Archive for August, 2008
« Previous Entries Next Entries »Berlin Film Festival Boom – Art Houses & Cinematheques
Monday, August 18th, 2008The current Berlin Film Festival Boom owes its vitality to cinematheques in Filmstadt Berlin – like Kino Arsenal in the Sony Center at Potsdamer Platz, the venue of the Freunde der Deutschen Kinemathek programmed by a team headed by Ulrich and Erika Gregor. Another is the Filmmuseum Potsdam, programmed by Bärbel Dalichow in the Marstall […]
Meine Mütter – A Tale of Two Mothers
Monday, August 18th, 2008Indeed, as noted by Tanja Meding in her report on the Tribeca Film Festiva, Meine Mütter (Two Mothers) (Germany, 2007), subtitled Spurensuche in Riga (Searching for Clues in Riga), is Rosa von Praunheim’s “most autobiographical film to date.” A critical hit at the 2007 Hof Film Festival, his Two Mothers also scores as one of […]
Liebesleben – Maria Schrader Films Zeruya Shalev
Monday, August 18th, 2008A name in German cinema, Maria Schrader has worked as an actress with such prominent directors as Margarete von Trotta (Rosenstrasse, 2003), Dani Levy (Fathers, 2002, Giraffe, 1998), Max Färberböck (Aimee and Jaguar, 1999), and Doris Dörrie (Am I Beautiful?, 1998) – whose cited films have garnered critical acclaim. Now Maria Schrader has added two […]
Berlin – 1. Mai – Kreuzberg Revolutionary Fantasy
Monday, August 18th, 2008Following the film’s gala premiere in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino at this year’s Berlinale, Berlin – 1. Mai (Germany, 2008) – codirected by a filmmaking quartet composed of Carsten Ludwig and Jan-Christoph Glaser, Sven Taddicken, Jakob Ziemnicki – was a cinch to screen later at select Berlin venues as a special event linked with the […]
Der Freischwimmer – Merry Mixture of Genres
Monday, August 18th, 2008Programmed in the Venice Days section at the 2007 Venice film festival, Andreas Kleinert’s Der Freischwimmer (Head Under Water) (Germany, 2007) comes across as merry mixture of genre cinema: partly psycho-thriller, partly black comedy, partly high school horror. And although “free swimmer” might be considered a better English translation of the title, Head Under Water […]
12th Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival 2008
Monday, August 18th, 2008Asked by a Korean colleague if I would be willing to serve on the international jury for the 12th Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival (18-27 July 2008) – “PiFan” for short – I responded that I wasn’t quite sure what a “fantastic” film is in the first place. Not a problem, he said, for he […]
Der Fischer und seine Frau – German Folktale à la Japanese
Wednesday, August 13th, 2008Mantje, mantje timpetee, Buttje, Buttje in der See, Meine Frau, die Ilsebill, will nicht so wie ich wohl will – Old German “Plattdeutsch” Maxim. In her new film Der Fischer und seine Frau (The Fisherman and His Wife) (2005) Doris Dörrie reaches back to the well-known folk tale about a fisherman and his wife, the […]
Agnes und seine Brüder – Weird Family Life Reduxed
Wednesday, August 13th, 2008In Oskar Roehler’s melodrama, Agnes und seine Brüder (Agnes and His Brothers) (2004), the focus is on three entirely different brothers who have something in common: they all had suffered under a dominating father who, it was said, abused one of his sons in childhood.
Der Man von der Botschaft – Georgian Teenager Tryst
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008Herbert Neumann (Burghardt Klaussner won the Golden Leopard in Locarno for his role) is an attaché at the German embassy in Tbilisi/Georgia in Dito Tsintsadze’s Der Man von der Botschaft (The Man from the Embassy) (2006). He spends his life between computer role-playing, a substitute for a family life, and an affair with his Georgian […]
Kroko – Macho Mädchen Meets Her Match
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008Her real name is Julia, but she prefers “Kroko” – short for “krokodil” (crocodile). A rough-and-tumble street-girl with ice-cold eyes and a temperament to match in Silke Enders’s Kroko (2003), Kroko (Franziska Jünger) is the no-nonsense leader of a gang of shop-lifters in the Berlin-Wedding working-man’s district. All the 16-year-old diva cares about is her […]
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