FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Quentin Tarantino - Death Proof 

In our B-Ware shop cinema Grindhouse was a big thing (this was the small cinema in Corinth Street, just around the corner from Wild Renate etc). Midnight Movies, which only have their effect after midnight, no matter how much is invested in promotion. Back in the 70s, people liked to combine midnight movies to nice shabby cinema nights and that's exactly what Quentin Tarantino and his friend Robert-Rodriguez tried to do with their Grindhouse double: "Death Proof" and "Planet Terror". Here, everything that used to be sold cheaply is simply re-enacted: Simple characters, action, cheap special effects and even scratches on the film material. In short; we are in the middle of the 00s, the peak of the retro movement! However, I must admit that even in my long cinema career I have seen such a Grindhouse double. Not in the Schöneberger Xenon, not in the Charlottenburger Schlüter and also not in the Weddinger Alhambra (who still knows his way around the half-forgotten West Berlin cinema landscape of the 80s). This is mainly because Tarantino's will was probably not strong enough to produce a real bad film. Everywhere you can see postmodern references and here & there even art. Anyone who went into an original double feature - and by that I mean young men - did so in the hope of seeing some breasts or at least some greasy passages. Stupid that the internet is full of them. Today you don't have to sneak into the cinema any more. Once we even invited the original Lloyd Kaufman to Berlin to show "Toxic Avenger" in his presence. A not very well attended screening, about the same year that Death Proof came to the cinema. Why is that? Because the not so young men who love such films are in fact cineasts who pretend to be immature bullies. Like Quentin Tarantino. And there are not very many of them. The heart of Death Proof is a long highway massacre between a car full of sexy girls and stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell). In between Tarantino offers long, long dialogue passages. A film in two speeds: Break and fast lane. Fortunately, our B-Ware cinema was rarely cleaned and you were even allowed to smoke in it.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE THE BEST MOVIES IN OUR VIDEO STORE PT.9 Yasujiro Ozu - Tokyo Story (engl. subt.) 

No story could be easier: The grandparents travel to the city to visit their children and grandchildren. But they are busy, which upsets the old people. Quietly, without anyone admitting it, the visit misses its purpose of togetherness. After the return the grandmother dies and now it is up to the children to undertake a journey. Ozu has made one of the greatest films of all time from these elements; a story that lasts a long time and arouses deep emotions. Tokyo Story ignores the moments that other films would have sought: The big cinema scenes. He doesn't want to reinforce our feelings, he wants to excite understanding. Tokyo Story achieves this to such an extent that I had to cry during almost the entire final and was sure: Yes, this film gives me insight. May I overcome some of my mistakes! The characters are universal, almost like looking into a mirror. Ozu's drama represents our nature. It's not like we're alienated from our families. We hide ourselves from them so as not to face the questions of life about love, work and death. But a 60-year-old Japanese film is able to uncover this escape in empty phrases! Ozu proves to be not only a great director, but also a successful teacher, because his film becomes our friend. Tokyo Story begins with bittersweet (Western) music, which is never used for the purpose of capturing emotions. Ozu loves clouds, smoke and empty streets like no other director he awakens APPROVAL with every setting. His camera almost always moves at eye level with the protagonists and is almost never moved. Each setting looks like its own composition, you almost want to frame it as an image. Ozu loves silence, movement is only ever produced by the figures. The grandfather smiles a lot when he listens - after all, he answers "Yes". But in his view we see that what he says does not correspond to what he means. Rather, we feel how he protects himself from revealing his true feelings. "Yes" expresses regret about it. Sometimes Ozu discovers details in the picture like this beautiful teapot. It's almost as if the camera found her and now presents her. When the family members sit together, we usually see several in the picture. Feelings are encoded in their conversations, even exaggerated statements are only there for the purpose of concealment. During the funeral of the grandmother, the family gathers and again we see them in front of us - in a row. But this time her tears are real. Chishu Ryu as grandfather decides the film: "Living alone will be very difficult for him, the days will be very long. 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE THE BEST MOVIES IN OUR VIDEO STORE! Mike Nichols - Whos Afraid Of Virginia Woolf 

For over 50 years Edward Albee was considered the most successful playwright in America with his play "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The drama was conceived as a counterpart to Eugene O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh" - a kind of answer to the famous post-war drama. When Mike Nichols filmed the play with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Taylor herself was too young for her role. But still damn good! And Burton touched a level of self-loathing that is as personal and raw as acting can be! They both embody George and Martha, an academic couple caught up in childish fantasies and extreme aggression. Drenched in litres of alcohol. They argue fiercely, but above all it is about letting go of illusions and dealing with the truth. "Truth or illusion, George"; asks Martha. But George knows the difference, just like Martha herself. You have simply forgotten it and need to remember it again. A heavy burden, because it means letting go of the imaginary son they both imagined. Like any male human being, I am fascinated by Elizabeth Taylor. So much so that I spent a few nights in our bar to watch her most famous films with the beamer. Back when Taylor died, an era came to an end. Which great star can you say that about? But her work, her beauty, her private life and her health problems attracted so much attention that Taylor is THE Hollywood star par excellence. Since 1944 Taylor has been a star. She won the Oscar for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and has been nominated many times. The British awarded her the title of "Lady" and she was the very first woman to receive a million dollars in fees (the sums she collected for charity far exceeded her profits as a film star). Taylor was also married eight times. Twice to Richard Burton. They became the most famous and notorious couple in the world. Both legendary, both passionate, both famous for drinking in excess. The couple showered each other with gifts, which helped define the term "jet set". The joint work on Virginia Woolf was commonly regarded as a reflection of their marital reality. Shot in crass black and white, we don't see Taylor's purple eyes here, but we do feel all the more her fiery spirit, which makes Virginia Woolf the highlight of Taylor's career! Take the test and see Virginia Woolf in the cinema or with a good beamer. Afterwards you'll know why Taylor created a special category of Stahr fame for herself. 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Billy Wilder - Love In The Afternoon 

Someone once wrote that Audrey Hepburn was the last silent movie star because her eyes made it almost unnecessary for her to speak. But Hepburn was much more than that! Even when we started our video store in the early 00s, she was THE role model for style! Women cut their hair the way Hepburn did or decided after "Breakfast At Tiffany's" that one could move to New York after all. My colleague Marie looked like a Hepburn double. When you see her on the screen, the first thing you notice is her physical presence. Her long, distinguished neck, those big eyes and those lips that smiled so much. But Hepburn was a great actress first. She appeared in so many different roles that it seems impossible to reduce her to one type. Often she was cast together with older men. With protectors. Gary Cooper is such a protector. Before that it was Humphrey-Bogart or Fred-Astaire. Gary Cooper and Audrey Hepburn together in a Billy Wilder film, which was also directed in Paris. What more does it take? Hepburn plays Ariane, a beautiful young girl. Cooper's character is so much older that one might call it dramatic. Ariane lives in Paris with her father Claude (Maurice Chevalier), who works as a detective. In her father's office, she hears about the American Frank Flannagan (Cooper), a romantic lover who has liaisons with married women in French. That's why one of the cuckolded husbands wants to kill him and that's exactly what Ariane Flannagan wants to warn him about. So she sneaks to his hotel room. But of course Ariane Flannagan's charm also succumbs... Ariane is innocent and Flannagan is cunning. He regards women as toys. Or is Ariane not as defenceless as she seems? Hepburn gives her Ariane an innocent glow. Such a shine that only classical Hollywood cinema could produce.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE THE BEST MOVIES IN OUR VIDEO STORE Dennis Hopper - The Hot Spot 

He comes from outside - is new in town. A man who seems to have no past; at least none that he wants to talk about. They all look like in a typical small town of the 50s... I feel at home in films like The Hot Spot. They come from the universe of B-movies, which are the heart of classic Film Noir. They are films about the dark side of the human conscience. The Hot Spot knows the rules and conventions of Film Noir. And observes them all! 1 The laconic hero always smokes. He tries to repress his past. 2. the character of the woman is carefully put together from the construction kit of old Film Noirs. 3. it is not only the villains who commit crimes. Even the hero is not immune to them. Dennis Hopper began his career when the classic Film Noir still existed and obviously he knows his role models. In any case, he has cleverly traced the story of a fairly normal guy who stumbles into unusual situations. And his film even looks like a little surreal work of art! Don Johnson plays the anti-hero, Jennifer Connelly the good girl. The innocent secretary downstairs from the accounts department, who has been alienated by the unfeeling world outside. The plot that is designed around it is silly. That's how it should be! Paradoxically, such simple films are especially appreciated by cultured geeks. "Normal" customers of our video store would be bothered by the many stereotypes and clichés, instead of being happy that Dennis Hopper hasn't forgotten any of them either. Appreciating The Hot Spot as a superior work of long handed-down tradition is therefore reserved for a small select group. Only they realise that everything here is deliberately so mannered and artificial. As if you enjoy variations on the piano. 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE THE BEST MOVIES IN OUR VIDEO STORE Alejandro Amenabar - Open Your Eyes (engl. subt.) 

This is the story of a young man who has everything: He's rich and beautiful and charming, and he has the attention of a beautiful woman. What's more, I think she falls in love with him immediately. And this woman is as beautiful as Penelope Cruz! But then he loses everything. Perhaps because, contrary to all expectations, he does have a conscience? Or simply because life is so shitty? You see, Open Your Eyes is a ruthless moral film. The beauty of it is that when you see Open Your Eyes for the first time, it offers very good entertainment. A mystery thriller, a love story... If you watch it again, you'll want to analyze the film. You think you know what happens. Then you realize you've been completely wrong. Director Alejandro Amenábar leaves us in the dark and demands a lot from us. He belongs to the generation of filmmakers during the 90s who are not satisfied with telling a story in a linear way. You are supposed to look at the events from different perspectives and for that the plot is broken up. And which perspective is the "right" one? Well... If it's any consolation, the hero in the film reacts as stunned as you do. And it's not as if he suffers from memory loss as other characters in similar films. He has no memory at all. His name is Cesar (Eduardo Noriega) and he inherited a fortune after his parents died. His apartment looks like a tour of the furniture store Exil at our place in Köpenicker Strasse. Cesar is what is called a "player". He has so-called "Friends With Benefits" or also "Sex Girlfriends". At a party he meets then YOU: Sofia (Penélope Cruz). They don't sleep together, but it looks like they understand each other blindly. The opposite of a "sex friend". It is love that comes from really SEEING the other. Then a twist. A surprise. Then a twist and another twist and another and another... Is it at all still about the life and love of Cesar? No. Open Your Eyes is now about something completely different. This completely different one is explained - but with the reservation that it may cause more confusion. Watch the beginning. "Open Your Eyes" says the voice of Sofia. Only she has not yet met Cesar at this point. Let alone heard her voice. But even this mystery can be solved, because there is a character in the film who connects all narrative strands...

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE THE BEST MOVIES IN OUR VIDEO STORE PT5 Luchino Visconti - Rocco And His Brothers (engl. subt.) 

Whoever deals with Visconti is allowed to work through all these contradictions: He was an aristocrat and a Marxist, and a gay artist. He began his career in Neorealism, but I think that Visconti's imagination was too big to remain true to this style. If we were typical Visconti geeks from our video store, we would argue about how neo-realistic Rocco And His Brothers is? Anyway, Rocco And His Brothers is also a sophisticated style exercise! Rocco (Alain Delon) himself is deeply idealistic. This sets in motion a chain of events that one knows only from Italian opera. Or from American Mafia gangster movies. But iin Rocco And His Brothers all this seems very realistic. The epic is about recent Italian history. It could also play today and reflect recent European history, but that's another subject. On a cold winter night Rosaria (Katina Paxinou) arrives at the train station in Milan with her five sons, including Simone (Renato Salvatori) and Rocco. Everyone notices immediately; this family comes from the poor south of Italy. Reason for the journey: The oldest son Vincenzo (Spiros Focas) has already settled in Milan. He will marry the beautiful Ginetta (Claudia Cardinale). But the time has been chosen unfavourably. Rosaria assumes that they will be welcome in Vincenco's new house. Ginetta's mother and Rosario, however, feel nothing but dislike for each other. The result is a catastrophe and Vincenco's engagement is even broken off. Enraged, Rosario leaves the inhospitable house and orders her sons to do the same. Not here - with Vincenco's new family - they will live, but in a shabby cellar apartment. Then it snows and Rosario throws her sons out of their beds. Finally earn money! Shoveling snow. They are advised to rent some apartment just to be fired from it. Then they'd accept them in one of the cheap council flats. They are not available to the homeless. A social scam that sounds pretty neo-realistic, right? But the sons find their way. Then Nadia, played by Annie Girardot, enters their lives. She's young and sexy and very honest. Nadia appeals to both Simone, the boxer, and Rocco. But Rocco hides his feelings. Nadia loves Rocco and despises the brutal Simone. She, the spoiled one (so Rosario) would like to be good like Rocco, not bad like Simone. Simone, unhappy with Nadia, drinks and smokes and finally loses Nadia as well as his career as a boxer. And Nadia begins a secret relationship with Rocco. But Rocco demands the impossible from Nadia. She has to go back to his broken brother because he has nothing else in life. But the romance between Nadia and Rocco is to resume. Discovered by Simone, who is beside himself with rage at Nadia. It is one of the most horrible scenes in film history. It made me cry. It becomes clear what has become of Simone: a beast. Cowardly, shameless and ruthless. Nadia, on the other hand, seems like a heroine. The comparison may have been overstretched, but it fits: like an opera heroine. Despite the shameful events, Rosario still dreams of living with all her sons under one roof. Even though everything escapes her. Vincenzo does marry Ginetta (it can only be an accident, Rosario says) and Rocco now lives with the young couple. While Simone moves in with Nadia. Rosario is now supposed to accommodate Nadia, while Simone moves around outside and gets drunk. And Rocco? Of all people, he makes a career in boxing, a sport he despises, to feed his family. But Nadia suffers the most painful case. Once an expensive prostitute, she humiliates herself and her husband Simone in revenge. Probably also out of grief at being rejected by Rocco. Is there any hope? There is! The youngest son Luca dreams of returning to the land of olives and sunshine. This land has become a romantic memory in the harsh and bleak north. Only in the south can the family reunite happily. In the land of lemons.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE THE BEST MOVIES IN OUR VIDEO STORE PT.4 Victor Erice - The Spirit Of The Beehive (engl. subt.) 

Somewhere in the wilderness, somewhere in the hinterland of Spain. The fields have been harvested, everything seems to be deserted. Away from the rest of the world, there stands a dilapidated house without windows or doors. A family lives there. The two girls Ana and Isabel, and their parents Fernando and Teresa. Fernando is a beekeeper. A scientist and poet. Teresa is a lonely woman who writes letters of longing to imaginary men. Sometimes Fernando and Isabel talk, but their conversations seem empty. An exciting day begins in the nearby village. The cinema arrives! A truck brings the equipment, the children rejoice. "Frankenstein" is shown. We see the scene in which the creature approaches the girl at the river. Then a cut, probably due to the censorship. What we do not see: The monster submerging the girl. But the following sequence in which the monster apparently throws the girl into the water with great pleasure, so that she swims. This makes a big impression on Ana and Isabel. This misunderstanding is supposed to determine the events around the two daughters in Victor Ercie's Spirit Of The Beehive, probably the greatest of all Spanish films! The film premiered in the cinema in 1973. It is set in no specific time, but you can see that it must have been right after the civil war. Shortly after General Franco came to power. Although Ana and Isabel are almost the same age, Ana needs her sister to explain the secrets of the world to her. What was it like in the Frankenstein movie? All fake, explains Isabel. And the wounded soldier there in the barn? Isabel explains to Ana that he is still alive. A ghost. And so Ana starts to bring the wounded man food and water and the father's coat. Of course we have to consider the film as an encrypted code. As a parable about Franco's Spain. But I didn't stop myself from putting together all the pieces of the puzzle about Franco's fascist regime. The Spirit Of The Beehive is a poetic film about how children think and feel. How they throw themselves into disaster, but also how they save themselves from the consequences. The family home seems to be empty. We hear the echo of the steps in the rooms. The girls are often alone. So are the parents in separate rooms. Many of the father's poems are about the mindless bustling activity of the bees. A reflection of the Franco era? But much more interesting is the surface of the film. Ana's efforts to "capture the spirit" could also be dangerous for her and her family... The Spirit Of The Beehive was one of only three masterpieces Erice directed. A film that stands all alone without its peers. A simple and serious, even solemn work. One of the most beautiful films of all time! 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE THE BEST MOVIES IN OUR VIDEO STORE Alejandro Jodorowsky - Endles Poetry (engl. subt.) 

Endless Poetry, the second part of the autobiographical fantasy of the 88-year-old Chilean surrealist Alejandro Jodorowsky, has not become the work of an old man. On the contrary, Endless Poetry works like the passion of a young man with the egoism of one! Each character in it may be considered a reflection or abstraction of the anarchic memories of the main character. They all just adorn or enrich these memories! Everything leads back to Jodorowsky, this radical anti-capitalist, the anti-church, the anti-state, the anti-family man (although he does use his two sons). And so Endless Poetry seems like an old man's film again, because it allows us to look at ourselves - but through Jodorowsky's life. The young Alejandro (Jeremias Herskovits, and later Alejandro's son Adan Jodorowsky) must assert himself. He wants to become a poet, but his hard-hearted father has other plans. Tell Alejandro to go to medical school. That's why there's a break after a celebration. That's all that happens. Loosely linked, he meets a series of bizarre figures that inspire the future poet. Then, in a madly overdrawn artist flat-sharing community, he learns to make dolls. Meanwhile, props cower in the corners, like demons, stage helpers, which in turn are used in the film. All right? We may go on a journey in which even Jodorowsky himself appears as a kind of charlatan (or therapist) with raised finger like in Montana_Sacra. Endless Poetry works like a sequel to his last film, the great comeback The Dance Of Reality. Whereby: Endless Poetry is the more accessible film! That's because he's picking out a certain point in his life where it's about learning from his own mistakes. In some places, however, Endless Poetry returns to the style of The Dance Of Reality, almost like a Jodorowsky sitcom. Further in the text; for Alejandro has to emancipate himself from his father Jaime (Brontis Jodorowsky - son number two). Jodorowsky then was not one to passively submit to mysticism. He was an active seeker of everything that makes GRANDIOS life! He escapes his home, joins an artist collective. He knows for sure; he is like them! For Jodorowsky, the decision to become a poet was a rebellious act. He meets new friends and lovers, Enrique Lihn (Leandro Taub), and Stella (Pamela Flores), who inspire him. But in the end everything was created by men. From a man. Himself. Endless Poetry is a tribute to Jodorowsky himself.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE THE BEST MOVIES IN OUR DVD STORE PT.2 Shane Meadows - This Is England 

When we see Shaun, we first see an urgent will: Shaun needs a father, new clothes like the other children, he wants to be bigger and stronger - just belong somewhere. Shaun lives in the shabby Yorkshire area and his father died in the Falkland War (it seems Shaun sees this as a punishment). Thatcher, Falkland, the music of Toots & The Maytals: Shane Meadows' 1983 film is set in the shabbiest part of Yorkshire. At the sight of Doc Martens, whom Shaun so desperately wants, the mother slaps her hands in front of her face. She shows him others who fit better for a boy his age. Her argument: "These are from London! Shaun is beaten up daily and that only changes after he finds his place in a group of skinheads. The leader Woody is friendly, Shaun even gets a new hairstyle from Woody's girlfriend: Bald. The mother is horrified, Woody and the gang ask if her son isn't much too young? Surprisingly, she leaves Shaun to Woody's care (you could guess many reasons, but in the end this remains questionable). Meadows This Is England enters at a certain point in the British skinhead movement. In the beginning the group is not racist (also a black man, Milky, is involved). Shaun kisses a girl for the first time and finds a replacement family. This changes when Woody's old friend Combo returns from prison. He preaches violence, racism and hatred. For these reasons Woody breaks with Combo, but Shaun follows the wrong man because he finds his strength more impressive than Woody's friendship. This Is England was set in Yorkshire over 25 years ago, but could work just as well in Germany today. The development story, even self-discovery, is told tightly and with relentless tension. The film explains why skinheads are skinheads and how they became skinheads. Shaun ultimately chooses to stay on his own rather than be robbed of his right to be alone by the group.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE The Best Movies In Our Video Store! Jacques Audiard - The Beat That My Heart Skipped 

Today our series begins with the best films I have discovered so far in our video store and which are being rented by you. Our first big year was 2005, and you can imagine that there were long queues at two counters. At that time, netflix still sent DVDs by mail and we ran a small store in Friedrichshain. When I saw Jacques Audiard's The Beat That My Heart Skipped for the first time, I was speechless with enthusiasm! Everyone should see it too; I recommended this modern Film Noir! At the heart of the film; a character study: Thomas is a modern real estate agent. We see him with a sack full of rats. He exposes them in the building he wants to buy cheaply. With the hacking, he kicks in a window. He learned the business from his father Robert, a fat drunkard who has a passive aggressive influence on Thomas. His mother, who exerted a better influence than concert pianist, is dead. Once upon a time Thomas played the piano seriously. Before he exposed rats. Then he meets his mother's former impresario by chance. He recognizes Thomas, tells him that he used to be good. He suggests that Thomas should play for him. Thomas is touched and torn apart inside. He works in a hateful job and despises himself for it. But Thomas hesitates to disappoint his father. He loves classical music. But it is questionable whether he will ever regain the talent he once had. Thomas, played by Romain Duris, despises himself - which we can see in his nervous energy. He is frustrated and this anger can come through at any time while practicing the piano. He hires Miao-Lin (Linh-Dan Pham), a Chinese pianist who does not speak a word of French. They can only communicate through music. Like his father, she forces him to play certain passages over and over again. Somehow Thomas' life depends on such authority figures. At some point, Thomas is ready. But is it enough for a professional audition? And what about his teacher? Are there feelings between them or is that more of a mystery? Thomas is having an affair with his best friend's wife. And he calls the new young girlfriend of his father Chris (Emmanuelle Devos) a whore. Robert proudly shows her off to him to prove that he can still do it with women! What influence does he actually have on Thomas? Why does his son do the dirty work? Finally Robert falls for a deal. His "business partner", a Russian named Minskov (Anton Yakovlev), cheats on Robert. Thomas advises him to write off the loss. But Robert sets up some tests for his son... But most of all, it's probably because Thomas can't play sublime classical music, because he's constantly roaming the seedy shoals of life. Jacques Audiard, not only for me the greatest French director in ages, shows this in a Film Noir, just as we all wanted it to be! The story of a man who desperately reaches for his dying ideals. You're lucky that we're not writing 2005 anymore, because at that time The Beat That My Heart Skipped was awarded almost continuously. Now it goes...

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Fassbinder - The Third Generation (engl. subt.) 

Is Fassbinder's work actually outdated? A nice question to get the nerds in our video store to have an excited conversation. I mean: In an age of lame Coming Of Age dramas and mainstream movies, Fassbinder always chose bold projects with universal themes. He defiantly filmed them against the mainstream! What does Fassbinder's world look like? Today, in the Corona world, it's easy to imagine: The Fassbinder figures are separated by invisible walls (like the transparent plastic tarpaulins that now hang in our bar). You can see and hear each other, but never connect. Just like Fassbinder's figures. They are guided by fate. They are trapped in space. The camera isolates them. They follow unwritten laws and we sense that they are forever doomed to tread on the spot. If they try to free themselves, they do so with anger and bitterness. For this experiment Fassbinder always cast the same actors. That's why he also shot The Third Generation as a comedy. A comedy with terrorists, easily recognizable as RAF terrorists. If they did not exist, the state would have to invent them. How else could he follow the totalitarian with full delight? Fassbinder's theory. Dominik-Graf has described it aptly: "Germany, land of criminals. The worst ones are always right at the top of the corporate executive floors. "So we dive into the West Berlin of the late 70s. The Gedächtnis Kirche stands out of the Ku'damm. In the spirit of the Nouvelle Vague, the names of the actors appear. At that time, cinematic art understood itself as socially overturning. If FILM is not able to do this, then it is of little use. That's what people thought. Fassbinder obviously does not share this approach. He tells the story of a company that sells too few computers. That's why a terror cell is needed to finally increase sales with comprehensive surveillance. The terrorists - the third generation - are citizen children with high school diplomas. They only disguised themselves as anarchists, but in reality they have completely different problems. Like Ilse (Y Sa Lo from Grips Theater), who wants to overcome her heroin addiction through sex. They read Hegel or Schopenhauer - but don't know what they are living for. That's why there has to be another war! This is how Fassbinder's B-movie works, which was definitely a lot of fun for everyone involved. And it carries over to us today. Outdated? Not by any stretch of the imagination! 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Peter Yates - John And Mary 

John And Mary is supposed to be something of a "contemporary" film. A film about a certain generation, a kind of "Generation X" of the 60s. That's why both John and Mary talk the way you might have talked back then. Really? Do "real" people really speak like John and Mary? I didn't feel like I saw two individuals. Neither John and Mary ever speak of anything characteristic. An example: The movie starts in a singles bar. Evil tongues would now claim to be a place like the film art bar Fitzcarraldo, where you drink beer and try to tow someone away. Mia Farrow's Mary is having something like an interesting conversation, interrupted by Dustin Hofmans John. That's how they get to know each other! This is a film talk and John can seriously claim: "I saw that movie at the film festival. I think it's about the materialistic basis of our society..." Uuuh! Obviously they discuss "Godards Weekend", although this is never explicit. But why don't these hip guys even mention the name of the movie? From my observations at the Filmkunstbar Fitzcarraldo this would be the first thing to happen! So it's not a special movie, just one with a long traffic jam. That's the way it goes all over the movie. Of course John and Mary talk a lot, but never mention anything concrete. A comedy about "real" people, but John and Mary embody NOBODY. That's why John's taking Mary to the bar after her discussion. He sleeps with her and neither of them even know the name of the other. The next morning we think about how living together could work... Mary seems to be quite normal, while John is one of those guys who only take girls they don't find "too great". Mary finds out, fakes something and then again John tries to fake something. All right? He follows them, doesn't know their name, but knows their neighborhood. Finally he finds her apartment and confesses: "I was looking for you". What about her? "I know." I don't understand this! Couldn't Mary have saved him the long search? John And Mary was Peter Yate's third movie (after two great action movies!). This single comedy is about "subjects". But my impression is that these "subjects" are playing us something all the time.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Julia Roberts - Mystic Pizza 

This is how you feel in the summer after the last school year: breathless. Childhood is officially over, adult life still a mystery. You love and rave like a teenager - with tremendous intensity. But the person you love should not only be perfect, but also good. Love has a lot to do with idealism in this first summer after school. Mystic Pizza takes place in Connecticut, in a place called Mystic. Many people there have their roots in Portugal. Like the three girls (two of them are sisters, the third is the best friend) who work in the pizzeria "Mystic Pizza", which is famous for its special sauce. It all starts when one of the girls leaves her fiancé at the altar. Her name is JoJo Barboza (Lili Taylor) and she is obviously not yet ready for marriage. The reason: Jojo wants sex, but her boyfriend wants to wait until the marriage is consummated. Marry just to get him into bed? Anyway, Jojo knows exactly what her life should look like. She doesn't want to go to college but wants to take over the pizzeria and learn the secret sauce recipe (an old family recipe). The two sisters are named Daisy and Kat Araujo (Julia Roberts and Annabeth Gish). They are drinking a beer in the pub when Daisy sees HIM: Mr. Right. At darts he lands three bull's-eyes in the middle of the disc. Before each throw he drinks a tequila. Should that be an ideal qualification for life? Daisy finds YES and falls in love. We are learning that Daisy falls in love more often than not. But this time Mr. Right is from a rich family, studies law and is called Charles Gordon Winsor (Adam Storke). However, he was expelled from the faculty for cheating and so he now has all the time in the world to play darts. Kat, who is much more down to earth than Daisy, works as a babysitter for an architect. He studied at Yale, she wants to study there in autumn. His name is Tim and his wife is in Eastern Europe. Kat, with the power of idealistic love, throws herself into... Well, what's next? Anyway, she projects herself into Tim's life trying not to think about the absent woman. All of which Mystic Pizza watches with ease. The movie doesn't really go into the big upheavals. Fortunately! And the film even takes a very subtle ethical standpoint: Because Daisy is not stupid. Charles Gordon takes her home to one of her parents' dinners. There, in front of the "better" society, the poor Portuguese girl becomes the victim of a racist joke. Charles Gordon flips out, pulls down the tablecloth with all the food to defend Daisy. But Daisy knows people better than him. She accuses him of orchestrating this embarrassing situation solely for his ego. She tells Charles Gordon he's not good enough for her. Isn't that great? That's how the whole comedy works. So many clichés about three girls and their first summer of high school. Mystic Pizza doesn't use any of them! This is a movie that is really about women and it offers future movie stars like Julia Roberts. Look at how much energy her Daisy has! Who would doubt that Roberts is going to be big soon? Two years later, "Pretty Woman" came out...

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Der Baader Meinhoff Komplex 

When our video library was founded, the Baader-Meinhof organization, the RAF, was an important topic. Today, 20 years later, the older people among us are more interested, aren't they? After all, we have to take ourselves back to the 70s when the Federal Republic was kept in terror by a wave of terror. Explosive attacks, bank robbery, kidnapping, these are the means to counter U.S. imperialism and German capitalist oppression. And how did the RAF want its policies understood? Marxist. In truth, it was merely an expression of the archaic theory that acts of violence could destroy the backbone of a society. Here now comes the ambitious attempt to show the rise and fall of the RAF. This is presented in historical detail. Perhaps even too precisely. So many names and dates! Is this possibly a film, free from 65? Some figures are treated very precisely, others only superficially. The "heroes" are Andreas Baader (Moritz Bleibtreu), Gudrun Ensslin (Johanna Wokalek) and Ulrike Meinhof (Martina Gedeck). Baader and Ensslin are lovers, radicalized by Vietnam and German industrialism. Their conclusion: violence as the only possible way out. Meinhof, on the other hand, remains the most enigmatic figure in the film. A well-known journalist whose convictions one might share. At first she acts only as a consultant, then she leaves her family to join in. But the film can never explain this decision to us. We fail to make it. The script was written by director Uli Edel and producer Bernd Eichinger. Unfortunately, both are responsible for diluting the action with too many facts, characters and events. Sometimes you think you are swimming editorials in a mirror. Only Horst Herold (Bruno Ganz) serves as the connecting figure: a law enforcement officer trying to understand the thinking behind the RAF. In the end he understands it, even if he disagrees with it. Of course, it also helps enormously that Ganz can give his figure the necessary authenticity. Sometimes I had the suspicion that the film sympathizes with the RAF - even though their enterprise seems as murderous as it is hopeless. Isn't it bordering on insanity to condemn an ordinary citizen as guilty of the activities of his government? We are all partly guilty. We are all the system. But if you set off a bomb, you are simply executing a random passer-by. This defines the evil of terrorism in general. Although it is defended in the theory of anarchism, this kind of justification seems crazy. You have to be extremely convinced of yourself to shed blood for a theory.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Fernando Meirelles - Domesticas (engl. subt.) 

I was recommended Domesticas by a customer of our video store. He said he was having a great time and a little more. He was deeply moved! Domesticas is the debut of Fernando Meirelles (yes, the one who did "City Of God" afterwards). The film is an experimental documentary about maidservants in Brazil. Domesticas. An area of starvation wages and exploitation - and domesticas now brings a human dimension to this area. When the domesticas themselves give information about their lives, the jovial always shifts to the tragic. That must be what our customer meant by "splendidly amused", but also "deeply moved"! We experience the portrait of seven domesticas and their families. One works for a Jewish family. At first she hates their food. But she has to prepare it! Then the relationship between the children of rich parents and their "nanny" is examined. The child loves the "nanny" and she loves the child. More than the mother? The maid as part of the family, but also separated from her (Imagine, friends come to visit...). Sometimes we experience the Domesticas also in unobserved moments. At least you get the impression; they felt unobserved. When they dance alone or cry in front of the television while playing football. The film asks more questions than it can answer. Is it a coincidence that a teenager sings "Blowin In The Wind", the song of social reforms, at the end? Domesticas, in any case, offers much more than just a portrait of a maid. It goes back to the roots of society and goes as far as colonial times...

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Lina Wertmüller - Love & Anarchy 

The feminists never liked her: Lina Wertmüller, whose film Love And Anarchy mutated into a hate object at the time. That's what my father explained to me. Performance Tunin (Giancarlo Giannini), a farmer and anarchist full of ideals. He plans an assassination attempt on Mussolini. At his side the loudmouthed whore Salome (Mariangela Melato, whose headquarters is a lewd brothel in Rome. The harem of prostitutes got director Wertmüller into trouble at the time, as she approaches them in a mixture of slapstick and voyeurism. She was accused of presenting women as sex objects. In a 1973 interview, Wertmüller dismissed this as silly and described herself as a feminist. And indeed, Wertmueller's whores are always one step ahead of all the others in the film. Do they know more? Isn't Tripolina (Lina Polito) the true heroine of the film? Above all, Love And Anarchy is about the inability of man to change anything in his world. Love And Anarchy sounds absurd and hilarious, but it masks all the frustration about human nature itself. And doesn't Tunin's brutality prove all the hopelessness of the lower class? Giannini plays him like a silent movie character with a wiggly walk and staring, uncomprehending eyes. A sad clown, noble and just as silly. Melato, with her booming voice, provides a successful contrast. Take the test and invite a few people to the video evening. Will feminists still feel offended today? Or perhaps even more so? When we once performed Wertmüller in our open air cinema, there were strong reactions.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Roland Klick - White Star 

It was our colleague Thomas Groh who watched a Roland Klick exhibition here in Berlin in the presence of the original Roland Klick! And he asked for absolute silence during the screening, and also personally helped a naughty cinema guest. That was in the 00s. But White Star from 1983 can already be considered the farewell of this great German director. It is the darkest film from the darkest hour of Dennis Hopper's life. Klick, which had been marginalized in German auteur cinema of the 70s, is probably almost unknown in the USA as well. So how did this collaboration come about? After all, because of his raw aesthetics, Klick could also be considered an attack on the system of German film funding. It is possible that Klick and Hopper were two outsiders who were both on the verge of losing their careers. White Star is Klick's worst film. It seems unfinished. But I love White Star all the more for that very reason! It tells the story of the synthie popper Moody (Terrance Robay), who is managed by the fraudulent sinister Kenneth Barlow (Hopper). If you wonder why large parts of the story are carried by radio presenters and not by the main character Barlow alias Dennis Hopper, the following explanation is owed (which Thomas Groh taught me): Hopper was unpredictable and consistently on coke. Seen in this light, Hopper is responsible for Klick's early retirement after White Star. But in the distance, it is Hopper's condition on the brink that makes his game all the more fascinating. In later works he plays the madman. Here he IS. Hopper acts like an undertow that destroys the entire film. And when has anyone ever seen anything comparable? 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Terrence Malick - The Tree Of Life 

To make sure nobody gets depressed during the second lockdown there will be a daily free youtube stream on our webpage cinegeek.de, which we maintain especially for our video store and our customers.

Terrence Malick's The Tree Of Life is a film of tremendous ambition and deep humanity. Nothing less than the image of all existence through the primacy of a manageable number of human lives: the O'Brien family. There is only one film I can think of that has a similar claim and that is 2001 - but that one lacks the humanity of Malick's film. Malick is the last survivor of the New Hollywood generation who can still be credited with such a masterpiece over and over again! I can hardly remember the last time a film touched me so much and had so much to do with my own life. It almost seems as if the men in The Tree Of Life are myself. If I had the talent of Malick and had to make an autobiographical film, it would probably look like this. We experience childhood in a small town where life just flows. There's a father preaching discipline and a mother advocating forgiveness. We are on an island of idleness and only in this environment do questions about the meaning of life arise (because it takes time). The three boys of the O'Brien family are tanned by the sun and slightly scratched from playing. The fleeting impressions they get from the adults' secrets disturb them and increase their desire to grow up as fast as possible themselves. I myself grew up in the suburbs of West Berlin, where the mothers looked out of the kitchen window at the children and at about six everyone had to go in for dinner. The doors of the houses were open and we felt protected - I think from the innocence that such an environment radiates. Malick received the congenial support of his production designer Jack Fisk, who created the pictures of this idyllic small town (it must be in the Midwest). Like in his last films Malick manages without an obvious plot. He shows how the summer days follow each other and has his characters monologue to this. In fact, it's not so much the conversations between the characters as the soliloquies that make up The Tree Of Life. We watch everyday life. Inspired probably by Malick's own memories from his hometown in Texas, the events are limited by 1). space and time and 2) spirituality. Malick presents breathtaking images of the creation and expansion of the universe, first life and evolution. He ends up in the here and now - with all of us. Through the Big Bang we were created and today we are - you and me. But what comes after that? At the beginning the words "Nature" and "Grace" are whispered. We experience how nature gives life and takes it away again. One of the O'Brien brothers dies. We might as well watch the time: Young Jack O'Brien (Hunter McCracken) finally becomes a middle-aged man (Sean Penn). And then? I think the film promises an afterlife, an afterlife. In a lonely landscape people greet each other solemnly. I believe that there is harmony and absolute understanding. Sometimes you could read that Mr. O'Brien (Brad Pitt with a short haircut) is a character who is seen too one-sidedly as a kind of bulldog tax. He seems to be interested only in discipline. For me he just does what he thinks is right. Mrs. O'Brien (Jessica Chastain, who seems so ethereal) is more understanding and kind. Sure, we see a family of the 50's and it is not unusual for a child to get hit at the dinner table. At least Mr. O'Brien apologizes to his son Jack: "I was a little hard on you sometimes". He just replies, "It's your house." Jack defends his father against himself. That's how you grow up. In Malick's film, all this seems like a brief flash of life within the eternal realms of space and time. 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Rudolf Thome - Berlin Chamissoplatz 

If film is really nothing more than doing pretty things with pretty women, then Rudolf Thome is a master of his craft. Germany's chief critic Hans-Christoph Blumenberg praised Berlin Chamissoplatz as the first masterpiece of New German Cinema in the 80s. Berlin Chamissoplatz is a film about love and that's why it still looks as fresh today as it did then. A 24-year-old sociology student (Sabine Bach) falls in love with an architect 20 years older (Hanns Zischler). She lives in a shared flat on Chamissoplatz. The rent is not expensive, but that is supposed to change, because now is to be renovated. The student and the architect face each other on different sides, it could just as well play in today's Kreuzberg. She has to defend her love for the one she is fighting against against her student friends again and again. He denies that he is the "enemy" and seeks the conversation - in vain. What intense scenes does Thome offer in this intrinsically banal constellation: while she combs her hair in the bathroom, he sings a song at the piano in the living room. She sits down on the sofa, listens, looks at him. The intensity of her looks, the shyness of him, it is one of those scenes that tingles! We understand the political background as well today as we did then. My uncle, also an architect, told me a lot about what happened with the renovation of the old Kreuzberg building in the late 70s. It would have been best to demolish everything and rebuild it! The students, on the other hand, print flyers on matrices and discuss whether the resistance should use the same means as the aggressor. Thome does not judge, sometimes one thinks that his voice is that of the architect. It is the only moderate opinion in the "class struggle". By the way, you can also see such beautiful Berlin shots as only rarely seen in movies (this is still true now, because there is something going on at every corner in this city!). Thome began his career in Munich with the same American role models as the authors of the Nouvelle Vague. That's why his early films look so dirty - Hollywood made in Germany. They are such films in which chases take place, because the chaser sometimes chases five meters and then again 500 meters after his victim. It was called the "Munich Group". In the 70's Thome moved to Berlin and changed his style. He became a typical European narrator, who taught his realism a very own unreal note (they called him the German "Rohmer"). The most beautiful Thome Dialogues are certainly not from this world! Thome has always staged his actors like stars and he succeeds in that also in Berlin Chamissoplatz! The women are his favorite and you have to call Thome a real women director. Women are superior to men when it comes to pragmatism and decisiveness. He has his regular actresses like Sabine Bach and I think that Thome is actually a bit in love with them. Hanns Zischler became his favorite male "star" in the 80s. You can always see that there is more to it than he shows. Thome is dependent on such reflected actors, because he refuses to psychologize too much. Thome has managed to finish almost 30 movies to date without ever getting much budget. It was always important to him that the films also make their money again and since Thome is more popular abroad than with us, he succeeded. So how about a whole DVD show of Thome's work? After all, he's one of the few people to reflect the lifestyle of their time in films like Berlin Chamissoplatz! Thome demands from a film that you then come out of the cinema and stroll along the street in a lively way. I think he did it!

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE My Name Is Joe 

Joe is his name and he is an alcoholic. He hasn't been drinking for ten months. Joe falls in love with the social worker Sarah. Sarah has seen many guys like Joe. But there is something special about him; something tender. Something that really touches her. Both are wounded and so the romance develops very gently. He invites her for tea and plays classical music. (When Joe was a drinker, he stole tapes which he sold. Only the one with the classical music did not sell). Once Joe (Peter Mullan) listened to the classical cassette himself. It was wonderful! Since then he loves this music! Joe is around 40, very compact, redheaded. He doesn't have a job, but he manages a football team. Joe wears a windbreaker. He is always in a hurry. That he is dry now is very important for him. Right at the beginning he tells his story to the anonymous alcoholics. Joe lives in Glasgow, where drugs and crime are part of everyday life. One of his friends, Liam (David McKay), was in prison for drugs. While he was inside, Liam's wife was dealing. Since then the local drug baron McGowan has been after Liam and threatened to break his legs. Now we know Joe's story and his background. He will have to choose. Will he go the way the anonymous alcoholics show him or will he follow the call of the road? Ken Loach's films are set in the working class. They always speak with a broad accent. That means; you need subtitles, which are available on our DVD. The most beautiful is the romance of two forty-year-olds who no longer have any great illusions, but the thriller parts are also well integrated into the story. Loach manages it all as if it were nothing. You may have gotten the impression that My Name Is Joe is a depressing social study? It's not like that! On the contrary; this is a lively movie with a lot of humor! And if you're tired of all those movies whose end is predictable... Here is an amazing and yet logical ending!

Filmlist Beanpole 

She turns and turns and turns; the woman in the green dress. One hears her giggling, but that is not frolic. It is a compulsive act. How much longer can she deny all her experiences in order to keep some hope?