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Hark Bohm ist im Grunde der Erfinder von Jugendfilmen, die so klingen wie Stand By Me. Schon in den 70ern inszenierte er Coming Of Age Filme wie Nordsee ist Mordsee (1976) und Moritz, lieber Moritz (1978). Bohm kam 1939 in Hamburg zur Welt. Ab den späten 60ern trat der Mann mit dem wetter-gegerbten Gesicht als Schauspieler in Erscheinung (sein Bruder Marquard Bohm hatte ihn inspiriert). Er war in Rudolf Thomes Rote Sonne zu sehen (in einem Date mit Uschi Obermeier) und in einer Reihe von Fassbinder Filmen. Darüber hinaus war er Mit-Begründer des Filmverlags der Autoren sowie des Filmfests Hamburg. Für mich ist Hark Bohm aber nicht nur der Erfinder des "Stand By Me" Coming Of Age Films, sondern auch einer der Ersten, die sich des neuen Genres Culture Clash Film annahmen. Das war 1988 und sein Film hiess Yasemin, die Liebesgeschichte einer türkischstämmigen Frau mit einem jungen Draufgängers, verkörpert von Uwe Bohm. Mittlerweile kennen wir das Culture Clash Rezept zu Genüge, 1988 aber war das alles neu. Seine späte Karriere bestritt er zusammen mit Fatih Akin, der Bohm Drehbuch Amrum verfilmte. Ein Hark Bohm Film von Fatih Akin. Zeit für eine Rückschau!

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Nordsee ist Mordsee ist ein Film über den Wunsch, nicht erwachsen zu werden. Und ganz bestimmt das Vorbild für Fatih-Akins "Tschick"! Im Mittelpunkt steht Uwe (Uwe Bohm) aus Hamburg Wilhelmsburg. Einem Arbeiterviertel. Uwes Vater ist Alkoholiker und verprügelt ihn regelmässig. Dafür schikaniert Uwe den Nachbar-Jungen Dschingis. Es kommt zum Kampf, doch Uwe unterliegt. Er wird sich nicht mehr sehen lassen können in seiner Clique. Uwes letzter verbliebender Freund: Dschingis. Denn eigentlich sind sich beide viel ähnlicher als es anfangs schien! Mit Dschingis will er abhauen. Die Jungs bauen sich ein Floss und damit wollen sie zur Nordsee gelangen... Hark Bohm zweiter Film avancierte zu einem Klassiker, der ebenfalls nicht alt werden wollte. Wer kann die Dialoge auswendig? "Gehst du jetzt anschaffen?" - "Nee, ich sonn mich". Aus dem Sozial-Drama wird ein grandioser Abenteuerfilm, ein verträumtes Road Movie. Nordsee ist Mordsee weiss genau, wie 14jährige denken und sprechen. Nordsee ist Mordsee handelt von dem Albtraum, dass sich das Leben anfühlt wie im Gefängnis. Und daraus will man ausbrechen! Oder in den Worten von Udo Lindenberg, der den Film einleitet: "Ich träume oft davon, ein Segelboot zu klau'n und einfach abzuhau'n." P.S. ich habe mich immer gefragt, ob "Stand By Me" oder "Tschick" nicht Remakes von Nordsee ist Mordsee sind?

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Mira Nair, now also known as the mother of New York's new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, made a discovery many years ago when she began her directing career: many of the motels in the Deep South of the USA are run by Indians. Although their roots lay in India or Pakistan, many of them came to the USA via Uganda (it was Idi Amin who forced them to leave). In any case, they had demonstrated great talent for running small businesses. So, Harvard graduate Nair, who herself had lived in Uganda, decided to make a film about it. Mississippi Masala begins in Uganda. There, the family of an Indian lawyer lives in prosperity and security. Until Amin confiscates their property. Now we meet the family again in a run-down motel in Greenwood. The lawyer and his wife (Roshan Seth and Sharmila Tagore) have a particularly beautiful daughter named Mina (Sarita Choudhury). Mina has only vague memories of Uganda. We quickly realize that Mina doesn't share all of her parents' views. One day, she crashes into the car of an attractive Black man (Denzel Washington). They exchange numbers and fleeting glances. They go out together, but her parents demand that Mina marry one of their own... A reinterpretation of the Romeo & Juliet fable, enriched with racism and the isolation of the young woman. People here are seen only as stereotypes, not as individuals. Despite the serious subject matter, Mississippi Masala is funny and lighthearted—a true rom-com! And right in the middle of it all is a young Denzel Washington. Is there anything to criticize? Perhaps only that Nair tries to include too many aspects (such as the scenes in Uganda). But above all, the film introduces us to people I didn't know before. People who have experienced significant upheaval and yet have no interest in people outside their own circle.

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Steve Buscemi plays these characters that have no place in the world - and yet they insist on being there! Buscemi was a used car salesman and Paparazzo - nowhere welcome and yet present. This time he's an indie film director trying to finish a no-budget production. The cheap drama that the overburdened young filmmaker pieces together with other chaotic people is getting out of hand. All this happens with a desperate serenity that makes it clear: Director Tom DiCillo speaks from his own experience. Basically, his comedy has become a disaster report of his own failure. Living In Oblivion is arranged like three overlapping short films. In the center, the director: A beginner, of course known to the greats and in love with his main actress. His lead actor Chad Palomino (LeGros) gives him the worst headache. With his talent for flirting, he turns the female actresses against each other. Misdirected explosions and broken fog machines or senile mothers on the set do the rest. A single nightmare. Living In Oblivion is cleverly told between "reality" and "film". DiCillo knows the practical basics of filmmaking and knows that it's not only technical breakdowns that cause disaster. He allows us a glimpse behind the scenes and puts us in a very pleasant position: We can laugh loudly about the downfall of others!

Diane Keaton 

Filmlist on CINEGEEK.DE Diane Keaton represented one thing above all else: style. And freedom! Just look at her clothes in Annie Hall; a masterful mix of second-hand and haute couture. A look that expresses her personality, and probably no film has achieved this more than Annie Hall. Yet Keaton never seemed to care how she was perceived. She simply enjoyed dressing up and inspired an entire generation to go their own way. Most of Keaton's films are not that well known, yet they grossed almost a billion dollars in total. Keaton is at the forefront of a group of actresses such as Meryl Streep and Sigourney Weaver, critically examining the second and third waves of feminism and refusing to be a sex symbol according to other people's ideas. And she was adaptable! After all, Keaton became a star in the romcom genre during the 1990s. Keaton was always at the forefront of the spotlight, being both mainstream and progressive. Her films were for everyone. Incidentally, she was born Diane Hall and celebrated her breakthrough in Woody Allen's Play It Again, Sam. This was followed by Woody Allen slapstick comedies and then Coppola's Godfather. For years, she was romantically involved with her co-stars, whether Woody Allen or Al Pacino. Then Woody Allen wrote a screenplay tailored specifically for her. It was a character study about a murdered woman (although this plot element was left out of the final film: Diane Hall became Annie Hall). It was roles like these that made her a legend, while her clothing style made her an icon. 

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At the heart of Blood Brothers is an impossible friendship. On one side is Nicola (Franco Nero), who returns to Naples during the 20's to become a lawyer. He clashes with Don Gaetano Fungillo (Fabio Testi), the leader of the "Guappi", the local Camorra. This sectarian organisation is deeply rooted in the life of the city. Nicola studies law to change the system from within. Don Gaetano, in turn, lands on the other side of the bars. Both are of course also divided by a woman, embodied by Claudia Cardinale. About ten years ago I bought all relevant DVD releases from Koch Media. Among them the jewelry version of Blood Brothers with a thick booklet and cardboard box. When I recommend the Mafia epic to customers of our video store, I always compare it to the works of Visconti. And director Pasquale Squitieri adds a political note to the action by fading in images from the 60s at the end. Nothing has changed. 

Film List on CINEGEEK.DE Claudia Cardinale 

Claudia Cardinale, THE female film star of post-war Italian cinema and certainly of her era, has died at the age of 87. Raised in Tunis in a family with Sicilian roots, she came to film in 1957 after winning a beauty contest in Tunis. She had to be dubbed for her first roles, as she grew up speaking French. Those familiar with her biography know that she became pregnant at an early age in an abusive relationship. For years, she passed her son off as her little brother. He was born in 1958 and grew up with his grandparents. By 1963 at the latest, she was internationally famous thanks to Fellini's 8 1/2 and Visconti's The Leopard (in whose epic Rocco And His Brothers she appeared in 1960). These films paved her way to Hollywood; Blake Edwards' Pink Panther was also made in 1963, followed by Sergio Leone's Once Upon A Time In The West in 1968. You will surely notice that she appeared in four of the best films of all time in a short period of time! In the early 1970s, however, she suffered a career setback when she separated from producer Franco Cristaldi. Cristaldi called for a boycott of Cardinale. At the end of the 1970s, she appeared in a mini-series by Franco Zeffirelli, Jesus of Nazareth, and in 1982 in Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo (and that makes five of the best films of all time!). Unlike Brigitte Bardot, for example, we are familiar with Cardinale's films. In this sense, she is not a star, but above all an ACTRESS who also had a theater career. What we know about Cardinale as a person is that she stood for the independent, free-spirited women of her time and appeared at a meeting with the Pope wearing a miniskirt. Later, she turned almost entirely to the theater, where she achieved great success. In 2002, she visited us in Berlin and was honored for her life's work—a life that, according to Cardinale, encompassed more than 150 lives!