman earlier – he will eventually kill her (as he is apparently Roman re-incarnated). But did Roman really kill Margaret? At a critical point Church tells Grace, "I would never hurt you, MARGARET" (Freudian slip), Grace screams right away.

Cozy Carlisle (Robin Williams), ex-psychiatrist turned supermarket worker, soon warns Mike that he should indeed kill Grace before she kills him because fate is what it is. There are similarities between past and present lives. Reincarnation also means that one may return in a different gender: Grace could be Roman while Mike may be Margaret (heavy stuff here)! After researching, Piccolo Pete tells Grace that her real name is Amanda Sharp, an artist who lost her memory after being mugged. (Note the Salvador Dali copy of his famous painting in her spacious apartment ("The Persistence of Memory"). After, when Mike agrees to be hypnotized, he uncovers a startling secret. When Mike later locates the aged and decrepit Gray in a wretched condition at a nursing facility, he is told that Inga the housekeeper knew everything that went on in the Strauss household. When asked about her and son Frankie, Gray says "They had opened some sort of shop . . . AN-tiques." Mike's utter surprise sets up the denouement. Under Patrick Doyle's rousing musical score, there is a grand operatic clash with slow-motion shots and with cuts between the (black and white) past and (color) present times. It is a bit pretentious, though (but dig those gigantic scissors!).

Yes, the story is complicated and relies on coincidence but it is a good tale, and very inventive. Each of the plot twists is given suitable build-up that avoids viewer confusion. One gets so swept away with the yarn and buys into the story that he/she ignores the coincidences (like Mike's meeting with Grace/Amanda in the first place). The character development is at a high level, while the sets and scenes are imaginatively well-done. Acting performances are first-rate. Derek Jacobi (of "I, Claudius" fame) is excellent as the hypnotist with a sinister agenda. An innovative touch occurs when he puts folks under not just to obtain information about the past, but also to pry from subconscious minds the whereabouts of certain antiques that may somehow fetch him big dollars. Robin Williams, as Cozy Carlisle, believing that the world has thoroughly porked him, leaves no room for anything but the blackest of humor in his top performance. Kenneth Branagh directed, and he and his then wife Emma Thompson shared the lead roles of both eras effectively, with the nod going to the latter. Matthew Leonetti's cinematography is effective at capturing moods. Whether or not you want believe in reincarnation does not matter (this writer does not) as the film's entertainment value is high. But you need to pay close attention to the story!