With a little openness and patience, certain films can capture our hearts forever. Then three hours of running time become a life-affirming experience – and it’s free too
Three hours of running time? Who has the patience for that, even in this day and age? The answer: you! At least hopefully, because with a little perseverance, three hours can turn from a daunting length marker into an unforgettable movie experience. Are you up to it? Still thinking about it? Then let’s do a little convincing.
At first glance, Drive My Car is another drama in which people simply talk to each other for a long time. But it’s so good that the film was awarded an Oscar in 2022. Quite rightly so. Where our enthusiasm and that of the Academy comes from … you can see for yourself in this article. Or simply watch it yourself – in the free stream of the Arte media library.
Stream Oscar masterpiece Drive My Car for free on Arte
In the Oscar masterpiece Drive My Car, two moving life stories come together
Yusuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima) is an artist through and through. He lives and breathes theater as a director and actor. His wife Oto (Reika Kirishima) felt the same way. She wrote plays herself as an author – until two years ago, when Yusuke lost her in a stroke of fate. Now he pursues his profession all by himself.
This very profession leads him to a festival where he is to stage Anton Chekhov’s endlessly revived play Uncle Vanya. He is given a private chauffeur called Misaki (Toko Miura) for the duration of the job. She is also struggling with her past.
(Tôko Miura and Hidetoshi Nishijima in Drive My Car)
In the course of their car rides together, the two begin to open up to each other and tell each other more about themselves. They unravel their experiences and losses, their wishes and grief, separate regret from hope and take their first steps towards a new future.
Drive My Car in the Arte media library is a life lesson that more than deserves its Oscar
In Cannes, Drive My Car won the award for Best Screenplay at the time, and at the 2022 Oscars it was named Best International Film. No wonder, because everything about Drive My Car is just right: it is based on a short story by the successful Japanese author Haruki Murakami. Burning director Ryusuke Hamaguchi is someone who knows exactly what makes people tick.
You can see this again and again in Drive My Car. Hamaguchi brings his characters together in the most sensitive way, knowing exactly when to speak and when to remain silent. The heaviness and silence of a loss, which can overwhelm us, finds its place here, as do conversations that are intense, upsetting and inspiring.
(Drive My Car)
Drive My Car shows at all times in captivating interactions what human relationships are all about. How painful they can be during life, but also after a loss – but also how livable and lovable they make life. And in the end, we stand there and have not only learned more about the characters, but about ourselves.
