FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Lemon Tree 

There is a lack of empathy these days and instead of empathy there is a WE against THEM. A lack of empathy for the victims of the terrorist attack by Hamas on 7 October on the one hand and a lack of compassion for the civilian victims of the war in Gaza, led by Netanyahu's right-wing extremist government on the other. Only cinema can help! Films like Lemon Tree, which modernises the story of King Ahab from the Old Testament. Ahab covets his neighbour's vineyard. In this case, however, Ahab is the Minister of Defence of Israel, who moves into a house near a lemon grove. The lemons are the only source of income for a widow from Palestine. For security reasons, Ahab claims, the lemon trees are to be cut down. Unlike him, however, his wife sympathises with the widow. A parable of the daily insults, injustices and injuries that agents of Israel inflict on their neighbours from Palestine. An opportunity for us to feel what we at best read in the serious press and at worst on social media. 

Hippie Decade on CINEGEEK.DE 

Nothing is more unpleasant when adults behave like children in the movie. When it gets madly greasy, both romp through a park and feed the swans and giggle all the time. Michelangelo Antonioni has expressed his deep insights into how cultivated boredom sucks every life out of man in a series of masterpieces from the 50s and early 60s. Then he accidentally became world famous as a pop art icon. For Zabriskie Point he finally went to Hollywood. Antonioni had found his style. He staged movies of great emptiness, which probably nobody understood completely. They were movies from the upper middle class. Now he felt obliged to make a film about the hippie era. A victim of the late 60's which made so many great authors into "engaged" filmmakers. But Antonioni is not an activist and his talent is not to pick up political topics. Antonioni's figures always seemed so incredibly blocked - paralyzed. But in Zabriskie Point they raise their voices - and sound empty. The actors do not act together. They have narcissistic self-talks. The hero from Zabriskie Point makes a radical impromptu speech (without any motivation) and then decides to intervene personally (without any motivation). Maybe he killed a policeman (but we know what a murder of Antonioni can be like). He steals a plane, flees into the desert and picks up a beautiful girl. He circles her a few times, then both run into the dunes and love each other. In the lowest point of the USA, in Zabriskie Point (note the symbolic content). The sex scenes seem to have been copied from other movies, without any real feeling or even joie de vivre. We simply watch as a couple of lovers roll around in the sand. A ridiculously long sequence. What's the next step? Our hero paints his plane with psychedelic colors. He flies back to Los Angeles and is murdered by policemen. It's not easy to follow Zabriskie Point, but the film is basically that simple. Besides, Antonioni shows how corrupt and corrupt America is (to be noticed by public attacks). It remains to be seen that Antonioni has no feeling for how young people are. In his Italian films, he showed us adults. In Zabriskie Points we see kids rolling up and down the sand dunes.

Charlie Kaufmans Mindgame Movies on CINEGEEK.DE 

Charlie Kaufman ist der Erfinder unter den Drehbuch-Autoren! In diesem, seinem ersten grossen Erfolg, liefert er eine endlose Reihe solcher Erfindungen wie verruchter Paradoxien und überraschender Wendungen. Ganz listig und langsam - ohne billige Effekthascherei

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Ordell thinks long and hard. The camera lets him, just holds on to it. "It's Jackie Brown!" Odell is right. It was Jackie Brown who stole the $500,000. It's unusual that a black gun dealer in the movie even gets the chance to think. With Tarantino, however, things are quite different. He has filmed the novel of the same name by Elmore Leonard, in which all the protagonists are clever. A question of survival, the smartest one will make it. Jackie (Pam Grier) knows that she has to look naïve in order to survive. Ordell (Samuel L. Jackson) would kill her immediately. She's cunning, like everyone else in Tarantino's movie. The bail bondsman (Robert Forster), the AFT agent (Michael Keaton) - they all know what happens. Just ask if they're fast enough to keep up with Jackie. With Jackie Brown, Quentin Tarantino not only proved that he was more than a hype! His third film remains his best! Never again did he arrange such perfect scenes as those between the constantly stoned ex-Con (Robert de Niro) and Ordell's lover (Bridget Fonda) discussing a photo in Ordell's booth. Never again did Tarantino stage such a precise production! Although mistakes in suitcases have been popular since the 60s, it's not the plot that convinces here. It's the structure of the film. Jackie Brown, 44 years old, works for the worst airline as a stewardess. She also smuggles money for Ordell. Then Beaumont (Chris Tucker) is caught and the AFT (personified by Michael Keaton) is on her heels. She is arrested. But Ordell sends the bail bondsman Max Cherry (Robert Forster) to buy her out. Here begins the great love story, the heart of the film. Slowly the affection between the two grows (in a worse movie a sex scene would have spoiled everything). Jackie fears to be murdered by Ordell. She has to kill him first, but she's not a killer. In Gunde Max knows that Jackie is using him. Nevertheless, her feelings are real. Jackie is helpless. She can't help it. We get to know all these characters (and in most thrillers they just get to know each other). I think the fact that Tarantino lets us participate in his characters makes the difference! That's what makes his movies "cult movies". Tarantino's strengths are his dialogues and his timing. And of course his casting! Pam Grier, the sex bomb of the Blaxploitation cinema of the 70s, seems tired and desperate here. It still attracts everyone's attention, but Jackie knows life. Robert Forster as a security agent plays the role of his life! A quietly working professional and a sensitive, melancholic lover. Samuel L. Jackson seems even colder and more dangerous than ever before and Robert de Niro can be simply stupid. One of the best is the almost invisible performance of Bridget Fonda, who is only interested in one thing: being high. At the time, some people said Jackie Brown was too long. They're just the ones who can't cope with old-fashioned movies. On the other hand, I wish Tarantino's characters would talk to each other, cheat and live much longer.