Kirschblüten (Cherry Blossoms): Lovely, lovely movie, perfectly acted. I just hope it makes it outside of Germany despite having nothing whatsoever to do with the Third Reich, but then, the success of Das Leben der Anderen last year proves English-speaking audiences can be interested in German films that do not feature any Nazis. Kirschblüten has at its core a quiet unassuming man named Rudi Angelmeier, played by Elmar Wepper, whose wife, Trudi (played by the fabulous Hannelore Elsner) finds out at the start of the film he's contracted a deathly illness. She can't bring herself to tell him yet, but she cajoles him into a couple of minor trips (to Berlin, to the sea), which is tricky since Rudi is one of these creatures of habit perfectly happy with their routines and insecure outside of them. She, on the other hand, has some longing for adventure buried inside, and she always wanted to go to Japan. For the first twenty minutes of the film, you have this great portrayal of a decades-old marriage, with some unspoken secrets and regrets, yes, but a lot of tenderness and affection. And then the unexpected happens: not Rudy but his wife dies, over night, without warning. And both because he can't cope and because he wants to do this for her, he finally makes that voyage to Japan. In Germany, Elmar Wepper is mostly known for his tv roles where he's solid but not outstanding, so I was really blown away by the performance he gives in this film, the rich variety - from gentle humour and disgruntledness at the beginning to the devastation of grief, the sense of being completely lost, literally in a different country without any guideliness or knowledge of language, to reconnecting to people and, in a very real sense, to his lost wife. The minor characters - Rudi's three children, their spouses and most of all the Japanese girl he befriends later - are all skilfully drawn and acted as well, and I can't describe the last sequence without spoiling it, so let's just say it is incredibly beautiful and touching. If you can, go and watch this film.


Revelation by C. J. Sansom is another excellent entry in his Matthew Shardlake series, mysteries that are set during the reign of Henry VIII. As with the previous volume, Sovereign, it's less the whodunit aspect that makes me love the book and more the great sense of period and vividness of characters. Sansom brings out the everyday paranoia of Henry's regime, where both reformers and Catholics could never be sure whether their brand of faith wasn't going to be treasonous tomorrow, better than any other author I've read; the characters he invented - Shardlake the lawyer, our "detective" and narrator, his sidekick Barak, Shardlake's old friend Guy, who was introduced in the first novel, Dissolution, and Barak's wife Tamasin - are three dimensional and sympathetic, and his take on historical characters never fails to be interesting. As I mentioned in my review of Sovereign, the cameo of Henry VIII. there is genuinenly frightening and the casual malevolence Henry displays there is far more effective and memorable than Henry's recent screen unconvincing screen outings. In Revelation, we get Thomas Cramner (again) and for the first time two people whom the reader, but not Shardlake, know to be important one regime later, Edward and Thomas Seymour. Sansom strikes the right note of foreshadowing just what is important and relevant to the current story - Tom Seymour's connection to Katherine Parr, arrogance and impulsiveness, Edward Seymour's genuine commitment to the Protestant cause mixed with family ambition - and doesn't let them overshadow his invented characters. If you, like me, are frustrated that recent tv shows and films somehow managed to make a fascinating (if scary) epoch of English history into dull soap operas, this novel, like its predecessors, is the right antidote.

One minor nitpick: I wish Sansom hadn't gone for the MacGuffin of a series of murders in the style of the Revelations, though. Because Umberto Eco did that first and so very memorably in The Name of the Rose, and I don't think any mystery writer should try to compete any time soon.