FREE ON YOUTUBE I Shot Andy Warhol

FREE ON YOUTUBE When Andy Warhol pondered that everyone would be famous for 15 minutes, he certainly didn't think that Valerie Solanas would gain fame for 15 minutes by shooting at him. It was June 3, 1968. Solanas went armed in Warhol's factory and fired on the most famous American artist. One of Warhol's assistants asks if she had met anyone. Not just "someone"! Later, the police ask Solanas why she did it. She had her reasons, Solanas replies. Director Mary Harron and actress Lili Taylor now deliver the portrait of a possibly schizophrenic woman. From her bad childhood to the moment of justification before the police. So her plot seems to be a logical consequence of what happened before. Solanas was abused as a child and worked as a prostitute to finance her college. Nevertheless, she develops a kind of weird humor. She writes a column about women reproducing without men. And plays. She is gifted. Then she takes her boyfriend, the transsexual Candy Darling (Stephen Dorff), to Warhol's Factory. She likes Warhol (Jared Harris) and plays in his films. She even writes a play for Warhol, but it's behind a couch in the Factory. Solanas reacts offended and angry. Turning point. Solanas dives into her own world. Girlfriends like Stevie (Martha Plimpton) try to help her - but in vain. The paradox: Solanas doesn't seem unappealing, sometimes even moving! Warhol, on the other hand, is a passive man. A factotum. Art and sexuality - he produces all this through images, without human contact. Quite differently Solanas, who engages her very own life LEBT! But everywhere feminists seem to steal their ideas! When she is "excommunicated" in Warhol's factory, she returns armed. The great Lili Taylor plays Solanas. Crazy, but not irrational. Taylor is the swarm of our colleague Marie from the video store. Marie is obsessed with Taylor. She knows all the movies! And rightly so! Lili Taylor is the indie icon of the 90s! Her role selection proves how intelligent and stylish Taylor is. and versatile! Probably some of you won't like I Shot Andy Warhol. True to the motto; the story of a hysterical lunatic. I would see the movie that way: Even the most absurd behavior ultimately serves only one strategy: to find love and recognition. This is exactly what Solanas is looking for.

FREE ON YOUTUBE Tarkovsky - The Sacrifice

FREE ON YOUTUBE (DU FINDEST DEN GANZEN FILM FREI AUF YOUTUBE) 1986 Tarkovsky moved to Sweden, filmed on the island where Ingmar-Bergman lived and worked. The camera was held by Sven Nykvist - Ingmar-Bergman's cameraman. That's why "The Sacrifice" actually looks "bergmanesk" and that's the way it should be! Just like his older role model, Tarkovsky deals with the general moral questions of being human. A Soviet filmmaker who dares to film spiritually (the opposite of the deliberate realism of the USSR). If you read more about it, you will find out that Tarkovsky was already terminally ill when he made "The Sacrifice". For his last film he didn't choose a small theme, but the story of a man who watches and dreams that the bombers are on their way to starting the Third World War. He offers his own life as a victim; let only his family be spared. Tarkovsky has radically abandoned any attempt to entertain us. He only says what he wants. In the style he wants. In long shots and with a great distance between the camera and the objects. We step back from what happened, have time to process it. To let it work on us. There is space between the events. And suddenly we begin to ask ourselves whether we would act in the same way as the man? On his birthday he plants a tree. When he is no longer, the tree will still be. Friends and family come for his birthday. And the postman who is something like the mystic on the island. He brings the news of the inner reality. And then the news arrives that the war has broken out... I think only those who have a lot of imagination will borrow "The Sacrifice" from us on DVD, watch it and maybe like it. The others don't. Everything depends on the question whether you can feel into this man. Are you even ready for it? But a sacrifice is always willingly offered, isn't it?

FREE ON YOUTUBE Kenji Mizoguchi - Sansho Dayu

FREE ON YOUTUBE  Sansho the Bailiff is a movie named after the villain. Not after one of the characters we like and identify with. Sansho is completely heartless. Not a human being, a creature! The story, set in the feudal Middle Ages (and strongly reminiscent of the terrible deeds of the Japanese during the Second World War), introduces Tamaki, the wife of the friendly district administrator. With their son they had to flee from Sansho. At night they take a rest, build a shelter under the huge treetops and ignite a celebration. In the distance wolves howl. It may be a moment of brief fleeting happiness. Then she finds the old priestess, offers them shelter in her house. She suggests that they go by boat. In the morning they leave - but a dark figure flies after them. A trap. They are caught by human traffickers. The women are to be sold as prostitutes, the children as slaves for Sansho... Mizoguchi is a true director of women for me. Throughout his career he was obsessed with women's rights. He is one of the greatest Japanese directors from the classical phase. His camera looks as if it is flying gently. Sometimes we watch the action, sometimes we are forced to look away. Just when the camera "looks away". For example, if something is too painful or too personal, then the camera simply decides to look away. Sansho is a story that has gripped me with full force! We are given time to fully recognize Sanshos atrocities while a loving family is destroyed for no good reason. There are people who are born without mercy and do evil with great joy. Sansho is such a person who feels joy in his sadistic deeds. Sansho is a film that really destroyed me. And one of the best I've ever seen! Have I ever seen anything better? Nevertheless, I didn't dare to see Sansho again. I just didn't want to take that ordeal upon myself again.

fREE ON YOUTUBE Carl Theodor Dreyer - Day Of Wrath

FREE ON YOUTUBE (DU FINDEST DEN GANZEN FILM FREI AUF YOUTUBE) Martyrdom and suffering are the themes of Carl Theodor Dreyer. Thus he created some of the most poetic and terrible horror films of all time. Day Of Wrath is about the witch hunt in the 17th century. Anne (Lisbeth Movin), the priest's wife, is accused of hiding a witch. And was Anne's mother already a witch? And what connection does that have with her own marriage? Anne falls in love with her stepson and confesses it to the priest. He suffers a shock and dies. Now Anne herself is accused of witchcraft... Any time that takes the work of God as justification for murder is a terrible time. In the name of God, women are tortured and burned. Not by hysterics. By people who are sure to serve the righteousness of God. They are Protestant people with callous faces. But behind them lies infinite suffering. Day Of Wrath does not need to argue for or against witchcraft. Instead he leads us into the great darkness of the human soul.

FREE ON YOUTUBE Dziga Vertov - Man With A Movie Camera

It is easy to imagine how much the audience must have been overwhelmed in 1929, the year Vertov's Man With A Movie Camera entered the cinema. During the silent era, audiences were used to shots lasting ten seconds or longer. Here it was two seconds - a speed that modern blockbusters expect us to achieve. This is precisely the great influence that Vertov exerted! Dziga Vertov felt confined by the tradition of theatre. For him, cinema until then was only a continuation of the stage, which could not satisfy him. It was time for a new style! A film that progressed as fast as our brain in its associations! No dialogue, no subtitles, no scenario! A series of images in rapid succession, that's The Man With A Movie Camera! Vertov specifically followed his plan: he wanted to show 24 hours of the life of a Russian city. Moscow, Kiev and Odessa, three cities, filmed in four days - combined into one. A record-breaking sum of individual shots was produced, to be edited by his brother, Mikhail Kaufman (who allegedly refused to work with Vertov again). Vertov, who began his career during the Russian Revolution when the joy of experimenting in Russian cinema reached its peak, described himself as a radical artist. Surrealism and avant-garde were "State Of The Art" - Vertov's puzzle still looks as fresh today as it did in the 1920s! And when was such an attempt ever made again? Machines, workers, streets, beaches, individual faces (...) Everyone is allowed to interpret into Vertov's film what he likes most. But what is the work really about? About how a film is made. There is only one character who leads through the film (but doesn't represent a "character"): The Man With The Movie Camera. The camera on his shoulders, he marches through a coal mine or is on a moving truck. Later, a train chases us towards - drives "into the camera". All this was cut with the "Intercut" method. Sometimes the action stops, the "action" is frozen. If there is no continuity, then there is speed. Almost as if the film had cut itself. A style exercise in terms of tempo! In Hollywood the rule of invisible editing still prevails today. Vertov destroys this idea! The film is above all about itself. Big-city documentaries, for example about Berlin, already existed before. Vertov, however, does not show ONE city. He doesn't give a name either. Thus his focus is much wider. An experiment that is unthinkable without music. The best known is the US version by Michael Nyman, which underlines the restlessness of Vertov's film (we offer this version on DVD at the Filmkunstbar Fitzcarraldo - nicely restored). Much of what you think you can attribute to later cinema in terms of experiments - much, much can be discovered in The Man With The Movie Camera - and enjoyed!

FREE ON YOUTUBE Jean-Luc Godard - Weeke End

FREE ON YOUTUBE (DU FINDEST DEN GANZEN FILM FREI AUF YOUTUBE) In order to stream Week End freely on YouTube, enter the year 1967 behind the title. Then it goes. First Jean-Luc Godard had shifted the rules of cinema forever, then in 1967 he concentrated on their core with Weekend. Weekend is pure cinema! One of his best and most imaginative films! Even today, Weekend is likely to repel and alienate its audience - but that's the way it is with truly revolutionary films. Weekend is about violence and hatred, about the end of any ideology and the beginning of disaster. Weekend is hell! Civilization has failed, it is being destroyed. Normally sick films, which deal with the end of all this, because their subject is too broad. But Godard has staged Weekend very effectively! He simply avoids showing us "real" war. Instead, he shows us the attitude of suffering and destruction. Everything begins with "motorized" people (doesn't that symbolize the animal in us?). A motorized couple sets off for the weekend and their trip is supposed to find a miserable end to the "consumer society" (Godard would have put it that way). Everything stands still in an eternally long traffic jam. The "motorized" leave their car and begin an odyssey. They experience the end. Godard's bitter gaze does not allow us any liberal solutions. Bizarre things happen, so the political speech. Should this nonsense be taken seriously? Or: Why is the politician so serious when everything is just a joke? Is that not the essence of politics? And isn't that the essence of "hip" radicalism? The end, an allegory. Everyone eats everyone. At the latest here we may feel lost in Godard's universe. Everything makes sense, but nothing fits together anymore. Do the protagonists talk to each other or do they talk to us? What is going on at all? Anyway, it is just as crappy as life.

FREE ON YOUTUBE Ingmar Bergman - Winter Light

FREE ON YOUTUBE (DU FINDEST DEN GANZEN FILM FREI AUF YOUTUBE) Ingmar Bergman died when the Filmkunstbar Fitzcarraldo was still in Revaler Strasse. Until then only few asked for his movies - that changed abruptly until today. If I think of his death, I always associate him with Nattvardsgästerna from his "Silence Of god" trilogy. Why? Nattvardsgästerna is about a priest who is not able to take away the fear of the nuclear holocaust from a parishioner. He rejects a woman who could comfort him. I can still see the pictures today. How Bergman and his cameraman Sven Nykvest capture the sunlight in a village church on its way through the room. Nattvardsgästerna - a film about light. I have now seen the work again and was overwhelmed by its power, its desolation! So much more complex than I remembered! This is not only about the silence of God, but of one man: Pastor Tomas Ericsson (Gunnar Bjornstrand). He speaks to us, but is unable to give himself or others courage. He appears next to us: Jonas (Max Von Sydow), obsessed with evil in the world and Marta (Ingrid Thulin), a teacher who sincerely loves the pastor. The only thanks she receives is cold. Two people who hurt each other deeply. It is also a film about trust. Algot (Allan Edwall, disfigured by an accident, seems to be the only one who can actually win something for his life from the Word of God. This is presented visually with rigorous simplicity. Nykvest does not use a pan of the camera to achieve an effect. He remains the observer. He shows. Pastor Tomas never smiles. He seems ill, even more so: cold and unable to empathize. Jona's fears that the world would end as a result of the nuclear final blow are met by Tomas in empty phrases: We must trust in God. As he says this, we notice how his hands tremble. But there is much more than just the silence of God. Tomas is silent to Marta. Those who hope for help receive only rejection and silence. I wondered how much Bergman is in the figure of the pastor? Bergman, who himself was married several times, but found no happiness. Is this the outcry of an artist whose life seemed just as cold? Who couldn't give? We will probably never find out how autobiographical Nattvardsgästerna really is. In the heart it is a film about a man who thinks he is God and fails.

FREE ON YOUTUBE The Thief

FREE ON YOUTUBE  Early in the film it becomes clear who "The Thief" is: Stalin. Fortunately, this symbolism never gets in the way of the heartbreaking story! We quickly become aware of the film's point of view. It is about the betrayal of the post-war years. From hopelessness. We experience all this from the perspective of Sanya, who was born on the street as the child of a homeless mother after the Second World War. When Sanya is six years old, his mother is approached by a man in uniform. His name is Tolyan and he may have been an officer once. Maybe not. Nothing about Tolyan is trustworthy, which the mother will learn in several bitter lessons. "Uncle" Tolyan is charming. He is tall and wears a mustache. Just like Stalin. While most Russians are sick and miserable, he seems robust and healthy. You need money to be healthy in Russia. Tolyan is a thief. He steals not only the possessions of others, but also the hearts. His mother Katia (Ekaterina Rednikova) falls in love right away. Of course there are also material reasons for this, as she is not able to feed herself and her child. And Sanya (Misha Philipchuk)? It's all much more complicated for him. He often has visions of his biological father speaking to him. He died before Sanya was born. In the boy's dreams, the father promises to return soon. Sanya's relationship with Tolyan (Vladimir Maskhkov) is difficult. It is a mixture of fear and love. Once Tolyan asks the boy to look after his revolver. The child's eyes widen like saucers. Tolyan is a charmer who accommodates his "family" in different guesthouses. In truth, his uniform and irregular residences serve as protection from person checks. Tolyan loves vodka. He loves toasting Stalin. Little by little we learn more about his criminal activities. In case of burglaries Sanya even helps him to penetrate through narrow windows. Around them we experience the daily reality of Stalin's Russia. Fear and a strange form of love. Do the Russians think about Stalin like Sanya thinks about Tolyan? Probably. Stalin was just as big a cheater as Sanya who played the role of protector. A charming thief and liar. But in the end Tolyan is forced to tell the truth. His whole "fake" is reduced to this pathetic truth. And Stalin? It will probably take a few more generations before the Russians admit his betrayal,

FREE ON YOUTUBE John Cassavetes - A Woman Under The Influence

FREE ON YOUTUBE (DU FINDEST DEN GANZEN FILM FREI AUF YOUTUBE) John Cassavetes is, of course, on our author's shelf. Take the test: Watch a Cassavetes movie for just a few seconds - and you know immediately: This is a Cassavetes movie! You recognize Cassavetes characters, Cassavetes dialogues and so on. Above all, Cassavetes films are very, very much talked about. Cassavetes movies are really afraid of silence. His characters are desperately looking for love. But they can neither give nor accept love. Cassavetes movies aren't interested in the well-known formulas of Hollywood studio productions, but in the spontaneity of life. Everything feels spontaneous, although of course Cassavetes didn't make a "Mumblecore". But he only worked with his family and friends, who probably knew his dialogues as well as he did. Cassavetes avoids something like a story arc. He is the opposite of a "storyteller". He never invented his characters. He let them arise through life itself. Cassavetes wife Gena Rowlands plays Mable, his friend Peter Falk Nick Longhetti, the man of Mabel. They live so close together with their family that there is no privacy whatsoever. The bathroom even has a "private" sign to suggest something like that. Mabel behaves strangely and drinks too much. In the end it becomes clear that Nick is just as crazy as Mabel. Seen this way, they fit perfectly. Mabel doesn't have any privacy. Her house belongs to the family at all times. Or annoying, unexpected visitors. Only in the hallway can she be a bit alone. Smoking, drinking, trying to think. There is always noise and chaos in the house. Mabel, under the influence of pills and alcohol, tries to create something like happiness in the midst of chaos. Especially the children are constantly asked to sing, to pretend, to be happy. This family is dysfunctional in the sense that it works according to its own broken rules. Cassavetes does not offer a solution. That wouldn't be a Cassavetes film! The turmoil will go on and on, even long after the credits are over. That's all we can say for sure. None of the characters will succeed in giving or accepting love. Alcohol and drugs prevent that. And sex and self-doubt. And, as with real auteur films, the view of the artist, the "auteur", is of particular interest. In this case it's quite simple. John Cassavetes alter ego is always the figure of his wife Gena Rowlands.

FREE ON YOUTUBE The Scent Of Green Papaya

FREE ON YOUTUBE  Such a sweet and quiet movie! "The Scent of Green Papaya" is set in Vietnam between the 40s and 60s. More precise between the late 40s and the early 60s. We look at time through the eyes of a poor young woman. She works as a servant in the household of a merchant family. She observes everything around her very closely. Every last detail! Slowly she matures and develops into a very beautiful woman. She is of simple kindness, which in turn impresses her cynical employers (who are always in a hurry). Her name is Mui and she is an orphan. As a child she starts with the Kaufmanns family, learns fast and well. She does her work inconspicuously. Sometimes she almost looks like a ghost. Looking at the world through her eyes means seeing beauty everywhere. A drop of water that pearls on a leaf. The sunlight that falls through the leaves. Or the scent of green papaya. We learn how the household in which she works works from Mui's perspective. We notice with how much love Mother Mui encounters. She is like a daughter. Mui grows up and the family's fortune dwindles. Then the father dies and everything gets disordered. Mui is supposed to work as the servant of a friend of the family. She has known him all her life. Today he plays the piano and speaks French. Mui loves him. We only recognize this through extremely indirect clues. Details that are hardly visible to humans... The Scent of Green Papaya seems more like a poem than a film. However, one of great visual beauty! If you take a closer look, you will notice that the whole story takes place in one set. Inside. This isn't unusual for Asian movies. Maybe the Vietnam of the early 90s, the time the movie was made, doesn't look colonialistic enough? Tran Anh Hung achieves the highest visual perfection. The film doesn't look like life. It looks like an ideal of life. Like Mui's world. This world gets along almost without a plot. All the time we ask ourselves: When will the pianist finally see the beautiful woman who lives under his roof? When will he finally realize that the love he has sought everywhere is right in front of him? But this film is not guided by the plot. He is guided by the growth of the young woman. When you have seen The Scent Of Green Papaya - like me - for the second time, you will enjoy it all the more.

FREE ON YOUTUBE Gus Van Sant - Last Days

FREE ON YOUTUBE Young men on the (voluntary) path to death. This is one of the themes of Gus van Sant. In this case a famous man dies - we notice that it is Kurt Cobain. Since in our society no celebrity may die without his death being analyzed to death by "experts", Gus van Sant must be praised: Here, the hero is simply allowed to leave life in silence. In the final phase of his drug addiction. A death without meaning. Without false heroism. A young person who has lived without appreciating life. And wasn't grunge the music that staged the self as a disposable article? The singer from Last Days is called Blake. In his first scenes he pukes. When friends call him, he listens without comment. They start to worry about Blake. And he? He worries about being a walking Rock'n Roll cliché. He seems to have long since died inwardly. All the lights out. You can recognize him in public, but he is already isolated inside. Like a ghost, he lives separated from all others. So addicts die. Not with a loud BANG. Quietly. Like a whimper.

FREE ON YOUTUBE Ozu - Late Spring

FREE ON YOUTUBE  It works like this: Ozu's movies run free on youtube with english subtitles every now and then. They may be deleted at short notice and reappear shortly afterwards. Like Late Spring. Shukichi, an aging professor and widower, lives alone with his daughter Noriko. She is already in her mid-twenties and still unmarried. In Japan in 1949 this age marks the end of her good life. The professor's sister warns him that Noriko will remain alone after his death. She has to get married. Shukichi resorts to a white lie and claims that he himself will step before the altar once more. It works, Noriko marries. That's all that superficially happens in Late Spring. But in the Tife: anger, passion and - a serious mistake. Father and daughter basically act against their will: They solve their togetherness and will probably be unhappy in the future. Only the aunt who compares Noriko's future husband with a Hollywood star feels satisfied. But we will never get to see him. It is typical for Ozu to withhold the man from us. Ozu is not interested in romance. He shows families whose status quo is changed by outsiders. Like in other Ozu movies Setsuko plays Hara Noriko. She is Japan's biggest film star and Ozu once declared that his films would simply not come about without her. Chishu Ryu, also a wonderful Ozu actor, gives the professor. Late Spring is the beginning of a cycle about families, where the season in the title shows the life section of each character. Did he shoot the same film over and over again? Not at all; his films build on each other and complement each other. The longer I think about it, the sadder Late Spring's story becomes: There is a tension between Noriko's smile and her feelings. The smile often serves as a mask. So Noriko laughs radiantly during an early film scene. Onodera, a friend of the family, tells Noriko that he had married a second time after the death of his wife. Such a marriage is dirty and lazy, Noriko replies. She smiles and feels disgusted. Onodera reminds Shukichi of his duty to marry Noriko and suggests Hattori, the professor's assistant. With him Noriko takes a bike tour to the beach and we can assume that both could fit together. When the father inquires, Noriko laughs and says that Hattori is already engaged. A second rendezvous doesn't take place because Noriko doesn't want to cause any trouble. Ozu leaves the conclusions to us by simply omitting many things. Maybe Noriko would be happy with Hattori? Would he have broken up his engagement? But the real reason is that Noriko doesn't want to leave her father. Noriko will later call this her victim. Now Masa, the aunt (Haruko Sugimura) appears with a new candidate: Satake, who supposedly looks like a Hollywood star. Noriko will correct that, because he looks more like the local electrician. Masa is the one who proposes to the professor the lie of claiming to marry even a younger widow. During a Noh performance, the situation becomes worse. Across the room, the professor nods to the younger widow and replies with a smile. At this moment Noriko loses all interest in the play. Noriko tells her father that she has to go somewhere and avoids staying at his side. Shukichi answers her question whether he will marry now only vaguely, even after three questions. He defends spasmodically arranged marriages by telling Noriko how his own mother often cried secretly in the kitchen - he also did not marry freely. While her aunt prepares everything, Noriko smiles, as always. She looks beautiful and very sad in her wedding dress (we don't see the ceremony itself). The professor admits to himself the greatest lie of his life. In one of the saddest Ozu scenes ever, we see him sitting alone in the kitchen. He peels an apple, but it falls to the ground. He bends his head down in grief. The professor's decision was often described as his victim. That doesn't meet the whole truth, because neither his nor her decision was of her own free will. On the contrary, Noriko confesses that she is happiest at his side while helping him. No marriage could replace that. They have also thought about the supposed incest of father and daughter. I think this is wrong. Noriko has a hidden aversion to sex. She wants to stay safe, forever with her father. Ozu's film is one of the greatest - one of the best two films of all time! Only Early Summer - by Yasujiro Ozu - can stand a comparison. Both films offer shots that seem to have been composed for the camera. (...)

FREE ON YOUTUBE Leos Carax - Boy Meets Girl

FREE ON YOUTUBE  A fairy tale of love! Obviously, the young Leos Carax knew all the movies of the Nouvelle Vague and everything that was going on in the cinema (especially in Hollywood). The typical debut of a cinephil Frenchman who spent his whole life in the cinemateque - indoors and never outdoors. But through the pictures of his role models we also clearly recognize Carax. His hero's name is Alex (but he could also be called "Antoine Doinel") and is played by Denis Lavant. He has no family - only the voice of his father is heard on the phone. His girlfriend left him to be with Alex* best friend. Then he falls in love with the voice of a young woman... Later he meets her - Mireille (Mireille Perrier) - at a party. An actress who only has commercials and who leads a life in Paris without bigger ambitions. Aimless. Leo's Carax tells the story of Alex less stringently than as a chain of original accidents and gags. The best time is when Alex is surrounded by couples on the Pont Des Art like in a round dance. Beautifully photographed in black and white and - despite being stolen together everywhere - one of the most original films of the 80s!

FREE ON YOUTUBE Gabbeh

FREE ON YOUTUBE  Gabbeh is a fable that superficially tells the story of a Persian carpet. An old couple stops at a stream to wash the carpet, the "Gabbeh". He shows the portrait of a young woman and a young man. "Who are you?" asks the old woman the girl on the carpet. And the girl gets out of the carpet and answers the question. Her name is Gabbeh and she lives with her people of nomads in the desert. The young man on the carpet is a rider with whom she has always been in love. But she was not allowed to marry him, instead she had to marry the old uncle. But the rider followed her all her life. At night, when she sat by the fire, she could hear him... Who has never seen a film by Mohsen Makhmalbaf before - this one is a wonderful introduction! A film with a secret, because what is the connection between the young couple on the carpet and the present? Gabbeh is a picturesque film that not only focuses on the splendour of the desert, but also sets its own palette of colours. Once the old uncle speaks of colours... and then they appear before us! The bright colours confidently convey to us that human wishes can never be denied. Isn't it the case that the old uncle's life is completely miserable due to the desire for love of his wife or niece? Because love is a game of boys! Gabbeh is a simple film. There is not much more to say than what I have written. And that is exactly what is beautiful! You see everything you need to know. A film doesn't have to be confusing and complicated! It can surrender to the fullness of life and the deepest feelings! Nothing distracts us from it here.

German Movies 10's

The number of cinema-goers in Germany is certainly declining. We read complaints about the principles of film funding and about the fact that only comedies find their audience. Here, in our video store, however, everything looks a little different. The archaeologists will come to us one day. These are customers who are interested in the film of the Weimar Republic. Psychological landscapes that follow Munch's famous scream. Or those that all Fassbinder and Herzog rent films from the great era of New German Cinema. Meanwhile there is also a canon for the late 90s and early 00s; for example Fatih Akin, Hans Christian Schmidt, Andreas Dresen, Oskar Roehler and Christian Petzold. Who still remembers the Berlin school with authors like Angela Schanelec or Thomas Arslan? It is becoming increasingly difficult to come to terms with the present. The Berlin Mumblecore Gang (Jacob Lass, Tom Lass, Axel Ranisch, Philipp Eichholtz) was important for us here in the neighborhood. Of course, also because the protagonists sometimes shoot something or borrow something from us. Or filmmakers like Dietrich Brüggemann, who shook Berlin off beat comedies up their sleeves. And of course Sebastian Schipper, who proved so brilliantly with Victoria that German films can also be stylistic masterpieces. The debutantes are particularly important to us: Above all Nora Fingscheidt (Systemsprenger), Susanne Heinrich (Das melancholische Mädchen), Jan-Ole Gerster (Oh Boy), Katrin Gebbe (Tore tanzt), Carmen Losmann (Work Hard - Play Hard). From this we create our very own decade, far away from Matthias Schweighöfer. From this we put together our canon and your canon of the 10's and some of you will certainly be interested in what is happening around us NOW!

FREE ON YOUTUBE Stephen Frears - The Snapper (Roddy Doyle)

FREE ON YOUTUBE . Why does The Snapper from Roddy Doyle's trilogy, filmed by Stephen Frears, run free on YouTube? Answer: Because the DVD is sold out in Germany, so no distributor is trying to sell it. And because no Hollywood stars play along. Fortunately! Only Irish stars like Colm Meaney with his cuddly face. And because our colleague David - like every good Irishman - loves Roddy Doyle, I chose parts 2 and 3 of the trilogy, "The Van" and "The Snapper" as YouTube streams. Both are by Stephen Frears, the first part, "The Commitments" is by Alan-Parker. So much for the scientific part. The Snapper is set in fictional Barrytown. This is in the north of Dublin (see also description of The Van). And of life in Barrytown. The Irish there seem to talk more than we "normal" Europeans. They argue just for the sake of arguing (like David when we have breakfast - of course he's never right). Irish are performers. You can see that in our bar. They stage conversations. For whom? For example, the third guest at the bar. This is what The Snapper is about. The people in the film live in narrow houses on a narrow street in a narrow quarter of Dublin. Right at the beginning Sharon Curley (Tina Kellegher), the eldest of eight siblings, discovers that she is pregnant. She tells her parents Dessie (Colm Meaney) and Kay (Ruth McCabe). They talk a lot, but hold to the daughter full of love. That's the way it should be! Dessie reacts like this: 1. stare unbelievingly. 2. roar. 3. philosophize. In the pub. In Barrytown nobody needs a telephone. The gossip spreads much faster without. Soon everybody knows. But a secret remains and that concerns the father of the child... Anyway, all phases of the gossip are discussed. Sharon meets her friends in the pub, where they smoke and giggle and gossip. About men. In another corner Dessie gives out outrageous warnings about the child father. And who is he talking to? (...) That's how The Snapper works; full of warmth and light irony. One of those movies where you feel at home! Just like a pub in Dublin. It's about (Irish) life itself, gossip and gossip and a lot of understanding. And forgiveness. All characters understand human nature itself. Did you notice that Dessie treats his daughter Sharon like a good buddy? He never looks down on her. His house may seem chaotic, but Dessie and his wife are real parents! There's no privacy in the narrow house. That's why they live everything out in public. The family shares everything. All characters have their weaknesses. But only one "ejit" = Irish for idiot brags about it in the pub. And all weaknesses are forgiven. The Snapper is no comedy like others. It's not just about laughs. It's about acceptance. It's about the human in itself.

FREE ON YOUTUBE Stephen Frears - The Van (Roddy Doyle)

FREE ON YOUTUBE  I once asked my colleague David from Dublin, who works at our video store, where Barrytown is actually located. He explained it to me. Barrytown is a fictional suburb in northern Dublin, invented by author Roddy Doyle for his novel trilogy "The Commitments", "The Snapper" and "The Van". All three were filmed. The third part, The Van, is about two good friends. But their friendship is put to the test to sell fish and chips with an old and dirty truck. This truck has no engine and is covered with rancid fat. "It's like the inside of a leper'' - and yet it embodies all the hopes of the friends. Their names are Larry (Colm Meaney - appears in all Doyle adaptations) and Bimbo (Donal O'Kelly). He has a face that looks very friendly even when angry. At the beginning he is unemployed and drinks a Guinness. That's the best thing about these Doyle adaptations: On the side you can see life in Dublin. It's also a reason to watch movies! And how does Larry's life work? "Who paid for that dinner in front of you, son?" "The state.'' Everything takes place in 1990, a year not only remembered by David from the video store. Because in the summer of 1990 Ireland defeated England during the World Cup. Larry also follows this in the pub and howls into his beer. And the business? It goes like this: a customer gets a fried diaper instead of cod. The Van is just as aimless - and that fits in perfectly with the aimlessness of life itself.