FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Ernst Lubitsch - Ninotschka 

When I was a child, listening to adults, I thought I could never learn this language. I thought maybe I could watch some movies to find out what adults were like. Later as an adult, my enjoyment of it faded. And in the cinema? In the movies today, you learn mostly how teenagers think and feel. Teenagers. Not so in the comedies of Ernst Lubitsch! Lubitsch's films are about people who are tremendously grown up! Suave and cynical and sophisticated. And slick. They almost glide across the parquet, they are so slippery. Lubitsch loved love triangle stories with strong sexual undertones. But the Berliner from Spandau never had any trouble with the American censors! Possibly the only Hollywood director of distinction! Lubitsch's characters often run the risk of confusing sex with love, which is amazingly openly portrayed. They know exactly what they want and hide it under the surface of cultivated banter (which probably also fooled the censors). What strong sex urges are present are simply hidden by the dialogue. The dialogues of Romantic Screwball Comedy. Often called the "Lubitsch Touch." Ernst Lubitsch, small and simple, began directing films as early as 1915 in Berlin. In Babelsberg and there he even discovered world stars like Pola Negri. It was Mary Pickford who lured him to Hollywood in the 20s. There he made definitive adult films like Ninotchka (based on Billy Wilder's screenplay). Stalin probably hated Ninotchka and today, with the Russians invading Ukraine, Ninotchka is the film of the hour. For here Greta Garbo makes us laugh at the expense of the USSR (and she laughs herself!). Lubitsch takes a humorous look at the Communists, who have read Marx but have never been able to spare even a comic thought. They are sober people who never mouth the word "love" - and probably see love more as a biological process. They also never drink champagne, but goat's milk. It's healthier. And a warm spring morning in Paris is reduced to the weather report. Such a person is Garbo's Ninotchka, and around her Lubitsch designed a whole series of other cartoon characters. But eventually Comrade Ninotchka loses herself, even buys a frivolous hat and falls in love.... And while thinking about love in Paris, she even forgets to march in step during the Moscow May Parade.... Ninotchka is, quite incidentally, Greta Garbo's delightful debut as a comedienne. She remains Garbo, a kind of female Buster Keaton, because she never contorts her face. So the comrade is allowed to say sentences like: "The last mass trials were a great success. There are going to be fewer but better Russians. Without making a face. Or she guarantees that there will be no problems with towels in Moscow hotels. They are changed every week. As the saying goes, neither Stalin nor his successor Putin can like that. 

Film List Black Comedy I  

Not everyone likes the juxtaposition of violence and humour. Yet much of the humour serves as relief and the laughs result from a close observation of human nature.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Cameron Crowe - Singles 

The Singles is a group of friends and neighbours who live together in an apartment building in Seattle. And it's 1992, the time when grunge started! They are all in their 20s, quite attractive and they dream of love. And they all share a plight that almost everyone can identify with: The difficulty of finding someone to love (although their plight is not very desperate, after all, life among friends is not bad either!). And isn't it always the case with love that one half of the equation is always right and the other is not? One couple in the film (Campbell Scott and Kyra Sedgwick) play a dangerous game we call pride. It goes like this: Who will call the other first? Shouldn't one wait for the other to call back? I have made up my own theory about this, which cannot end well on any point. Why doesn't the other person call back? 1. he/she is playing a game. That is never nice! 2. he/she wants to hurt you. Not nice at all! 3. she/he is not interested. Well, not nice either. Anyway, this couple is also thinking so much past each other that it's almost too late and they lose sight of each other. Because as said, there comes a point when an unreturned call is no longer exciting, but simply has to be perceived as unrequited love. And then there's this couple (Bridget Fonda and Matt Dillon) who are working completely wrong. He's a drummer in a rock band (grunge!) with a casually indifferent attitude towards women. He has cultivated this indifference towards his own girlfriend in particular. And her? She thinks SHE is actually to blame. And when she finds the pictures of blonde pinups in his flat, she runs to the surgeon.... Singles was written and directed by Cameron Crowe. The former music critic didn't choose Seattle as the setting by chance, of course, because all his films are always music films. He has refined his style, stringing together episodes that deal with the all too human. Each episode shows a facet of human nature. For the netflix generation, this could be a challenge, as the story is not told stringently, but loosely. There is no problem at the beginning and then the solution at the end. The film is about life and that is inherently inconclusive. And one of the insights of singles is that in your 20s you spend more time trying to make a name for yourself than worrying about the happiness of others. Everyone believes in themselves first and foremost (except the girl who runs to the plastic surgeon to optimise her own body on a monitor to please a man who doesn't like her at all). The singles also work, but rarely in their final profession. Instead of being an architect, one still hires herself out as a waitress. Cameron Crowe also demonstrates temporal phenomena like partner video exchanges. Until she even meets a director you'd better stay away from. He looks like Tim Burton (and is, by the way) and makes films that put women off. Singles is not a great film, but one you can watch again and again. Not an innovative film, but a familiar one. One of those films that feels as if you are at home. You smile a lot, you find yourself in it and you like the characters, often enough you recognise yourself in them. 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Michelangelo Antonioni - L'Avventura 

No one loves no one. In L'Avventura there is talk about love. But only as a pastime. As an attempt to survive time. Just as well you could play a round of cards. There is not even the slightest possibility that the characters love/love/like each other. They are flat, ordinary characters. They can't feel lonely at all. The predominant feeling of these people is boredom. In the early 60s and still today Antonioni's L'Avventura was and is regarded as THE cinematic masterpiece at all! One would think that films that deal primarily with sensual pleasures are no longer of interest. But that's not true. In our video library Antonioni is still considered THE Italian master director! L'Avventura is about general mental illness. We see rich, inactive and decadent people for whom pleasure means everything. Pleasure is the only thing that sometimes prevents them from the hopeless boredom of their existence. Love does not exist, only sex. L'Avventura became famous because nothing happens. Someone disappears - no resolution. A search - without result. A group of well having friends goes with the yacht to Sicily. They anchor off an island, swim ashore. Anna (Lea Massari) argues with her "lover" Sandro (Gabriele Ferzetti). They are accompanied by Claudia (Monica Vitti) and a group of "friends". Then Anna disappears. The group searches the whole island. There are hardly any hiding places, only bushes, yet Anna disappears. She is never seen again. Did I "spoil" now? No. It is generally known that Anna remains missing. That's not what L'Avventura is about, which translates as "the adventure". The lives of all those involved seem so unreal that one might think that they have all disappeared. At least one can hardly speak of existence, the relationships of these friends are so thin. Then a shocking scene: Sandro grabs Claudia, kisses her. Claudia withdraws. What does she think about Sandro betraying Anna so quickly? We don't find out. Later Sandro will tell Claudia that he "loves" her. Claudia accepts that. Anna is forgotten. Claudia takes over Anna's function. The function of the lover. What remains? Since Anna has disappeared, Claudia has to take over her function. Is Claudia afraid that Anna will return? Then she catches Sandro with a hooker. Claudia runs out. Sandro throws bills on the hooker's body. Welcome to the existential limbo! After the film, thoughts went through my mind. Antonioni's style, called "Antonioniennui", naturally found imitators. And yet L'Avventura is a film of its time. With hip pictures, without narration. My father once told me that it wasn't about being entertained. It almost sounded like a punishment to look at this Antonioni or that Luis-Bunuel. It had to be! Basically, we have nothing at all in common with the people of L'Avventura. Their lifestyle goes far beyond our wildest dreams here in Kreuzberg. L'Avventura is constructed through and through. More an idea than a film. The idea of a silent cry of despair banished to celluloid. We observe parasites whose money allows them to constantly distract themselves. Diversion from work and responsibility. Goal: To conceal one's own emptiness. L'Avventura plays in the moral wasteland. Such films no longer exist. Films that put the meaning of life into perspective. We no longer face the meaning of life. Instead, we decide on a certain "lifestyle". 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo 

Christiane F. is one of the most horrible movies ever. All the worse that this story is based on true events. We see Christiane landing in the Heorin scene after a sad childhood and prostituting herself. A life very close to death. The basis of the Stern Reportage: a cassette recorded by a reporter with Christiane. It finally became one of the most horrible drug portraits in film history. Christiane is introduced as an ordinary teenager. She listens to rock music too loudly for her mother's taste and stays away too long. She resents her mother's new boyfriend's presence and therefore prefers to stay with her clique to drink alcohol. Christiane sees David Bowie on stage for the first time (he plays himself, returning to West Berlin for the 1982 film). Out of curiosity she takes some heroin after the concert. The story doesn't seem unusual for a city like the former Berlin Wall, but the fact that Christiane goes underground so young does! She has friends who take heroin, but doesn't listen to their warnings. Christiane believes she can control the drug. She can't. She begins to squeeze it and sell her body for it. Christiane F. describes in particular the drug culture of the Wall City, which was already admired by David Bowie. A junkie tears the needle out of Christiane's arm to stick it into his own. Christiane and her boyfriend on Cold Turkey as they vomit over each other. Innocent faces finally sitting pale in the subway stations. Perhaps the film has to be administered as a supplement to the romanticisation of West Berlin? We see the Kreuzberg of the early 80s, finally Christianes move to Neukölln in the Gropiusstadt for lack of money. A film so hard, with such powerful images and extremely realistic actors - a film that comes straight from hell!

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Claude Sautet - Un Coeur En Hiver 

There are people who can't love. Why is unclear. Something is missing. They were simply born without this gift. In other areas they may be complete. But the gift to love is missing. Irreparable. Claude Sautet's "Un Coeur En Hiver" is the story of such a man. His name is Stephane (Daniel Auteuil) and he is a talented violin maker. Stephane admires Maxime (Andre Dussollier), for whom he also works. They are friends. Or is it not? In any case, Maxime's social skills serve Stephane as a shield against the world. In return, Maxime benefits from Stephen's extraordinary skill. A symbiosis. One day the beautiful violinist Camille (porcelain face Emmanuelle Beart) enters the shop. She needs help with her instrument. Soon she has an appointment with Maxime. Stephane observes this from a distance. Then Camille talks to Stephane about her instrument, but also about her life. Stephane is a good listener. And Camille has fallen in love with him. She is together with Maxime. She has to leave him and make an appointment with his partner. Stephane feels flattered. Yes, he desires Camille. That would be a nice ending for a French triangle story. Only Stephane doesn't stand up for Camille. He is not impotent in the physical sense. He lacks the gift to love. Claude Sautet shows this short story with great intensity. We become aware of how simple love is portrayed in the vast majority of films. And how annoying! Man meets woman. They fall in love. There is a conflict, then they reconcile. Rolltitel. But Stephane has needs that go beyond love. Needs like the convenience of staying alone. His daily routine. That counts more for him than the risk of an intimate relationship.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Jean-Luc Godard - Und Femme Mariee 

Here comes the story of an attractive, bored and unfaithful housewife. A Married Woman marks a turning point in Godard's work, because unlike his films from the early 60s, this one is coolly and precisely filmed. It is not the narrative that is in the foreground, but symbols and signifiers. It all almost seems like a documentary and you get a sense of where film was heading in the 60s. It works like this: We see a male arm gripping a female wrist. The arms form a right angle reminiscent of a hammer and sickle. Immediately we think of communist social forms. After her arms, we see her body, then her face. Her name is Charlotte (Macha Méril) and she is literally disassembled into her individual parts. In what follows, Charlotte is now allowed to realise herself - something that cannot exactly be said of her lover Robert (Bernard Noël). And even less so of her husband Pierre (Philippe Leroy). Charlotte poses as if she were enthroned on an advertising poster. And Robert could indeed be any man. Anyone who desires this kind of model. And this is what Godard likes to film most: two beautiful and privileged people making love in a stylishly furnished room (dozing over culture in the process). But A Married Woman is no longer pop & pulp, but sombre and austerely photographed. We still experience beautiful women and prosperity, but also already Marxist allusions, but the aesthetics fortunately outweigh the ideological messages. It is less the social criticism that is important, but rather how Godard puts himself in his Charlotte's place. At the end of the film, we suspect that we know Charlotte. And what is she like? Like all of us - the sum of our consumer habits. I guess that's what makes up our "brand".