FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Cisco Pike 

Welcome to the relaxed world of L.A. movies, with laid-back characters that basically provide a historical and political picture of the American soul! Cisco Pike is far from being a great film. But it does offer that loose, nice texture of L.A. films and of course a number of good actors. First up; Kris Kristofferson in his cinema debut. Back then he was still a folk singer. Usually acting performances by singers don't work so well because usually their image is used for the role. In fact, Kristofferson is also typecast as a composer and folk singer. But the character was conceived from scratch. And light and unforced, the way she works in the film. Some think Cisco Pike is another drug-music trip. At the time, Cisco Kid was not a big hit. Yet Cisco Pike finds its own unique tone and also has a few surprises in store. Right up until his unbelievable ending, we get to know Cisco (Kris Kristofferson), who used to be famous but now makes his way in the drug business. He gets out of the business, more or less. Until Officer Leo Holland (Gene Hackman) steals a large amount of weed and blackmails Cisco into selling the stuff. This all adds up to a plot of sorts, though the L.A. movies of the 70s don't need a linear plot at all. In truth, most of the scenes just serve as distractions. What's really interesting are Cisco's scenes with his former partner Jesse Dupre (Harry Dean Stanton), who has short-circuited his mind with heroin. A distant relative of Billy from Easy Rider (DVD724). Jesse is as vivid a character as you can hope for in cinema (just look at his scene with Viva and Joy Bang!). Viva, of course, is the Warhol superstar. She - pregnant - speaks in oblique sentences and thus develops her very own speech melody. Despite Karen Black simply reprising her role from Five Easy Pieces (DVD5688), Viva is the greatest supporting character! Along the way we get to see some of the fierce competition between folk and country singers. At one point Cisco, the superstar of yesterday, tries to get people to listen to his tapes. But they only want to know if he has any fresh material. Viva and Joy Bang are into Cisco because he used to be a superstar. But the high class groupies are of course not interested in him as a person. And Cisco's partner Jesse? He falls more and more into oblivion... Compared to the music world, the world of drugs and cops seems artificial. Officer Leo Holland disappears from the film for a while, reappears at the end to explain his motivation and to die (not very convincingly). Who he is, we never learn, and maybe we don't even care. And no actor, not even Gene Hackman, can pull off such a contrived death scene, not even when every film needs an ending. But that's all beside the point in a film like Cisco Kid, which is about drugs and seems drugged itself.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Olivier Assayas - Clean 

Emily is a driven woman. Driven by inner turmoil, dissatisfaction with herself and the decisions that brought her here. Her mind seems to be somewhere else entirely. Emily thinks of the only thing that brings her peace: Heroin. She and her partner Lee used to be pop stars. but the fame faded and eventually they found themselves in a motel in Canada. After an argument, Emily drives out into the night and gets the drugs. After a gunshot, she sleeps in the car. She returns to the motel and finds Lee dead. He died after an overdose. Should she now quietly leave town? Emily, however, gets herself arrested for drug possession and sentenced to six months in jail. Emily is played by Maggie Cheung with such intense desperation as few actresses could have managed. She always maintains her personal authority, even when she is broke. In prison, of course, she also loses custody of her beloved boy. Emily tells herself that she is only not raising him because it is better for Jay. But secretly she knows: she is defeated, her life destroyed. She has lost her boy. We only find out what she must have been like in the past by watching her old boyfriend. Emily's life through her eyes. Emily lives in the moment. She may be a broken person at the moment, but in the future.... Anyone who wonders Cheung's countless martial arts films will notice that all her roles required her to embody a tall, serious beauty. Clean is different. Her Emily is restless. Restless in smoking, walking, pleading, protesting. Cheung always holds herself back. She never overacts, because Emily is always closer to her lowest point than her highest. And when her little boy accuses Emily of killing his father, she reacts - who knows? - But she reacts like someone who will eventually become a good mother. Tomorrow. Tomorrow we start again. Every morning. 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.De Martin Scorsese - Mean Streets 

Mean Streets isn't just about the street gangsters or the mafia. It's about living in deep sin. We have to understand this in Catholic terms: The eternal suffering of a sinner who dies without absolution. "You don't make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets." Whose voice is that speaking from the off? Then we see Charlie (Harvey Keitel) awakening from a nightmare and looking at his face in the mirror. Did he dream of the words, possibly spoken by a priest? Later we see Charlie in church. The priest prays the usual ten Hail Marys. But Charlie asked for more. He holds his hand in the flame of the votive candle in front of the altar. As if he is reaching into the flames of hell. Then he descends into a friend's bar. It is blood red, like hell. He greets his friends, flirts with the stripper (but she is "black" and Charlie is afraid to be seen by his friends with a "black" woman). He also has sex with his cousin Teresa (Amy Robinson) - but he doesn't want to hear "I love you" from her mouth. Women stand for sin. That's how Charlie feels about it. Charlie seeks forgiveness from the local Mafia boss, his uncle Giovanni (Cesare Danova). Or from his friend Johnny Boy (Robert De Niro). Even from God (and a credit shark). Martin Scorsese knows exactly how Charlie thinks, because Mean Streets might be largely based on Scorsese's own biography: The church is always right - and the individual is weak. Charlie steals and kills and sells drugs. But the real sin remains sex (the rest is business). Then, very slowly, trouble threatens Charlie's world through his friend Johnny Boy, who Giovanni owes something to... Scorsese established the handheld camera in 1973. Today it seems normal, but then it was revolutionary! His film is also accompanied by rock music, namely that of the Rolling Stones. In which interview did I learn that the Stones music was more expensive than the rest of the production? The heart of Mean Streets is Charlie's despair. He wants to see Johnny Boy and his cousin Teresa. But both are forbidden. Essentially, Charlie feels bad about everything he does and leaves. He hates himself with all his heart. Anyone expecting a Mafia epic should know: Mean Streets is an early Scorsese movie and definitely not round yet! But still: He breathes the concentrated power of doom! He observes life in Little Italy as closely as any other film! And of course Mean Streets influenced all the gangsters and mafia movies that followed him.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE The Hour Of The Furnaces 

Three hours of agitprop cinema from Argentina, following a statement by Che Guevara: "It's the hour of the furnaces and only the light shall be seen". The quote comes from the 19th century struggle against the Spanish colonial masters. The Hour Of The Furnaces was released in 1968. It was shot secretly in two years, at the beginning of the Dirty War in Argentina. We may think of it as Fernando E. Solana's film being screened in front of an audience of revolutionary workers and students, to be repeatedly interrupted for audience discussion. Part 1 is about the present status quo of the times. Part 2 presents the antithesis of the Peronist struggle and Part 3 the synthesis (to be achieved very soon!). The film as a tool in the struggle against the oppression of the present status quo. Thus the opening describes neo-colonial violence and we experience a montage of all this. The connection between exploitation and consumption is established, and we are asked not to remain mere spectators, but to become actors. This cinema of liberation is called the third cinema and the model of such productions is also cited: Eisenstein's Strike (DVD4030). At the end, the Che lies on the floor, a victim of the struggle for liberation. Part 2 deals with this act of liberation using Argentina as an example. Argentina's most effective tool in the liberation struggle: the Peronists. The part concludes with the realisation that he who has the weapons (the United States of America) has the power. Part 3 Violence and Liberation. In order to realise all that was described in parts 1 and 2, a violent uprising is needed. Obvious, isn't it? But what seems surprising is the filmmakers' call to discuss this approach again. Anyone who now watches this work from 1968 again today will inevitably notice how current the questions and problems in The Hour Of The Furnaces are today. Regardless of whether one agrees with Solanas' world view or not. And how about a video evening including discussion?

FREE ON CINEGEEK.De Paradise Lost: The Child Murderers At Robin Hills Wood 

Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills is unique among courtroom documentaries in that the makers obviously had access to both sides of the trial. To family meetings, attorney meetings, and even meetings with the judge. It begins with the sad video footage from the crime scene. Depicted are gruesomely disfigured corpses and a rumor makes the rounds, were they victims of satanic rituals? A month later, 17-year-old Jesse Misskelly testifies that he was - along with his friends Damien Wayne Echols and Jason Baldwin (who mutilated the bodies). So they appear in the courtroom. Jason, small and blinking, Damien superior, intelligent and articulate. Damien listens to heavy metal, dresses in black and studies Wicker writings. A well-known guy in his neighborhood. But is there any actual evidence or any connection of the trio to the crimes? Five liters of blood were drawn from one of the victims and yet no blood is found at the scene. The prosecution relies on hearsay statements. Jesse, who testifies quietly and shyly, only relays what the police told him beforehand. He corrects facts in his testimony even in response to police tips. He is found guilty (and his mother had also warned him not to tell lies in the courtroom). The "evidence" against Damien is provided by a state examiner of occultism (who in turn got his title from a distance university). The parents of the victims curse Damien and wish him torture for life. Later, we learn from one of the victims' fathers (who swears revenge) that he himself beat his son with a belt shortly beforehand - the maltings served as evidence of ritual killing at trial. All three defendants claim to have an alibi for the night of the crime. That's all we learn about them. When the death penalty is handed down for Damien, we are anything but convinced of his guilt. Where did Damien, Jason, and Jesse even hear about satanic rituals? In church. Some in the church seem to need Satanism to support their worldview. They resort to the devil to explain everything that ails them. And they seek revenge. So do the victims of the relatives, who are bent on tracking down and judging the "perpetrators" themselves if necessary. Only one person in the whole film behaves in a Christian way: the grandfather of one of the victims, who talks about forgiveness. Everyone else just listens uncomprehendingly. It becomes clear to us that the obsession with Satanism goes far beyond the circle of perpetrators.