Movie Marathon: Daniel Brühl

I had to open Ms Word and copy-paste the "ü" for the title -- and possibly for the rest of the post. So, every time I type the name, it goes like this: Daniel Br(ctrl+v)hl. I know there's an easier way to do this, but I'm so lazy to find out. Even so, I'm telling ya, it's worth the trouble. Most people would simply type "Bruhl" but I just can't ignore the spelling, can I? It's just like when I type "Dragić", but I just realized in my previous posts, I didn't bother to copy-paste the "ć" lol. I don't want people to spell my name wrong, so I try to spell people's names right~

Alright, enough about the diacritics. Let's just talk about this multilingual movie marathon I just did.

Daniel César Martín Brühl González Domingo (wow, such a long name. Get out of here, Benedict Cumberbatch!), known simply as Daniel Brühl, is a half-German, half-Spanish actor. The name never rings a bell? Well, unless you're a movie buff, you probably won't know this guy until you watch one of these movies: Good Bye Lenin! (because this was his breakout role), Inglourious Basterds (because this was his second breakout role), Rush (because he was nominated for some prestigious awards and this is his best performance yet), and Captain America: Civil War (because it's a freaking Marvel movie). But, I first knew him from The Bourne Ultimatum, playing the brother of Bourne's late girlfriend. It was such a minor role that I couldn't care less about him, mostly because Matt Damon was too big of a star. That time, he was already a big German actor, having been into acting since the 90's. He's not only starring in German movies, but also Spanish ones.

What I like about Mr. Brühl is that he can speak multiple languages. I don't know how many exactly, but seeing from the movies, I take it he speaks four: English, German, Spanish, and French (maybe more? I've read that he can speak Catalan and Portuguese too). He's probably not the only actor, or person, who can speak many languages, but it's a plus point, don't you think? First, he's talented as heck. I'm amazed with his acting, especially in Rush. He has played many different characters and they are all equally good. His father, Hanno Brühl was a director, so it really helped his acting experience. He was also in a band during his younger years and has a really good singing voice. Even though he's ashamed every time someone talked about it (mostly in interviews), I hope he will sing again in a movie or anywhere else.
Second, he's a multilingual. He can star in any movies, with any languages. That's what you get from speaking many languages, you can do movies basically everywhere. And third, he is good looking, of course. He might not be muscular or have a distinctive hair, but damn he's handsome. He can also be cute and adorable at one point, and be ravishingly sexy with that deep stare at another -- it just depends on how he dresses and behaves haha. Plus, his accent(s) is just.... *swoons* *then dead*

So, what makes you decided to do Daniel Brühl movie marathon?
*got back up again* I've actually been meaning to do this since I watched Rush, but instead I did other marathons. When the news about him being cast in Civil War broke, I was like "Damn, I love that guy! And he just joined Marvel holy shit!" I just couldn't help it and started to look for his movies. Most of my friends didn't really know who he was back then, so I thought this would be the best way to introduce him. But... it got delayed again. Then, just a few days before Civil War premiered here in Indonesia, I happened to watch Burnt. After I watched Civil War, it just encouraged me more because, despite of what people said about his character, Zemo, in the movie, I still love him and his acting. That was it, the start(s) of the marathon I've been dying to do hahaha.


Here's the list of his movies, including the languages spoken (which actually you can find in IMDb but it's fun playing with flags lol), according to the time I watched them:
1. Burnt
2. Captain America: Civil War
3. 2 Days in Paris
4. Intruders
5. Woman in Gold
6. Ladies in Lavender
7. Winning Streak (The Pelayos)
8. The Countess
9. Lessons of a Dream (Der ganz große Traum)
10. The Edukators
11. A Most Wanted Man
12. Krabat
13. Eva
14. Lila, Lila
15. In Tranzit
16. All Together (Et si on vivait tous ensemble?)
17. The Face of an Angel
18. The Bourne Ultimatum
19. A Friend of Mine (Ein Freund von Mir)
20. 2 Days in New York
21. Cargo
22. Good Bye Lenin!
23. The Fifth Estate
24. The White Sound (Das weisse Rauschen)
25. A Bit of Chocolate (Un Poco de Chocolate)
26. Rush
27. No Regrets (Nichts Bereuen)
28. King's Road (Kongavegur)
29. Inglourious Basterds
30. Captain America: Civil War for the 2nd time
31. The Coming Days/Days to Come (Die Kommenden Tage)
32. Colonia
33. Love in Thoughts
34. Joyeux Noel
35. Salvador Puig Antich

After watching all of them, do you have any specific movies that you've been into?
This is the first movie marathon I did with the most movies (34). Well, Daniel has like 60 of them so you can't blame me :p Before reviewing my favorites, I'd have to warn you: it's gonna be a looooooong explanation.

Rush
The movie where he played the F1 racer Niki Lauda whose rivalry with fellow racer James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) was the main point, is still my most favorite if we're talking about Daniel Brühl. A very good movie with strong performances from both actors, that actually made me sad because it wasn't nominated for Oscar's Best Picture that time. Daniel, who was clearly Brühliant in this (bad pun alert), was also snubbed from Best Supporting Actor nomination. I had never been so disappointed of these snubs since Ben Affleck (Best Director for Argo). A good actor isn't always measured by Oscar wins or noms, but still, that really hurt... and I wasn't the one who get snubbed.

Captain America: Civil War
Daniel freaking Brühl playing a villain? Oh, correct that -- a Marvel villain? Yes. Y E S  P L E A S E. I always get excited whenever my favorite actors get cast as a villain, because in every movie, I usually care about the villains first. When I first found out about this, I was eating some snack and choked myself because of the overloading happiness. Since then, I followed closely any news about Civil War, until it was announced that he would be playing Zemo (in the movie he was called Helmut Zemo). The character is different from the comic book, but I can assure you that this is one of the best role Daniel has ever played (one of the best MCU villains too). Zemo played a key role behind the conflicts between Captain America (Chris Evans) and Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.) that split the Avengers apart. When everyone was busy choosing between #TeamCap and #TeamIronMan, I just drafted myself to #TeamZemo. I really like this villain (or 'just a primary antagonist', as everyone who's not satisfied with Zemo says) that I tried to give some explanation about why he wasn't as disappointing as we thought here.

Good Bye Lenin!
I think this was Daniel's best performance before the Rush era. It took place in late 80's and early 90's, where the East and West Germany were finally reunified. I'm bad with history, but I remembered studying about the Berlin wall. Alex (Brühl), who lived in East Germany, had to witness his mother got a heart attack when seeing him getting arrested because he took part in an anti-government demonstration. The mother, who was a supporter of the socialist party, fell into coma and woke up months later after the reunification, and everything in the East was already "Westernized". Being warned by the doctor that a slightest of shock would harm her, Alex and his sister tried to "Easternized" their house back and kept their mother from knowing about the reunification, as it would shock her. I love this movie so much that I passionately told my friends about it. One of the best movies I've seen. It has its moments, sad, funny, tragic, and such. It's very moving that I immediately called my Mom after watching this (even though she had called me right before I watched this). Recommended for basically everyone!

Colonia
What made me super excited for this movie was Daniel would be playing opposite Emma Watson... as a couple! I could already imagined how cute they would be, playing a couple who was separated in a military coup in Chile, in which the boyfriend (the character's name was Daniel... yeah, I know) was taken to a torture chamber. Lena, played by Emma, tried to find him by joining a cult in the place called Colonia Dignidad, which turned out to be the place no one could escape from. Despite the negative reviews, I really like this movie. Beside, I don't care about bad reviews as long as I enjoy the movie. And sometimes, I think Daniel and Emma can be siblings :p

Inglourious Basterds
You can say that this was Daniel's breakthrough role in Hollywood. He got more famously known because of this movie (thank you, QT!). Set in 1941, he was playing one of the main characters, Fredrick Zoller, a German sniper-turned-actor who fell in love with a French woman. Little did he know, the woman, Shosanna (Melanie Laurent) had a pretty big plan towards the Nazi leaders after allowing them to use her cinema for the premiere of the propaganda film, which Fredrick starred in. More interestingly, she wasn't the only one who thought of it, as a group of Jewish-American soldiers who called themselves "The Basterds" also had the very same plan. Oh, and this movie also introduced us to Christoph Waltz and Michael Fassbender. The two had been nominated for Oscars (Waltz won Best Supporting Actor for this movie), so I hope it would be Daniel's turn someday! (Ugh, really, Rush was a missed opportunity...)

Eva
In this Spanish-language movie, Daniel played a robotic scientist who recently just got back to his hometown named Alex Garel. Commissioned by his old mentor, Alex tried to finish a robot that resembled a child, the project he abandoned years ago. Although he was hesitated at first because all the children he found were too ordinary, it was changed when he met Eva, a young girl he considered 'unusual' and a good model for the robot. It got a bit complicated when Eva was actually his ex-girlfriend's daughter, who was now married with his brother David. I really liked this movie because I just loved Alex and Eva's chemistry. I found Daniel acting opposite young actor(s) was just too adorable.

The Fifth Estate
Ever heard of Wikileaks? This movie tells us the story about it and its founders. It was a sensitive subject that time and the movie was a bit controversial, as Julian Assange, the Wikileaks founder, didn't really approve it. But that didn't make Daniel's performance as the co-founder, Daniel Domscheit-Berg, less interesting. Besides, Julian was portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch, another favorite actor of mine. It would be a shame for me to skip this movie just because many people didn't like it.

Cargo
Love me some unique thrillers! I said unique because, well, it makes you say "what the--" every time something weird happens, but also keeps you guessing like what the heck is actually happening here, other than how adorable young Daniel was as Chris here. Unable to go anywhere because his passport was taken, Chris, a German traveling in Africa decided to stow away on a cargo ship that was leaving for Europe. Although he was caught, the captain allowed him to be on the ship. The 'weird things' I mentioned above happened during this voyage, and it made Chris more and more uncomfortable, as well as curious. It wasn't one of the best thrillers I've seen, but I quite enjoyed it.

The Edukators
Have you ever gotten irked or annoyed by some arrogant rich people just because they're rich? If you have, you could join these anti-capitalist activists -- Jan, Peter, and Julie -- in 'educating' upper-class people. They meant no harm, just broke in to their houses, moved their stuffs, and left a note, identifying themselves as "The Edukators". Unfortunately one day, one of the owners caught them in action. Panic, they knocked him down and took him to a secluded cabin. Well, it might sound like a thriller movie, but believe me, this movie was more focused on the relationships between the main characters, and how their said action affected it.

Lila, Lila
I couldn't find English (or any) subtitles for the movie, but I watched it anyway. I've learned some basic German in high school, so I kind of knew one or two things the characters said. Languages aside, I found this movie to be more enjoyable the second time watching it. It followed a waiter David Kern (Brühl), who found a manuscript of a book and made it his own to impress a woman (Hannah Herzsprung). Problems arose as the book became best-seller and the real author showed up to ruin his life. I got to be honest, I didn't understand about 95% of what they were saying, but from the actors' movements and facial expressions, I could get it. It was funny and might be even funnier if I watched it with subtitles. If you guys know where I can get the subtitle, please tell me!

The White Sound (Das weisse Rauschen)
This is one of those compelling dramas with 'shaky' camera to make it seem realistic. I was bothered at first, plus the movie had those moments that made you go "huh?", but the story progressed well. Daniel's acting really helped to reach what the director and writer wanted to tell, and that was the life of a young man named Lukas, from normal to the beginning of his schizophrenia, until finally reached the depth of it. Daniel was just sooo good in this role.

No Regrets (Nichts Bereuen)
So, this was the third time I watched Daniel acting as himself a man named... Daniel. In this teen drama, Daniel was a 19 years old boy who had been in love with same girl for about four years. He only wanted Luca (Jessica Schwarz) to be the 'first' woman in his life, but she didn't seem to respond back to his feeling. When he joined a community service, he got involved with his boss, and at the same time, Luca came back and expressed her interest in him. If you were Daniel, what would you do? You know, I'm not really a fan of teen romance movies, but I somehow like this one. Daniel's actions to get Luca's attention were just plain stupid but funny. And Luca, what the heck, gurl? She was the kind of person that most of my friends hated. If you guys are the victims of empty hopes, I bet you can relate to Daniel :))

Honorable mentions:
Burnt, (Salvador Puig Antich), and Lessons of a Dream (Der ganz große Traum)

I could keep going on reviewing every movie, but I don't want to bore you with any more words. There's one movie of his I really want to watch called Ich und Kaminski, but I'd rather wait patiently for English subtitle than to repeat the Lila, Lila experience lol. For the future, Daniel has some projects in his hands, so we don't have to worry. Besides, he could appear again in future Marvel movies, who knows? I really do hope so. I'm not the only one who wants this right? Haha #TeamZemo forever!
What's your favorite movie of his? And since he still has so many movies other than what I list above, do you have any recommendation for me to watch? Anyway, I hope you enjoy this post as much as I enjoy writing it. Don't forget to check out my other movie marathon posts!

I'm always nervous doing auditions - to be honest, I hate it. I always envy the actors who are so cool and cold-blooded when they go in for an audition, especially if it's for a part that you would really love to play.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/d/danielbruh566196.html

"I'm always nervous doing auditions -- to be honest, I hate it. I always envy the actors who are so cool and cold-blooded when they go in for an audition, especially if it's for a part that you would really love to play."

- Daniel Brühl

(scorpiant.tumblr.com)

I'm always nervous doing auditions - to be honest, I hate it. I always envy the actors who are so cool and cold-blooded when they go in for an audition, especially if it's for a part that you would really love to play.
Read more at: http://www.azquotes.com/quote/1190197

I'm always nervous doing auditions - to be honest, I hate it. I always envy the actors who are so cool and cold-blooded when they go in for an audition, especially if it's for a part that you would really love to play.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/d/danielbruh566196.html

I'm always nervous doing auditions - to be honest, I hate it. I always envy the actors who are so cool and cold-blooded when they go in for an audition, especially if it's for a part that you would really love to play.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/d/danielbruh566196.html