FREE ON CINEGEEK.De David Fincher - Zodiac  

This is the biggest of all serial killer movies! The Opus Magnum of the genre! Not only is the movie based on the murders of the Zodiac Killer; it even spreads the same feeling! The Zodiac Killer, that was a case that stank! One who provoked people! Never could you catch the killer, so many resolutions and feints he laid. In the end, it was a cartoonist who was stubborn enough to assemble the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle and put together a man who was MANY guilty. Zodiac combines the motifs of the cop thriller with those of the journalist thriller, but fortunately is free of clichés of both genres. He leads us deep into a labyrinth of facts and suspicions until our blood freezes. Somehow director David Fincher and his screenwriter James Vanderbilt have managed to find their way through this darkness. So many characters are summoned that we are no different than the eyewitnesses in the case: we remember faces we once saw. Zodiac opens with a sudden and extremely brutal murder. More will follow. In five cases, the police are certain that they were committed by the Zodiac Killer, but other murders also bear his signature. However, Zodiac is not one of those movies that resemble a single bloody path. All murders are committed at the beginning. Then the killer writes his cryptic letters to various newspapers, which in turn have to be translated by journalists and the police. David Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) and William Armstrong (Anthony Edwards) are the two cops. Toschi works according to the textbook, because he believes in the textbook. Armstrong, on the other hand, trusts his instinct. Next to that he appears: The journalist Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr as the epitome of the chain-smoking reporter) and the cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal). They all really existed. And in fact, it must have been that journalists at their desks opened the bottle of schnapps and smoked and smoked and smoked. We expect journalists who solve a murder to do the same! Graysmith, whose book the film is based on, is still new to his editorial staff. He looks like the new guy in his class. It's Graysmith who is obsessively working on the case, even as interest in the Zodiac Killer begins to decline. Zodiac seems extremely authentic and this is due to the chases and gunfire. The police work is precisely recreated - and that's what makes a good cop thriller. Graysmith is an unarmed civilian and this is the suspense of Zodiac: "We worry about him and we have to! Graysmith is naive and can't assess risks. David Fincher follows him and gives him room. In general, he takes his time. He doesn't show nine shots where even one reaches. Zodiac seems like a protest against modernity. A classic that also looks like one! Fincher has understood that the real crime doesn't belong to the same genre as "Crime Action".

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Jim Henson - Labyrinth 

Jim Henson's production began with a real inspiration: a fantasy fairy tale based on the pictures of M. C. Escher: In one of his works you can see a room from which stairs branch off in all directions. A labyrinth. Combined with David Bowie's soundtrack and impressive images, Labyrinth is missing something: real life. Sarah (the young Jennifer Connelly) is supposed to take care of her little brother. She lives in her own magical world and curses the fact that she once again has to look after the child. She wishes Goblin would take the child away. Her wish should be heard: Jareth (David Bowie), the ruler of the dark world, pays her a visit. The world of mysticism remains closed to normal eyes, but not to Sarah. To get her brother back, Sarah has to make her way through the labyrinth of the underworld. Our first look at the labyrinth is impressive. Jim Henson at the height of his form! His dolls look more real and scary than ever before. The world full of nightmares seems almost arbitrary. Everything can happen at any time, the underworld of the labyrinth follows no logic. In contrast to his Muppets productions, Henson's puppets enter a human world in Labyrinth (and are not human guests of the Muppets). David Bowie convinces as Jareth, although he himself almost mutates into a comic character. But basically he plays a real Bowie character: A being from another world. Unfortunately, Labyrinth is too long. The red thread is missing, a coherent plot. The journey into the labyrinth, like a marathon run through different dangers. But the adventures lack structure, they follow each other like a chain of accidents. Sarah is sometimes almost killed, then caught, she does this, then that happens... Henson put all his energy into the pictures, the story can't keep up.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE A Christmas Carol (1951) 

Scrooge, portrayed by Alastair Sim is exactly like the dour and morose creature of the original. A Christmas Carol is above all a ghost story and Brian Desmond Hurst's version also carries nightmarish overtones. We experience visions of Scrooge's life story and impressions of poverty and misery in 19th century England. Human baseness and the torment of a shabby soul. This is in keeping with Dickens' template and accordingly the atmosphere of Hurst's film is bleak and chilly. This is not a jolly Christmas film, but underscores Dickens' moral. For by "Dickensian" we mean stories of poverty, lousy working conditions and injustice, especially against children. That is the world of Charles Dickens.

CINEGEEK.DE Deutsche Arthaus Filme auf netflix 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Asghar Farhadi - About Elly 

One of Asghar Farhadi's guiding themes is to challenge sexual politics in contemporary Iran. Perhaps that is what makes his films so disturbing? But it is also what distinguishes him from the great directors of Iran who began their careers twenty years earlier. So you will find the role models of About Elly here with us in Europe. Do you still remember Roman Polanski's very first feature film? Or Michelangelo-Antonioni's "L'Avventura"? What these films had in common was that they closely observed the dynamics within a group. How does something like group guilt arise? Here it is a circle of friends from the Iranian middle class. They all come from Tehran. Together with their children they went to the sea. A weekend vacation. It was the lively Sepideh (Iran's biggest star Golshifteh Farahani) who invited Elly (Taraneh Alidoosti). No one in the group knows Elly any closer. She is the teacher of her children, that's it. Of course, Sepideh had something in mind and that was to set Elly up. Perhaps to the recently divorced Ahmad (Shahab Hosseini), who has just returned from a business trip from Germany? Elly and Ahmad even have a longer conversation with each other. But the story won't be that straightforward. It strikes a right angle. The group giggles, people talk about Elly's forthcoming wedding. Even Sepideh is involved and we feel uncomfortable. We - the audience - witness something unpleasant. All this seems to go beyond mere blasphemy. Elly leaves the room. There is a crisis and then Elly just disappears. Without a trace. Ellie is just gone. Now all the lies and secrets that exist beneath the surface come out. Elly's bizarre disappearance is said to have had repercussions... And we're already in the middle of a major psychogram!

FREE ON CINEGEEK.De Zhang Yimou - The Road Home 

Everything in Zhang Yimou's tender The Road Home is so perfectly composed and seamlessly put together! The Berlinale winner is a simple, lyrical ballad with a score reminiscent of James Horner's Titanic soundtrack. If you pay close attention, you will even recognise a Titanic poster right at the beginning of the film - so we may speak of a quote here. Zhang Yimou, who belongs to China's famous 5th generation of directors, began his work as a cinematographer. His feeling for the colours and moods of nature give the love story something universal. The action takes place in the hilly, untouched nature of northern China. Only a dirt road serves as a connection to the outside world. There is no electricity. Water is pumped from the well. We experience the change of seasons. The winter is grey-blue and when snow and cold threaten to swallow up everything, troublesome everyday thoughts recede into the background. It is a world of childlike wonder! We know this way of filming nature from Iranian cinema and its parables, which convey a similar awareness of nature. Outrageously beautiful are the camera shots of the village and the grain fields glowing in late summer. A sense of nostalgia takes hold of us, a touch of spirituality. The Road Home is about the purifying return to nature. This is where the two humble lovers live (while the cultural revolution rages outside somewhere). Time Jump. China here and now. The story begins with young engineer Luo Yusheng (Sun Honglei) returning to the village where he was born on the occasion of his father's death. His grieving mother insists that his father be buried according to the old custom. The wrapped body has to be carried on foot from the hospital back to the village. Via the only road that connects the village with the outside world. As Yusheng reflects on his father's death, he begins to remember his parents' marriage, their great love. While the China of today is illuminated in gloomy grey, the past now shines in the brightest colours. The mother Zhao Di (Zhang Ziyi), just 18 years old, falls in love at first sight with the handsome new village teacher from the city. His name is Luo Changyu (Zheng Hao). Di is the prettiest girl in the village. She resisted an arranged marriage. Changyu notices her interest and shyly returns it. The villagers now begin to build his schoolhouse. Meanwhile, Di lovingly weaves the red cloth for the curtains. Later, she will visit the school every day to hear his voice as he teaches. Zhang Ziyi plays Di, behind whose innocent façade lies obsessive passion. Di has realised her destiny and does not let anything or anyone stop her (certainly not advice that the gentleman from the city is nothing for a country girl). The chaste courtship turns into painful waiting when Changyu has to face a political interrogation in the city. Di waits and all her hopes are pinned on his return. She almost dies of fever while waiting by the road for the teacher to return.... But The Road Home is not a political film. It merely shows how political changes affect people like Di. The revolution may have turned the whole of China upside down, but here it is only a faint flicker on the wintry horizon.

NETFLIX Indie Movies 

here comes our selection of the best indie movies on netflix. compiled by cinegeek.de

if you need more; in our film archive you can find about 10.000 more indie movies, sorted by director and country. 

Arthouse on Netflix 

Our movie list with Arthaus movies on Netflix, collected on the page of our video store cinegeek.de - and of course you can find more 10.000 Arthaus movies in our video basement. Sorted by directors and countries and genre. But a little Netflix service doesn't hurt. 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Baran 

It wasn't that long ago that we used to imply that the people of Iran were basically grim fanatics living there, sulking in their resentment of the West. Really? It's easy to think that way when a country is far away and we label it the "enemy." Then something happened that no one would have suspected. Women, men take to the streets, women rip their headscarves off their heads, protest. They want the overthrow, to no longer be ruled by old grim men. Baran from 2001 shows us what the people in Iran are really like. The "foreigners" are thus given a face. Baran is a romantic fable. And it is a romantic fable about construction workers. Lateef (Hossein Abedini) works in construction, not far from the border with Afghanistan. Most of the work is done by refugees from Afghanistan. Poorly paid and hard. Right at the beginning we learn that millions of refugees from Afghanistan fled across the border. Since it is illegal to hire them, they work black for low pay. Many flee the Taliban and seek a better life in Iran. One day, an accident happens at the construction site. One man, Najaff, gets injured. This is a disaster because he has to feed five children who live in a refugee shelter. Therefore, he sends his son Rahmat (Zahra Bahrami) to carry the cement bags instead of him. Rahmat, however, is small and lanky. Therefore, the boss decides that Lateef has to work properly again. Lateef is supposed to carry the sacks. But Lateef is lazy and resentful. Nevertheless, he finds Rahmat fascinating. There is something about him. Then the secret is revealed: Rahmat is really a girl.... 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Dardenne Brothers - La Promesse  

Belgians Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have found a way to turn human weaknesses and emotions into art. They never judge. There is neither "good" nor "evil". Instead, they show how complex life really is. Often their characters have to choose between maintaining relative social stability or risking disaster. This is at the expense of their own ability to compromise. Ultimately, it is about the struggle for morality. La Promesse is about the effort to keep a promise. A teenager promises a dying man to ensure the safety of his wife and baby. They are illegal immigrants who are exploited by the teenager's father. So the dying man is buried at the construction site without calling a doctor (while the wife desperately searches for him). Normally this would be the stuff of melodrama, but not with the Dardenne brothers. The Dardennes are much more interested in examining the milieu they present here. A study of local exploiters who employ West African workers (and get most of their wages back through overpriced rooms they provide them). La Promesse is about a son who gradually realises that his father is a monster. The portrait of an abusive father-son relationship. In 1996, the Dardennes found international attention with La Promesse and have since presented their very own cinema without pathos, but with the realisation that the act of making a painful decision is not an external show or a cinema moment. The world that influences this decision is the world of the Dardennes.

90s on netflix - Filmlist on CINEGEEK.DE 

Wanted in the netflix range: films with that definite 90's feeling and those that absolutely take us back. In nostalgia! (many more films from the 90's and around 4000 of them in our video library). Found on netflix in November 2022.

Film List 80s on netflix 

netflix is not entirely without responsibility for the 80s boom of our time (through Stranger Things, of course). That's why I looked for original 80s films in the Netflix range and found some in the netflix catalogue (if you need more, there are n the 4000 titles of the time in our video store). Here is the overview for November 2022.

netflix best Romantic Comedies on CINEGEEK.DE 

Here comes our new netflix service to make your choice a little easier. This film list shows you the most beautiful romantic comedies now in November 2022. 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.De Todd Haynes - Far From Heaven 

Todd Haynes Far From Heaven looks like a film from the 50s and deals with the themes of the 50s - only much bolder and much better than a real Hollywood film of the 50s would have been able to do! It all begins in the suburban idyll of Connecticut, where Mr. and Mrs. Magnatech act like a team. Like a marriage business. Until Mr Magnatech thinks the black gardener is the most beautiful (and desirable) person he has ever seen. In the same way, the Whitakers, Cathy and Frank (Julianne Moore and Dennis Quaid), live in the perfect counterpart, the perfect street and the perfect home. In autumn, the leaves shine like pure gold and if their son utters a scolding expression in his mouth, he is reprimanded. The Whitakers are so perfect that even the local newspaper writes an article about how perfect they are. But then dark clouds gather. While Cathy is being interviewed by the paper, she sees the black gardener outside. The son of her late gardener. She enquires if he needs anything, reaches out. It will then be printed in the newspaper as follows: Cathy; "friend to Negroes". Then one day Cathy catches Frank kissing a man in the office. Far From Heaven plays exactly the values of the 50s, which is why Frank feels despicable after this incident. He desperately needs to get a grip on this problem. This is the key to Todd Haynes' film: he never pretends to be ironic. Never does he know more than a film from the 50s knew. Far From Heaven is indeed a work of that time, in which not only the clothes, the décor have been recreated, but simply everything. Right down to the mindset. Cathy and Frank don't have a sex life. She hardly knows what to say to him. At one point Cathy says to the gardener's son; "Mr. Whitaker and I support equal rights for the Negro.". People start talking in public about her being seen with the black gardener (who, by the way, has an academic degree). So they get the same frosty reception together in a "black" establishment as would probably have happened in a "white" establishment. Frank, the hypocrite, yells at them about what he wouldn't have done for the family's reputation. Of course, his homosexuality remains deeply hidden. And Cathy's feelings change.... Craft-wise, Haynes's film is as superbly made as an original Douglas Sirk melodrama. In Sirk's melodramas, one often had the impression that the plot had been scrambled - indeed, that the film was not sincere at all! Yet everything is filtered in Haynes' film. Every shot resembles the set design of the 50s, every feeling the zeitgeist of the 50s. At that time, the civil rights movement was already an issue, but not homosexual liberation. So the film is allowed to regret bittersweetly that Cathy's feelings will probably have no future. Frank's homosexuality, on the other hand, may not even be mentioned by name. Far From Heaven, as described, gets by without irony (unlike the original Douglas Sirk melodramas) - and seems all the more powerful for it! We care about Haynes' characters as if they were the audience of the 50s! We think like the 50s! So we regret that a white woman could never love a black man. And we don't even dare to imagine how Frank could live... 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Christian Petzold - Undine 

Christian Petzold's films often looked out of this world - but Undine is his first excursion into the fantasy genre. Undine begins with a separation. The camera lingers on the face of Paula Beer. Thus we experience the separation just as she did. It is not a normal goodbye. Undine is also not a normal woman as the name suggests. This is not about a jilted lover. Undine, by definition, comes from the realm of mythological creatures. "If you leave me, I'll have to kill you"; she promises her lover Johannes (Jacob Matschenz), whom she has invited to a café near the Berlin Historical Museum. Undine works there as a historian. For us she looks as human and attractive as Paula Beer, but... Basically she belongs to the species of watermen and women. Her human form - we conclude from this - she received through the love of John. If John leaves her, he must die. Infidelity is death. Christian Petzold omits the romantic moments that we know from Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales. He concentrates on the question of fate: Does Undine really have to kill Johannes to fulfill her destiny? Or is there a way out? Anyone who has seen a few Christian Petzold films knows that his heroines always strive for a life of freedom, independence and self-determination. Just as little does Undine want to return to the lake from which she once came. Like a fish, she no longer seems to be standing in the middle of life. Undine has a respectable job, lives in a Berlin apartment that we would all like to have and is exploring the city. Then she is betrayed by Johannes. Exactly in this moment - a real turning point - Undine meets Christoph (Franz Rogowski). Very different from Johannes, Christoph is sweet and affectionate. The ideal partner for Undine! Christoph works as a diver near Wuppertal, where he catches a huge catfish in the lake. A good sign, how open-minded he seems to be to aquatic life! Somewhere on an ancient document he discovered Undine's name. One of the most important rules for Undine: The moment she has contact with the water again after her marriage, she has to return there. A rule she has already broken. But maybe Christoph serves as a loophole? Normally, Petzold never defines his heroines by their relationship to men. They are always strong and full of ingenuity. And Christoph adores Undine's intelligence! Johannes, on the other hand, is an unfaithful scoundrel and at some point he will of course reappear. Undine has to stand up against the whole burden of mythology. I strongly advise to read this mythology before the movie! because Christian Petzold's movie misses that. So you need an introduction: A) The fairy tale or B) Neil Jordan's Ondine (DVD1970). 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Claire Denis - Trouble Every Day  

Yesterday the editorial staff of the "Fireflies" joined us in the video store to present their new edition. A magazine about Claire Denis. I brought up all our DVDs and I noticed Trouble Every Day. A film that was terribly missed in Cannes in 2002. A real scandal that nobody liked! Let's watch Trouble Every Day a second time! Trouble Every Day starts with the arrival of the young couple Shane and June Brown (Vincent Gallo and Tricia Vessey) in Paris. Shane, a young American doctor, is haunted by morbid, bloody sex fantasies, which he can only suppress by medication. At the same time, we experience the fate of a scientist (Alex Descas) who locks up his wife Core (Béatrice Dalle), who suffers from the same uncanny disease, at home. While Shane lives sexually abstinent, Core repeatedly breaks out to kill men by biting them while orgasm. Soon it becomes clear that Shane and Core have a common past... It's hard to summarize the content, because everything is told in a fragmentary way, none of the characters is more detailed and the dialogues remain sparse. Some horror elements, underlaid with the music of the Tindersticks, make Trouble Every Day seem like a cruel love story. A modern vampire fairy tale, whose roots lie in Guinea. Denis was born in French West-Africa and may have worked something like a private culture clash into it. When Core bites a truck driver to pieces, she looks like a creature from the jungle. Shane, with his rigid gaze, looks like a doctor who could frighten an entire neighborhood. But that's not enough for Denis to try an exploitation film. She believes she can explore the deep secrets of cinema: Desire and moving fear. Her film gets out of hand and seems like an unfinished mix of pretentious sex philosophy and necrophiliac romanticism. Without intellectual harshness or exciting eroticism.

Watch it for free on our CINEGEEK.DE Jean-Luc Godard - Masculin Feminin 

"We are the children of Marx and Coca-Cola"; from this famous line comes the German rental title. In Godard's film all characters are fascinated by America. They are young French people who are so fascinated by America. And in return, the young American audience was fascinated by Godard. But what exactly did they like about Godard? The world of chic cafes? Paul from Masculin Feminin (of course Jean-Pierre Leaud) moves casually in it. Or the bedrooms of young beautiful girls? Probably 70% of all young people in 1966 wanted to be Jean-Pierre Leauds Paul. Or at least Jean-Pierre Leaud. Or at least live in Paris. All the rest, demos, radical political ideas, endless conversations about sex, etc., can be considered accessories. Performance Art. By participating in all these activities, Paul meets the sexy singer Madeleine (Chantal Goya) and her equally sexy roommate. Of course we are aware that these are all girls and boys, like the Fridays For Future movement today. By the way, Godard played long before later movements with natural light, real time and original locations. The plot behind it is this: Paul is all about getting into bed with beautiful girls. He claims to be a communist and "worker", paints slogans on the walls and supports the student streets barricades. Above all, he tries to smoke like Jean-Paul-Belmondo. And he never succeeds. Paul is just one of the guys who go to the cinema and try to copy their role models. That's exactly how Masculin Feminin works.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Jean Luc Godard - Le Mepris 

Le Mepris is in a way an experiment: Jean-Luc Godard's first Big Budget production with a big star: Brigitte Bardot. It was a unique, more or less satisfying trip. After all, all of Godard's subsequent films can also be seen as a reaction to Le Mepris. Not that the film is without tension. It is not only between the dialogue lines that we feel the author's struggle against his producers. A failed dramaturge (Michel Piccoli) works for a corrupt American producer (Jack Palance) to write the script for a project to be directed by a veteran director (Fritz Lang). The dramaturgy has a beautiful wife (Brigitte Bardot) and both love each other deeply. However, the producer also has an eye on her. The film is supposed to bring the odyssey back to the screen. Palance has an infusion of the Hercules sandal films in his head, Fritz Lang an auteur film. Again and again they have tried to find the story of the Odyssey in Le Mepris: Piccoli as Odysseus, Bardot as Penelope and Palance as Poseidon. The dramaturg could just as well be an embodiment of Godard himself and Bardot his then wife Anna Karina. Ironically, the producers Joseph E. Levine and Carlo Ponti were similar to his hero in their approach to Godard and even had Bardot naked. Once Palance Lang yells at him while he sees a shot of the Odyssey (which looks like a postcard view of Greece): "Betrayal! In the opening scene, Bardot lies naked in bed. Her body, every single part of her body, is praised by Piccoli. She asks him how he likes her knees, her breasts, her arms. Everything is perfect! It should remain the only love scene in Le Mepris. We can imagine the producer shouting at Godard: "Deception"! Then the nude scene was born. Strange the fact that we see naked skin, but it's quite unerotic. After the disastrous first performance Palance storms out of the room, invites the participants into his villa. Especially Bardot, who reacts disturbed after Piccoli makes no effort to protect her from the producer. Palance and Bardot roar away in the convertible, Piccoli pants afterwards. Does he hand over his wife to the producer? We are in the transition to the second act. Bardot and Piccoli argue. The scene: The unfinished new apartment that Piccoli deserves with his screenplay. The couple's conversations, they are held in the tone of real life. Bardot compares her husband to the donkey Martin. The conversation is rather illogical, because basically both sides demand completely uncritical acceptance and forgiveness. The third act takes place in the breathtaking Mediterranean villa of Palance - based on a Greek temple. Many moments are based on the battles Godard fought with the establishment of the film industry. For the character Fritz Lang, some points from Fritz Lang's biography served as inspiration. When Lang notices that Cinemascope (the format in which Godard shot Le Mepris) is only for snakes, we think we hear Godard. Is that still the raw power of the Nouvelle Vague? Or even "quality cinema"? Palance seems somewhat out of place as a cliché of the American "Money Man". Bardot, on the other hand, is quite natural. The true Eva! Piccoli (in his first role!) embodies a man of little talent and greatest uncertainty. Almost the opposite of the roles Piccoli would play later! As always, Godard remains quite distant. Like almost all of his works Le Mepris is about filmmaking itself and he tells us about it - breaking through the "fourth wall". Le Mepris almost seems like a satire about communication itself! Obviously Godard (despite his side blows) is also fascinated by Cinemascope and the beauty of his own shots. Sure: Le Mepris, with the wonderful music of Georges Delerue is a feast for the eyes! Like his movie-in-film, Godard struggles to exaggerate and vulgarize his characters. After Le Mepris he decided that such films were not for him and simply takes himself out - from his own film.

FREE ON OUR CINEGEEK.DE Jean Luc Godard - Ten Minutes Older 

Godard himself has always catalogued everything cinematically and therefore his own career can also be catalogued excellently. He was 30 years old when he launched his career in 1960 with 15 films that broke the rules (+ six short films). This began with Breathless and ended with the hellish Weekend. During the 70s, political collective films followed. In the 80s he made his comeback in the cinema. First Name: Carmen was the most successful in Berlin. Godard's greatest work is probably the series Histoire(s) Du Cinema (1989-1999). Godard, the philosopher of cinema! He always worked fast. And always somewhere between deadly serious and funny. Above all, his films of the Nouvelle Vague still radiate the greatest seductive power and that very specific glamour that makes Godard the most popular director in our video library. In other words, there's no one else you'll rent more often! But you leave his later works alone. They lack the visual pop of the 60s. You can imagine Godard as a prisoner. Trapped in a sea of references and quotations. He loved to quote from films! Later he tried his hand at being a politician of cinema, but it failed. Maybe his head was too stuffed with intellectual bells and whistles. Vivre Sa Vie is about a woman who would like to be in Dreyer's Joan of Arc but cannot. Irony of fate, because Godard's actress Anna Karina is in a film herself! And in a top-class Godard film at that - but she doesn't seem to realise that. But Godard knows. Godard and Karina were colleagues in the 60s and also lovers. Their films together are always about loving her (and how it fails). Perhaps this is due to a lack of feeling that also characterises both films? There may be a romantic in Godard, but this romanticism seems to be foreign to him even in his old age. His films are always about films. Many of them are carried by lush music - but isn't that merely an artistic element of the film? As he says, it was above all a matter of classifying and ordering. He calls Made In USA a Disney film with a Bogart. Excuse me? That's why it's also a political film, according to Godard. I would sum it up like this: Godard's Nouvelle Vague films live above all from their images and their music. And some of our customers think that all Nouvelle Vague films are always about love. Then, during his political period, Godard turned away from man. Instead, he tried to stand up for humanity. His following films of the 80s seem distant (and visually beautiful). But the biggest question during this period is: how did he manage to get money for such eccentric works? And at this point he still had decades of creative work ahead of him! His late films are ugly and unhappy. They make hair-raising political claims; the beauty of the images of his depressive 80s films has disappeared. At some point he had outlived all his colleagues of the Nouvelle Vague and stood all alone. As always, one might add. He remained a lifelong provocateur and always obnoxious. His films from the 60s seem forever youthful and will be borrowed from you forever. And there's plenty of time for the rest. We have time. And we offer all Godard films in our video library, even the strangest ones.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Wong Kar Wai - In The Mood For Love 

Two people who are in the mood for love. But it is neither the right place nor the right time. Looks full of longing, but everyone has to go home alone. His wife, just like her husband, cheated on her. They sullied the marriages with side leaps. The couple agree that this should not happen to them. But do they really agree? No. They do NOT agree. He wants to sleep with her and she with him. They are prevented only by their moral conviction. At least each of them thinks the other would take this moral attitude. A confusion. Neither throws the first stone. Of course there is room for speculation, because Wong Kar-Wai's classic leaves so many gaps. A lavishly filmed story about unrequited love. Unrequited mutual love. It must feel the same as the songs of Nat King Cole in the movie or the cello motif that permeates "In The Mood For Love". His name is Chow (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) and she is Su (Maggie Cheung Man-yuk). Both live in Hong Kong in 1962, at a time when Chinese must have loved Latin hits like Nat King Cole's! Their apartments are next to each other. The city is overcrowded. There is no room for secrets. Again and again their paths cross. Important things are said at the wrong time. Mostly they don't speak at all. Feelings have to be transported differently, for example by means of their clothes. Our task as spectators: We cannot identify with this couple. But we should put ourselves in their shoes. This is much more difficult than in "normal" love films! "In The Mood For Love" lives from its rich colors and deep shadows. The camera slides back and forth between the two apartments, emphasizing that there are two, not one. In imaginary dialogues they ask: "Do you have a lover? That means her husband, not Chow. But the two cheating spouses never appear on the screen. Adultery is boring - Wong Kar-Wai wants to show us something else. He demonstrates how Chow and Su in their restraint create something like perfect love. They spend their days alone. It often rains. When they meet by chance, they never speak openly. But for lovers no conversation is boring and an empty room fills with the most intimate desires!

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Der Ölprinz 

Now we are in the middle of a phase of living literary criticism and, of course, living film criticism. Karl May, born in 1842, was a child of the colonial age and wrote in the common stereotypes of his time. He was - as far as I know - never in the so-called Wild West, nor anywhere else. Anyone who takes Karl May to task today will not be able to avoid taking a critical look at this view. The same goes for those who look at Karl May films from the Federal Republic of Germany in the 1960s. For it is astonishing how they follow the model! When dealing with ethnic stereotypes of the 19th century by the writer Karl May, you will quickly notice that they never changed until the 60s of the 20th century. Today it is different. We have moved on and may now take a critical look at the poet's work and cinematic adaptations. Many may shy away from this because it also concerns their own childhood memories. And these are personal. But those who actually manage this process of development may call themselves adults in the best sense of the word. "But Winnetou paid no attention to the pain. That's what all great wars did". So it is written. Modern parents would probably laugh when they read this to their children. That's how they are, the Indians! Today, this is called criticism of racism and ideology in Karl May, if you don't just let such sentences stand. Karl May can certainly be accused of racism, but not of malicious racism. Winnetou is the good guy and the cowboys are the bad guys. P.S By the way, Der Ölprinz was filmed in Artur Brauner's CCC Studios in Spandau, Berlin, where German blockbusters such as the Winnetou and Edgar Wallace films were made until the 1970s.

Indie Comedies 

CINEGEEK.DE 80's Comedies 

The question of whether one likes Steve Martin usually ends in a stalemate. Many hate him, others answer that they like him, but not his films, except maybe L.A. Story or Roxanne. These two films have a Woody Allen factor of intelligent comedy, but the typical Steve Martin films are silly and loopy; anarchic humour of the 80s, with no hiding place for a cultural bourgeoisie.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Mia Hansen-Love - L'Avenir 

Isabelle Huppert, over the years she has acquired a proven ability to live. Huppert's characters live from their nonchalant energy. This time she plays a teacher who is abandoned by her husband and yet Huppert develops surprisingly cheerful traits. 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.De Bigas Luna - Jamon Jamon 

This is the funniest and most malicious comedy from Spain ever! Bigas Luna made Jamon Jamon in a time when people still took risks. Eyes closed and through - no matter if the audience goes along with it. The anarcho message of Jamon Jamon is: We may understand sex as a summary of all that is ridiculous in human nature. The film is set somewhere in the south of Spain, in the countryside. The focus is on the richest local family. They make underwear. The underwear is also the symbol of the city. You can see them on a billboard from afar. And of course the obligatory Spanish bull. Then Jose Luis, the son of the underwear family, falls in love with the sensual Silvia. She is the daughter of Carmen, who runs the local brothel. Jose's mother Conchita sees her son already before the altar with the daughter of a whore. She decides to take matters into her own hands to prevent this horror. Her tool: Raul, who works in the local ham factory. Raul is supposed to seduce Silvia to prevent the wedding. By the way, Raul also works as an underwear model for Conchita - and loves ham. The plot thickens. Sexually frustrated Conchita begins an affair with Raul, while Jose has been having a relationship with Silvia's mother for a long time. Carmen warns Jose; if he marries Silvia, she never wants to see him again... Although it is understandable in itself: Since Silvia is still a virgin, Jose has to fulfill his needs discreetly with his mother. Business is business. And there's so much more! Garlic and Silvia's breasts form one unit. Or naked bullfighting. And pigs. Because correctly translated Jamon Jamon means ham ham. Bigas Luna turns it into a lurid melodrama with deep romance and wicked satire. A telenovela, but full of sex. Penelope Cruz plays Silvia; her current husband Javier Bardem Raul. If you think that Jamon Jamon is a single impertinence, then you are right. If you find him insulting, then you're just as right. Tasteless and vulgar? Also. Jamon Jamon goes beyond the boundaries of what is possible in the cinema. 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Jacques Rivette - Haut Bas Fragile 

Jacques Rivette's films often revolve around secrets and mysteries. About conspiracies and secret societies. A foreshadowing of what may come - where life is like a maze. Ultimately, it leads us to places we don't understand. This is roughly how Haut Bas Fragile - Beware Fragile works. Three women are at the centre. In the lives of these three women, the past plays an important role and they are surrounded by secrets... Louise (Marianne Denicourt) woke up from a coma after five years. Now she wants to start a new life in which neither her family nor her boyfriend play a role. Ida (Laurence Côte) was adopted and is now hell-bent on finding her biological parents. Ninon (Nathalie Richard) is fleeing a life of violence - from her ex-boyfriend who stabbed a man to death. The paths of these three women cross, guided by chance. Basically, all three are trying to free themselves from the past. And that's not easy in a Rivette film, because normally Rivette's characters act in cycles, are doomed to repetition. Of course, in Haute Bas Fragile there is also a secret society that meets in a hideout to dare a game of life and death. Is there a conspiracy or is it all smoke and mirrors? Charming is the idea that these women do open up a perspective for the future instead of remaining stuck in their cycle: the seductive power of dance! Because tragedy doesn't have to be a permanent state and the story of life is what we make of it. And what is more beautiful than living silly and exuberant?

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Roman Polanski - Cul-De-Sac 

Cul-De-Sac remains a comedy in which Donald Pleasance has to walk around with his head askew. Polanski's film is the inversion of classic gangster films: Until then, it was criminals who threatened the lives of a middle-class family. Intruders from outside, from the unknown. In Polanski's parody, however, the criminals are bourgeois and their victims crazy. The great influence Polanski's film has had on psotmodern gangster cinema is made clear by the motif of the crime gone wrong. In Cul-De-Sac, the failed crooks must therefore wait for Katelbach, but he never comes. Beckett is the godfather in this absurd play. 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Jafar Panahi - Taxi Teheran 

In Iran, director Jafar Panahi is forbidden to make films and according to the latest news, he has now even been arrested. In the past, courage and pure necessity were the driving forces behind his work. Since 2010, there has been no way for him to get the technical equipment for a shoot. That is why today he uses his iPhone and a video home equipment. Three films were made this way. Taxi is the third and unfortunately also the worst. The title sets the scene. The film was shot inside a taxi in Tehran. Some cameras were installed in the vehicle (one points outside and captures life on the streets), behind the wheel is Panahi himself. The experiment is whether the passengers recognise him and how they react to him. We see an advocate of the death penalty, a teacher arguing with Panahi about justice or a DVD dealer who wants to win Panahi as a partner. Some passages are staged, others are not. Suddenly we realise that an angry passenger is reciting from a Panahi film. But the experiment seems more frustrating than provocative. Above all, Taxi is a bit self-indulgent. Some of the characters are all too pointed in their function of social criticism (staged or not?). What I haven't mentioned yet, from my perspective of wanting to be entertained, is the respect that a film like Taxi could be made at all. 

14.7.22 AEIOU im Roderich

NOMADENKINO im Roderich: AEIOU 

Heute im Roderich, Breite Str. 39B, 13187 Berlin um 21.30

Nicolette Krebitz macht Liebesfilme mit ungleichen Liebespaaren, etwa dem Mädchen und dem Wolf. A E I O U erzählt nun die unwahrscheinliche Liebesgeschichte einer älteren Schauspielerin und einem Schüler mit Artikulationsproblemen. Sie heisst Anna (Sophie Rois), ist in ihrem Job unterfordert und verärgert über einen über griffigen Spielpartner. Wir sehen sie, wie sie nachts die Kant Strasse entlang schlendert. Vor der Paris Bar wird sie von einem jüngeren Mann angerempelt. Er reisst ihr die Handtasche weg. Wenige Tage später lässt sich Anna darauf ein, einen Jungen mit Sprachproblemen zu unterrichten. Er heisst Adrian (Milan Herms) und sie erkennt ihn wieder: Er ist der Dieb von der Paris Bar...

NOMADENKINO im Roderich: Stand Up 

Heute gibts in unserem zweiten Laden, dem Roderich, Breite Str. 39B, 13187 Stand Up, hinten im Hofgarten auf der grossen Leinwand. Alle, die gerne den Film sehen möchten, bekommen Kopfhörer. 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Dardenne - Rosetta 

At night, before she goes to sleep, Rosetta speaks to herself. "Your name is Rosetta. My name is Rosetta. You found a job. I found a job. You have a girlfriend. I have a girlfriend. Good night. "Rosetta is a young woman who wants to work at all costs. To escape her mother's world, who is an alcoholic and lives in a trailer. This is the precipice that lies before Rosetta, and she will do anything not to fall. The Dardenne brothers have turned this into a neo-realistic, very straightforward film. It's what you see that counts. There's nothing behind it that you need to interpret. To begin with, Rosetta gets fired. She beats the boss, is chased by the police, has to go back to her mother. We know; she was dismissed unjustly. Her lunch she fishes in a dirty river. She buys old clothes. She meets Riquet, who likes her. Maybe Rosetta likes him too. And she can't dance. And she often has a stomachache. Picture after picture, and slowly we get to know Rosetta better, who is actually still a child. The film is not about sympathy. It develops an almost magical power! I think Rosetta has no idea what it is like to be happy. She has never experienced it. That's why she thinks work is synonymous with happiness. Rosetta is proud. She will find work and live a normal life. She'll find a boyfriend. And she'll be happy. 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE The F-Word 

What was that again? Men and women couldn't be friends because sex always comes between them? The F-Word follows the tradition of intelligent RomCom (romantic comedy), which can even take the genre to new heights. I mean, the dialogue hits a note I've never heard before. This is mainly due to the great Zoe Kazan alias Chantry (yes, she is the daughter!). Her screen presence is stunning, cheeky, clever and attractive - always a bit strange. In short: You immediately understand that Wallace (Daniel Radcliffe) falls in love with her! But the way is still not clear for a happy ending, because she is in a firm relationship - with a lawyer who is as successful as he is unpleasant. A common dinner of all three suddenly turns into a loud, very funny slapstick and ends in the emergency room. The lawyer falls out the window, he gets what he deserves. Chantry and Wallace deny their feelings towards each other and this leads to secret lust & frustration. The F-Word seems completely unspent, the characters somehow peculiar, the location Toronto does the rest. Small but important shifts make The F-Word an insider tip of romantic comedy - for man and woman - and definitely belongs to the kind of film one likes to watch over and over again.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Tom Tykwer - Lola Rennt 

The plot is simple. Lola gets a call from Manni. Manni lost a bag with 100.000 Marks. If he doesn't bring it to a gangster by noon, Manni is killed. Lola is supposed to help and runs away. Her plan: To find the money somehow, somewhere. Manni's alternative plan: Rob a bank. And in 20 minutes. That's why Lola runs all the faster. This story is told three times with a different ending. Very hip, sometimes Lola runs animated, sometimes in black and white and extremely accelerated. Each of the three plot variations differs in small details - and these determine fate. So it's about parallel time lines. All right? Even the smallest events can have serious consequences. Franka Potente became famous as Lola, although we hardly get to know her character and she is mostly out of breath. Maybe it's the style? Her hair is red, on her stomach a butterfly tattoo. Lola loves Manni and wants to save him from his own stupidity. There are also tragic events in Lola's desperate attempt to organize the money. For example, when her father refuses the money and immediately stresses that she was an unwanted child. Classic film sequences also find their place in the plot variants. The glass pane carried across the street, for example. Or gunfire. Sometimes the intertitle "Now And Then" highlights secondary characters. Essentially, Tom Tykwer's Run Lola Run is about FILM itself. (Because: films that offer us character studies are usually told linearly.) Run Lola Run is about the possibilities of cinema. Not about Lola.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Francois Ozon - Swimming Pools 

Charlotte Rampling embodies the most wicked thoughts you've ever had and never dared to speak out. Remember their early roles. Rampling was always sexual and courageous, but also a woman who deceives men. A femme fatale who became famous as a Nazi whore. Swimming Pool by Francois Ozon knows the early roles of Charlotte Rampling and even assumes them. Here she plays Sarah Morton. An insecure, tired and British-inhibited writer. Her publisher offers Sarah a holiday in his villa in southern France. Sarah goes there to write, but also in the hope of a holiday together with her publisher (Charles Dance)... Instead she arrives unexpectedly and in the middle of the night: Julie (Ludivine Sagnier), the daughter. Sarah reacts angrily. Her privacy and her sense of decency were violated. Julie is very self-confident about her effect on men. The burgeoning sexual power of a teenager. She brings home men who have nothing in common. Never mind! Julie sleeps with everyone and takes them in. Sarah reacts as disapprovingly as fascinated. And Julie? She seems to be completely indifferent to Sarah. Sarah, on the other hand, even steals insights from the girl's diary (which she dresses up for her own book). One evening Julie Franck (Jean-Marie Lamour) brings home with her. But he shows more interest for Sarah. A turning point. Violence, guilt, deception find their way into Francois' film. A thriller! What is more disturbing than having to hide a crime that cries out to be solved? A paranoid nightmare develops... And finally Charlotte Rampling is allowed to show her sexual boldness. This is not a fight between the sexes, but a fight between young and old! Swimming Pool is one of those films that our customers at the video store give me back and recapitulate once again. What did I just see? What was that like? But for me one thing is certain: Swimming Pool doesn't offer different approaches, only THE one solution! That's your motivation!

FREE ON CINEGEEK.De Valeska Grisebach - Western 

That's good. The most interesting new films from Germany are made by women. Western is the third feature film by Valeska Grisebach, born 1968 in Bremen and raised in Berlin. A friend Maren Ades, whose distributor "Komplizen Film" Western also produced. If you want to know more about Grisebach, read in the production notes that she grew up with the Western genre. Even more; as a child she could identify best with cowboys! Now she is testing her role models. On the surface, it's easy: Western is a Western. But it's a western playing in Bulgaria. There are no cowboys either, but there are construction workers and farmers. But we discover typical Western set pieces: A campfire, a horse, the stranger in town, rivalry, a woman and even a gun. A group of German construction workers are to build a power plant there in Bulgaria, somewhere on the Greek border, but everything is missing. After all, they fly the German flag. Then foreman Vincent (Reinhardt Wetrek) allows himself a silly remark while the construction workers bathe naked, while a group of women show up on the other side of the river. When construction worker Meinhard (Meinhard Neumann) roams the village, history has already got around... There is a lot of talk about the Germans, who of course don't understand a word. But we're in the Western and cowboys hardly speak either. They look each other in the eye and that way they know who's lying... 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Apichatpong Weerasethakul - Uncle Boonmee 

And what if our identity exists for all time and occasionally shows itself on the surface of life? At the moment we become aware of this, life would be without time limit. Isn't there this thought that we still knew heaven as children? As we get older and nearer to death, we receive them again, the greetings of the other side. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives offers this possibility. The title sounds as mysterious as that of its director Apichatpong Weerasethakul. At least for western ears. But if you are open to stories with ghosts who sometimes visit us, you have come to the right film! When I saw Unlce Boonmee for the second time, I realized that the movie was easy to understand. A dying man like Boonmee is also not particularly productive for a plot or action. He's taking his leave. Some things may seem strange like meeting a catfish. But that changes, if you look at the work from the point of view of reincarnation. Uncle Boonmee (Thanapat Saisaymar) lived as a farmer in the south of Thailand. It wasn't a very happy life. His nation was in turmoil during his lifetime and he certainly experienced more of it than he deserves! Now he dies with some family members and a nurse. He dies in his house in the jungle, in the middle of nature and sometimes ghosts appear to him like his dead wife (as beautiful as in his lifetime) or his son (with red eyes). But this is not a "classic" ghost movie, just because the ghosts are different than we expect them to be. Basically, they behave like humans and probably also exist in the consciousness. One time Boonmee enters a cave that looks like a womb. If man and the world are one, why should it not be the earth that gives life? In the end, I wondered whether the "real" world has more substance than that of hallucinations and visions? Doesn't what just happens in our heads happen? Is this "real"? Boonmee remembers during his last days the moments of his life and those who accompanied him. It's as simple as that.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Dawson's Creek 

Kevin Williamson is synonymous with the teen films of the 90s like no other, whether in cinema as the writer of Scream or on television as the creator of Dawson's Creek. (Although many would probably consider his Vampire Diaries (2009) to be the most important Kevin Williamson work). You notice we are in the middle of the Kevin Williamson teen universe. Anyway, Dawson's Creek was considered a controversial teen drama with indie traits in the late 90s. And on television! Even the pilot addresses: sex with teachers, the stigma of virginity, homosexuality (was this actually on the agenda of teen movies before Dawson's Creek?) and dysfunctional families - but the recurring question is: can women and men just be friends? Dawson's Creek introduces teenagers who sound quite precocious today. And isn't it all a bit sensationalist and overly melodramatic? And would one's own life one day really turn out like Dawson's Creek? Enter Dawson Leery wearing cargo shorts. How did Dawsons manage to make friends in the first place? And how did he manage to date Joey Potter? Dawson's Creek is about angsty teenagers. Those like Dawson, who fear any change and would prefer to stay in their nursery forever. Kevin Williamson created teenagers who wisely fantasise about the future and ask life's big questions at 16! So Dawson lives close to his family and friends in the picturesque coastal town of Capeside, Massachusetts, which doesn't exist. Dawson wants to be a filmmaker when he grows up. Like Steven Spielberg or Kevin Williamson. Of course, the 90s are the age of teen horror films (Williamson's Scream), Buffy or Beverly Hills 90210. But none of these productions flattered teen self-esteem as much as Dawson's Creek: these teenagers speak in long, well-considered sentences, are well versed in pop culture, are sensitive and capable of intense self-reflection. They suffer unrequited love, innocently dote on each other. They fall in and out of love (and speak in these extraordinarily long sentences). And Dawson Leery? Back in 1998, no one actually liked him. Dawson is self-absorbed, moody and confused. But we are left with Joey Potter, daughter of a dead mother and a criminal father. Or the "bad girl" from New York, Jen Lindley, who takes drugs and was caught having sex by her parents. The punishment: off to Capeside to her grandmother. But most people like Pacey Witter, who has the charisma Dawson lacks. Fortunately, Pacey is the least prone to monologues about his state of mind. Together, at any rate, they provide a convincing picture of teenage yearnings. Doesn't that sound nicely nostalgic? And who knows, maybe they are even capable of real friendships between girls and boys?

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Lucky 

Lucky starts with a series of shots of the Arizona desert. With cactuses reaching into the sky and a turtle crawling through the sand. Then we experience their human equivalent: It is Harry Dean Stanton as Lucky. No, not AS Lucky. Harry Dean Stanton IS Lucky, as the movie poster says. Harry Dean Stanton, then 89 years old and deceased before the film was released. During the following 88 minutes we will spend almost every moment together with Lucky. A veteran from World War II, retired a long time ago. Lucky has friends, but he often snubs them. He has his routine and as with most old people, this routine shapes his everyday life. During his walks, he stops in a cafe, talks to the owner (Barry Shabaka Henley) and a waitress (Yvonne Huff), who behaves almost like a daughter. We get to know his tiny home and his favourite bar. In the morning Lucky does some pushups to stay fit. Lucky achieves his depth with the shots of Harry Dean Stanton in front of a panorama that would adorn any western. Lucky is about death and fear of death. It's about loneliness and the will to stay healthy. It's about decisions that have never been made. Lucky regrets a lot. This is probably mainly because he prefers to argue with people rather than just talk to them. He is never open and he is certainly not vulnerable. Essential: Lucky's atheism, which in turn reveals a lot about his relationship to death. "Friendship is essential to the soul"; explains his friend Paulie at the bar. Lucky disagrees. She doesn't exist. The friendship? No, the soul. Lucky is also about friendship and this becomes most obvious in the conversations with Lucy's friend Howard (David Lynch). We remember: Harry Dean Stanton IS Lucky and Lynch Harry Dean Stanton's friend and something like his house director. Lucky is one of those men who doesn't want to make new friends at some point in their lives. All the more surprising for us and himself when he opens up to younger people! I've seen so many American movies trying to be Lucky. They play in small towns or in neighborhoods that meet in bars. Full of eccentrics, of course. But only very few of them are as elegant as Lucky and above all as safely staged! This was not necessarily predictable, as Lucky was shot by actor John Carroll Lynch (not related). That's because he trusts Harry Dean Stanton completely. That's why he succeeds in scenes like the one in which Lucky smokes and thinks about cigarettes at night. One of Johnny Cash's late songs is on. One of the songs Cash recorded in the face of death. Harry Dean Stanton's tanned face acts like a film in the film. We experience a whole life in this face! Certainly one of the most powerful scenes I've ever seen. Somehow I had the feeling that I had actually known him. We get to keep this scene as Harry Dean Stanton's estate.

FREE ON YOUTUBE Bob Rafelson - Five Easy Pieces 

Try showing Five Easy Pieces at a video night with your girlfriends. This is how your evening will go; with explosive laughter, deep silence and stunned attention. Five Easy Pieces is a film of unusual depth and intensity and presents one of the most unusual characters in the history of cinema. Robert Eroica Dupea, whose name was inspired by Beethoven's symphony. He is embodied by Jack Nicholson, who shortly before became a film star through the New Hollywood movement (after a career of almost ten years in smaller films). Nicholson flourished during the early 70s, playing outsiders, capable of anger, sarcasm, self-pity, but also tenderness. And in Five Easy Pieces he is a revelation! Imagine experiencing such a great film in the cinema in 1970! That was exactly the direction in which the New Hollywood direction was developing! With idiosyncratic characters and dialogue with a sense of the vulgar & literary, with a plot driven by the development of the characters (and always surprising us!) and finally an existential ending. That's how New Hollywood works! In addition to Jack Nicholson, quirky supporting characters also appear, embodied by actors who were all newcomers. Director Bob Rafelson is considered one of the most creative minds of New Hollywood cinema and whoever the camera reminds of Easy Rider - both films were made by Laszlo Kovacs. Nothing is predictable in Five Easy Pieces. The screenplay allows itself deviations and excesses that never disturb but delight us every time. and how many moments went down in the collective memory of cinema? Who could fail to quote the famous Chicken Salad scene, called Geek? After all, the chicken salad scene let Jack Nicholson go from movie star to legend. His Deupea, by the way, is a voluntary outcast. A man who cannot return to his former life. However, he also has no way to move on. Somewhere he is stranded. Stranded between different jobs, ambitions, even social classes. He is a character that does not fit into the film. In no scene does he feel at ease with the people around him. Nowhere is he at home. Always Booby Deupea disappointed others or he didn't perform enough or he misbehaved. During the first half, Bobby works as an oil driller in California. He lives with waitress Rayette Dipesto (Karen Black), whose fear of losing him seems pathetic. At one point he learns from his crazy friend Elton (Billy "Green" Bush) that Rayette is pregnant. When Bobby wonders what he's even doing with crazy Elton in his living cheeks, we wonder how crazy Bobby actually is? Otherwise, we follow Rayette and Bobby and Elton in their blue collar world. At one point Bobby has sex with Betty (Sally Struthers), afraid of bonding with Rayette. But Betty, the ripper, isn't what he's looking for either. And at one point we can see Bobby playing the piano (the piano is on the loading ramp of a truck). He plays frantically, furiously, loudly. And at one point, when he meets his sister and learns that their father has had a stroke, the second half of Five Easy Pieces begins.... Bobby will go to the Washington coast, back to family. He meets Catherine, who asks him, "You have no love for yourself, no love for family, for friends--how can you ask for love?" It sounds like Fellini's 8 1/2, which is exactly the depth of Five Easy Pieces. It involves us in the life of Bobby and his friends. It implicates us in its time and place. We remember Rayette and Bobby because they are fully themselves. Needy, tightly driven and so brave in their loneliness! Once you've seen Five Easy Pieces, you'll find it hard to go back to the netflix agenda.