FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE THE BEST MOVIES IN OUR VIDEO STORE! Francois Truffaut - Une Nuit Americaine 

Normally, movies about movies don't quite show reality. At least I think so. They are either too glamorous or too decadent. But what about the human aspects of film production? "Day for Night" by Truffaut is different. Not only much better than any other film about films, but also very entertaining! Imagine being far away from home with a crew. Strangers become friends. Maybe even intimate friends. And a few weeks later the group breaks up again. The most complicated thing in this film family is probably the ego of the stars. And the uncertainties of financing. But we don't see all that on the screen. Only the result. Day For Night, on the other hand, is about boredom between shooting and technical problems. In Truffaut's Day For Night a project is shown that is certainly doomed to failure. Truffaut himself plays the director of this project and the only important thing for the director is that the film is finished at all. Whether it becomes good or bad doesn't matter. The cast consists of a beautiful American star (Jacqueline Bisset) or a young friendly lead actor (Jean-Pierre Leaud). Is there such a thing as a center? Whoever finds it can be proud! In any case, a series of stories are told effortlessly in parallel. Love affairs, pregnancy and death in the microcosm of film production. What we will see later does not correspond to what happens on the set. To love Day For Night, you don't have to be a cineaste. Probably the film is fun for everyone! Once the director remembers stealing a poster of "Citizen Kane" as a little boy at night. No wonder he had to become Truffaut!

Film List New Hollywood western incl. FREE STREAMS 

Mud or frozen ice cover the earth. There is little light, just enough from a gas lantern. One senses a longing for love and home - which will never be fulfilled. Is this the stuff of westerns? But the Western evolved from a conservative genre to a medium for artistic innovation and subversive political references during the New Hollywood renewal. During this phase, the genre died and yet lived on. The Western evolved into the Anti Western. The perspective of recollection was retained, but the affectionate evocation of historical anecdote gave way to moral reflection on the era. There was debunking of glorified heroic figures and, above all, the Western worked through the genocide of the Indians. The golden age now appeared in gloomy colours, the shabbiness of the settlements, the dirt stood out clearly.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE THE BEST MOVIES IN OUR VIDEO STORE! Ramin Bahrani - Chop Shop 

Chop Chop has an immediate feeling for space and time. What a shock that the time told is NOW! We are in a place with car spare parts. A run-down place where twelve year old Ale works and lives. The boy is adventurous and optimistic. In return for his work, he lives in a plywood housing provided by his boss. A slum. He gets five dollars for every passing car he smuggles into this area. Ale also sells DVDs, pirated copies or sweets in the subway. Or he steals handbags and hubcaps. But the boy is not a criminal. He is a survivor. He taught himself everything. The innocent nod. To come to the goal. Are we in a classic American novel? No; still in the here & now. Ale stands in the long tradition of those who come to New York with nothing. He has an immensely strong will, but is also a vulnerable child. An orphan boy, as we may assume. His sister Isamar is four years older. She shines for Ale. He built his "house" just for her. Ale is happy; he has a fridge and a microwave. Isamar will also be happy (he believes). Director Bahrani himself lived in the area for a while. He cast almost all roles with non-actors. But they play so poignantly that they embarrass professional actors! Chop Chop saves everything unnecessary, concentrates on the story in three acts. But every picture looks like a composition! The dialogues seem to be real. So the real language of the teenagers. They seem completely unbiased, as if they don't appear in a film at all. Chop Chop is about how hard it is to grow up. Ale saves every dollar. For his sister he is not only a brother, but also a husband. But Isamar finds his own way to increase her income - which breaks Ale's heart. He works even harder. In vain. He learns to accept. One day they will own a taco truck. but not now. Reality triumphs over the American dream. For the time being.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Klaus Lemke - Kein Grosses Ding

  Isn't this a great movie? There's a lot to laugh about, the characters inside are real and that's why they touch us! We see some streets and shops we know (Kreuzberg)! And above all the feeling of the Nouvelle Vague and the young German movie when he was still wild and sexy! Klaus Lemke is a great romantic and obviously he also loves Berlin. Lemke is also a survivor of the 60's when film was still an adventure! No great thing breathes the spirit of this time of awakening. Henning Gronkowski plays a young Berliner who wants to be a stripper. Thomas Mahmoud plays a film projectionist who just got out of prison and carries around an old Lidl bag as his most important possession. Mahmoud is a scrounger who never has anything and always demands everything. Mahmoud thinks he's entitled to it. In reality, however, he is rich - in talent! A gifted James Brown impersonator! By the way, the real Mahmoud is a great actor, who gives here with bravura a neurotic. A male bitch no one can stand. Except for Henning, who's practically vying for the loner. That's the couple that Lemke's movie revolves around. They love each other, argue and reconcile. Like an old married couple. At some point Lemke came to the Filmkunstbar Fitzcarraldo to shoot some scenes for us. You could learn something: Lemke's camera, which is constantly in motion and gives his films this swing. And his dialogues, which he scribbles on small pieces of paper to bring them to life on the screen. The two girls were Tini-Kristin Bönig and Leila Lowfire. Tini from Hamburg plays the main female role and even has her own Lemke story, because he already shot with her father. Leila has obvious qualities and that must also be in a Lemke film. Finally I introduced him to a customer, Olivia Kundisch. Lemke reacted enthusiastically and shot a few scenes with the new girl. It is very important to him to take people with him spontaneously. Under no circumstances should they know in advance that he wants to shoot with them! One day is enough and they become a "star" - useless for Lemke's world. After all, he is interested in those who are normally regarded as failures, but who are heroes to Lemke. The survivors that still exist in our silly district. That's why the Munich native comes to Berlin to discover such types as Olivia Kundisch. Maybe because they're not corruptible? Just like Lemke herself.

Film List Time Travel Movies 80's 

Basically, the best time travel films are all exercises in silliness. You take trips into the different versions of the past or future, which are of course so confusing that we have to follow the explanations of the protagonists to understand everything. And even they don't usually understand all the connections. For many time travel films, keep a thick notepad ready for notes.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE THE BEST OF THE MOVIES IN OUR VIDEO STORE Your Name 

"I feel like I was always looking for someone." Don't we all? A place away from our daily lives? That's exactly what Your Name is about: The search for something, for someone, for a place away from the here & now. Your name was a tremendous success in Japan and established a new size in the anime field after the closure of Ghibli Studios. His theme is the overcoming of time and space: Makoto Shinkai. In his greatest success, Your Name, two teenagers, Mitsuha and Taki, get unusually close: one morning they find themselves in each other's bodies. Mitsuha and Taki lead very different lives. Mitsuha lives in the country and helps her grandmother to maintain the Shinto Shrine while Taki lives in Tokyo and works in a restaurant. The exchange of the two takes place gradually. It takes place in jumps, sometimes "on" and sometimes "off". Of course he is confusing for both of them, whereby Mitsuha finds herself easier in her new role, Taki spends money and even arranges a date for the shy boy. So that the chaos doesn't get too big, they start to write messages. Per sms or simply on the skin (of the other). Then it gets complicated! When Taki begins to develop feelings for Mitsuha, he must realize that he is cultivating a relationship from the hereafter: Mitsuha's town was destroyed years ago by an asteroid strike... That Your Name looks visually beguiling can be considered an understatement. Your Name resembles an artistic vision of a beautiful world full of poetry - in which you only have to find your place. 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE THE BEST MOVIES IN OUR VIDEO STORE! Robert Zemeckis - Back To The Future 

For the life of me, I cannot imagine that my mother was once a teenager. All teenagers think that. How could their own parents ever have been young and still not understand their own children? Back To The Future does not share this thought. The film goes even further: it assumes that you can go back in time to when your parents were teenagers - and raise them up at the very moment when they need help most! Back To The Future begins in the present. 1985, because in 1985 Marty (Michael J. Fox) is a teenager. And his parents? Carefully put, they are hopeless nerds. Dad tells unfunny jokes and mom drinks vodka. Only his friendship with Dr. Brown (Christopher Lloyd) keeps him sane. Dr. Brown is an inventor. One of those with bright eyes and a hairstyle that looks like a copy & paste of Albert Einstein. In any case, Brown believes he has discovered the secret of time travel. One night, he demonstrates his invention on an abandoned parking lot near the shopping center. Well, anyone who has seen many time travel films will agree with me: Never again has there been a time machine that looks like Dr. Brown's! And it works! So Marty travels back in time by 30 years. He lands when the mall was a field. Marty lands with his 1985 clothes in the 50's and people ask him why he wears a life jacket. This is one of the running gags of Back To The Future: How the city has changed. Where in 1985 a porn cinema shows its program, in 1955 you can see a western with Ronald Reagan. In a real cinema. Then Marty notices at lunch in the diner that he is sitting next to his own father. Back To The Future now develops a pagan fun with the paradoxes and predicaments of a child meeting his own parents. The worst moment is certainly when Marty discovers that his own mother is hot for him... Back To The Future established Robert Zemeckis not only as a blockbuster specialist, but above all as a fine comedian and humanist. In the style of the comedies of the Roosevelt era, for example. Back To The Future was produced by Steven Spielberg, at a time when he directed less than he discovered talent by the metre. Such as Robert Zemeckis. Just like the studio bosses of the classic Hollywood era, he seemed to have fun in the 80s, entrusting the right project to the right director. And so he created one of the most intelligent and funny films of the 80s!

Film List Time Travel Movies  

Basically, all time travel films live from paradoxes. If you get involved in it, it will inevitably drive you crazy. Alternative: You just sit back, relax and enjoy the theatre. Otherwise, you would be seduced by thought processes that may be hypnotic for you - but are unspeakably boring for those around you. I know this because we have colleagues working in our video shop who want to convey just such thoughts to the customers: If person X goes here and person Y there, then person Z would take this and person W.... All right? HMMMMM 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE THE BEST MOVIES IN OUR VIDEO STORE! Terry Gilliam - Brazil 

Just as Orwells 1984 is a variation of our present, future and past, Brazil is also a game with Orwell. Brazil creates a world that doesn't look dissimilar to ours - apart from the fact that it is much darker and some technical standards have already been further developed. Fortunately, the political system is not ours either. The society in Brazil is controlled by a comprehensive organization, so that only a life full of paranoia remains for the citizen. The police resemble a terror command to hunt dissidents. Life is disgusting and mean. Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) lives his miserable life here and basically always works at the computer screen. Every now and then, when the boss is absent, he takes a break together with his colleagues, hides the monitur and watches old TV classics. Sam knows exactly how bleak his life is. All he can do is escape into daydreams in which a breathtakingly beautiful woman appears to him. But then the confusion: Instead of the terrorist Tuttle (Robert De Niro), an innocent family man is tortured to death. Sam is supposed to process this "accident" for the bereaved. During this mission he finally meets the woman of his dreams... Brazil seems like a recourse to the psychedelic cinema of the 60s. An anarcho version, in which the recipe is to simply turn everything into a monstrous! Director and co-writer Terry Gilliam was allowed to unlock and rule. Without financial restrictions (which he should never be granted again afterwards)! Gilliam stages apocalyptic scenarios, impressive special effects or dreamlike sets without any discipline! It seems as if Gilliam has written down all his fantasies, regardless of how they are to be brought to the screen. Even more: No matter if it all makes sense or not. Brazil is an extraordinarily difficult film. I have now seen it for the second time and could still hardly follow. Which characters serve which purpose? Who is who? Clarity is not the ultimate goal of this paranoid vision. We experience very personal moments of the author Gilliam, then again grim humor to distance himself from the events. I liked the simplest scenes during office hours best. I secretly thought that simplicity was a virtue after all - not an enemy to be fought against...

Film List Circus Movies 

"When I first saw a circus at night as a child, it was like an apparition. A kind of montgolfier that hadn't been preceded by anything. The evening before nothing, in the morning it was there, in front of my house. It immediately seemed to me like a huge ship... Apart from the horror the fascination of the clowns was final (Federico Fellini, 1970, in: Fellini: Aufsätze und Notizen - Diogenes detebe 20125)

Film List 80's Vampire Movies 

The great 80s vampire films were ruthlessly over-produced. Somewhere in the midst of ostentation and exercise in style, one may search for the plot. If there is one at all. Remember; in this decade everything is "style" and nothing is "story" - which also applies to the immortals.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE THE BEST MOVIES IN OUR VIDEO STORE! Luis Bunuel - Exterminating Angel (engl. subt.) 

The evening guests arrive twice. Once they climb the stairs, step through the wide door. And then again. We'll understand the joke later. Guests who arrive twice are not allowed to leave again. Bunuel's The Exterminating Angel takes a look at human nature and creates a macabre comedy out of it. It goes like this: We are victims of our instincts and our unspeakable secrets. It is enough to imprison a company of exquisite guests and they will attack each other like rats. If you watch well, you will notice the alarming signs. How the cook and the servant put on their jackets and disappear in time. Because it's a Bunuel film, we also have to accept his surrealistic ideas without comment. For example the invitation of a bear. The event itself is a success. The guests whisper, deny themselves; today we would call it bullying. They are full of greed and lust and envy. The doctor predicts that one of the women will be bald within a week. We also listen to piano music and everyone looks very elegant. There's nothing to stop them - only they can't walk. Nobody talks about it. They make themselves comfortable in the sofas. And more and more details are revealed to us by Bunuel, the most individual director of his time. Unusually, he shot his best films between the age of 60 and the end of 70. Bunuel was an opponent of Franco's Spain. He was against the bourgeoisie, against the church and against the fascists. He was convinced that most people were hypocrites. When he staged "The Exterminating Angel" in 1962, his career was on the upswing. He was still filming in exile in Mexico, but would soon move to France. Nevertheless we recognize the ruling class from Franco's Spain in the Dinner society. But that's not what he offers us blatantly. The dinner guests cannot be saved. What inhibits them also inhibits supposed rescuers. One tries to uncover a drinking water pipe with the axe. Two lovers kill each other. A hint of black magic is in the air when the sheep are grilled... Take the test and show The Exterminating Angel to a movie lover. It won't take two minutes and he'll give you the name Bunuel. So unmistakably he works! A work that excludes pure reason; Bunuel himself writes: "The best explanation of this film is that, from the standpoint of pure reason, there is no explanation." Who else would be able to argue something?

Film List (Post-)Moderne Vampir Filme incl. FREE STREAMS 

Garlic and crucifixes no longer scare him, vampires can't be killed. Not in the cinema either. There are more than 400 films, and the prince of darkness has always been irresistible. Not only the vampire is doomed to eternal repetition, the vampire film is just as doomed. Light is its nemesis, darkness its element. By the 80s at the latest, vampires had arrived in the mainstream of pop culture with sunglasses and motorbikes as rock music fans living in a caravan somewhere. Fright Night, Near Dark or The Lost Boys are successful pop vampire films of the time. With Bram Stoker's Dracula, Francis Ford Coppola interplayed the laws of the vampire film and its foundations like no one before: not only the first postmodern vampire film, but one of the first films ever to blithely plunder and recycle the treasure chest of film history. The first date with Mina takes place - how could it be otherwise? - at the cinematograph. In a dissolve, the entire repertoire of cinema is present. The postmodern vampire film knows its history and exploits it. Self-analysis and human morality are among its characteristics, as in Blade and Interview with a vampire. In Ferrara's The addiction, vampirism and Catholic theology intersect, and Thirst by Park Chan-Wok is also a spiritual vampire film. In The wisdom of crocodiles, the vampire meets the woman who questions his parasitism, significantly in a museum: the vampire becomes a messenger of cinematic innovation and London has served its time as the capital of Victorian exorcism. The Swedish So Dark the Night (Let the Right One In) thoroughly turns the genre on its head when 12-year-old outsider Oskar asks the vampire girl into his soul. After the first kiss, he figures out on his own that his girlfriend is a vampire. No classic condemnation follows, nor are any vampire clichés served. She is accompanied by a guardian who bleeds people for her. That will be Oskar's fate, because no one can grow old with her. Never to grow up, that is the true fate of the vampire.

Film List: Road Movies New Hollywood (incl. FREE STREAMS) 

Basically, the New Hollywood Road Movies can be enjoyed as old-fashioned Westerns. In cinematic shorthand and without any boring details. If you watch the very old westerns, you quickly grasp an old Hollywood rule that you can easily spare yourself ten minutes of wordy introduction: The guys in the white cowboy hats are the good guys. In the road movies of the New Hollywood generation, the hippies are the good guys. The initial spark is called Easy Rider. Before that, biker films were an unpleasant B-movie fringe phenomenon with representatives like "Hell's Angels on Wheels" or "The Wild Angels". Easy Rider elevated this genre to an art form. With one huge difference: in the biker films, the outlaws were the bad guys. Easy Rider and the great road movies of its time, however, rejected the establishment.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Our Latin Thing 

Today I have to think of the time before Corona when in our bar on Saturdays we played After La Murga by Willie Colon or I Like It Like That by Pete Rodriguez.... With melancholy and tears in my eyes, but also in the hope that we will all see each other again soon! "Our Latin Thing (Nuestra Cosa)" is about such a night and it was in 1971. At that time, Latin American music basically only existed for a minority. Quite different from today, when Salsa has even conquered our shop in Berlin. The percussionist Ray Barretto played a big part in this. His great achievement was the "Our Latin Thing" concert by the Fania All-Stars on 26 August 1971 at the Cheetah Club on 52nd Street in Berlin. If you are not yet familiar with Latin American music, do some research on Fania Records, because the label is synonymous with Latin. The "Our Latin Thing" concert in conjunction with Fania gave Latin its worldwide breakthrough - and you've been dancing to it in our bar ever since. Larry Harlow describes this noche inolvidable, where no one was the "star" but everyone jammed together. The songs were open for everyone to shine! We experience a dozen singers, a fat horn section and the driving percussion combo led by Barretto. Until the release of the DVD, we had to make do with grainy VHS recordings on youtube. In the past, I was asked again and again by customers. But a DVD did not exist. "Our Latin Thing" launched a whole series of great careers and since then Latin has been "commercial". In a good sense! Otherwise we wouldn't be able to dance together to Latin hits we all know! Leon Gast produced the film on a low budget on 16mm. If you enter his name in our catalogue, you will end up with "When-We-Were-Kings" (DVD4880), his 96 Muhammad Ali documentary. A unique film! Just like "Our Latin Thing", which incidentally introduces us to barrio life with its cockfights and domino games. The film production corresponds to the concert. The music basically rehearsed their pieces on stage for the first time, while Leon Gast shot his film in no time at all. In less than a week. Sometimes you think the camera is dancing to the music! Some songs are just for dancing, others document a growing political awareness. You hear the story of an Indian princess of a captive people. Or the song of a tired farmer returning from his field work. It is music from the Lower East Side, where the Cuban immigrants live in shabby tenements. It is their life, their film. 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Weissensee 

There are few fables that we tell ourselves over and over again. That's what we learned in German studies, and it's true. One of these fables is the story of Romeo & Juliet, transported to cold war Germany, to the GDR - the concept of the great ARD series Weissensee. For the first time, the life of the people in the communist part of Germany is portrayed here as it probably was true. And for the very first time, we Westerners really like the people over there from the zone - because you really can't say that about comparable productions. Weissensee is a district in the heart of East Berlin. The Kupfers and the Hausmanns live here, two hostile families bound together by an illicit love affair. The year is 1980, and the Kupfers are a family of ambitious and, above all, status-conscious Stasi officers. The Hausmanns, on the other hand, are regarded as disputatious dissidents. The matriarch is Dunja Hausmann (Katrin Saß); her daughter, of course, Julia (Hannah Herzsprung). Julia falls in love with Martin Kupfer (Florian Lukas), although his family deeply disapproves and wants to "break up" the connection. I myself was born in West Berlin and often drove over to the East part to visit friends. I was often allowed to get upset about the way people were portrayed "over there". Then came Weissenseee and changed everything. Finally, 20 years after reunification, we experienced an authentic picture of the citizens of the German Democratic Republic. Finally a series that gives the Ossis back their dignity! "Ossis", that was a condescending term in the 80s, but today it is an affectionate one. If you read the credits a little more closely, you will notice that the majority of the actors come from the former GDR. First and foremost Katrin Saß, who also became acquainted with the Stasi in real life, because she was spied on just like her Dunja in Weissensee. In the ARD Mediathek you can find numerous bonus materials and even learn that some of the actors were actually imprisoned in the Stasi prison that we also experience in Weissensee. Critics may object that some things are laid on too thick. But at least hardly any part of GDR history is ignored. Weissensee was broadcast at a time when Germans were reassessing the successes and failures of the Wende. After decades in a state that was primarily geared towards scaring its citizens, people from the GDR had to adapt to the new Germany - which in turn made many feel uncomfortable. How did one become an IM - an unofficial employee of the Stasi - in the first place? Well, again out of fear of loss, for example of one's own child. Who still remembers the Merkel interview in which she admits to bunkering food even today? Basically, it is precisely this adaptation that represents an unimaginable achievement for us Westerners. To ridicule it is shabby. Could we ever grow together as a nation? I fear that a large proportion of Germans would deny that they really belong together at all. The wages of East Germans are still lower than those of West Germans. Many more East Germans receive state benefits. Their life expectancy is below ours. Dunja in Weissensee believes in a socialist Germany, although no longer in the Stasi state of the GDR. Many respectable East Germans still believe this. Their hopes will never be fulfilled. 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Fatih Akin - Tschick 

Fatih Akin films Wolfgang Herrndorf's bestseller with the help of another hamburger: Hark Bohm, one of the best (and at the same time most worth discovering) directors of the New German Film. We expect a classic Coming Of Age story. This may be unusual, as debutants in particular stage such films and Akin has long been established. Does Akin still remember the fleeting feeling of youth? The feeling of storm and stress? Herrhof himself delved into the books of his own childhood before starting his novel. He discovered that the heroes prefer to travel and thus perceive the adult world. A raft trip on the Elbe, however, no longer seemed plausible to him. Better one on the highway in stolen Lada! A lot is new to Akin: He films someone else's thoughts. His team was also largely fixed. Akin as a commissioned director. Hark Bohm always had a keen sense for the vibrations of youth and it was right for Akin to bring him on board! The music is aimed at at least one generation after us: Seed, the beginners, fractus or the beatsticks can be heard. The actors are known from the Rico and Oskar movies. But the mood may be closer to a Mark Twain novel than modern times - and so we expect at least a German Stand-By-Me!

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Nicolette Krebitz - Wild 

A young woman and a wolf that she has seen in the park and that she brings to her high-rise apartment. This is love at first sight, an all-consuming amour fou, unconditional, unpredictable! Director Nicolette Krebitz has a weakness for the power of the forest, the last untamed nature in Germany. But wild is also the story of a drop-out who finds her place. Previously Ania (Lilith Stangenberg) led a boring life between her sterile apartment and the office. But then she crosses the borders of civilization to wilderness. Her boss (Georg Friedrich) gives Ania a good talking-to after he notices her neglect. In a few weeks she would be back to her old self again. But Ania doesn't want to be the old one anymore: "I met somebody", she explains to her boss and when asked what her new one is doing, Ania continues: "Nothing but looking good! Slowly Ania is changing. Her apathetic expression gives way to raw instinct; she herself feels this as an act of liberation! Krebitz, however, does not rely on shock effects, but on a diffuse restlessness, which is further intensified by Terranova's music. As so often in her career, Nicolette Krebitz has decided in favour of experimentation and against certain Arthaus conventions!

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Blake Edwards - Switch 

Men claiming to be trapped in a woman's body may seem to be a popular TV talk topic. But vice versa? Blake Edwards Switch is about a man who - against his will - is held captive in a woman's body. Steve, a marketing specialist, becomes Amanda, a female executive. She does Steve's job better than he would ever have been able to. Steve (Perry King) is a chauvinistic pig who despises and resents women. That is why he must spend eternity in hell. Is there any possibility of appeal? Steve is sent back to earth, but in the body of Amanda. If he finds someone on earth who loves him, he might even be pardoned. That's why he wakes up the next morning looking like Ellen Barkin, who as Amanda completely reinvents what we call acting. Barkin has always captivated with her aggressive, confident acting with a hint of masculinity in it. In love scenes she pushed men against the wall and in Switch she is now allowed to stare in amazement at her own cleavage. Blake Edwards is the perfect director for this, because in his forty-year career as a comedy specialist he has pursued two basic themes: Androgyny and putting yourself in someone else's shoes. Edward's comedies have featured men in women's clothes, but certainly not someone like Amanda, who does not enjoy her experience at all. And how should one convince other people that this is really Steve in this wonderful female body? First to find out is Steve's lover Margo (JoBeth Williams), who is being blackmailed and has to give make-up tips. Walter (Jimmy Smits), Steve's former best friend, also has difficulties with the new reality. But there are also new friends like millionaire perfume maker Sheila (Lorraine Bracco), who is strongly attracted to Amanda. The premise of Switch is promising, but unlike older comedies, Edwards takes too much notice of his audience. Example. If Amanda gets drunk with Steve's best friend Walter and then has sex. Would that then be homosexuality? Edwards, whose work otherwise loves paradox, is silent on this. Instead, he uses lame excuses like the one that Amanda or Steve cannot be attracted to Sheila because she is a lesbian (and Steve is 100% homophobic after all). Switch could have been a revolutionary comedy - but Edwards fails to address the implications of his story. He could, however, have made his subject matter palatable to people who would otherwise never watch such a film. 

Berlin Off Beat Comedies 

All of life consists of improvisation and moving house is the dramatic pulse beat of it. At least in Berlin in the 00s. I used to compare Dietrich Brüggemann's Move with London's Four Weddings And A Funeral to illustrate the cultural difference for our video store customers: Londoners get married in the rhythm of the four seasons; we move.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE THE BEST MOVIES IN OUR VIDEO STORE! Werner Herzog - Nosferatu 

 It is the colours in Werner Herzog's Nosferatu that get under my skin! It would be insufficient to describe them only as saturated. The colours are rich and heavy and deep. The earth, it looks dirty. There is little green in it, but a lot of wetness and mud. The mountains of Transylvania, jagged, grey, sharp. The interiors are filmed with shades of red, white and brown - white are mainly the faces, especially that of Dracula. A work of great beauty, but one that never tries to impress us. The journey to the castle of the count, it seems epic. Not as if a film team had only recorded some scenes of it. Werner Herzog often shows nature with an undertone of fear in his films. Eerie shadows, low-hanging clouds and farmers with little confidence also accompany Jonathan Harker on his journey. Herzog takes his time - before we meet Count Dracula, we see the frightened faces of the people when Harker asks for directions. Herzog follows the structure of Murnau's great silent movie, which in turn is based on the novel by Bram Stoker (although the names had to be changed due to copyright laws). Herzog, however, is obviously allowed to use the original names: Dracula (Klaus Kinski), the estate agent Jonathan Harker (Bruno Ganz), his wife Lucy (Isabelle Adjani), Dr. Van Helsing (Walter Ladengast) and the manic Renfield (Roland Topor). At the beginning Renfield Harker opens his order for Dracula to buy a property in the city. Harker accepts the arduous journey because Lucy is pregnant. There is probably no other film adaptation in which the way to Transylvania takes so much space. Nobody wants to help him find Dracula's castle. On the contrary, when he mentions the name, the people stare at Harker in horror. The depiction of the count follows the example of the silent movies. Dracula doesn't look like one of these modern attractive vampires. Rather like an animal than a human. His fingernails look like skewers, his ears like those of a bat. The two front teeth are also reminiscent of blood-sucking fliers. Many Dracula details are affectionately considered by Herzog. Once the count draws our attention to the sweet sounds of the children of the night, as a wolf howls. When Harker cuts himself with a knife, Dracula can only with difficulty suppress his lust. Finally Dracula's journey to Bremen begins, where he wants to buy land and Lucy is expecting her child. Herzog can be considered one of the most unique filmmakers of all time. Unsuspicious to produce a remake. But why did he film one of the greatest German silent movies again? I think you can only explain it by his love for the original! Another reason is called Klaus Kinski. Who could you better imagine to play the title role? Beside Kinski there is Isabelle Adjani. The French beauty never plays "normal" women, she always seems to be from another planet. Her face, as white as porcelain - an irresistible catch for Dracula! And Kinski? He doesn't give the crazy one from the service, but plays a quiet and deeply sad vampire. Kinski has always shown his best performances when he could control his temper! But the greatest quality of the work is its beauty! Yet Herzog shows only a few pictures that look like they were painted. Instead, he concentrates entirely on the action. But when he plays with light and shadow and his poetic palette of colours, it takes my breath away! Nosferatu has not become a horror film. A lot of things seem very real here. If I would believe in vampires - I think they must look like Klaus Kinski!

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE So War Das S.O.36 

The history of our Kreuzberg district in a nutshell would have to read like this: 1. Building of the Wall; the frightened West Berliners leave the district. Away from the Ivan! 2. settlement of so-called guest workers, because no one else wanted to live in Kreuzberg (by the way, the district still looks like it did in 1945 well into the 1980s). 3. due to the settlement of the so-called guest workers the rents are completely in the basement = Kreuzberg becomes attractive for students and "alternatives". For a long time Kreuzberg had the reputation of being a gathering place for hippies and party animals. Finally, rather belatedly, the hip punks also discover the Müsli district. SO 36 is founded (named after the Kreuzberg postcode). 5 Kreuzberg after the fall of the Wall ekes out a niche existence. 6. Kreuzberg is rediscovered after the East boom and develops into a coexistence of all the groups listed above. At some point you can even get latte machiato in the morning. So War das SO36 deals with the punk district, which is what the makers stand for; especially Berlin's specialist for fantastic films and Godzilla Jörg Buttgereit (who is also an excellent disco DJ - as he was allowed to prove at our Wenzel Storch release party at Bar 25). No wonder that the frame story is expertly made up of film footage again! But above all, it's about anecdotes and live recordings from the club. I like to compare So War Das SO 36 with "B-Movie-Lust & Sound In West-Berlin", because both documentaries charmingly search for self-ironic laughs. After all, what is worse than reports by contemporary witnesses who constantly talk about "before" and "then"? A species that exists especially in West Berlin. After all, no one can check whether it was really so wild "back then" or "in the old days" - or not? But the directors Manfred O. Jelinski and Jörg Buttgereit know this and like to comment on what is said by means of overlays. The bands prepare the ground for the simplified German pop songs that were to be announced by Dieter Thomas Heck in the ZDF Hitparade in 1982 at the latest. So War Das SO 36 begins in 1981 and breaks off in 1984. In SO 36, therefore, a chart placing is still a long way off - dilettantism reigns here! That's why this documentary almost seems like a real-life satire, because it's not meant to arouse the suspicion that anyone could be pursuing a plan here... Berlin celebrities like Dr. Motte appear here as untalented bass players. There will definitely not be a second film about the time of punk & the avant-garde! For me, this grainy documentary is something of a shrine. Because whenever I ask myself why I'm doing all this with our shop in the first place, the film provides the answers. 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Jia Zhangke - Pickpocket (engl. subt.) 

One of the things I did on my holiday in Beijing was to get an overview of all the FILM coming out of China. I cycled to the hutongs, where the Academy of Drama is located. Nearby is a DVD shop run by students. Hidden behind a curtain, the impressive collection awaits the geek. A young man with thick Nouvelle Vague glasses gave me the DVDs of Zhiangke, the greatest Chinese director here & now (according to the geek). Wonderful! First I tried Pickpocket, alluding to the French model. it tells the story of a Chinese pickpocket, somewhere in the province. As he goes about his shabby business, he notices that the world has moved on. His best friend, now a capitalist entrepreneur, is getting married - but has not even invited him. He falls in love with a karaoke bar girl and eventually falls victim to a humiliating police raid.... Student Geek had previously given me plenty of information about Zhiangke. A filmmaker working with 16mm and amateur actors, he tackles themes that are unwanted in modern China: the human sacrifices demanded by the transition from controlled communism to unleashed capitalism. Pickpocket is a deeply sad story full of compassion. When the pickpocket is taken away in front of passers-by, we understand why China's new generation is at Zhiangke's feet: This is a great, a moving moment of modern cinema! Above all, we understand what it must be like to live in modern China. Not that Zhiangke longs for party leader Mao - but he doesn't like the emerging China any better. A nation caught between two sterilities.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE THE BEST MOVIES IN OUR VIDEO STORE! Alain Resnais - On Connait La Chanson (engl. subt.) 

Here comes a DVD that I brought back from Paris in the first years after our video store opened. Import with German subtitles. For a long time it was difficult to complete our collection, especially of French Nouvelle Vague authors. Today it is almost done, but - irony of fate! - shortly before we are allowed to say goodbye to the medium of DVD in order to stream only on amazon. I dare to doubt, however, whether amazon is pursuing a similarly missionary zeal to organise all Resnais films? There is always something to hide in Alain Resnais On Connait La Chanson. For example, when Marc (Lambert Wilson) sells Odile (Sabine Azema) a flat with a fabulous view (but hides the fact that it will soon be blocked by a skyscraper). Fears of loss, love & guilt, secret illnesses, performed by an all-star ensemble around Agnes Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri, who also wrote the screenplay. Life is a game of hide and seek - with others, but also with ourselves! The most beautiful thing about it: in the most absurd moments, the protagonists break out into song or they dance when the plot does not require it. Because life is hard and full of worries and what should the playback voice of Johnny Hallyday, of all people, change about that? All these characters are middle-aged and childless. Of course, because they themselves only reached the developmental stage of children. Old cinema themes of memory and longing move them, but never before experienced like longing in this tone. If you're looking for genres like "comedy" or "musical", you're in the wrong place, because after all, Alain Resnais represents one of the key positions in European art cinema! But if you want to find out how Resnais' characters really think and feel, then listen to the chansons again very carefully. They serve as a cipher. Only in the chanson lines do you find out what Resnais' protagonists really feel. 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE THE BEST MOVIES IN OUR VIDEO STORE! Ingmar Bergman - Persona (engl. subt.) 

The essential human question in Ingmar Bergman comprises only two words: "No, don't!" No, I don't want to feel pain! No scars to keep! No, I don't want to die! In the end, however, with "No, don't!" she does admit that she exists. I first saw Persona as a teenager and over the years I kept returning to this film! Addicted to the beauty of the images and eager to uncover its secrets! Yet I wouldn't call Persona a difficult film at all, because everything we see is perfectly clear. Even the dream sequences are clear: as dreams. Persona, however, suggests deeper truths and you despair of finding them. As a teenager, there was no way I understood Persona. Today I believe it is best taken literally. It is about exactly what we assume! We see ordinary everyday actions and hear an ordinary conversation. This is conveyed by the haunting images of the great cinematographer Sven Nykvist. What does a Bergman film look like? One face frontally, one behind it in profile. Everyone who loves CINEMA knows this image! At the centre is the actress Elisabeth (Liv Ullmann), who quite suddenly stops speaking during a theatre performance of Electra. A psychologist thinks it might help if Elizabeth spends the summer with her sister Alma (Bibi Andersson). Isolated, in a house. Locked in a box of space and time, the women try to merge. Elizabeth says nothing, Alma talks and talks and talks. Both look very much alike. At one point, Bergman even combines half of Elizabeth's face with that of Alma. Later, the faces overlap. Anyone who loves Bergman knows that the face is his big theme. The merging of the two faces suggests a psychic attraction between the women. The mute Elizabeth is stronger than Alma, after all, the soul of the stronger overpowers that of her sister. Why did Elizabeth stop speaking? We see footage of the Vietnam War and the Warsaw Ghetto. Are the horrors of this world the reason for Elizabeth to refuse to speak? For Alma, the horrors are much closer to home. Alma doubts her relationship and her ability to stand up to Elizabeth. In a dream sequence, however, we learn that Elizabeth is also driven by private worries. Her husband appears, caresses Alma's face and calls out "Elizabeth".... Through one of Alma's monologues we are also told that Elizabeth has a deformed child whom she gave away in order to continue her theatre career. An unbearably painful story. During the monologue, the camera focuses on Elizabeth's face. Then the story is told again, but this time we see Alma's face. Even more famous is Alma's monologue about her sex on the beach. Have you ever heard of it? It's one of those scenes that even those who have never seen Persona for themselves can describe. Elizabeth breaking through the reveries of her life in pain, Alma in her ecstasy there on the beach. And when are we "WE" in direct contact with the world? Is our "WE" not based on mere ideas and hopes? Elizabeth is strong enough to choose to be "HER". Alma can't do it. She is too weak to decide NOT to be Elizabeth. Now you understand the title persona. In the singular. 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Adieu Philippine (engl. subt.) 

Hard to believe, but the Nouvelle Vague in France began in the late 50s of the last century - and still seems as hip as one could wish for! It all started with a handful of films that seemed much more confident and fresh than anything known before. Sometime in the early 60s, it had become a confusing flood, so Geek still has a lot to discover. A nice occupation! And here comes a forgotten classic of the Nouvelle Vague! Michel (Jean-Claude Aimini) works as a technician for television, where he picks up two teen girls Liliane and Juliette (Yveline Cery and Stefania Sabatini) on the prowl for their stars. Michel begins an affair with each of them. Independently of each other, they both fall in love with Michel. Eventually, however, the two realise that Michel is not just seeing them alone. Their triumphant marriage is slowly eaten away by jealousies and accusations... Michel flees to Corsica, but the teenagers follow him everywhere. Now a second plot line kicks in as the girls demand that Michel find a film director who still owes them money. In the end, Michel has only one way out of this menage a trois: Algeria... I think only a few people will know Jacques Rozier. Adieu Philippine is his debut and probably still the most popular. An amateur film, probably with too much dialogue and a bit pretentious - but with the swing of the Nouvelle Vague! Wonderful images, Paris in tango rhythm and a soundtrack full of pop pieces of the time. Somehow it makes you want to try it yourself!

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE In Den Gängen 

The Filmkunstbar Fitzcarraldo is a microcosm with our permanent employees, the regular customers and friends who are always there somehow. A microcosm over two floors, below the video store, above the bar or disco. Outside our garden with the silver birches. And then there are the little corners, which one discovers only with time... At some point I realized how much time I spent in this small world of about 200 square meters! I used to go to Bar 25 or anywhere else in Berlin almost every day. But in the meantime... That's what In the corridors is about. From a microcosm. Christian (Franz Rogowski) starts his new work there, in the wholesale market. In the beverage department. He meets the "chief", Bruno (Peter Kurth), who takes care of him. Bruno shows Christian how the mechanics of the forklift works and how to get boxes out of the upper shelves. Then he meets Marion (the great Sandra Hüller) in the corridors, who calls him a "newbie". He invites her to a vending machine coffee and we're in the middle of a love story. Or is it? Marion suffers under her husband and at some point she doesn't come to work. Christian's whole world is getting into an imbalance... When do we even perceive people like Marion and Christian? If we shop across the street at the Penny Market? We probably don't notice them at all and that's why there are films like In the Corridors. We dive into their (East) German world, spend about two hours with them. In the corridors has humor, is tender and watches very closely. We think we know the world of Marion and Christian a little better afterwards.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE THE BEST MOVIES IN OUR VIDEO STORE! Francis Ford Coppola - Bram Stoker's Dracula 

The vampire has the greatest ego of all! Imagine; he takes himself so important that he wants to live forever. Even under the most disgusting conditions: Avoiding the sunlight, sleeping in a coffin, being feared by everyone. In Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula he directs his fist to heaven; to live forever until he recovers the woman he loves. It all begins with the tragic story of Vlad, the impaler who defeated the Turks. He victoriously returns to his lover - but she plunged herself into death, mistakenly believing that her husband had fallen. But those who take their own lives will not find salvation. Vlad feels betrayed and doubts God. He who went to the Promised Land - why does he deserve this punishment from God? Vlad turns against God and swears by Satan and vampirism. Time jump. We meet him again in London in the late Victorian era. Very important for Coppola: We are writing the era of the first cameras and cinema screenings. Coppolas Dracula plays between the London of time and Transylvania. We meet a young lawyer (Keanu Reeves) who sets out to buy a property for Count Dracula. A journey to a dark land of fear. In the deepest darkness he is led to the count's castle. This looks about the way we imagine it, or rather an inflated version of it. Here Count Dracula (Gary Oldman) has been waiting for the return of his dead bride for centuries. When the count sees a photograph of Mina Murray (Winona Ryder), the lawyer's fiancée, he knows that the time has come. She's alive again! Coppola has understood that pseudo scientific vampire films are always overloaded with pseudo-science. These are performed by vampire hunter Dr. van Helsink(Anthony Hopkins). We know the story itself; Mina falls under the Count's spell. But Coppola seems to be more interested in the highlights of the novel than in the structure of the story. His Dracula is a picture film and he wants to be enjoyed in the same way. Everything here is light and shadow. To excess. I liked that!

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE THE BEST MOVIES IN OUR VIDEO STORE! Judex 

Here comes both a super-hero film AND a work of art! Georges Franju, the director of Judex, was a member of the Cinematheque Francaise and helped hide its treasures from the Germans during the war. After 1949, he began his career as a filmmaker and worked mainly in the horror genre - but probably with the touch of the Nouvelle Vague of the early 60s! Many count Franju as part of the Nouvelle Vague; me too. Why? I think his films are always about mood and atmosphere, less about the story told. Franju doesn't like conventional resolutions and sometimes lets his films end in surrealistic images. Many customers of our video store claim that they are reluctant to watch such genres as horror. Or even the superhero genre! I have never shared this view. The serious geek loves to discover the good films in disreputable genres like horror, slashers, teen romances or even super hero movies! It was precisely in this respect that the French critics who would later found the Nouvelle Vague did some good groundwork. And Franju also films in this spirit! Genres were revived, even rehabilitated. Not always rightly, but best of all, you feel it yourself. The moment a film captures your attention, it must be a good film! Does it move and delight me? Or does it just use hackneyed conventions and obligatory scenes without ambition, without inspiration? Then it may be thrown back into the genre and does not deserve our attention. Judex is a superhero film. A dark fairy tale. Those familiar with French cinema of the silent era will notice the homage to the old masters of that decade. Here, the hero Judex (Channing Pollock) kidnaps an evil banker to prevent the head villain Diana in a cat costume (Francine Bergé) from inheriting a fortune. The good vs. evil battle revels in poetic symbolism. Watch as Judex, wearing a forbidden bird mask, creates a dove out of nothing during a ball. Judex may be celebrated as a revival of an innocent era with wonderful surrealistic set pieces. And, of course, as a superhero film.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE THE BEST MOVIES IN OUR VIDEO STORE! Luchino Visconti - The Leopard (engl. subt.) 

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, a Sicilian aristocrat, wrote the story of an aging Sicilian nobleman from his heart (probably following the example of his grandfather). Only one person later came into question to film this epic: Luchino Visconti, his sign of a Sicilian nobleman. However, the main cast, which today seems just as alternative, was a scandal in 1963: why was Hollywood star Burt Lancaster allowed to play Don Fabrizio, the Prince of Sicily? It was whispered that without Lancaster this project would not have been financially viable. Finally the premiere of Il Gattopardo took place in America in a version shortened by 40 minutes - dubbed in English! What devil rode Visconti there? When we opened the Filmkunstbar Fitzcarraldo, you couldn't get a good DVD of the film. Since its European premiere in 1963, the work has been rather neglected. During the 80s I went through the West Berlin video stores and searched. Finally there was a good version in the Videodrom. Then the sensation: A German release with the edited 40 minutes! Exactly these you can borrow today for one Euro. If you see Il Gattopardo again, you'll admire Burt Lancaster. A Hollywood star who already made "Indie" movies before the term even existed! He plays the prince who loves a lifestyle deeply and intimately that is nearing its end. His Don Fabrizio is a natural patriarch. His authority was placed in his cradle. Of course, he is aware of his age and of certain amoral tendencies. We experience him during a philosophical conversation with his friend, Father Pirrone. Fabrizio explains to the churchman how, in the future, he will have to make compromises in order to maintain the welfare of his clan. Just like the novel, the film begins during a family prayer. Suddenly you find a dead soldier outside in the garden. Garribaldi's revolution has spread from mainland Italy to Sicily. The days of the old order, they are numbered. The woman Don Fabrizios is called Maria Stella and it is obvious that in her life her own status counts more than her person. Both have three daughters of moderate beauty and a useless son. Don Fabrizio's pride is with his charming nephew Tancredi (Alain Delon). Only he will transfer the clan into a promising future. Tancredi is a hothead who joined Garribaldi. Of course, he is not a revolutionary, but a realist who will eventually be uniformed in Victor Emmanuel's royal army. Don Fabrizio also knows about the change of times, especially about the upcoming land reform. He believes that it is time for his family to arrange a beneficial marriage. During his summer hunting season, he hears of Don Calogero (Paolo Stoppa), who made wealth through clever investments. He invites Don Calogero to dinner, which turns Visconti into a sharply observed social comedy. The nouveau riche, clumsy and abysmally ugly businessman, who believes that money gives him status, meets the old nobility. Visconti hints at many things, but doesn't get bogged down in overdoing it. We smile, keep Don Fabrizios perspective. Don Calogero's wife doesn't appear, because not representative, but his beautiful daughter Angela (Claudia Cardinale) does. Cardinale at the peak of her beauty! Of course we understand why Tancredi falls in love immediately. Don Fabrizio, for his part, is enchanted and so it may come to an arranged marriage between Tancredi and Angela. Any other director would have made it a soap opera, but not Visconti. In the foreground is Fabrizio's concern to be able to live a less befitting life in the future. Of course we understand that the nobility exploited the working class (Visconti, a Marxist, knew that as well!). But the prince is such a good and proud man who is so clearly aware of his weaknesses and has such a love for traditional life - how could we condemn him? The worries that move his compromises, we share them! But there is something else: the prince is an alpha animal, born to lead. Feminine beauty touches him (although he also tries to accept the Church's criticism of his decadent being). Angela's beauty fascinates him - as does his nephew Tancredi. But Visconti can't allow him to express his delight in anointed speeches. Fabrizio expresses it only in looks and gestures. After all, the prince was already 45 years old - around 1860 too old to put his feelings into words. Il Gattopardo leads into a 40-minute ball scene. I think in the history of cinema, human mortality has never been shown so fascinating again! Everything that occurs in the film is condensed once again in this scene - and there are no

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Doberman (engl. subt.) 

We still rent only a French copy of Doberman in our video store. This is because the film was kept under lock and key for almost a decade by the Federal Review Board for Media Harmful to Young Persons (= censorship). At some point Doberman was released and finally we can enjoy Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel shooting through Paris again. The plot: A criminal couple vs. a crazy policeman. There's no good and evil. Just crazy and even more insane. A black Doberman waits outside the church during a baptism. The godfather draws his 357 Magnum and aims at the animal. The dog attacks the man, the gun flies into the pram in a high arch. The baby drools and grips - it has found its calling: Big-caliber weapons to rob banks with. Doberman is actually called Yann (Cassel), his lover Nathalie (Bellucci). Their bank robberies are big screen and always as brutal as possible. But then some policemen die and Christini (Tcheky Karyo) takes care of the case. He blackmails his victims to get police information by holding a hand grenade to a child's head. A psycho cop with Nazi bias. Obviously the Belgian Jan Kounen loves comics and therefore all his protagonists are also comic characters. Too cool to be true! Of course, Kunen's friend Gaspar Noe also has a guest appearance! Finally, the label Capelight presented us with an 18th DVD version in jewelry costume, which brings tears to my eyes in the age of the internet stream. But not every generation gets what it deserves?

Filmkunstbar Fitzcarraldo 2021 inl. Cinema!!! 

Our Outlook 2021 - To give you a little encouragement during the seemingly endless Corona Pandemic! As always, we're kicking off the new year 2021 together with NOMADENKINO by spending a little money on culture. We got ourselves a comprehensive cinema licence for the film art bar Fitzcarraldo and are now allowed to show anything we like. In the form of a cosy film club, where we have a drink together afterwards and talk our heads off like real geeks about the film we've just enjoyed. And always with English subtitles! Admission is free, of course, and the atmosphere is as cosy as can be: In the middle of our film archive of 10,000 DVDs! We also offer very, very good live music! Every Thursday our house band and their Soul Jam! The Cassette Head Sessions! In addition, our Irish colleague David continues his Tuesday series. And on Sundays Gabi & Mila present their Flea Market like before the Lockdown. And Thursday, Friday and Saturday night? Well, you know...

Star Wars Ripped Off 

 In the summer of 1984, we were all waiting for a possible Star Wars sequel. It was said that George Lucas had already conceived all nine parts. We assumed that the scripts were ready and just needed to be realised. But there were no signals from the official Star Wars forge that could shorten our waiting time! We longingly played with our Star Wars figures, had learned the names for individual robots or spaceships and were well informed about the politics in that distant galaxy. In our worst dreams, we never imagined that we would have to wait not only for the entire 80s but also for the entire 90s. Sure, in 1984 Lucasfilm released The Ewok Adventure. The following year, Ewoks: The Battle Of Endor. But we understood that these were by no means full-fledged Star Wars episodes. It may even have been the first time we kids understood how to make real money from a franchise! It wasn't until 1988 that we heard from George Lucas again. He emerged as the writer and producer of the fantasy saga Willow. Willow offered all kinds of Star Wars qualities! And it was said that Willow was also to become a multi-part cinema series! Unfortunately, George Lucas could not repeat the Star Wars success with Willow. As a substitute drug, we began to watch the many, many Star Wars clones. First up was Krull, which was released in 1983 - the same year as Return Of The jedi. With scathing reviews - but we didn't care! We discovered Battle Beyond The Stars, which didn't look quite as splendid, but seemed to be set in a similar galaxy. In the same year - 1980 - Hawk The Slayer saw the light of day. A pleasant experience, as it more or less retold the Star Wars story. And in 1983, an unofficial sequel even appeared with Space Raiders! We tried The Black Hole, a Disney Star Wars imitator. At the time, the Disney corporation was doing badly, one far from buying the original Star Wars (as later happened). Even more remote seemed the possibility of Disney snatching Star Wars from creator George Lucas! On the contrary, in 1979 the traditional corporation tried to build its own Star Wars vehicle. With much, much less success! Nevertheless, The Black Hole was a big budget production after all! In 1984, The Last Starfighter followed, which was incredibly fun! It may be that The Last Starfighter is set on Earth, but this spin-off offers very early CGI effects! The years went by without us ever hearing anything new from George Lucas. Numerous Star Wars video games appeared and rumours were heard that Lucas could finally continue his saga. This promise was only fulfilled in 1999! George Lucas himself directed The Phantom Menace! The prelude to the Star Wars prequel. We no longer very young children could hardly wait and went to the cinema. But what a terrible surprise! Nobody liked Lucas Episode I! Even the animation was criticised! Fans HATED Jar Jar Binks and young Annakin Skywalker, who turned the venerable saga into a children's car race. Or had we misunderstood something? I think our memories of Episodes I-III seemed clouded over the years. Star Wars, after all, offered family entertainment from the start - which included pesky creatures like the Ewoks! Even the classic episodes were not serious. We had simply grown older and so George Lucas surprised us with his child-friendly ideas. Over the Christmas days I watched the so-called new episodes from the early 00s again. All directed and produced by George Lucas (unlike Episodes V and VI). And lo and behold! I enjoyed the three episodes! Nevertheless, the general disappointment of the three Lucas episodes cleared the way for postmodern imitators. Welcome to the year of the Star Wars bows! In the 80s, people tried to cash in on the Star Wars hype on a low budget. During the 10s, however, fans created reminiscences of the original. The likes of Guardians Of The Galaxy or Luc Besson's Valerian! By the way: Unlike us fans, Guardians Of The Galaxy and Valerian understood that the typical Star Wars swing had to be light and easy. In keeping with the spirit of George Lucas, not that of Kubrick or Tarkovsky. In 2015, the Disney corporation finally surprised us fans by concluding Lucas' nine-part saga! But without George Lucas. Exactly ten years after Lucas made Episode III, Star Wars disciple J. J. Abrams took over. Unlike the original Lucas, Abrams offered everything we fans wanted. Malicious tongues spoke of him simply producing a copy & paste of Episode IV. The artwork had been snatched from Lucas the artist, to be completed by the fans. A project that is still in its infancy. And we, now very grown-up children, who have enjoyed the first two seasons of The Mandalorian and are now eagerly awaiting the third (and all the series that have also been announced!) - we have learned one thing in the past: the waiting is always the best... If you have too much time on your hands and want to put yourself in our shoes, check out the many free youtube streams in this list. So you get an overview of the many Star Wars imitators of the 80s. A nice project! 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE THE BEST MOVIES IN OUR VIDEO STORE! The irony of fate or enjoy your bath  

Here comes a Russian fairy tale and a real classic! But not the kind of classic that can be found in the lexicon of film critics, but a popular classic. One that people love! No film in the territory of the former USSR is better known, let alone more popular! It is considered set that the entire population of the Soviet Union (and we are talking about 250 million!) have seen The Irony Of Fate! Every year on New Year's Eve The Irony Of Fate is shown again (only during Gorbachev's anti-alcohol campaign during the 80s this rule was suspended because in the film too much drinking is done). And so the story goes; Zhenia (Andrei Miagkov), a surgeon who lives with his mother in Moscow and suffers from all kinds of problems, is found drunk in the bathhouse on 31.12.. He was wrongly put on a plane from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Thanks to the homogeneity of Russian architecture, he takes a taxi and drives home on seemingly familiar roads. Does St. Petersburg really look exactly like Moscow? Well, further on in the text. In the very beautiful opening credits we are already prepared for it; we see the animation of an architectural design that is reduced to the essential by a functionary. In any case, Zhenia feels at home, opens up a seemingly familiar apartment and lies down on "his" couch. To be noted: Anyone who has ever been to East Berlin knows how uniform the socialist architecture was. Everyone lives in the same apartment, so ideal. It is now up to the woman who loves him to convince him that he is in St. Petersburg. Not in Moscow. That's the way the "right one" should be! The great love in Russian!