Bernardo Bertolucci 1941-2018

Visual splendour was both a means and an end in Bernardo Bertolucci's cinema. He was a real cineaste, a great geek! Bertolucci came from an artistic family and his father got him his first job as assistant to Rossellini. If you come across the early films Before the Revolution and Partners in our video library, you will first meet a filmmaker who wants to convince us of his left-wing political views. And of his love for Jean-Luc Godard. But Bertolucci also devoted himself to the unconscious. Is Last Tango In Paris really about suppressed homosexuality? At least everything in this work is out of control. Quite different in The Conformist. It's smooth and controlled. A fascist. The Last Tango and The Conformist seemed like a double strike that set Bertolucci's career in motion. Then came 1900, an All Star epic over five hours long; bold, exuberant, visually grandiose. Who remembers the sex scene with Robert de Niro and Gerard Depardieu? And Donald Sutherland, who kills a cat by repeatedly hitting it with his head? La Luna, who follows in 1979, is considered a failure. After all, a really crazy film with some fantastic scenes! The work of a filmmaker who wanted everything, tried everything! In the early 80s, Bertolucci spent several years in Hollywood; inconclusive and certainly frustrating. Then he reappeared with a Chinese epic: The Last Emperor - which works best in its small, intimate moments. In the 90s he directed four films, and I can only remember the highly erotic Stealing Beauty in which Liv Tyler uses her virginity as a lure. The Dreamers is regarded by many as a comeback, on the one hand returning to his lust for incest (La Luna), but can also be enjoyed as a cinephiles guessing game. The last Bertolucci movie we had on our shelves was Me And You and it's also about the love relationship of half siblings. We remember how the mother gave her son a hand job in La Luna. As if she were giving him a strong medicine. Bertolucci must have had a lot of fun breaking the taboo!

Ab 6.12. im Kino: Gaspar Noe - Climax

Gaspar Noe, full-time provocateur, has made a new film that will split his audience. As always. Climax is of course not a "real" horror movie (contrary to the imdb genre definition) and also not as horrible as earlier works of Noes. Nevertheless, it's a movie you should watch at night. As a video retailer I advise: Climax is not a film you experience in daylight. I am and I have never been a friend of Gaspar Noes, but I was all the more surprised to enjoy Climax! Here we try to translate the uninterrupted energy of the protagonists through imagery. The music fits to this: very restless. The plot is simple: During a party a dance group mixes sangria with LSD and chaos develops. The pre-LSD half of the film is even stronger, thanks to the incredible dance sequences. Who knows, maybe Noe should direct a teen dance film? In Climax at least, he follows the dramaturgy of such films, divides the action into a series of dance numbers. In between, there are "solos" and interview sequences of the individual dancers (who are probably also "real" dancers). Here we learn more about their passions and fears. Then LSD is swallowed and Climax develops into a group number. Some will have noticed that Climax is less ambitious than earlier Gaspar Noe movies. But very effective! At least for those who wouldn't mind being trapped for a limited time in a house with stumbling young people.

FREE ON YOUTUBE Thomas Arslan - Geschwister (Kardsler)

FREE ON YOUTUBE (DU FINDEST DEN GANZEN FILM FREI AUF YOUTUBE) When I look at the German films in which the role of the "Turk" is awarded, the following stereotypes can be enumerated: 1. the gangster Turk, who with glittering eyes and far too much testosterone very quickly has his hand on the knife. Often this type plays the older brother who goes crazy, for example when the sister (who is usually to be married by force) doesn't run away. 2) The funny foreign Turk who makes stupid jokes with a strangely high voice and wrong grammar. 3. the victim Turk who does not want to wear a headscarf and also does not marry. Often she is rejected by the (before still cosy) father and chased by the gangster Turk brother. Of course, Thomas Arslan is annoyed about this and wants to show "real" Turks! Erol (Tamer Yigit), Leyla (Serpil Turhan) and Ahmed (Savas Yurderi) are siblings from Kreuzberg. They all come from a Turkish family, with their mother being German. Erol is a little gangster and fence who dropped out of school. But now he has trouble with his "scene" and also with the police. He wants to leave Germany to do his military service in Turkey. He believes that this is the only way to get his life back on track. Leyla tries to escape the confinement of the family. She is at the age when her best friend is the most important person in the world. That's why she spends most of her time with her friend Sevim and would love to move in with her. Unlike Erol, Ahmed has no desire for the street scene around the Kottbusser Tor. He wants to graduate and then study. That's why Ahmed and Erol keep getting into each other's throats. At Kottbusser Tor, Ahmed takes the position of someone you know from childhood, but who is now different. We also hear the parents talking about what is Turkish and what is German? How does a Turkish-German family work at all? Thomas Arslan himself comes from such a family with a German mother and a Turkish father. Apparently he also knows the area around the Kottbusser Tor quite well. He has studied in Berlin since 1986; his debut is as a sibling. Fortunately, Arslan is not an educational filmmaker. He doesn't try hard to tell a story either. Instead, this unpretentious sketch just slips out. By the way, I didn't get the impression that hanging out and wandering around at Kotti was a bad thing in the film. Arslan's movie is also quite often very funny. This works because siblings are staged in "youth language", but in one that is really spoken that way. More precisely: The film was spoken, because it was made in 1997. Arslan, a worthy successor to the Nouvelle Vague, also leaves enough room for me not only to look at his family, but also to take a look at the milieu behind it: Somehow the Kottbusser Tor in Geschwister seems much more harmonious to me than it is today. Or am I suffering from a symptom of old age? By the way, siblings have also become one of my favourite Berlin films.

FREE ON YOUTUBE Salami Aleikum

FREE ON YOUTUBE (DU FINDEST DEN GANZEN FILM FREI AUF YOUTUBE) Culture Clash doppelt gemoppelt; ein Exil-Iraner fährt in den wilden Osten und trifft dort seine grosse Liebe. Das Schöne daran: In der deutschen Culture Clash Komödie Salami Aleikum gibt's endlich mal was zum Lachen. Und zwar dauernd! Das geschieht spontan, scheinbar ganz ohne Anstrengung! Das geht so: Ein schrulliger Deutsch-Iraner namens Mohsen Taheri (Navíd Akhavan) soll die Nachfolge seines Vaters als Metzger antreten. Blöd nur, dass er es nicht verkraftet, Tiere zu töten. Deshalb folgt er einem dubiosen Angebot und fährt von Köln nach Polen, um geschlachtete Schafe zu kaufen. Auf dem Weg dahin strandet er in den neuen Bundesländern, also im deutschen Osten und dort trifft er Ana Bergheim (Anna Böger). Nach allerlei Irrungen & Wirrungen wird sie seine grosse Liebe sein! Und wie ist es so im deutschen Osten? Dort heulen die Wölfe und Glatzen promenieren durch die Altstädte. Regisseur Ahadi geht es übrigens nicht darum, dass etwas abgestandene Culture Clash Thema noch einmal zu bedienen. In seiner Doku "Lost Children" (bei uns in der Videothek als DVD5255 zu haben) hat er sich ernsthaft mit Themen wie Fremdenfeindlichkeit, Terrorangst oder Heimatlosigkeit (=Ostalgie) beschäftigt(...)

FREE ON YOUTUBE Satyajit Ray - The Home And The World

The very first thing we learn in Satyajit Ray's The Home And The World is that Bimala has traded her parents' house for her husband's house. Noticeably, in the interiors of his palace, because Nikhil, the Maharajah, is the only man Bimala has ever seen. Bimala lives in Purdah. She is satisfied with this life. She never has the desire to follow the long corridor, past the outer houses of the palace into the sunlight. But Nikhil has other plans. He is a modern Indian, educated in London. Although his wife loves him, he believes that this love has no value, since she only knows him - Nikhil! At his request, she is taught by an English governess to finally follow the corridor out into the open. Bimala is to meet Nikhil's friend Sandip, the great nationalist leader. Sandip leads the boycott of imported goods and is against the British division of Bengal. Sandip is also an impostor who borrows money from Nikhil and soon also the affection of Bimala. Sandip acts like a storm on Bimala - the exact opposite of her prudent husband. Everyone, including Nikhal, feels; the two are in love. But he does nothing, observes everything through his quiet reason. Sandip's revolution he basically distracts and yet he lets him live in the palace. He also understands that the boycott of foreign goods is primarily intended to drive a wedge between Hindus and Muslims. He lets all this happen... But the actual story takes place deep inside Bimala. Between heart and mind. Over a period of five years it outgrows the fetters of the Purdah. Her most formative time takes place in seclusion. She is fascinated by Sandip and even steals money from her husband's safe (who in turn only watches). For me, Nikhil's distance is the greatest fascination of the film! The Home And The World is based on the novel of the same name by Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore. Ray turns it into a slow film, whose tension results from the change of Bimala's character. In total seclusion, she develops the ability to act ruthlessly and courageously. She is played by the beautiful Swatilekha Chatterjee with a fiery look and full lips. Soumitra Chatterjee, whom we know from numerous works of Ray, gives the revolutionary. Finally, Victor Banerjee embodies the turned husband. Within these three persons, everything takes place that would once change India as a nation.

Film List: Bohemian Rhapsody + Rock Biopics

Biopics tend to show us only the sensational. But are we really interested in the private lives of rock stars and not their music at all? Bohemian Rhapsody is just as bad at that as other rock music biopics. And more problematic: Freddie Mercury is shown as a colorful bird of paradise in his gay world. He only gets support from his stable heterosexual band members. We look at Freddie with discomfort, as he behaves "queer". But Freddie doesn't even seem to be sure about his sexual desires. Then he falls in love with Mary. Bohemian Rhpasody now turns out this romantic liaison - of all things. There's an expression for that: homophobia. It's no wonder that Bohemian Rhapsody shows us the emergence of AIDS like a punishment...