Description
Acclaimed by critics and audiences everywhere, BEYOND SILENCE is the powerful Academy Award(R)-nominated story of a young woman's battle for independence and her deaf parents' struggle to understand her gift for music. Given a clarinet by her free-spirited aunt, Lara is immediately consumed by a new passion her parents cannot begin to fully comprehend. Determined to follow her dreams, Lara's ongoing pursuit of music creates an ever-widening rift that eventually threatens to tear apart her once close-knit family. An inspirational and highly entertaining motion picture offering from Miramax Home Entertainment -- you'll be riveted as this family must somehow learn to reach beyond differences, expectations ... and beyond silence ... to bring their two worlds together once again!

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 27 reviews)

Love Resonates Beyond the Ear's Ability to Hear

Lara cares for her deaf parents but is pulled out of their orbit by her passion for music and her attraction to her aunt, who fosters her passion for the clarinet. Her pursuit of a music conservatory slot and that growing bond with her aunt estranges her from her family.

Her mother's sudden and accidental death forces her to confront some harsh feelings about her father, who resents the primacy of music in his daughter's life.

This largely melancholy film offers a redemptive ending as Lara auditions for a coveted slot in the Berlin music conservatory while her father appears unannounced to offer his wordless support. Love and passion transcend silence and bridges the gap between parallel worlds and family fissures.
December 20, 2007

Do we really know what it means to live in opposite worlds?

Caroline Link was the sensitive director of this engaging movie, a very warmth portrait about a girl of deaf parents, who discovers her love and gift for music.

So, surrounded by worlds of sounds and silence, she tries to find the perfect balance between both islands.

A film of huge and resplendent beauty that must be seen over and over to discover the miracle of the music and the anguish of an endless silence.

Nominated for Best foreign picture in 1998 and winner as Best picture in Tokyo International Film Festival, this is undeniably one of my top twenty films of this decade.

September 24, 2007

Beyond the silence you find yourself

Anyone who grows up as a "caretaker" for their parents generally matures very rapidly. The child enters adulthood very quickly and has a very overdeveloped sense of responsibility. The downside of caretaking at a young age is that the child has no time to discover who they are and what they want out of life. They are the parent who cares and nurtures instead of being the child who should be builded up, edified and protected.

Such is the charming but wrenchingly melancholy story of BEYOND THE SILENCE, Academy Award Nominee for Best Foreign Language Film of 1997. Lara is a precocious "hearing" child born to two deaf parents. Lara has becomes the ears to the outside world for her parents who wish to keep her totally for themselves in their world of quiet. But Lara suffers in the world outside her home. She cannot be what she needs to be. Her reading suffers and she longs to find the expression that is beyond words and beyond the silence. The key to her breakout comes when her Aunt Clarissa gives Lara a clarinet. Lara's parents are threatened that they will lose Lara to a world that they have not been able (and perhaps willing!) to enter. Alot has to be said for the family dynamics presented in this film.

Anyone who has been misunderstood or held down by their parents whims or misunderstandings will benefit greatly from viewing this subtle and well-told story of a close-knit family that has to learn to understand each other's world. It is an amazing piece of drama sprinkled with bits of honesty and humor that propels this evenly paced film along the thin line of hope and frustration.

The film is in German with very readable subtitles.

An excellent companion film would be MR. HOLLAND'S OPUS (USA).
June 08, 2007

Real-life portrayal of a hearing child with deaf parents.

Once again, we have what should have been a wonderful movie diminished by a totally unnecessary sex scene. Also, there was no point (related to the story) for Aunt Clarissa, after her husband moved out, to have a new man in her house in the next scene. Other than those incidents, it is a fine move. The 9-year-old Laura is a real sparkler.

We knew a couple of sisters who were friends of our daughters whose parents were deaf, and we found little Laura to be very much like those girls. It is a great movie to show children how the lives of some of their friends can be very much different from their own. Then, to teach them that, unlike some of the kids in the movie who were mean to Laura, if we understand the friend's life from his or her point of view we can and should be nice to them. This movie gives a real feel for the experiences and unique frustrations of a hearing child of deaf parents.

The movie is pretty much the usual child finally wins the approval of a disapproving parent story. Therefore, the main value of the film is that this child has very different obstacles to overcome that can help kids understand and accept "odd" classmates. I'd give it an 5-Stars on that basis if it wasn't for the unnecessarily thrown in scenes that go contrary to traditional values.
April 24, 2006

This is one of the best movies I've seen in a while

Although this is a German film (the settings are Bavaria and Berlin, I believe) with subtitles, don't let the subtitles (if you don't like subtitled films) lead you to miss a really terrific film.

The story involves a hearing child (Lara) growing up with two deaf parents, who must be their translator to the hearing world. She probably matures faster, but it creates an odd relationship with her parents, since they are reliant on her.

Her father Martin doesn't get along with his sister Clarissa, so when Clarissa gives Lara her old clarinet, Martin is less than thrilled. Clarissa's clarinet playing was a problem when they were children, and he doesn't have happy memories of that clarinet. The world of music is something Martin and his wife Kai can only struggle to understand. Fortunately or unfortunately, Lara is very talented and loves playing the clarinet. The story follows Lara's life from when she is 9 or 10 to when she is 18 and going out on her own.

Ironically, there's some beautiful music in this film (I loved the piece that Lara plays on the clarinet at the end of the film). I could certainly appreciate the beauty of the sign language that Lara's parents use to communicate, but I also thought it was very sad that they couldn't hear her play, and that the loss of the ability to listen to music is a great loss indeed.
January 04, 2006

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