FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Francois Truffaut - Jules And Jim (engl. subt.)

Jules Et Jim opens with a furious carousel music sequence and a breathless introduction to two young men, Jules and Jim, who meet in Paris around 1912. One is French, the other Austrian. They teach each other their languages and translate poems. Jules is looking for a girlfriend, but it never really works out. The girls he "dates" are either too quiet or they talk too much or something else doesn't fit. So he tries with a professional, but of course that's not the wisdom of the end. Truffaut tells it all very exuberantly and always as if he already knew the end of the story... In 1962, in the middle of the creative explosion of the Nouvelle Vague, Truffaut's third film came into the cinemas. Probably the most influential and also the best film in this series, which so radically broke with the past! This thrust of the Nouvelle Vague seemed so tremendous that a few years later American cinema would also break with the stereotypes of the past. Legend has it that Truffaut found the original novel by Henri-Pierre Roche in an antiquarian bookshop. He, in turn, had designed the triangular relationship around Jules and Jim based on his own experiences. This means that the original Catherine was still alive while the film was running in the cinemas. The original story was probably that Catherine married Jules and shot Jim. But in Truffaut's realization Catherine does not become a murderer. Jim (Henri Serre) survives and only once Catherine (Jeanne Moreau) points a gun at him. Everything begins cheerfully and upbeat, but the First World War is approaching, which should not only break Europe, but also our trio. Jules (Oskar Werner) and Jim were born to be friends. Both live in Paris and both choose a life of freedom. First, Jules thinks he has found his ideal wife in Therese (Marie Dubois), after she writes an anarchist slogan on the wall and is beaten by her boyfriend. Therese is one who puts cigarettes with the burning end in her mouth to blow the smoke out of the other end. In the end Jules finds out that Therese isn't the ideal woman for him after all and explains it to Jim that she is his mother as well as his daughter. In a sculpture the friends discover their ideal: a face, beautiful, but also inscrutable. They should find this expression in Catherine's face. Normally they share their friends, but not this time, as Jules points out. Nevertheless, the three go everywhere together. After a Strindberg play, Catherine tries to show her friends how impressive she found the heroine (very different from the boys). Catherine simply jumps into the Seine. That's enough to explain it! Of course both have fallen in love with her. But Jules takes Catherine to Austria to marry her. Finally the war separates them: Jules and Jim are now facing each other in hostile camps. Only after the war does Jim visit the couple again, who now have a daughter. But the marriage is (of course) unhappy. Although Catherine runs away and has affairs, Jules stays with her - simply because he understands her nature and loves her! Jules would do anything to make her happy! He would even share Catherine with Jim now! Maybe even a divorce would be the smartest way for Jim to marry Catherine? That, too, would survive the friendship! But Catherine seems wildly determined to always behave as nobody expects. She shocks the friends - probably also to test them. Truffaut films accordingly and we must understand his directing style in 1962 as a revelation! He jumps through the events with ease, never lingers. He tells the war through footage materials (just like Welles' "Citizen Kane"), while the camera keeps moving. Basically, Truffaut's handheld camera breaks every Hollywood rule. In the moment when there is no time to show us what is happening, the narrator has to serve. He almost pants afterwards. The narrator is later to become Truffaut's distinctive feature. He portrays the story so breathlessly that we think we already know the end before it has even begun. Sometimes I wonder how Jules Et Jim would have turned out if Truffaut had filmed him traditionally? Possibly with a psychoanalysis of Catherine? Better? Hardly. Basically, Jules Et Jim is about three people who don't want to accept that their brief moment of happiness passes. We are presented with this short moment at the same speed that we think we are seeing a comedy. Wrong! What remains is grief. Perhaps it is this sadness alone that reminds us of the happiness of the past.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Roy Anderson - A Swedish Love Story (engl. subt.)

 A story of first love and Sturm & Drang!  It's summer. Pär is fifteen, meets his friends, plays pinball, rides around on his moped. A normal teenager. Then Pär visits his grandfather in hospital and meets Annika. They don't speak to each other, but Annika notices Pär too. Definitely. It goes on for a while. They look at each other with eyes in love, but are still too shy to talk to each other. Finally they dance together - but even this first dance does not end like in the classic Hollywood movie. It needs the help of friends to bring Annika and Pär together. The family life of the young couple is problematic. Annika's father is a successful businessman, Pär's father a car painter. They do not take their children's love as seriously as Annika and Pär. For both of them this first time is the whole world! If you know the late Roy Anderson movies (because there are decades between his first and second movie!), you will be surprised about this realistic love drama. Young love is overlaid by family drama. And Anderson's film doesn't fantasize about this - in fact A Swedish Love Story is more realistic than any fantasy! Ann-Sofie Kylin and Rolf Sohlman play Annika and Pär, two typical teenagers who do exactly what teenagers do. They listen to music with the cassette recorder, eat sandwiches. Their first love scene is probably the most tasteful one I know! And the adults? That's another story. Of course they think that Annika and Pär are just summer flirting. Annika's father disapproves of Pär, because he isn't rich. And Pär's parents? Is their son even capable of more than a summer love affair (they doubt it)? A Swedish Love Story is a beautiful film! One that shows the limits of love, but above all how love can overcome limits!

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Luchino Visconti - The Earth Trembles

 When can you actually call a film "neo-realistic"?  Do the artistically lit fishing boats in The Earth Trembles deserve this description? Or is the fishing village of Aci Trezza simply such a wonderful place, with changing light and the elemental forces of the sea, that every picture simply has to seem like a poem? In Aci Trezza, Sicily, Visconti staged a neo-realist classic in 1947 with local fishermen. The fishermen play themselves. Irony of fate, Visconti's film adapts a novel set in the 19th century. The fact that he shifted the events to the present should hardly be noticed by anyone, because time seems to pass much more slowly in Sicily. The Valasco family is at the centre of the story. A family of fishermen. The father lost his life and so the sons now fight against the forces of nature, going out to sea every day to sell their catch to the wholesalers. The prices for the catch are too low. A rebellion of the fishermen is put down. New exploitative contracts are proposed to the fishermen, which everyone accepts. Only Ntoni, the oldest son of Valasco, does not agree. Ntoni takes out a mortgage on his parents' house, becomes self-employed. The idea seems to work out... ...until a storm destroys his fishing boat. The Valasco family is now homeless, marginalized in the village. The reputation of his sisters is damaged and finally Ntoni gives up and submits to the dictates of the wholesalers. I had always believed that Visconto, coming from a noble family, must be Sicilian. Wrong! He was born in Milan and decided to make a film about social injustice in the South. A neo-realist film. This movement had no dogmas, it was held together only by the desire to represent reality. Visconti decided against professional actors, following the idea that everyone could play a role excellently: ...themselves. Visconti loves these people! Their life appears full of dignity, simplicity is presented in cinematic beauty. Poverty is opulently portrayed by Visconti. Financially, however, the film missed its audience. If Visconti had hoped for a social revolt beyond that, he had to be disappointed a second time. Today there are much less fishermen in Aci Trezza and the few are still exploited by wholesalers.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Departures

Times are hard for the young couple. He plays cello in a small provincial orchestra. The conductor explains to him that the orchestra must be closed. But there is more bad news. Some time ago he bought a new cello for money he didn't even have. He did not want to tell his wife. He knew she would think it was a bad idea. Now she knows. Can we suspect at this moment that this very cello is a kind of epiphany in the film? Yojiro Takita's film is about death. And in Japanese cinema, death always plays a prominent role! What's less interesting is the life after death than the grief of the bereaved. In the center of Departures is Daigo (Masahiro Motoki), an impulsive young man. His wife Mika (Ryoko Hirosue) loves him and believes in him. Even when he sells his expensive cello and returns to his mother's house. Daigo is now unemployed. He is back at the beginning again. He applies to Sasaki (Tsutomu Yamazaki) in a kind of travel agency. With luck! There's even an advance. This travel agency organizes trips to the next world. What an idea! What ceremony is used to embalm a corpse? How do you grant the private sphere of the deceased? How do you comfort the bereaved? How do you make up the corpse? These are lessons of life. It's best if Daigo doesn't tell us about his work. His wife might be shocked. If Mika discovers the secret and tells Daigo that she must leave him. She doesn't want to live with a man who paints the dead. Departures is such an elegant film. Everything flows, nothing is forced! Daigo seems to have been born for this work. Yet the narrative is quite conservative. Departures does not want to be a stylistic breakthrough. Instead we get a gripping and above all emotionally touching story. I have the impression that this is exactly what is most important to you - the customers of our video store. Much more than laughing or being scared! Departures is not a manipulative melodrama. We know and understand the main characters. Although we have probably never been in a company like this before, we are deeply involved. Sometimes Departures even gives us a smile! How many times have I seen the film now? Three times already.

FREE ON CINEEG.DE Yasujiro Ozu - The Only Son

When I brought our pre-war Ozu films from the Chinese Boying Label to the video store, my colleague Sulgi cried. Well, that's an exaggeration. Anyway, he looked at them all! The great Ozu arranges his pictures. He selects few elements, which he presents all the more effectively. Yasujiro Ozu is the most relaxed filmmaker of all! He cultivates his favorite themes and compositions and arranges them again and again. Is it the same movie every time? A stupid statement. It's all about nuances! "The tragedy of life begins with the bond between parent and child" - that's how he introduces The Only Son. Ozu always focuses on parents and their children. And the grandchildren. Mostly, children sacrifice their happiness for their parents. Or vice versa. In the wrong belief in what the other person wants, they make sacrifices. It's always marriage, children, and independence. Care and success. I think I've seen about 20 ozu movies. Some three times. That doesn't make me an expert yet, but as a video store owner I'm familiar with his viewing habits. What I notice is that his very early silent films are already mature. Everything depends on how a recording is put together. Ozu shoots at eye level with his protagonists. Often they squat. Often the shots begin before the characters enter the picture. And then they leave the picture again (while the camera holds it for a moment). Then Ozu briefly uses some music that sounds quite western. But his pictures never attract attention. Everything happens very unobtrusively. When you watch the film a second time, you notice how much he likes to frame his pictures. Anyway, Ozu finds countless variations within his rules. And for us there is time to think (this is exciting; much more exciting than a modern film!). The Only Son is about the only son of a widow. She works in a silk factory. A hard work. This is how she feeds her child. The son finishes school, follows a beloved teacher. His future lies in Tokyo. Years go by. Then his mother comes for a surprise visit. They're happy, they love each other. But there's a surprise. The son now has a family of his own. How come he never invited the mother? Because he's poor, has a badly paid job? Why didn't he ever tell her? Because he lives in such a dreary neighborhood? One day they'll talk to each other. The mother encourages him to persevere. He who has lost his courage. Tokyo is no place for him. He says there's no place for him here. Do you recognize the teacher? He's played by Chishu Ryu, who worked with Ozu many, many times. Not only are the subjects the same, but so are the actors. That's why I feel so at home in an Ozu film. If you research on imdb, you will notice that the two of them even worked together 52 times! Ryu always seems reserved and polite. He doesn't seem to be acting at all. Just like Ozu doesn't seem to be acting. In fact, I think Ozu made his movies just for me. But everyone thinks that when they see an Ozu film. You watch it with a good friend. With Ozu. You look inside his characters because they're not acting. If a bad director directed it, The Only Son would be sentimental. Not with Ozu. It sounds serious here. And look, even my teapot appears! Ozu shows this teapot in many films. In the film, it appears here and there. It seems that it can move. In a very late Ozu film, you can see that it is red. Of course it is. It's the colour of artists. 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Mickey And Nicky


One of the great American indie films of the 70's - one of the forgotten masterpieces of its time! What is the best way to describe Elaine May's third film? It's a John Cassavetes movie, not by John Cassavetes. And a colossal flop, after which May should stop shooting for 11 years (to end up with an even bigger failure!). The cast alone: Cassavetes, probably the greatest American indie director and at his side, Peter Falk, without whom the Cassavetes films would be inconceivable! The highlight: May consumed more film material than any production ever before. She let the camera wander and circle, just like in a Cassavetes film. There is the joke that the camera was still moving when Cassavetes and Falk had long since left the set. May doesn't seem to have been an easy director, at least she forbids anyone but her "cut" to shout. In Mikey And Nicky everything seems improvised, no wonder that May supposedly wrote the dialogues overnight. The story doesn't stop there; on the contrary, the film lives exactly through it! Mikey And Nicky is a great comedy because of her characters! How they are written and embodied! Nick, a charmer, a No Good - always on the move. You think everyone's muscles are twitching all the time. Mick is exactly the opposite. His silent counterpart. The dialogues correspond to this, seem to constantly revolve around themselves and reflect this intimate relationship. Both talk like unemployed philosophers, like two pretty insane nerds. May has succeeded in making a unique film - especially because he treats the relationship between two ridiculous men so enjoyably. But also the female roles like Carol Grace's (the model Holly Golightlys!). And the camera keeps rushing through the action without us knowing exactly which "genre" Mikey And Nicky actually serves: A gangster comedy? But the gangster story stays in the background. A film noir? But only because most of the time it was shot at night. A character study? I don't think so. I really wanted to have the DVD for our film art bar Fitzcarraldo because of Cassavetes and Falk and Elaine May gives them both a lot to do!

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Lukas Moodysson - Lilja 4ever (engl. subt.)

We know the story of Lilja from the newspaper. How a 16-year-old girl from Russia is abandoned by her mother and falls in love with a handsome stranger. Hoping for a better future, Lilja moves to Sweden, where she is imprisoned as a prostitute. Lilja is naive and innocent. We know that she is in danger. But Lilja thinks that this is necessary for her survival. The fact that the story of Lilja is not an isolated case breaks my heart all the more! Lukas Moodysson's Lilja 4ever is one of the saddest and most moving movies of all time! Lilya (Oksana Akinshina) grows up somewhere in the former Soviet Union. In a desolate prefabricated housing estate, as we do not know it as Berliners. Her best friend is called Volodya (Artyom Bogucharsky) and has to play basketball with a can because he doesn't have a ball. Lilja's mother confesses to her daughter that she is engaged again. Her husband would take her to America, but Lilja couldn't be the same. The daughter is to follow. The mother is heartless. A woman born in a society as cold as it is desperate. The scene in which she leaves Lilja and the daughter runs behind the car, screaming, I could never forget again. I have to think about it and feel a dumpling in my throat. The moment Lilja lives alone at home, her aunt comes to see her. She throws the child out; from now on Lilja is "allowed" to live in her aunt's barrack. Is there a better environment somewhere? Anyway, Lilja won't find them. Instead she is having sniff parties with her friends. Volodya also lives on the street since his father threw him out. He talks about sex, as children do, and Lilja adopts the six-year-old like a big sister. Her way into prostitution doesn't surprise us. Without money for food... The girlfriend shows it off and can then buy things. Lilja hesitates, she disgusts herself. Finally she gives in. She must. Again and again the camera shows her child's face while she sleeps with shapeless men. Worst of all; a montage of her most disgusting sex scenes. But Lilja can now afford junk, alcohol and cigarettes. She even buys a basketball for her little "brother". But then she meets Andrei (Pavel Ponomaryov), who doesn't want sex. He drives Lilja home, she starts to trust him. He tells her about a better life in Sweden... We see through Andrei immediately and even Volodya does. But Lilja is blinded. Just like her mother did, she will leave Volodya behind to catch up with him... Lukas Moodysson filmed Lilja4ever as clearly and directly as a documentary. A work full of tenderness and sadness! We look at some scenes from Lilja's perspective; how she imagines heaven and her death. It is so incredibly sad that even after weeks of prostitution she still recites her prayer and believes in an escape. But every possibility remains only an illusion. By the way, Moodysson's film came to a good end in life: the Swedish Minister of the Interior passed a law that allowed prostitutes like Lilja to surrender to the police without being deported.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Thomas Vinterberg - Festen

A farce? A tragedy? Or simply too much for us spectators? That's how Thomas Vinterberg's parties work. Try a video evening: When one of your friends tortures out a short laugh that immediately suffocates again... Was that a joke now? But not. Festen is about a 60th birthday. During the celebration all the painful secrets of this corrupt and corrupt family are revealed. All (surviving) children are invited by Helge (Henning Moritzen) and his wife Elsa (Birthe Neuman) to their Danish estate. From other Scandinavian films we know: That doesn't mean anything good. Vorne weg arrives; the oldest son Christian (Ulrich Thomsen). Unfortunately, not everyone was able to accept the invitation. One of the twin sisters has just committed suicide. A family in turmoil. Sufficiency and anger and of course the wife is always to blame for everything. Nothing is packed, wife and children are thrown out of the car. Then there's rough sex. During the banquet Christian calmly raises his glass, beats it with his spoon. Then he accuses his father of raping him and his siblings earlier in a matter-of-fact, calm tone. People generally try to ignore the accusations. Christian continues that the father is responsible for his sister's suicide (while the waitresses steal everyone's keys so that nobody can leave the party). The father doesn't react at first; the mother tries an apology (but Christian accuses her of complicity). Then the African-American anthropologist arrives late and becomes the target of racist attacks. Oh yes, a servant also claims to have been raped and impregnated at the time. As in a good comedy, Vinterbeg picks up the pace. It comes to fights (alcoholized, because almost all are alcoholics) and Christian is tied to a tree in the woods. But partying is not a comedy! Everything is ugly and tragic and as with Sartre, the family has to stay together in one room. No one can escape. The background: The Danish Dogma Manifesto from 1995. Thomas Vinterberg was one of the signatories. He shot festivals on video, on location, with sounds of nature and completely without props. Hand camera instead of film music. No effects, of course. Fortunately, this kind of filmmaking never prevailed, because it would be annoying for our eyes (the Berliners are trying a similar style these days - even out of necessity). But in celebrations the dogma works. We can only shake our heads in disbelief when the family comes back for breakfast the next morning...

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE The Lives Of Others (engl. subt.)

Sometime at the border to Helmstedt, we stood in line with our car. My whole family on the way from West Berlin to West Germany. Transit. My father was annoyed. It was hot and nothing went ahead. My father asked, "Couldn't they send an officer over? The border soldier instructed my father: "There are no civil servants in the GDR - only workers and farmers. "Then send a peasant. Waiting even longer. My mother was furiously angry: "You've really given it to them now. That was the GDR for me. Stress at the inner-German border. That's why this other, opposing perspective now seems all the more interesting to me! One of the dreaded Stasi employees is sitting there. With headphones. His face as if frozen. He overhears a conversation. A captain of the Stasi, that feared secret police of the GDR. Night after night he sits in the attic, eavesdropping on the conversations in the apartment below him. A writer lives there with his beautiful lover. One of the few authors to be successfully published in the West. In the GDR he was not to blame for anything. Really? "One of our only writers read in the West and loyal to our government." Wiesler, as the agent is called, follows the events with suspicion. Is he jealous? Simply dutiful? Curious? After all, he has the whole apartment wired up. But there is nothing to suggest that the author Dreyman is disloyal. Apparently Dreyman believes in GDR socialism. But wouldn't a man like Dreyman have to be guilty? But the actually fascinating figure is Wiesler. His face serves as a mask. Ulrich Mühe plays him with infinite subtlety. Like a cat, he lurks on Dreyman. Wiesler has no hobbies. No life. But nothing can be attached to Dreyman. I try it without spoiling: Wiesler is asked by his superior, Dreyman simply something lying to attach. A faithful spy whom you command to be wrong... Wiesler is in conflict. But he has no one to talk to. He lives in a world of paranoia. The slightest mistake could end in disaster. Once a young man in the Stasi canteen makes a joke about the government. Wiesler doesn't laugh. With a cold mine he inquires about the man's name. The same could happen to Wiesler. What does he have left? His empty face. And an instinctive decision, which should change his whole life... The Berlin Wall falls in 1989. We see the event in the film, which today - 30 years later - is all the more interesting! Is that relevant today? The GDR practiced listening to the citizens and secret torture. Do Western democracies not guarantee that? That's exactly why the GDR went under. A country in which even the most loyal citizens could no longer believe. Always driven by evil spirits from outside (the West), aggression was invoked within the country (the Stasi). The GDR was not destroyed by American bombs. It imploded from within. All this The Lives Of Others constructs in secret thoughts and desires. It begins with a lesson in Wiesler's theory, abhorrent interrogation practices. Then the wall falls. Not with a bang. Rather with a whisper. And Wiesler? I can only anticipate that I was moved to tears. What a film!

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Ruben Östlund - Force Majeure

In Ruben Östlund's edgy marriage drama, a young Swedish family spends their holidays in the French Alps skiing. On the first day, they are portrayed "en famille" by a photographer. You can buy the sentimental proof of coherence and fun in the family. On the second day the unexpected happens: while they eat on the terrace of the ski hut, an avalanche loosens from the mountain opposite. It's easy to miss something the first time you watch the movie or it's the concept of force majeure: The avalanche races towards the hut, everyone jumps up, some panic. The father Tomas (Johannes Bah Kuhnke) flees to the roof of the hut. He leaves his wife and two children at the table. Luckily the avalanche does not hit her, she lies down in front of the hut. Only a cloud of powder snow makes the image appear white for about two minutes. After this shock, the guests finish their meal. "But all this was not so bad" remains an illusion, especially for the Swedish family. At first Tomas reacts confused because his wife Ebba (Lisa Loven Kongsli) is irritated by the incident. What reason could she have? Instead of saying it clearly, she just shrugs her shoulders. But then she becomes clearer: During a dinner with another couple, she tells how Tomas ran away, grabbed his cell phone, but not her own son. How he abandoned his family to save himself. That never happened, replies Tomas, who remembers a completely different version. They try to reconcile, but the emotions about this incident grow... Unlike in "normal" film, we don't take on the perspective of a character. The film steps back behind both, so we have to look for our own resolution. It is important that there are no two opinions: The wife alone is in the right with her view of things. It's all about the relativity of truth. The point is that a partner fatally violates his duties towards the family, but does not admit this to himself. Östlund's drama (which also offers very funny moments) is one of the most impressive films of recent times! With his cool, distanced style Ruben Östlund can now count himself among the greats in Europe!

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Un Homme Qui Dort (engl. subt.)


A nice job, video store in the film art bar Fitzcarraldo! A customer asked me about Un Homme Qui Dort. A film that we don't have yet. Finally I found it on youtube in good quality. - Here comes a man with a very ordinary face. He's neither unusually handsome nor particularly ugly. You see him, you forget him. He's not particularly memorable. It's like his life when he pours himself a cup of Nescafe every day. With a drop of condensed milk. He usually wears T-shirts and has a corduroy jacket on his bedroom door. His hair is a little tousled. He stays at home, doesn't want to see anyone, doesn't want to talk or think. It's almost like the whole world is slipping away from him... existential depression, alienation, nihilism. A young student from Paris, isolated, lonely. This is the theme of Bernard Queysanne's 1974 drama, based on the novel by Georges Perec. It seems as if a diary has been transferred to the screen here. As slow and sluggish as this student's thoughts may be. Cold and distant, the work, like the world of the protagonist, forces Queysanne's perspective on us. His name is Jacques Spiesser. A beautiful, inconspicuous man. We accompany him as he strolls aimlessly through the streets of Paris. Paris in exquisite black and white images - the beauty of the film corresponds to that of the protagonist. Spiesser slowly escapes his "normal" life and he estranges from the world, falls into a hole of deep isolation. Pretentious? But no, it is a radical attempt to adapt the film's aesthetics to its subject. A depressing challenge and cinematic voyage of discovery! Un Homme Qui was considered one of the best films of all time. I would call it a forgotten masterpiece! (Unfortunately the DVD is currently out of print. There is a nice release, which also runs with German and English sound. Will be purchased immediately, when available again!

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Shane Meadows - A Room For Romeo Brass

Somewhere in a small town in Nottingham, England, two friends live side by side. They do what all friends do: Hang out, have boys' conversations, but basically not much. Romeo Brass (Andrew Shim) is the somewhat plump, always optimistic son of a black mother. His white father ran away. Romeo is one who somehow always muddles through, tricks a bit here and there, is good things. His friend Gavin Woolley (Ben Marshall), whom everyone calls Knocks, suffers and needs surgery. His father prefers the television program to his own family. Romeo and Knocks like each other, but will this friendship last? We're in the middle of Ken Loach Land of working class workers! Finally Morell (Paddy Considine), a strange guy who wants to date Romeo's sister, joins us. Ladine (Vicky McClure) is very beautiful and attractive. I think the reason she's finally dating Morell is pure boredom. Slowly we became familiar with the characters. We even understand why Romeo Knocks didn't visit after his operation. It is simply so that such things are quite normal between friends at this age. We also understand why Romeo wanted to move out of his home and Knocks was happy to take him in. Anyway; we know that both live in a neighborhood where everyone knows everything about everyone. With Morell, however, danger is coming. I wouldn't just call him a stalker or psycho (as he would appear in conventional movies). Morell is constantly changing and it amazes him himself what facets he is capable of. Although the plot is logically constructed, we are surprised how history suddenly turns into violence... Shane Meadows serves it in his very own balance of comedy and drama, so you don't even want to talk about Ken-Loach-Country anymore!

Film List Undine + Arthaus Fairytale Movies

I have tried to collect stories based on fairy tales in our film list. For adults. Like Christian Petzold's Undine. All films that run freely on youtube are also named like that. But of course you will also find all titles very old-fashioned in our video library on DVD. And old-fashioned is always best! It goes like this: You come into our store, you go down the stairs to our DVd archive. If I were you, I would stay there for a few hours and pull out all the covers. After all, this is the whole history of film in the world! Sometimes there are other guests down there. For example our doormen, who secretly smoke pot. But they also love movies! For example Boyz N The Hood. We don't only have Undine, but also Beat Street and Krush Groove. Have fun exploring!

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Sophie Scholl

In the heart of Sophie Scholl is a long interrogation. Munich, 1943: A Nazi careerist interviews Sophie Scholl (Julia Jentsch), a student accused of distributing leaflets on campus against Hitler and his war. This is no thriller. From the beginning we know all the information. Sophie and her brother Hans (Fabian Hinrichs) belong to the White Rose, an underground organization. Actually the leaflets should have been sent out, but Hans gets the idea to simply distribute them. That sounds silly and if the Scholls were communists, they would certainly have violated their party discipline. But they are Catholics and follow their conscience. But it almost worked. They put piles of flyers in front of the seminar rooms. Only when Sophie lets a pile of them fly through the staircase does the caretaker, a Nazi by trade, discover them. He is angry, also because they give him extra work. The film refrains from creating artificial drama. It is based on facts and transcripts of interrogation protocols. We hear what the Scholl siblings actually said. Cool and calm Sophie answers the precise questions. She has a strong alibi. Will she get away with it? And here's the effect: Hardly any thriller could be so thrilling and thrilling! But the Nazi laws have no connection to higher justice. Of course not. Everything seems like pure bureaucracy. Then Sophie is found guilty. With frightening speed, the verdict is passed. One day Sophie throws a few flyers in the stairwell, two days later she's dead. Appeal? No appeal. Are the policeman in charge and the judge bad people? Yes, absolutely. But they do their duty. There's always someone to interpret the law. A constitution guarantees rights and freedoms. But these are ignored in Germany in 1943. These are the thoughts the film discusses. Again and again it's about questions like these: When was Sophie where and why? Why is the evidence against her convincing? The policeman acts passively, the judge eloquently. But those who know exactly that they are acting wrong often defend themselves the loudest. In the end, they must fear a higher moral judgement about themselves! Sophie is allowed to spend a few moments with her parents. These are the saddest moments in the film. Before she and her brother are taken away forever, her father praises her. You did the right thing. "I am proud of you both."

Film List Ennio Morricone

This is how our film lists work: I look for a subject and, on the occasion of the death of Ennio Morricone, I don't find it difficult this morning. Then I think of ten films that fit the theme. I check every single film on youtube. Is there a free stream in good quality? If so, I'll tell you: FREE ON YOUTUBE And if you are tired of the usual streaming services, you can get this little service from our video store for free. Selected and recommended films for free streaming. Of course they are all available in the basement of our video store. If you ever feel like it, you can have a look at this archive. With over 12000 DVDs. I love it myself! Sometimes I go to the Videodrom (the oldest Cienthek in Berlin - Kreuzberg, our role model) just to be amazed, to discover new things, to be surrounded by films for an afternoon. - "I'm convinced my music is not just for films" - no, for his life; according to Morricone, who died on 6 July 2020 as a result of a fall. Nevertheless, we keep him for his sensitivity in combining rock music and avant-garde for the Italian "Spaghetti Western", don't we? He was born in Rome in 1928. During the 40s he studied and played the trumpet. Morricone even composed hits for Paul Anka. Later on his customers should be: Brian de Palma, Terrence Malick, Dario Argento, Quentin Tarantino, John Carpenter, Roman Polanski, Samuel Fuller, Lucio Fulci, Paolo Cavara (..................) Or do you remember Cinema Paradiso by Giuseppe Tornatore? Nevertheless, Italo Western remains the perfect genre for Morricone to explore the connection between music and sound effects. "A Fistful of Dollars" was written after his first score "Gunfight at Red Sands". Actually, Morricone was immediately famous and has remained so ever since! How do you underline a draw musically? Morricone proved that with his soundtrack for "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly". Morricone was also known as someone who protected his music, claimed back the rights to it. He won every possible award, was even knighted. And now? Every Christmas my friend Florian watches the Dollar Trilogy. This year he will probably have to bring it forward.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Jean-Luc Godard - Vivre Sa Vie (engl. subt.)

Sometimes I would have loved to grow up in the 60s! I would have waited in the rain in front of an arthouse cinema for 30 pfennigs and waited for the next screening of Vivre Sa Vie. Maybe I could have seen the original Godard at a film festival! The way he says things like that: "The cinema, this is not the station. It's the train..." Or was it the other way around? It doesn't matter. I'd have just listened and nodded like the others. Everyone loved his films! The way we all discussed "Tarantino" in the '90s, we would have talked about Godard. How he turns the camera around 360 degrees, stops at once and drives everything back! Just to prove to us that he can! Today we scratch his monument. Was he overrated? After all, art films are "out" - or not? Well, I can give you the rental numbers from our video store: Godard, Godard and Godard again! Especially his early work is rented and rented again! Vivre Sa Vie takes the first place. Today is the day for me again. Vivre Sa Vie has to go into my DVD player. After five minutes it's all over for me. I do not move. I stare at the monitur. Until it's over. I mean, even after the credits have ended, to really breathe again! It's a great film. It's one of the greatest movies ever. The story is told by Nana (Anna Karina). Anna Karina was Godard's wife at that time. She looks almost transparent with her porcelain face, her cautious looking eyes, her black hair that fits around her head like a helmet and her chic clothes. We know that the Nouvelle Vague needs beautiful women and cool guys who smoke non-stop! Anna Karina also smokes all the time. She embodies a young Parisian woman. The opening credits show her face first sideways, then frontally. From beginning to end the film will watch her, try to read her face. Let's not miss anything! Not a single movement! Add to this the music by Michel Legrand, which suddenly stops and then continues with the next motif. As if the music wanted to explain Anna Karina. But it fails and starts all over again. In the next picture we see her, Nana, from behind. She is talking to Paul. We learn that Paul is her husband. She has left him and their child. Now she has a vague idea of what comes next. Maybe she's going to the movies. Godard's favorite cinematographer, Raoul Coutard, will be showing Nana first, then Paul. She zooms back and forth, is directed at the back of Nana's head, then their faces shine in the mirror. Vivre Sa Vie is divided into thirteen such images, which correspond to old-fashioned novels. Nana tries to steal the key to her apartment from the concierge's office, but is caught and taken out into the street. She has no home and no money. Is this her fault or her fate? Why did she leave Paul? Does she have no feelings for her child? Nana goes to the movies, where Dreyer's "The Passion Of Joan Of Arc" is playing. Of course she does. Dreyer's film is also about a woman who is judged by men. She meets a guy in a bar who wants to take pictures of her. There's a fight over a 1000 franc note. The police are coming. Then Nana hits the whore route and gets bought by a john. But he's not allowed to kiss her. The camera is always on her heels. In a record shop, Nana argues with a customer. The camera suddenly turns away and looks out the window. Then Nana meets Raoul, her pimp. He wants a smile from her. The camera pauses first on her, then on him. Nana refuses to smile; the camera turns away from Raoul and stops at Nana again. This is more than just "style". The camera shows us how people look at other people. It makes us aware of it. Then the most famous picture: Nana smokes while a customer hugs her. She looks over his shoulder. Her eyes are completely empty. Later she is kissed by Raoul. She breathes out the smoke of her last cigarette. What can you do in this Paris? You hang around in bars, wishing you had more money. Prostitution is called "La Vie" in France by the way, which gives the title its meaning. Finally Vivre Sa Vie ends up in a thriller - just like we know it from Godard's first big movie. But what does the camera do? It points to the floor. It simply looks away. It ignores the end of its own film. Who remembers Nana's conversation with the philosopher in the café? He tells her the story of a man who runs away from danger. He runs and runs until he gets scared and stops. That's what kills him. The man thinks for the first time and dies. And Nana? Will she die the first time she stops? Curious, she follows the old man's explanations. We experience her curious, big eyes, which until then rejected any feeling! Before, Paul told the story of the chicken. If you take the outer shell of the chicken, you keep the inner part. Nana is nothing but an outer shell. Vivre Sa Vie hardly knows any gradations. The film stares at its protagonist. Somehow it discourages us in our attempt to interpret Nana's life melodramatically. Godard follows a strict logic that must be French. Of course it happens that way. Nana sits, waits, drinks and smokes. She makes some money. She meets her first pimp and relinquishes all control over her life. Only once we see her dancing and laughing in front of a jukebox. Only this one time we can make the little girl realize she once was. In this moment we catch a glimpse into her soul! Otherwise, she is nothing but surface. If you read a little more about Vivre Sa Vie, you will learn that Godard used first takes almost exclusively. We can see that! The camera looks curious! She sees everything for the first time and is amazed! Vivre Sa Vie is clear, snappy and completely unsentimental. Then the film ends abruptly.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Smoke

 A friend just told me that she was fired from her cafe in Neukölln.  It's one of those places run by American hipsters that looks like a pharmacy. Reason for the dismissal: Building a "micro community" with the neighbors. The poor cafe hipsters pay 100.000 Dollars for their economic studies and learn for it: 1. rent a shop for 5000 Euros (first semester marketing "Place" = 25.000 Dollars). 2. to get the fat rent in, a Flat White costs 6.00 Euros - alternatively, each guest would otherwise have to drink 5 coffees. (second semester Marketing "Price" = 25.000 Dollars). 3. then you teach your employees not to build up a "micro community". Because that is not desired. (third semester; do not talk to customers = 25,000 dollars).  But if you break all these rules, you will create a shop like the one Auggie runs in Brooklyn. Pure micro community. Smoke is a film of words, of secrets and above all of tobacco! Basically it's about a group of lonely men and a few lonely women, who have built up a small parallel world in the middle of New York, in Brooklyn. A world full of melancholy, all geared towards killing time (and enjoying tobacco). In Smoke there is a lot of talk about big dreams and what you can take away with you. The center of Smoke is the Brooklyn Cigar & Co Store (we would call it a "late night"). It is located right at the intersection of Third Street / Eighth Avenue. The Brooklyn Cigar & Co is run by Auggie Wren (Harvey Keitel) and for him this corner store is the center of the whole world. You have to take this literally, because Auggie even takes a picture of his corner every morning! Occasionally he shows his photo album to Paul (William Hurt), a writer and regular customer. "That's my Project"; Auggie tells; "What you'd call my life's work". Of course the pictures don't look very different. "They're all the same," says Auggie, "but each one is different from all the others." Suddenly, Paul discovers his wife, pregnant, shot one morning. "Look at her. Look at my sweet darling" - Paul begins to cry. Now not all photos are the same. Smoke is one of those films that know that it's the little things that make life. Auggie remembers the morning Paul's wife was shot. If he hadn't given her the change in the first place, if something happened that took time... she wouldn't have gotten in that shootout. And Paul's life depends on moments Once he is almost run over by a truck, but Rashid (Harold Perrineau Jr.) pulls him back. Paul would like to return the favor for life, because isn't that one of the universal rules? But for Rashid, a lemonade will do. Somehow Rashid even becomes Paul's roommate, which his aunt can't understand. Life goes on. Auggie's ex-girlfriend appears years later and tells us that Auggie's daughter (yes?/no?) Felicity (Ashley Judd) is pregnant. A child without parents is also Rashid, until the day he follows his father (Forest Whitaker) at a gas station somewhere in a small town... For a long time we know that life is not subject to any plan, but is only determined by luck. Luck, coincidence and irony, that's what everything is based on. At least in Smoke. Director Wayne Wang and his screenwriter Paul Auster both believe in this and have given their film those special little moments that make Smoke so wonderful! Smoke is also carried by Harvey Keitel, who dominates the indie cinema of the 90s like no other actor. Is there even a film of distinction from the time without Keitel? His face and body seem so unchangeable that it's hard to tell the roles of Keitel apart. Are they really different characters or simply himself? But that would be just as unfair as claiming that Auggie's photos all look the same. In Smoke, Keitel holds everything together. Everything revolves around his shop and his character. Apart from that, Smoke refrains from any dramaturgical exaggeration. The film corresponds to the lives of the regular customers of Brooklyn Cigar & Co. He follows these guys who stumble through their own lives so lost. I like them all! All the characters Paul Auster has created are extremely lovable! And isn't the worst thing that can happen to you in life the inability to express your feelings? But Auggie's clients can. It's what keeps them together. Their micro-community.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Don't Look Back

How about disenchanting a legend today? Bob Dylan, the lonely, inaccessible, melancholy poet. Here we experience an impressive exercise of self-exposure. The result is an unattractive portrait that has absolutely nothing to do with the lonely poet. Bob Dylan and his friends act silly and immature. He's vengeful, petty and not very smart. Just like the rest of us. Remarkable, because Dylan must have approved this movie! He had a documentary produced in which he humiliated himself. Basically we experience the technology of Cinema Verite. Step by step we follow Dylan on his England tour in 1965, we see the good as well as the bad. No sooner do we notice the cuts. Everything seems to be recorded chronologically (which it is NOT!). Dylan boasts to his disciples by crushing a journalist. He wouldn't need newspapers, he would have made it up without newspapers! Then this party scene at the hotel: someone throws a glass out the window. The hotel manager appears, wants to know how it was. Dylan gives him obscene names, like a stubborn child. And the truth about this "working class hero"? "You'd go off the stands in an hour if you printed the truth about anything. I could explain to you why I'm not a folk singer, but you'd never understand." (etc etc etc etc etc).

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Heathers

Heathers, this is a film that resembles a journey into a foreign world. We hear the natives, but do not understand exactly what they want to tell us and must take them at their word. A morbid comedy about exclusive high school cliques, teenagers who can't stand the pressure and commit suicide. Was life really easier at school? What's it mean to grow up? Perhaps the ability to be shocked by events that do not affect a student at all? Anyway, the heroine in Heathers is so horrified by the snobbery of her classmates that she decides to murder her classmates. Of course, in a way that makes it look like suicide. Heathers is different from other high school comedies, because the heart of this movie is macabre and desolate. Heathers is simply the cynical downside of high school comedies from the 80s! The title refers to a group of four girls from a high school in Ohio. Three of them are called Heather, the fourth Veronica (Winona Ryder). They make fun of everything and everyone, they are above things. It disgusts Veronica, but she keeps her feelings to herself. Until she falls in love with J.D. (Christian Slater). He rides a motorcycle, wears a leather jacket and is outside high school. Veronica has to keep her affair secret in order not to endanger her "standing". Finally J.D. proposes to murder the first Heather and Veronica agrees (probably because she doesn't take the idea so seriously). However, the body is recovered and everyone believes in suicide. Veronica reacts in shock and leaves J.D. - but he now begins his games with his ex... Heathers keeps this completely different tone - compared to the genre of high school comedy. We are given strong tobacco here in candy colours! Is this even a black comedy or a moral play? Where exactly does Heathers stand? But we are in a foreign country and still cannot translate what we have seen. Maybe tealangers understand the movie better?

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE The Man Who Copied

A friend once brought me a whole stack of Brazilian DVDs that you can't find on the Internet that easily. The Man Who Copied is the most borrowed comedy of all! It's the story of a simple copy shop employee who falls in love and therefore copies banknotes. Played by Lazaro Ramos, who carries this role with a lot of humor and verve. The center of a film that sometimes turns into comedy, then social drama and finally even into a thriller! All this in two hours - ambitious or somewhat out of joint(?). Our hero's name is Andre and he draws imaginary cartoons, but he can only find one job for which he can press the "Start" button of a copying machine. That earns him around 600 euros a month (times converted), for which Andre may not expect too much. His colleague, the sexy blonde Marinez (Luana Piovani), explains exactly what women want: Money to change your life! That's why she only dates a frustrated businessman (Pedro Cardoso). Andre, on the other hand, falls in love with Silvia (Leandra Leal), an ordinary girl from next door. He watches her, spys on her with his binoculars. But Andre does not find the courage to address Silvia. After all, it takes half the film to make their acquaintance and Andre copies the banknote for it. With success! No one knows its bloom! This may inspire the criminal energy in him, at least The Man Who Copied is now developing into a fantasy of bank robbery and murderous revenge... All this is commented with a dead serious voice from offstage and accompanied by numerous animations (and I'm sure they come from Andre!). By the way, we learn a lot about the depressive life in Porto Alegre, in the south of Brazil - luckily in time with an off-beat comedy that doesn't fall into the social drama too often. (transl. deepl.com)