Bachfeuer

At first, the cliché characters and their pedantic initial conversation made me think there would be woke silliness ahead. But what followed won me over.

This is not about euthanasia or assisted dying per se. I doubt that it ever occurred to the director to advocate policy change. It is very much about the decline of adult friendship in our culture (made a lot worse by the rise of social media for reasons no one really understands). The need occasioned by a terminal illness caused these once-close friends to deepen and strengthen their friendship. The dialogue between them--what it meant to them--is the point!

Seeing Louise Brooks' last film appearance raises more questions than it answers. When I first saw this, I had never heard any LB audio. I supposed that she was one of those silent film stars kept from talkies and from stage success by poor vocal performance. Her speech was just fine, even if she came off as someone more dynamic and well-dressed) than her character. When LB moved to NYC, surely she could have had all the radio work she might have wanted. It makes her actual choices all the more baffling.

There is an inanimate co-star: a Spartan Executive Model 7W airplane. That was a very advanced, fast four-seater. Googling the tail number, I learned much about its interesting subsequent history--and that it still flies! As the plot called for an air transport plane, there are interior shots of a good-sized airliner cabin. It is like the tardis--with an iinterior incongruously larger than its exterior.