90's Comedies on CINEGEEK.DE 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Darren Aronofsky - The Fountain 

Assuming The Fountain is ambitious nonsense - then form and subject would fit together wonderfully in this case, because The Fountain is about eternal life. Darren Aronofsky has decided to put his film on three different narrative levels at the same time. He chooses three completely different directions, which, unlike previous experiments of this kind, cannot necessarily be traced back to the same core. Aronofsky's work was ridiculed and described as stupid at film festivals. That's easy, because The Fountain has a very rare quality: it's a work of the utmost seriousness! The reason: The Fountain is more about the possibility of escaping death than about eternal life. The conflict of a man (or the man himself) with death. At the beginning we experience Tomas (Hugh Jackman) during the Spanish conquest campaigns. In the land of the Maya they search for the biblical tree of life at the behest of Queen Isabella (Rachel Weisz). In the 21st century, Tommy (Jackman) is a surgeon who treats a tumor in the brain of his wife Izzi (Weisz). She is currently writing the fairy tale book The Fountain, which in turn contains passages from the 16th century. In the 26th century Tom (Jackman) is a kind of astronaut who acts according to the principles of Zen philosophy. He moves in space with a dying tree and the spirit of Iz (Weisz). A mysterious fog lies before them... Does that sound weird? But the actors take their roles just as seriously as Arronofsky takes his film. It's almost like they're grounding the whole project. The Fountin exaggerates in every respect: The subject, the effects, the ambitions - that's exactly why I like the film! Haven't there always been young filmmakers who tried to put everything they wanted to express about life into a single film? Crazy, sometimes successful, sometimes not. Not a movie you can watch just like that. But that's a good thing!

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Harry Belafonte - Island In The Sun 

Harry Belafonte is certainly one of the most played artists in our bar, especially "Jump In The Line" and "Matilda". He passed away today, having been one of the icons of the Black Power movement since the 50s. We were last privileged to hear the 90 year old speak on the occasion of the civil rights movement "Democracy now!" - just one month after Donald Trump's election victory. Belafonte called for more rebellion, more adventure! He stood alongside Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela, called himself an actor who sings, but above all an activist. For Belafonte grew up in a time when racial segregation and the Ku Klux Klan were simply everyday occurrences. At the age of 90, at the very end of his life, he said he had never experienced America as racist. Barely 50 years after the time of Martin Luther King! And so he announced a 4th Reich, a never-ending nightmare. His musical career and his film career mostly showcased a very different Belafonte. Island In The Sun takes us to Georgetown harbour and the magnificent view of the sea. An eternal summer, filmed in CinemaScope. Behind it, the human drama, the racial conflict develops. The film, however, leaves it at allusions, for example in the depiction of the love affair of an English officer with a black woman. A blunt indictment on the subject of racism admittedly looks different from what Zanuck's 20th Century Fox dared to do back in 1957. The film even shies away from a kiss, probably for fear of appearing hurtful. Island In The Sun is good as a document of a time when such things were simply not allowed on the screen. Belafonte, who was the Godfather of Hip Hop and producer of Beat Street during the early 80s, is much more visible. In our bar, we love to play The Rock Steady Crew from it. If you fancy a walk, Beat Street is available from us as dVD8542 - sadly no longer free on youtube at the moment. In memory of Harry Belafonte!

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Wedding 

Back when Wedding was still rancid! With guys like S-Bahn driver Klaus (Heino Ferch), who thinks his wife is cheating on him. So he simply gets off the S-Bahn and walks over to Pankstrasse, where his wife works in the furniture shop (the S-Bahn just stops). While his wife Susanne (Angela Schmid-Burgk) is in customer service, he hits her, goes home and threatens his child - while the police arrive. Klaus flees, but he doesn't get far. Only as far as where Wedding ends - to the Berlin Wall... The year is 1989. Behind the Bauer lie the Jahn Stadium and the dilapidated grounds of the Eberswalde railway station, where the Mauerpark is today. "Why are you torturing me like this?" asks Susanne Klaus. "Because I love you," says the toxic husband. And here at the end of the world, at the Berlin Wall, his showdown ends. A shot from the policeman Markus (Roger Hübner) goes off. Klaus falls down dead, Markus walks away from the scene. Wedding, however, is neither thriller nor drama. Markus, who wants to get married in a week, meets his school friend Susanne, of all people, at the Eberswalde train station years later. She, in turn, is dating the good-for-nothing Sulle (Harald Kempe). Fortunately, director Heiko Schier doesn't make anything out of this constellation.... nothing. At some point Susanne and Markus have sex in an old shed and Sulle tries to drive his Ascona into the wall (but it doesn't work because the petrol runs out). Nice 80s funk comes out of the synthesiser and the focus is always on the scene: Wedding. Sulle claims to have gone to sea, Susanne would like to be on TV and Markus would like to be a commissioner. If only there hadn't been that fatal shot! These guys are never shown off, let alone betrayed. The film likes them just as much as Wedding. It's not about grand gestures! A few months later the Wall falls and the world of Susanne, Markus and Sulle will be a different one. 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE The Crow 

The Crow became famous, of course, because Brandon Lee was accidentally shot during filming. And indeed, the film is also about someone who comes back from the dead - just as, in a way, Brandon Lee did with the film. A black irony of fate! The story begins with a resurrection from the dead. Rock star Eric Draven (Lee) is murdered the night before his wedding. A crow - so the story goes - transports his soul into the afterlife. But because of the unexplained incident of his murder, Eric's soul finds no peace and returns to earth a year later on Halloween. Eric swears revenge. Nothing more needs to be written about the story. In flashbacks, the murder is reconstructed and then Eric, led by the crow, wanders the streets at night. His make-up resembles a skull. No bullet can harm him, because he is already dead. The story serves as an excuse for the STYLE of the film, because here a very unique world is created that resembles that of Blade Runner. An abandoned urban wasteland where it is always night. Who remembers the gothic extravaganzas in Tim Burton's Batman? This is all so much darker! Obviously The Crow shows inspiration from a number of graphic novels of its time and their over-the-top architecture, and the underlying graphic novels in turn love 40s film noir. The editing and soundtrack of The Crow, however, are reminiscent of music videos, in which the villains like Myca (Bai Ling) again almost look like someone drew them. Those who love 90s grunge will find Stone Temple Pilots, Pantera or Nine Inch Nails here. Probably some even know the soundtrack better than the film! What is said about death and resurrection between the music video numbers is given a melancholic subtext by Brandon Lee's misfortune. Just like his famous father's career, Brandon's ends far too soon - only that Bruce Lee was never allowed to be part of such a great film as The Crow.

CINEGEEK.DE Dance Movies 70s 

Most beautiful is the scene where Tony Manero (John Travolta) and Stephanie (Karen Lynn Gorney) sit at the Brooklyn Bridge. Tony knows everything about this bridge; how high it is and how much concrete has been used. We experience the eternal motive of a man who wants to escape. Tony dreams of the other side of the bridge, where life must be much more pleasant! Stephanie has characterized his: Tony lives with his parents, hangs out with his buddies, dances Saturday night in 2001 - a walking cliché. Tony knows she's right. His life can probably be described as unfinished and Saturday Night Fever is above all a sad movie. But we remember Tony's moving walk on the New York sidewalk and his dance, all alone, in the middle of the dance floor. Travolta's play, simply wonderful and very endearing! The very first sequences round off his person. Outside, he makes sure to be seen with shiny new shoes; at home, however, he is still treated like a child. Tony gets a four dollar raise. For him, this is the only recognition in his life outside the dance floor - a bad joke for his (unemployed) father. But in his room Tony looks at himself in the mirror, straightens his hair, even strips for himself. The posters of his heroes are stuck to the wall. During dinner, his father beats him and ruins Tony's hairstyle: "I work a long time on my hair, and you hit it!". At home, Tony is trapped there and his parents only admire his brother Father Frank Jr., who has become a priest (after all, we are with Italo-Americans!). The plot is determined by Tony's choice of Annette (Donna Pescow), the girl who loves him, or Stephanie (Karen Lynn Gorney), who represents Manhattan for him. Stephanie has her own apartment and meets really famous people (Paul Anka!) for her work. But in reality she only learned to work as a secretary. Basically Stephanie is a thunderous version of Annette. I thought Annette was the better choice, but Tony wasn't. He is blinded by Stephanie's glamour and basically has no experience with women anyway. We even see him trying awkwardly to overpower Stephanie in the car. Later, in the most horrible scene, we witness Annette being raped by his friends. Saturday Night Fever is far from being a perfect movie (sometimes I even found it quite embarrassing!). Especially the story about the brother Father Frank Jr. is quite poor: The brother returns home, has an almost theological conversation with Tony, tells the family that he doesn't want to be a priest anymore, goes to the disco once and then disappears. From the disco and from the film. Amazing how little space the big dance competition takes! The happy ending in turn gives us hope for a better future for Tony and Stephanie, but without considering the problems of the past. Nevertheless: As Tony Stephanie explains, he would like to try to be a good friend of hers - that's heart-rending! Saturday Night Fever is a big love story! Anyway, Tony's dreams! On the dance floor all his problems are forgotten and everything that devalues his life. Here Tony is larger than life! A nice boy who is allowed to live his dream for a moment! Tony makes mistakes, he feels his way, he always says the wrong thing. Only in the moment that he does what he really loves (dancing!) he grows beyond himself. By the way, Tony also chooses his partner according to whether she can dance well. He even renounces his victory in the competition in favor of a couple from Puerto Rico. In Tony's self-image, this couple was simply better. He explains his own victory with the fact that everything foreign is rejected in this quarter! To sacrifice one's life to what one really loves! This is what Saturday Night Fever is about. Which film has a better message?

CINEGEEK.DE Dance Movies of the 80s 

Sure, we all love Flashdance and yet the movie could be much better! It's almost as if real life has overtaken Hollywood here! Who has seen the biography of Jeniifer Beals? A model from Chicago, discovered by a famous photographer, who finally fights her way up, goes to Yale and studies acting in New York? Beals plays Alex and she also has to fight her way to the top. Right at the beginning, when Irene Cara's theme song begins (and Irene Cara also comes from the street and walked a rocky road!), Alex is given certain attributes. She rides her bike to work early in the morning, stroking a cat that crosses her path. On a kind of disco construction site we experience Alex in a male profession: she is a welder. In the evening Alex is in the club, where she causes a furore as a dancer. Beals is really a fresh and talented actress, but the team around director Adrian Lyne doesn't make it easy for her. The script, written by some authors like the infamous Joe Eszterhas, looks like the sellout at Hollywood's supermarket. You just steal something from a whole bunch of movie classics. It's too bad that nobody has worked out Alex's character. Character? As described, one should rather speak of certain attributes. She, the Go Go dancer falls in love with her Porsche driving boss, then she visits her mentor, trains in a factory loft in Pittsburgh and is watched by her drooling dog. Alex has a variety of skills, for example she can fish her bra out from under her sweatshirt without taking it off. Again and again there are interruptions by the great dance scenes. Meanwhile Alex dreams of ballet, even though she works in the most typical working class bar in film history. What the script can't do, the soundtrack by Giorgio Moroder does. And the naturally appearing Jennifer Beals! You are missing Flashdance emotions! But for me this is also a film that I remember from my childhood. A film like a time machine. Flashdance is deeply and intimately connected to the 80s and that's why we love it so much! 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Whitney 

About halfway through Whitney comes the greatest moment of this sometimes weepy documentary about the rise and fall of Whitney Houston: her performance of the "Star-Spangled Banner" during the Super Bowl game in 1991 (shortly after the start of the Gulf War). Whitney producer explains how he changed the time signature from 3/4 to 4/4, gave Whitney a recording of the band. A recording she had not even listened to before. The 4/4 time signature was to give the young star enough room to sing - a soul performance of the anthem. Whitney didn't rehearse once. The live performance was her first take - and years later I am still moved by this moment! At the same time, it's also the last goosebump moment, because from then on, it gets darker and darker. Whitney Houston did not write any of her songs herself, nor are there any personal lyrics by her. We can only get to know her through her singing, her music. We have to look in her music for the reason why she never really felt comfortable in her skin. 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Billy Wilder - Sabrina 

Billy Wilder, a cynic and Philioph with a joke! A genius who undoubtedly belongs to the great directors (and there's no more than a handful of them!). "The only rule in the movies is, there are no rules" - afterwards he worked, who started his career here in Berlin. Wilder was the first to win three Oscars for a movie. 21 nominations, six of them won! If you look through the lists of the 100 biggest movies, Wilder leads the list of comedies. His comedies never got old or museum-like! Wilder's comedies still look as fresh today as they did the day they were shown! His name was Samuel Wilder and he was born in an Austrian village. But his career began in Berlin, when he had to leave in '33 (almost his whole family died in a concentration camp). His world career is not self-evident: "I knew 100 words when I got off the boat". But his feeling for construction and his knack for characters made it easy for him to assert himself in Hollywood. By the way, he didn't start out as a full-fledged comedy director. Wilder staged rather gloomy works until he changed in 1954. Since Sabrina he has exclusively made comedies. Wilder, Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart and William Holden. A film packed with Hollywood legends! And with both dry and cynical humour, which Wilder makes bearable through his artistic staging as Romantic Comedy. Bogart plays a hard-hearted tycoon, Holden the useless brother. Hepburn embodies the daughter of the chauffeur. Who knows what happens next? Holden plays a bit with the love-sick girl, who finally tries to kill herself with car exhaust fumes. They send her to France to take Sabrina's mind off things. After her return she is transformed: From the outside a European lady - but still the daughter of the chauffeur. Holden can't believe his eyes, but Sabrina will break Bogart's hard heart... Wilders figure constellation is not only romantic and funny, but also corrosive. Bogart, like a robot that burns for nothing, doesn't afford any personal feelings and wears a strange melon (but you only have to fold down the edge and have - BOGART!). Decisive; his age. Bogart seems like a funeral director who never had a youth. Holden, on the other hand, a ridiculous figure, who is expected to suffer terrible pain by Wilder, as he (the son of a glassmaker dynasty) sits down in a martini glass. Otherwise he is supposed to have a favourable effect on a company merger through his marriage and is allowed to hunt around in Caprios. Bogart meanwhile books Holden's lifestyle. A Cinderella story that appeals to the good in man, a satire that overcomes "class" barriers, but also emotional barriers. An encounter of the numbness of the new world with the humanism of the old.