andrabem
This film is kind of soap opera. There's good acting and a good story, but there's something important missing. The film tells about twin sisters that love each other deeply, separated by chance and war, brought up in different countries that suddenly find themselves on opposing sides of a battling world. Their emotional distance grows on and on. At the end of the war (second world war), there's so much bitterness that their reconciliation seems difficult. This story as you see, can be rendered in a very interesting way, but as I said before, there's something important missing. The relationship between the sisters, as portrayed in the film, lacks warmth. For instance, their first meeting in the train station, after so many years of separation, could be really moving. It isn't, it's just average. For real emotion in acting see Penelope Cruz in "Non ti Muovere". And the relationship between Lotte and the Jewish pianist looks like a TV commercial selling whisky or cars. It's not convincing at all as a deep love relationship. Don't get me wrong. The acting is generally good but what about the chemistry? Still I think that this is a good film, but it could have been so much better! Nadja Uhl (playing young Anna) gives the better performance of the film. She's more intense and if she finds a talented director(for instance, Almodovar) she'll be able to shine.
stamper
I read the book to this film about 6 years ago, back when I was in high school and was so impressed by it that I bought the book for my bookcase three years ago or something. I haven't read the book since and I'm not some kind of purist, heck I don't even remember the specifics of the book. At best that makes me as biased as someone who didn't read the book at all...or at worst it means that I'm not a 'purist'.Translating a book into film, the visible medium, there are so many stages at which it can go wrong. Luckily it didn't with this one. The casting is perfect. I especially liked how Lotte and Anna spoke believably broken German and Dutch. Not as it sometimes happens in American productions, when they for instance speak Dutch and say it is German. This was very well done indeed and added to the films worth. What touches me most about De Tweeling though is the fact at heart, that you get shaped partly by your environment. It is worked out very well in this film and my favorite part is that the film distances itself (as does the book) from pointing out one of the two sisters as 'the bad guy'. The film just shows the horror, the desperation and the pain on the common man from both sides; the aggressor and the wrongfully invaded. It is a truly great theme and it is one of the few films I guess in which you actually get to feel sympathy for the Germans (or at least some of them). Maybe that is understandable. Maybe it is logic that most films portray the Germans as gruesome and despicable as quite a lot of them maybe were. But every once in a while a film comes along that shows us that they are human too, that they suffered losses; that German lives lost shatter German families as they shatter American, Dutch, Polish, Jewish, English and so on. This is one of those films. It strays from the cliché, which is what I liked about it as I did like Stalingrad (1993) and Die Brücke (1959).8 out of 10
wstolk
Little did I like Dutch cinema before I first saw this movie. The Colours are hardly professional and the acting is not always too good. But Ben Sombogaard has delivered a Dutch film of which we can be proud.The film about two separated twin-sisters is situated mostly in the Second World War. Anna and Lotte both live in different countries. Anna lives in Germany were she is poor and attracted by the promises of the National-Socialism. Lotte lives in a rich family in the Netherlands. Living separate lives, the become more and more detached from each other. Finding each other in a Spa in Luxembourg brings back more and more memories. But can they forgive each other...Ben Sombogaard did a great job in shooting the film of this popular Dutch book. Particulairly should be mentioned the fact that he choose never to make a film about the war. The confusions and drama between the two sisters are the most important storyline. The war is only (a very important!!) background. A must see for everybody, especially Dutch people!
ikke4000
I did not read the book, but the film impressed me very much. A touching story and great acting. There were a few inconsistencies in the movie. That is why I do not give it the ultimate 10 out of 10.It is a real pity it did not get any further at the Oscars. I think it definitely falls into the same category as Character, which won the Oscar for best foreign movie a few years ago.The movie was shown as a 3 part series on Dutch TV around the holiday season. I think it included a few scenes that were deleted from the feature movie. However, the scenes are not necessary to understand the movie. In the Netherlands you can now buy the DVD in several stores for only 6 euro, a super bargain, I would say.
AD
