FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Systemsprenger 

May I brag a little? Good. Nora Fingscheidt was the first customer in our video store. She registered with us when we hadn't even opened yet and borrowed the first DVD. Later she introduced us to her friend Andreia and she worked for us. Now Nora has presented her debut film at the Berlinale, won a Silver Bear and is allowed into the Oscar race. A social drama for the Oscar? The focus is on an angry girl. Nine years old. Or let's call her - Bennie (Helena Zengel) - a rebellious girl. 36 years old is Nora now and tours with Systemsprenger around the world. And everyone is overwhelmed! Benni is violent, cannot stay with her mother. From one accommodation to the next. But actually she is looking for love. And the title? Allegedly Nora heard the strange word from a social worker. Whenever the youth homes take in 14-year-olds who they can't control. That's probably the age of entry for such system sprinklers. Children no one wants. Who are also too much for the social system. What's more, I think the point is that we expect such tortured people to mourn in silence. In this form they should be integrated into the social system. Silence, sad people. But what if a person like Bennie reacts angrily, even explodes? What if we can't just integrate him? Nora creates an oppressive film out of this. One with suction power! One of these rare films, which plays in the clearly defined world of the German social system, but is nevertheless universally understandable. Because it's about the human being Bennie! Exactly such films are understood all over the world (even by those who know nothing about our social system). Such films can very well win an Oscar! It would be only the third German film ever to be decorated with an Oscar... For me this would be very satisfying in every respect! I grant it to the filmmaker from the bottom of my heart and also to the training place where she perfected her craft far away from state money and authority structures: Der FilmArche e.V. Lahnstr. 25, Neukölln, 030 61626911. This self-organized school in which you learn to make films by organizing everything yourself: the technology, the trainers, the training rooms. So I am not only allowed to show a little, but also to do some advertising.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Jacques Audiard - Rust And Bone  

There are two people here who only express themselves through physicality and sex. They hardly talk to each other, least of all about themselves. Stephanie (Marion Cotillard) has two words tattooed on her thighs: left and right. "Look, they're still here!" Her legs have been terribly deformed. The former whale trainer had an accident with one of her killer whales, after which both legs were amputated. Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts) the tattoos are hardly noticeable. He occasionally has sex with her and the fact that the legs now look different is not worth mentioning to him. But after her disturbed call he instinctively remembers to get her out of the dark apartment. That she might be embarrassed to bathe publicly in the sea does not occur to him. Is it lack of empathy or is it human greatness? Ali carries Stephanie into the sea in front of the shocked guests and for the first time, she can enjoy life again. Ali was already a bouncer and worked for a guard duty, but only as a free fighter he can fully realize himself. He expresses his feelings in nameless violence. But now he carries Stephanie on his shoulders. Jacques Audiard is a director interested in the loss of people. What remains of them after this loss? Stephanie and Alii can still have sex after their accident. They build their future on this. Most of the time Audiard's film makes us feel bad. Even when Stephanie and Ali have sex, it looks like his boxing matches. But then something happens: Stephanie starts to raise Ali. She demands that he treat her like a woman - and at this point De rouille et d'os begins to evoke a tingling feeling: It's this feeling when the movie makes us feel good! Like most women, Stephanie Ali was just a muscle-bound loser at first. Surely the two would never have tried it together before their accident! Stephanie, marked by her accident, feels lonely and unprotected. She dares to take Ali, who doesn't stare at her like a freak, as a man. She dares a love affair...

FREE ON OUR WEBPAGE CINEGEEK.DE Latino Mix 2 incl. FREE STREAMS 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Ken Loach - The Angel's Share 

For 50 years Ken Loach has been unswerving in his pursuit. He films people's moods and shows us their spontaneous behaviour through a special lens: telephoto. A style that looks decidedly British! Likewise, Loach creates his realism, which is repeatedly broken by humor. Loach's Passion: Socialism! The "little people". This may almost deter modern moviegoers, but first and foremost Ken Loach is an excellent narrator. This time we see a young father involved in a crime that could destroy his future. But the carefree soundtrack of the Scottish The Proclaimers proves that this will not happen. Let's leave the plot aside for once and no longer care whether this film is dramatic or cheerful. The view is decisive! Here an old man looks at the lives of boys desperately looking for a job. A man whose vision was shaped during the 70s and the dark Thatcher phase. Loach loves these middle-class dramas and has influenced British cinema like no other. Behind all the public favourites of British comedy of the past 30 years - isn't that the realism of Ken Loach? "Politics determines how you photograph people," Loach once explained. If you show the figures in a friendly light, we identify with them. That simple. Here, however, a diffuse light falls on Robbie, slightly refracted through the window glass. In American movies, that's how you show agents or criminals. But then Robbie's face is also illuminated by warm sunlight. That's how it is with Loach. A socialist thinker in a capitalist democracy still grants everyone their share of sunlight.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Et Dieu Crea La Femme (engl. subt.) 

In front of me is the beautifully presented Criterion edition of Roger Vadim's And God Created Woman, next to it, the somewhat unadorned German DVD from Concord Film (which looks somewhat like how the film would have been marketed in 1956). At the time, Vadim's forgotten classic was mistakenly thought to be something like the precursor of the Nouvelle Vague. Presumably the Criterion Collection also remembers this judgement of the Godard generation. For us today, it should be clear that And God Created Woman is pure exploitation. A ridiculously thin plot, terrible acting performances, regressive portrayal of sex and women in general, racism, etc. But you get: 1. bright colours, 2. cinemascope and 3. Brigitte Bardot. And points 1 and 2 are negligible. From the fifth shot on, everyone knows what they are getting into: Bright colours, Cinemascope and Brigitte Bardot. It's easy to imagine the cinema scandal of 1956. Of course, staring at B.B. wouldn't be acceptable if there wasn't at least some semblance of a plot. That's exactly how Vadim organises his film. With a hint of plot. Bardot plays Juliette, an orphan from Saint Tropez. She lives in a foster family. So she lies naked behind a sheet on the beach. On the other side of the sheet, the silhouette of the real estate agent Eric (Curd Jürgens). As befits a good real estate agent, Eric has sinister plans for Juliette. Just like the sinister Antoine Tardieu, played by Christian Marquand. This scoundrel only wants to sleep with her and nothing else. Juliette, for her part, hides behind her foster father in a wheelchair - probably never again will disabled people be shown like this in the cinema, I hope. In an unconvincing mix of desperation and malice, Juliette marries Michel (Jean-Louis Trintignant), Antoine's brother. Michel is a sensitive guy with low self-esteem. And that's what it comes down to: Juliette's sexuality is too wild and uncontrollable to ever be tamed by Michel. There has to be a scandal, etc. Until then, there are as many shots of Bardot as possible. At one point she grumpily bites into a carrot. And God Created Woman may be considered less a narrative film than a peep show. If you were born in 1945, this may certainly still have its charms for you. But if you want to get a little more involved with the Brigitte Bardot phenomenon, And God Created Woman is indeed a MUST. The book "The Erotic in Film" by Lo Dugo is particularly enlightening. B.B. is described as the epitome of the child-woman. Naughty, not at all intelligent, beautiful like an object. She always gives the impression of being naked. That's what it's all about. But: B.B. never acts as a plaything of men. She chooses her men. Instinctively, not intellectually. She can therefore be considered a natural woman. Not consciously provocative like the vamps of the 20s, but not faithless like the American sex bombs of her time. Brigitte Bardot was all Lolita. 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE 2 Days In Paris 

Sometimes when you want to get to know a person, really get to know them, you end up realising that it's better to do without. Marion (Julie Delpy) and Jack (Adam Goldberg) tried it with a trip to Europe together. Actually, the holiday was meant to save their relationship. But that didn't go well - Jack didn't like Venice. By itself, I assumed that Americans couldn't possibly dislike Venice. But this one did. Jack put Marion to the test. He suffered from severe diarrhoea and from having to photograph everything, but everything. Ah, no, not everything. Not the diarrhoea. Did he think this would make up for his tragic lack of Venice photos? They wanted to spend the last few days of their holiday in Marion's native Paris, from where they would return to New York. In Paris, they live one floor above Marion's parents (who are played by the real Delpy parents, by the way). Naturally, there is a culture clash. According to my theory, high-quality cuisines are characterised by offering sometimes disgusting specialities. French cuisine is no exception. This serves exclusivity, because normal mortals are thus excluded by the preferences of the gourmets. In Paris, rabbit is served. With the head and the rabbit eyes. Otherwise, Marion and Jack wander through Paris talking like lovers who are slowly starting to get on each other's nerves. A kind of anti before-sunrise concept. 2 Days In Paris, on the other hand, is about incompatibility: Paris reveals a side of Marion that Jack didn't know until then. Is Marion a radical activist? Or is she just acting like one? She constantly runs into old friends (Paris must be as much a village as Berlin). At one point she attacks an old friend because he was on holiday in Thailand. At home, Jack is questioned about French culture. Not quizzed, but quizzed. It's a test... 2 Days In Paris is entirely Delpy's film. She directed, wrote the screenplay, provided the editing, composed the score.... She even sings a song herself. The result is a sophisticated comedy with bitter undertones. At one point you wonder how Marion and Jack ever got the idea to go on a second date in the first place. Most punters compare the film to the Woody Allen classics of the 70s - with Delpy acting as Diane Keaton. However, she wouldn't be scared of insects, she would cook them. Delpy, the indie icon of the 90s, tries to avoid all Paris clichés here. Nothing seems romantic here. So you see almost nothing of Paris. All that's missing is that she positions the rubbish collection in front of the Eiffel Tower.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE wes Anderson - The Royal Tenenbaums 

New York looks like a fairytale and in one of the dreamy houses there live the Royal Tenenbaums. There are enough rooms for everyone. Everyone has his own private retreat area. Only the Patriarch Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman) left the house years ago and has been living in a hotel ever since. On credit, as you learn. His wife Etheline (Anjelica Huston) has managed to turn all the children - Chas (Ben Stiller), Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Richie (Luke Wilson) - into neurotics. Chas was a financial genius as a child. Margot won an award for a play. And Richie was a former tennis champion. He used to be. They, in turn, have various eccentric partners and friends. Such as the intellectual Clair (Bill Murray) or the neighbor Eli Cash (Owen Wilson), who writes terrible western books. Or Etheline's accountant Henry Sherman (Danny Glover), who then became a lover. And aren't such eccentrics almost always lonely deep in their hearts? Not so the Tenenbaums! Every family member is an extremely stable character. Even if Margot smokes secretly, although smoking would not be a problem at all with the Tenenbaums! But at least she has something to hide. Everything in The Royal Tenenbaums is half joking and half serious. This is because the movie respects its characters. After all, a Wes Anderson movie works according to the principle of reflecting on its very own emotions. These may only be shared by an absolute minority, namely the Royal Tenenbaums, but they are also to be respected. And so the movie follows its warm, gentle plot until the outrageous end...

cinegeek.de 

www.cinegeek.de is part of our video library Filmkunstbar Fitzcarraldo and is aimed at everyone who loves films and wants to stream them for free. There is a free stream every day. It's easy for us to choose, because these are the films that are rented the most in our video library. Fortunately, it's not just the usual Hollywood works, but also the gems that we would like to recommend to you! 

Film List Latino Mix 1 incl. FREE STREAMS 

The Latino miracle began with a man dragging a guitar case through the desert: El Mariachi by Robert Rodriguez. The beginning of a new wave in Latin American cinema, a creative explosion in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. Cinema without expensive effects and spectacular scenes, but with powerful sensuality. The pleasure in fabulating and the brilliant montage technique of the films give you the feeling as if the heart and soul of the heroes were flowing directly from the cuts onto the screen, as if the hectic breath were setting the rhythm: Amores perros, you are pulled into the middle of the action, into frenzied car chases and a brutal crash that ties together three threads of fate in the various episodes. Everything is marked by poverty and grievances, and yet the directors carry their homeland into the world with pride. Patriotic fires blaze in the heart of the new films. Gael Garcia Bernal is one of the stars of the new Mexican cinema, alongside female icons like Salma Hayek. In Y tu mama tambien, his friendship with his buddy is shattered by his affair with a mature woman. A sultry summer film, a road movie so true and real that you won't find it a second time! The new films from Latin America may be very different, but they are all rooted in the here and now. 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Martin Scorsese - Casino 

What would America be without the Mafia? What would it be without Las Vegas? A country where there is nothing more than the usual rules. Martin Scorsese's casino knows the connection between the Mafia and Las Vegas very well. His film was inspired by a true story. Casino begins with a bomb attack. The car of Sam "Ace" Rothstein flies through the air. Rothstein (Robert De Niro) is a mafia boss who took millions from the casinos in Las Vegas. A man who doesn't like to be robbed. A guest tries Blackjack. The security forces stun him and work his hand with a hammer. The guest admits to having made a mistake. But above all we have to understand Rothstein as a sober businessman who doesn't like difficulties. But even a sovereign man like him can fall: Rothstein will fall through the noble call girl Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone). He sees her on a security monitor and is instantly in love. But Ginger has been living with her pimp Lester Diamond (James Woods) since childhood. Rothstein will make her an offer she can't refuse. They get married. It is Rothstein's first mistake. Another mistake is the lifelong friendship with the killer Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci)... Scorsese tells all this at his own high pace, full of details. Thanks to these details, the Las Vegas of the 70's is created before us before it should become Disney World. In the meantime, Ginger starts drinking. She is also a bad mother. Her fights with Rothstein become louder and more unpleasant. And he should be the silent accountant of the Mafia. Scorsese's Mafia movies "Mean Streets" and "Goodfellas" are especially interested in characters. Casino, however, is just as serious about history. About the story of Las Vegas. During the 70's Las Vegas was in the hands of the Mafia. In the 80s, investors were supposed to take over the city. A place for the whole family, the types we would avoid Rothstein. Who knows, the player certainly had the chance to win in the 70s? But in a Las Vegas of the corporations the bank always wins. It's a city without hope. A city that now exists within the existing rules.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Vengo 

Tony Gatlif's film is so pure and clear that you can literally feel the flamenco beats! You dive deep into the world of the Gypsies, because rarely has a director dealt so successfully with the melodrama of a people! And the melodrama takes place in constant emotional change. The colourful backdrop is called Andalusia, but this colourful world, we soon realise, can also frighten the Gypsies. Black, darkened limousines pull up in front of white churches - but it is not the spirituality of the church that drives the pain out of this people. It is the power of dancing! Enter Mario, who fled home and has since lost his soul. Mario is accused of having killed and so members of the Caravaca clan smear threats of revenge on Mario's white house wall. But Caco's Mamacita and her sisters cover up the threats with the juice of a magical fruit: the Mamoncillo fruit. One feels as if one is in a labyrinth in this film and every drumbeat, indeed every noise, adds to this narrative. When Mario walks up the hill to his house, his footsteps sound like drumbeats. Then we see Spanish divas dancing exuberantly to the songs of the Gypsies. And again we are immersed in their world, where birth is an act of divinity and suicidal chivalry is an act of loyalty. One shows one's "worth" through cars or expensive watches. Technology is very important! A man dies between expensive cars, pierced by a blade. Solemnly he steps out into the realm of the dead. Vengo above all a breathtaking piece of performance art! 

Film List Belgium Comedies incl. FREE STREAMS 

 Where there are no wine-growing areas, where the North Sea is as grey as the sky, uncouth comedies come from. The cinematically ugly ones from Belgium are black humorous prolo-comedies. They are unfathomable moral paintings, grubby, drastic and tender like The Folly of Things. The Belgium of the Plumsklos and Pommesbuden is the soil for Louise Michel and Eldorado. The Groland Magazine on Canal plus, a satirical news programme fed by the gags of the brothers Benoit and Gustave de Kervern (Aaltra), sets the tone for this kind of comedy. Groland is a fictional country with odd characters and thus became a source of inspiration for the real Belgium. Yolande Moreau is the star of this kind of comedy, a lumpenproletarian cattle with a dragging zombie step, the rebirth of mother Flodder. In the Belgian comedies, singing, partying and gruesome wallpaper patterns are a must. Caravans as dwellings and Vokuhila hairstyles are the ingredients for precise character studies in the most remote asocial niches. Actually, all these films should be dramas. The patrons of the Belgian comedy are Aki Kaurismäki and Ken Loach, the great role model of the anarchic comedy Themroc as the ancestor of the funny drinkers, An-Die-Wand pissers and anti-citizens. But there is no beach waiting for her under the pavement... 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Dogman 

A mastiff, that is a fighting dog, of which one could assume, this beast would have fought in former times in a Roman arena. In front of him, a slim man, the dog hairdresser. He tries to appease the grim cattle, calling it "Amore". Then he tries it with the Wisch Mob. But the Mastiff bites his way into the mob with the intention of killing him. At this moment we are already in the middle of it, in this dark and tragic portrait of a little man who combines his fate with a violent force he can't control. His name is Marcello (Marcello Fonte) and he is a dog keeper in a shabby little town by the sea. His business is located outside in a row with other run-down shops. Besides, he delivers cocaine to Simoncino (Edoardo Pesce), the local gangster whom everyone in the town despises. But Marcello remains loyal to Simone in a self-destructive instinct. But Marcello's only true love belongs to the dogs, to whom he sacrifices himself devotedly. He even returns to a crime scene to save a Chihuahua. Marcello succeeds in washing dangerous dogs, but he fails because of humans. Why does he get involved with Simone with such devotion? Is it the money? Is he afraid? Is there such a thing as a terrible inescapable relationship between the two? Again and again Simone betrays Marcello. His trust is misguided. Finally he brings Marcello down, destroys his reputation - and turns him into a pariah. May we hope for a day of reckoning? What can save us from our own ruin? Our compassion? Our empathy?

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Lars von Trier - The Boss Of It All 

Lars von Trier - ever suffered a box office low, it was around 2005 when he produced The Boss Of It All. At the time, von Trier was suffering from depression and had problems finishing more elaborate films such as Antichrist. That's why few know this satire, which gleefully attacks comfortable liberal values. So how should both believing and non-believing von Trier devotees deal with it? So we put the DVD on our novelty shelf in 2006, knowing full well that Scandinavian comedies have always been held in high regard by you. In itself very easy to lend! Unfortunately, The Boss Of It All turned out to be a bit conventional. An office comedy, possibly even inspired by Ricky Gervais? Enter Ravn (Peter Gantzler), an easy going Danish manufacturer. The goods he produces go unmentioned. He is simply an entrepreneur, i.e. a prototype. He desperately tries to be loved by his workforce. This goes so far that he invents his own imaginary boss for difficult management decisions. This is the one who decides everything unpleasant. A kind of GMBH that is liable for everything that Ravn does not want to inflict on his employees himself. For this role he hires the unemployed actor Kristoffer (Jens Albinus). This cocky artist sees this as an opportunity for a method acting gig. He even forces Ravn to cede real powers to him (with Ravn increasingly horrified by his creation). It's a Hollywood template that sounds all too familiar, which is why Lars von Trier resorts to some mannerisms. Everything seems strangely differentiated, there are obligatory jump cuts and faulty framings. At the time, von Trier even claimed that a specially invented computer programme was responsible for the slanted camera angles (=The Boss Of It All). He called it Automavision and to this day no one knows if the programme ever existed? Most of you think that Lars von Trier must be one of the least funny people under the sun. Think of his creepily dark works! But The Boss Of it All may prove you wrong and provides some real laughs. It's funny that an annoying female employee screams when the printer beeps. Nevertheless, back in 2006 we hoped Lars von Trier would return in his old form to really provoke us once again. Fortunately, he did. 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Louis Malle - Au Revoir Les Enfants (engl. subt.) 

This is the story of a suspicious friendship at a Catholic boys' school. It is the story of Julien (Gaspard Manesse) and Jean (Raphael Fejto). It is also a story about how carefree children are when they run down the stairs of the school or secretly read under the blanket with the flashlight at night. Thus Louis Malle evokes the everyday life of a French boarding school in 1944. While the lives of these children are rushing forward full of energy, we unfortunately know: some of them have to die. Julien Quentin and Jean Bonnet are both twelve years old. The teachers and priests in the school really respect the boys. Julien believes that the children are happy in the boarding school. One day after Christmas a new boy comes to school. It is Jean. Julien and Jean do what kids of that age do. They scuffle and laugh and make friends. They both love to read. After a whole series of omens so subtle that no one else notices them, Julien learns that Jean is keeping a secret. Isn't it surprising how Jean does NOT answer all the questions about his family? Besides, he never prays with the other boys and does not join the choir. Then Julien finds a book called Kippelstein (you can hardly decipher it). It belongs to Jean. Probably Julien has never met a Jew. He knows nothing about them. "Why do we actually hate the Jews"; he asks his older brother. He gives a simple answer: "They are smarter than us and they killed Jesus". Strange, Julien thinks. Didn't the Romans kill Jesus? During a piano lesson with the beautiful Davenne (Irene Jacob), Julien understands what his brother means. He himself fails. Then it's Jean's turn, who plays beautifully. We'll look at Julien's face in close-up afterwards. He's thinking. He thinks it all over again. And he decides to keep Jean's secret. And on the outside? Marshal Petain's collaborating French government has lost popularity. An American invasion is imminent. By the way, the Nazis are not necessarily drawn as monsters by Louis Malle - he doesn't make it that easy for us. In one restaurant scene they even treat an old man very decently. And in an eerie forest scene, in which Julien and Jean search for a treasure until the sun goes down, they are even picked up by the Germans. The Nazis wrap the boys in warm blankets and notice that they are Bavarians and also Catholics. The two never talk about Julien keeping Jean's secret. Once Julien asks his friend if he is afraid? Yes, Julien asks his friend. All the time. Anyone who reads a bit more about the film will learn that it is based on war memories of Louis Malle. Malle himself went to a boarding school like the one in the film. Like so many other French institutions, Louis Malle's boarding school took in Jewish children under false names. Once the Germans raided this school and arrested three children and the director. We experience this scene in the film. It is the priest who turns to the children who are being taken away: "Au revoir les enfants" Louis Malle is not only a pioneer of the Nouvelle Vague, he even started earlier than his comrades-in-arms. Strictly scientifically speaking, there is no need to include him in the inner circle of the Nouvelle Vague. Be that as it may. He revolutionized film technology by riding through Paris on a bicycle with a camera mounted on it. I stole exactly this technique from him last week by riding my bike through Berlin and filming with my mobile phone. For our bar film that is currently being made - directed by Lea and Katrin. If my shaky mobile phone film is taken, I can claim that I stole the idea from Louis Malle. And what role might Malle himself have played in the film? Is he the model for Julien? In the film Julien makes a terrible mistake. Unintentionally. It's one of those mistakes you'll never forgive yourself for. Never! Julien burns with shame and remorse. But Jean calms him down. "The Germans would have caught me anyway." We see Julien in a long close-up. Inevitably, one must think of the end of "The 400 Blows". Then we hear the original voice of Louis Malle himself: More than 40 years have passed; explains Malle. But he will always remember that January morning until the day he dies.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.De Life According To Agfa 

 A pub in the middle of Tel Aviv where everyone meets: Jews, Palestinians and Israeli Arabs, people from the city and the country. Whether soldier, Zionist or Intifada supporter, you drink together. It's a place where the togetherness seems to work, where most of the characters in the film are drawn repulsively and greasily. Why should we be interested in their problems at all, which could be the result of a soap opera? The scenery looks a bit like theatre, which is also due to the fact that amateur actors were engaged. With a little good will, however, you get an overview of the slowly boiling emotions, held together by the basic idea that the owner Lenora captures the action with snapshots (on Agfa, which gives the film its title). Finally, a group of Israeli soldiers enters the bar and the situation escalates. They harass a waitress and provoke the guests. Obviously they rate the pub as "left". They are thrown out, but the spiral of violence is unstoppable. At the end of the night there is the apocalypse. Director Assi Dayan is the son of the former Israeli defense minister and despite all his weaknesses, he probably made the most important Israeli film ever. Basically we experience the whole Middle East conflict in the microcosm of the bar. Is there hope? Hardly. 

Film List Hollywood 50s Pt. II incl. FREE STREAMS 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Hirokazu Koreeda - Mabrorosi 

 Maborosi is a film of astonishing beauty - and very, very sad! It is the story of a woman whose happiness is destroyed in a single moment. Seemingly for no reason. Time passes, she tries to mend the broken pieces. Sometimes she can even distract herself a little. But at the centre of her life is emptiness and a question that is still unanswered. The woman's name is Yumiko (Makiko Esumi). She is tall and slender and serious. And she brings a great silence to the screen. Yumiko hardly speaks. She often sits there, absorbed in herself, lost in thought. Her clothes are long and always dark. When we meet her, she must be in her early twenties. Yumiko is married to Ikuo (Tadanobu Asano). They both have a little boy. Then it happens; an inexplicable event and Yumiko is a widow. Maborosi was Hirokazu Koreeda's first film. We ordered the DVD when the video store was founded in Switzerland by the great label Trigon Film. Trigon is an association that releases films mainly from Africa, South America and Southeast Asia. And fortunately also from Japan! I think you can immediately tell who Koreeda's role model is: old master of Japanese cinema Ozu. Koreeda also likes to place his camera at the protagonists' eye level. His figures often kneel. His shots like to begin and end in empty spaces. The characters speak while sitting next to each other, without looking at each other. Koreeda works with many long shots and few close-ups. His camera does not move. It observes. The clearest bow to Ozu, however, are the small interruptions, such as when Koreeda interrupts the action to simply look at something else for a moment. A street or a shop, for example. Once you even see a tea kettle (a clear reminiscence, because Ozu loved to insert a beautifully shaped tea kettle). Of course, these details are only incidental and yet so carefully done that they must be mentioned. They hint at tradition. In the whole film there is not one shot that is NOT graceful and very pleasing. One often imagines life full of significant, painful questions. Maborosi is one of those rare and very valuable films where you can actively put yourself in the mind of the characters. We feel great understanding and sympathy for them! We want to understand Koreeda's characters and we do. He often asks very immediate questions - but behind them are the big questions of life. Yumiko complains that everything is spinning in her head. She remarries and her second husband offers a kind of answer to her pressing question. It is based on an experience fishermen have at sea when they see a light, a mirage. It is called Maborosi and lures them further out to sea. But what is the reason for this light? 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Andrzej Zulawski - Cosmos 

Whoever wants to find the true Zulawski behind the surface of his effects, pays attention to the moving tragedy that lies behind his sarcasm. Doesn't Cosmos seem like a dark fairytale world we're immersed in? Witold (a student, but without a degree) and Fuchs (a former fashion journalist) hate the forest. Witold throws himself on his knees in front of a strangled bird. Then there's a storm coming. They stop by Madame Woytis' pension, which sometimes freezes with rage. The maid Catherette, whose lip is torn open, works in the hostel. The flesh has vaulted outwards. Madame Woyti's daughter Lena, on the other hand, is of fascinating beauty. Witold desires Lena and both get closer in ellipses. At some point, everyone notices that what is happening repeats itself. Finally there are doubles, because we are in a Zulawski movie... Andrzej Zulawski has not worked for 15 years (possibly because his last films were unsuccessful). Cosmos is constantly on the move, we experience the unleashed camera that makes Zulawski's films so captivating. Breathlessly we follow the characters' endless conversations - but Comos is anything but a heady dialogue film! Zulawski basically tries to illustrate the sheer nonsense of education in his own dialogues. It is based on a novel by Witold Gombrowicz, who took it upon himself to describe existential questions quite frivolously. The failed Witold will never be able to win Lena over. Fuchs is as far away from being a cultural gourmet as Zulawski. Behind it reveals the true Zulawski: An infinitely sad filmmaker who asks for forgiveness. He never leaves his protagonists alone, he feels their tortures - and here we certainly experience his own suffering through the filter of the surreal. His whole work serves only the purpose of exposing what lives destructively within us. We need to see Zulawski as a great romantic in seeking only one thing: Mercy.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Jean-Luc Godard - Vivre Sa Vie (engl. subt.) 

Sometimes I would have loved to grow up in the 60s! I would have waited in the rain in front of an arthouse cinema for 30 pfennigs and waited for the next screening of Vivre Sa Vie. Maybe I could have seen the original Godard at a film festival! The way he says things like that: "The cinema, this is not the station. It's the train..." Or was it the other way around? It doesn't matter. I'd have just listened and nodded like the others. Everyone loved his films! The way we all discussed "Tarantino" in the '90s, we would have talked about Godard. How he turns the camera around 360 degrees, stops at once and drives everything back! Just to prove to us that he can! Today we scratch his monument. Was he overrated? After all, art films are "out" - or not? Well, I can give you the rental numbers from our video store: Godard, Godard and Godard again! Especially his early work is rented and rented again! Vivre Sa Vie takes the first place. Today is the day for me again. Vivre Sa Vie has to go into my DVD player. After five minutes it's all over for me. I do not move. I stare at the monitur. Until it's over. I mean, even after the credits have ended, to really breathe again! It's a great film. It's one of the greatest movies ever. The story is told by Nana (Anna Karina). Anna Karina was Godard's wife at that time. She looks almost transparent with her porcelain face, her cautious looking eyes, her black hair that fits around her head like a helmet and her chic clothes. We know that the Nouvelle Vague needs beautiful women and cool guys who smoke non-stop! Anna Karina also smokes all the time. She embodies a young Parisian woman. The opening credits show her face first sideways, then frontally. From beginning to end the film will watch her, try to read her face. Let's not miss anything! Not a single movement! Add to this the music by Michel Legrand, which suddenly stops and then continues with the next motif. As if the music wanted to explain Anna Karina. But it fails and starts all over again. In the next picture we see her, Nana, from behind. She is talking to Paul. We learn that Paul is her husband. She has left him and their child. Now she has a vague idea of what comes next. Maybe she's going to the movies. Godard's favorite cinematographer, Raoul Coutard, will be showing Nana first, then Paul. She zooms back and forth, is directed at the back of Nana's head, then their faces shine in the mirror. Vivre Sa Vie is divided into thirteen such images, which correspond to old-fashioned novels. Nana tries to steal the key to her apartment from the concierge's office, but is caught and taken out into the street. She has no home and no money. Is this her fault or her fate? Why did she leave Paul? Does she have no feelings for her child? Nana goes to the movies, where Dreyer's "The Passion Of Joan Of Arc" is playing. Of course she does. Dreyer's film is also about a woman who is judged by men. She meets a guy in a bar who wants to take pictures of her. There's a fight over a 1000 franc note. The police are coming. Then Nana hits the whore route and gets bought by a john. But he's not allowed to kiss her. The camera is always on her heels. In a record shop, Nana argues with a customer. The camera suddenly turns away and looks out the window. Then Nana meets Raoul, her pimp. He wants a smile from her. The camera pauses first on her, then on him. Nana refuses to smile; the camera turns away from Raoul and stops at Nana again. This is more than just "style". The camera shows us how people look at other people. It makes us aware of it. Then the most famous picture: Nana smokes while a customer hugs her. She looks over his shoulder. Her eyes are completely empty. Later she is kissed by Raoul. She breathes out the smoke of her last cigarette. What can you do in this Paris? You hang around in bars, wishing you had more money. Prostitution is called "La Vie" in France by the way, which gives the title its meaning. Finally Vivre Sa Vie ends up in a thriller - just like we know it from Godard's first big movie. But what does the camera do? It points to the floor. It simply looks away. It ignores the end of its own film. Who remembers Nana's conversation with the philosopher in the café? He tells her the story of a man who runs away from danger. He runs and runs until he gets scared and stops. That's what kills him. The man thinks for the first time and dies. And Nana? Will she die the first time she stops? Curious, she follows the old man's explanations. We experience her curious, big eyes, which until then rejected any feeling! Before, Paul told the story of the chicken. If you take the outer shell of the chicken, you keep the inner part. Nana is nothing but an outer shell. Vivre Sa Vie hardly knows any gradations. The film stares at its protagonist. Somehow it discourages us in our attempt to interpret Nana's life melodramatically. Godard follows a strict logic that must be French. Of course it happens that way. Nana sits, waits, drinks and smokes. She makes some money. She meets her first pimp and relinquishes all control over her life. Only once we see her dancing and laughing in front of a jukebox. Only this one time we can make the little girl realize she once was. In this moment we catch a glimpse into her soul! Otherwise, she is nothing but surface. If you read a little more about Vivre Sa Vie, you will learn that Godard used first takes almost exclusively. We can see that! The camera looks curious! She sees everything for the first time and is amazed! Vivre Sa Vie is clear, snappy and completely unsentimental. Then the film ends abruptly.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Wild Style 

For all those of an older age who grew up in New York, the Times Square Show will probably be remembered. It took place in 1980 as a comprehensive event and offered artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring a stage. If you want to delve deeper into history, the show took place in a massage parlour on 41st Street. We know such converted shops from the 00s in Neukölln or today in Lichtenberg or Schöneweide. Something like this must be raw and urban, like the former drinks warehouse of our old supplier, where artists have now set up their studios. At least it's right on the Spree and nice and cheap. This is exactly the kind of thing that no-wave filmmaker Charlie Ahearn filmed with his Super 8 camera on the Lower Eastside. The beginning of a dream that was to be called Wild Style - the blending of video art, fashion, music, performance, and so on. Wild Style was supposed to be a love song to all the graffiti artists of the early 80s. And of course they wanted to capture the hip hop that was being done outside on the streets, which is why Wild Style was shot right in the Bronx. In other words, where hip hop was born around 1974. Starring: Graffiti artists, breakdancers, rappers and they just play themselves. Of course, a production like this is always no budget. No filming permit, but a lot of milieu. In DIY, a world shines in which anything is possible! Next to buildings that look as bombed out as Kreuzberg in the 80s, murals shine. Wild Style puts forward a thesis that is surprising today and counts hip hop among other New York sub-cultures such as punk or new wave. An art movement can only be complete if it combines dance, music and visuals. That's why we jump from a basketball match to the breakdancers of the Rock Steady Crew, then to one by the old-school rap legend Busy Bee and end up with Grandmaster Flash. A documentary or a fictional drama? Cut out 20 minutes and you're left with a doc (very interesting for our director Lea, who wants to feed a doc about our bar with extra scenes). The story seems like a series of attempts, but you don't necessarily follow them (and neither does Wild Style). For example, the graffiti artist who pines for his ex-girlfriend Rose (Sandra "Lady Pink" Fabara). At one point, two graffiti artists are even taken to an upscale cocktail party on the Upper East Side, and Wild Style proves to be a successful social satire. None of the subplots turn out to be drama; everything somehow goes on without a hitch. Narrative tension or moral messages? Fortunately not! Here, ordinary people simply go on living their lives, helping to shape the Bronx a little. No one rises above this urban shambles. No one is looking for a way out, everyone just wants to express themselves. At one point, a group of kids are asked if they know any graffiti artists. "We're all graffiti artists"; they say happily. Everyone raps, dances and writes. Not from a stage, but in the middle of the crowd. That's why there are no camera tricks or other cinematic antics. Wild Style was created precisely in this world; it is never above what it shows. Today, Wild Style is considered the very first hip hop film - but it doesn't introduce hip hop at all. That had long been done by word of mouth. Shortly after, the first commercial films like Beat Street and Breakin' were made - yet for quite a while Wild Style was the highest-grossing film in New York City. Or the second highest, if you want to check, you should visit imdb. Wild Style became a huge success especially here in Berlin. On both sides of the Berlin Wall! We in the West could use the Wall for graffiti. A few school friends even wanted to create the longest graffiti in West Berlin. Whole sections of the Wall were now Wild Style! But not only in Berlin, everywhere Wild Style developed into a cult film, distributed on VHS. Our DVD is from 2007 - a nice nostalgia trip. Because Wild Style rejects common dramaturgy, it remains all the fresher. Welcome back to 1982! 

Film List Hollywood 50s 

Around 1959, the American film industry entered the worst crisis in its history. The boom of television from 1947 weakened Hollywood more than the war before. 6000 movie theaters had to close, finally the loss of the industry amounted to more than 6 million dollars. The supreme court caused another devastating judgement because the big studios were forced to sell their cinema chains. Companies like MGM thus lost their most secure sales opportunities. From then on the privatized cinemas enjoyed the freedom to no longer exclusively accept the productions of the corporations. Already during the 50s the cinema tried to meet the competition of television with attractions. The production of cheap black-and-white films was almost completely stopped by the studios in favour of expensive material. Although the attempt to produce three-dimensional films failed due to the resistance of the audience, a number of widescreen methods prevailed. The robe was the first Cinemascope film and beat the box office records of all earlier productions. The length of the films grew, the expenditure of extras, costumes and buildings exceeded every known measure. But a number of independent producers could establish themselves next to the majors; not with colossal movies, but with interesting material that paid off faster. The most successful were the companies of director Stanley Kramer as well as the actors Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster and Henry Fonda. The United Artists, the distributor for independent productions, became the most powerful company of its time - even though he had been on the verge of bankruptcy in 1951. In the end they arranged themselves with the television as well as with the independent producers and it succeeded gradually to become master over the crisis: Older movies were released for television, big studios also rented their facilities to independents and in the end even produced TV series themselves. In 1961 the income exceeded the record year 1947 again for the first time.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Home 

Two questions will never be answered in Home: 1. how did this family come to live here in the first place? 2. why does the mother so desperately refuse to move away from here? Even when a motorway is being built in their front yard? In the beginning, they live comfortably in their little house, not far from the country road, which has not been used for ten years. The road basically belongs to them and is also suitable as a hockey field. But then thick lorries approach and lay a new layer of asphalt. Guard rails are installed. The hockey sticks and the paddling pool are moved aside by the workers without a word. Even the charcoal grill. Then you hear something on the radio about the inauguration of this road and shortly afterwards the first car speeds past. The family seems basically quite average - perhaps a little more unconventional than my family, for example (or so it seems). The parents cuddle, the boy plays, the twenty-year-old daughter smokes in secret. she is a typical teenager, wears black and looks sad. Every morning the father (Olivier Gourmet) drives to work in the green Volvo, while the mother (Isabelle Huppert) does the housework. The opening of the motorway was no surprise to them. But the heavy, incessant traffic is becoming a real problem. In the past, the children crossed the road to get to school faster. Today, the way to the house is full of dangers. Is there even a danger of carbon dioxide poisoning? It is now much harder for the boy to visit his friends. Only the teenage daughter continues to sunbathe in the front garden and gives the truck drivers the middle finger. And the film gets darker and darker... Director Ursula Meier skilfully leads us to explosive passages. Much of what happens would make no sense in most households. Apparently, however, there are some shallows in this family - which we sense from the beginning. At least we know that for sure, the moment disaster takes its course. The great thing about Home is, of course, Isabelle Huppert. She seems to have been looking the same for ages while slipping into fundamentally different roles. Again and again she takes on completely new characters from the inside. We can never guess what she is thinking - although we have known this actress for ages! Huppert's face is almost unfathomable and therefore all the more fascinating! Here we can put ourselves in the place of Huppert i a woman for whom a home is not just a house.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.De Arthur Penn - Alice's Restaurant

This is a good and very unexcited film by Arthur Penn. At no point does one get the impression that he wanted to make a big movie. On the contrary: Penn simply shows some friends and some months of their lives. Births, deaths, weddings. Up to this degree he actually behaves in a "factorylike" way towards the songs of Arlo Guthrie, who plays the leading role. I think any other film (which would be more under pressure to perform) would be inappropriate! Maybe Penn even should have done without the rudiments of a plot, because Guthrie is always best when he's on the road. On the highway by hitchhiking, when he plays guitar or just visits his friends Ray (James Broderick) and Alice (Ray Quinn). Not quite as relaxed and convincing are the scenes in which we learn more about the love life of Alice and Ray. Alice is something like a hippie mother for everyone. She takes in the lost souls, tries to bring them back to life. Sometimes she succeeds; Alice would probably call it a transfusion of life. However, she is a sensual and spiritual person. But then Ray shows up and the two begin to quarrel and their relationship becomes ambiguous. What should we think now? Is Alice unfaithful? And what does Ray believe? Arthur Penn leaves us floating, which is why the love scenes haven't become as good as they could have been. Also difficult is the decision that Arlo's father (Joseph Boley), who is already showing signs of old age, will appear. Do we see Arlo here in a few years? Isn't that a little too close to life? I think we should accept these scenes as a sign of how honestly Alice's restaurant is meant. Still, these scenes seem a bit artificial. But most of the time Alice's Restaurant is a warm, lively movie. Penn portrays a lifestyle, no plot with different characters. It's the attitude towards life of the hippie generation. We feel the touch of New Hollywood! Convincing also Arlo Guthrie himself, who seems so quiet, open and natural in front of the camera. Alice's Restaurant unites the spirit of the singer Guthrie with the tact of his director Penn. 

Film List hollywood 40's incl. FREE STREAMS 

Already in the 30's a certain politicization of Hollywood had begun which had a full effect in the 40's. After the war some directors and authors tried to become independent by founding their own companies - which in most cases failed because of the banks. But some, like Samuel Goldwyn, who had already created a studio before the war, produced some of the best works of the 40s. The greatest blow was dealt to the left by the Senate Committee for the "Investigation of Un-American Activities" set up in 1938. A state of paralysis spread which only began to give way after the abdication of the responsible Senator McCarthy. The turn to reality made the American documentary film movement clear, the cut to a new period marked the appearance of Orson Welles Citizen Kane. Kane bore the features of various self-made men, including Welles. He presents himself as an idealist or materialist, egoist or altruist - as the situation demands. Every opinion about him is correct, but none hits its core. The structure of the film resembles a journalistic study and does not obey conventional dramaturgy. The favourable conditions under which Citizen Kane was produced were never given to Welles again. With von Strohheim he shared the lot of an "auteur maudit". In addition to Welles, it was William Wyler who initiated the renunciation of the traditional style. Similar to Welles Wyler stood for a kind of "inner montage" of his movies, The best years of our lives used the film language of the Italian neorealists. Like Chaplin's, Hitchcock's work does not belong to any period. He stayed the same forever, his crime movies were regarded as the perfection of the genre, but they were never interested in the crime case. In a static order Hitchcock's heroes experience the uncanny, they get into a crime, are falsely suspected or pushed into action. The horror rises from the everyday. Familiar objects such as telephones, liquids or jewellery become messengers of disaster. Through the perspective of the camera, things change and become uncanny. As in the British horror novels, everything grows out of everyday bourgeois life and is not metaphysically grounded as with the German Expressionists. Hitchcock's Happy Endings are usually transparent as attempts at appeasement; his horror is broken again by Anglo-Saxon irony. Preston Sturges was an author in the European sense who developed the American comedy of the pre-war period into a social satire. He activated forgotten techniques of comedy all the way back to slapstick comedy. Sturges polemicized against society and against his own comedies. Sullivan´s travels was the main work, a milieu investigation among the very poor, whose preferences the director Sullivan explores in order to create in the end not a social film, but an undemanding laughing stock for his clientele. The black series hit the tone of the time the hardest, was equally suspicious of the ruling order and authentic in its milieu drawing. The black series, the documentary crime film and the socio-critical film were three trends of the time. Of all three, "pure" works can be derived such as John Huston's debut The Maltese Falcon. The best documentary crime films are Kiss of death by Henry Hathaway, The naked city by Jules Dassin and Panic in the streets by Elia Kazan. They don't focus on crime, but on its resolution. Socially critical films such as The best years of our lives by William Wyler, The men by Fred Zinnemann or All the king´s men by Robert Rossen examine the susceptibility of the petty bourgeoisie to totalitarian movements. Even anti-racist films such as Home of the Braves or those that denounced antisemitism such as Crossfire were made. In contrast to the black series, the socially critical films of the 40s had no style of their own. Many of the directors sank to insignificance during the 50s or gained some important works from the reception of the style of the 40s. Only a few grew beyond the limits of the realism of the 40s, only John Huston, Billy Wilder, Elia Kazan, Fred Zinnemann and Joseph L. Mankiewicz stood out later with individual works.

Film List Fantasy Arthouse incl. FREE STREAMS 

Fantasy is the genre that builds most on the familiar and offers fans a haven beyond reality. The great 60s fantasy novels are filmed in such a way that they satisfy the viewer's expectations, and the penchant for sequels prolongs this enjoyment. The list of Arthaus fantasy films does exactly that, they are excitingly different, break with the usual, take us into unknown territory. Between avant-garde and feature film, worlds are created here that one has never entered before, curiosity is the fascinating thing about it.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE The Wanderers 

In 1979, three great gang films saw the cinema screens of the world: "Quadrophenia", "The Warriors" and Philip Kaufman's The Wanderers. Kaufman looks (just like Quadrophenia) full of nostalgia back to a time about which we basically don't know much: The early 60s, the time between the rebels of the 50s, but still before the student revolt of the hippie era. Life on the streets of the Bronx 1963. The Wanderers are a teen gang of Italian immigrants, their opponents are the blacks and the Koreans. But the worst enemy of the wanderers are the bald "elders". Richie is the leader of the Wanderers and we see everyday life through his perspective. Everyone in his gang has just finished high school and is making their first steps with girls, shyly exchanging phone numbers and hosting rock'n'roll parties. This is done in a humorous and never precocious way. Sometimes you also feel the existential need around her (during a fight even a gang member dies). But Richie also has completely different experiences: He hears a folk singer named Dylan in a bar and learns about Kennedy's death - but reacts completely uninvolved. The decay of the gang comes naturally: Richie is expecting a child with his lover, two others have to leave because they had a fight with their father. In the Bronx, nothing keeps her: The families break down, the girlfriend just broke up, the school-leaving certificate doesn't help her. Like so many others, they leave for San Francisco... Philip Kaufman filmed this rigorously from the perspective of his protagonists and for them there was neither a "bourgeois" nor a "leftist" world view. Kaufman doesn't dramatize anything unnecessarily, but rather tells it casually. He relies on amateur actors. There is a lot going on in our heads, because here something like a first youth revolt arises, even if quite unconsciously.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Elia Kazan - A Face In The crowd 

There's always a film that predicted the political future - but it seems that A Face In The Crowd, directed by Elia Kazan in 1950, knew the future to this day. At the centre is philosopher Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes, who first fools a film producer, then the makers of a TV show, the advertising industry and finally an entire country. Of course, he doesn't do it in a fine suit, but recognisably as part of the New York establishment. To preach the tenets of modern conservatism and reach the target audience, smug intellectualism only inhibits. Instead, it helps to tap into the popular sensibility, and that's exactly what Larry does. A hard-drinking misogynist, he's a radio host who tells smug Southern stories about home-cooked meals and eccentric relatives. So he rises through the ranks, ends up in television and uses his influence for political ends. Larry follows no script and his supposed authenticity ensures him a loyal audience. First and foremost is a personal vendetta against the local sheriff who previously put him in jail for drunkenness. As his influence grows, he serves a senator as a kingmaker. Of course, the senator's image must be corrected first.... Under Larry's direction, the senator becomes a down-to-earth guy you go hunting with. And whom you can invite to your own talk show to make a presidential candidacy palatable to him. It is now time to attack the social security system. Larry and HIS candidate wear two faces. One for the public: it serves to implore voters to vote against their own interests. This not only seems timelessly American; it can already be found in Europe and Germany. A very essential feature of any such campaign is blatant racism. An issue that is guaranteed to appeal to a certain proportion of male voters. The very section that feels marginalised by the demographics of the nation. It is the ugliest part of such strategies as Larry's that they must inevitably turn to violence. A film like this by Elia Kazan focuses primarily on Larry's personality, his flamboyance, less on the milieu and machinery that created him. We follow this vulgar, rough guy as he spreads lies with relish. We know we are dealing with a fraud, but we react as if hypnotised by his attraction. Television is his department, here he builds himself up in front of us, pushing all others to the side. But finally, r begins to bore us. That is the moment when we begin to think about ourselves and our reality again.