The Blue Hour

Director: Marcel Gisler
Actors: Andreas Herder, Dina Leipzig, Cyrille Rey-coquis, Christoph Krix, Anton Rattinger
Studio: Water Bearer
Category: DVD

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Rating:

3 reviews
Sales Rank: 108869

Format: Color, Dvd-video, Ntsc, Subtitled
Languages: English (Subtitled), German (Original Language)
Rating: Unrated
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 87 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6

UPC: 759259140172
EAN: 0759259140172
ASIN: B00005TSPJ

Theatrical Release Date: 1991
Release Date: December 18, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW AND FACTORY SEALED

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Theo, a hip young, Berlin call boy lives his life alone. In the hotel room he takes his shower and his money. Business is good, so good he can pick and choose his clients. Marie lives next door with her boyfriend, the writer Paul. She works at a record store to support them both, but it is not enough. Frustrated, one day Paul decides to leave. Marie is shattered, retreating behind her closed door, into the darkness of her apartment. Soon, Theo knocks on the door and light slowly seeps back into Marie's life. Slowly both find that love is possible in the most improbable of places. But just when it seems that all the barriers have come down, Paul comes back, and the door that had opened just a crack closes again.

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars

People with boundary issues and bad locks January 21, 2003
Charles S. Houser (Binghamton, NY)
11 out of 11 found this review helpful

This restrained urban drama about a Berlin call boy and the woman who lives across the hall from him calls to mind Thoreau's assessment, "most men lead lives of quiet desperation." Theo lives quietly alone with two answering machines (one private, the other for taking messages from men responding to his ads). Handsome, clean, and seemingly intelligent, he has no real friends. We see him make only one phone call to his mother, to make excuses why he is unable to visit her. Across the hall is Marie, a depressed record store clerk who struggles to make a life with Paul, an unsuccessful writer who seems to be living on her dime. When Paul leaves Marie (something we learn happens with el Nino-like frequency), Marie goes into a deep funk. Theo, playing the Good Samaritan, becomes concerned and slowly coaxes her out of her depression and eventually out of her apartment (after forcing the lock with a wire coat hanger). Theo and Marie have seen each other at their worst and make no effort to keep secrets from each other. This degree of honesty and mutual acceptance seems to offer a glimmer of hope to the pair...and to anyone who wonders if real intimacy is possible. Although negative patterns re-emerge for both of them, the fact that each of them has grown a little in their own self-awareness keeps this quiet but taut film from being totally pessimistic. The film is also refreshingly free of cliches about hustlers and gay men in general.

There are no DVD extras, which is a shame. I would love to know more about the director and actors. Rather than grouse about the quality of the transfer to DVD, I'm going to give the filmmakers the benefit of the doubt and say that the graininess of the print is one way they sought to convey the grittiness of Theo and Marie's lives.

4 out of 5 stars Blue.... June 1, 2002
4 out of 8 found this review helpful

Theo, a hip, young, Berlin callboy, lives his life alone. In the hotel room he takes his shower and his money. Business is so good he can pick and choose his clients. Marie lives next door with her boyfriend Paul who one day leaves her. Shattered,
Marie retreats into the darkness of her apartment.

...When Theo knocks on her door they slowly discover that love is possible in the most improbable of places...

5 out of 5 stars Excellent film despite the sub-titles June 2, 1999
5 out of 22 found this review helpful

You fall in love in the main character and hope that he finds the love that he is looking for in all the wrong places (i.e. with his tricks and next door women friend).