FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Once Upon A Time When We Were Colored 

Once Upon a Time . . . When We Were Colored revives the world of the rural south of the United States during the postwar years and into the early 1960s of the black community - the years before the harsh segregation was defeated by the civil rights movement. The film recalls the close ties of a black family, their friends and the church while outside American apartheid was law. The key word is community, and rarely has this been shown to us in such a moving way as in this milestone. People who work, live and pray together gain strength and self-esteem through community. From this Tim Reid creates one of the great epics of his time, which spans four generations. Often this moves me deeply, for example when a frightened boy stammers his first words: "White" and "Colored". At some point we got to know and love all the people there. We understand them. And we understand why such communities could produce so many good citizens. This ambitious project with countless speaker roles is not commercial at all! All in Once Upon A Time... looks authentic, yes, we think South Carolina can breathe! This film is not about a few main characters, a few lives. It's about life itself and it shows that more directly than almost any other work of art! The events (which cannot possibly be summarized) are portrayed from the perspective of the boy Cliff, who is played by three actors as he grows up. Once Cliff goes to the city with his great-grandfather and makes the mistake of using the white washroom. His great-grandfather has yet to teach him the meaning of the letters "W" and "C". While they happily eat an ice cream, they watch a parade of the Ku Klux clan marching by threateningly. Such scenes will be remembered forever! Cliff hardly moves his face, but if you watch closely, you will notice the pain in his eyes. So this is how racism feels, let's start to understand. But there are also happy moments in Cliff's life, like when he sees the young stripper at the carnival. How glamorous she seems to him! Through the hard racial segregation, the black community developed its own craftsmen, teachers and even ministers who served as role models for the boys. It is a world of one-room schools and churches with fiery gospel music. A world where the old were respected and asked for advice. The greatest thing about this work is that it does not protest loudly against racial segregation, but celebrates the human qualities that overcame and survived this system. It is not primarily about African-Americans, but about the human spirit itself. 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Sidney Lumet - The Pawnbroker 

He is not only one of the best craftsmen in cinema; he is also a great humanist. And whoever experiences him live like I did at the Berlinale, knows that Sidney Lumet must be a loveable person! Lumet was always productive. He started in the 50's and surprised us all with his last film - that was 2007. Lumet makes films that grab us and never let go! Lumet is a New York filmmaker and almost all of his films take place there. He obviously prefers a milieu that he knows and understands from the inside out. Lumet always brought the best together and served as a thoughtful director, probably even more of a consultant. You can read his book Making Movies, which sounds almost humble. It's all about the work; there's no gibberish at all. Like in Lumet's films. They are completely free of gibberish. He reduces everything to the essentials, staging it invisibly. Lumet's parents were immigrants from Poland and played at the Jewish theater, as you can read in the book. That's why Sidney Lumet started acting as a child. During the 50s he was attracted by a new medium: Television. He was one of the representatives of live TV, like so many New Hollywood directors. This simply means that live filming is done, not unlike the theater. The Pawnbroker was founded in 1964 and works on the basis of ethical questions, which are not obviously formulated. We feel them. Rod Steiger plays The Pawnbroker, a man who survived the hell of a concentration camp. Today he runs a pawnbroker's shop in Harlem and still has to fight prejudices. He has lost his faith in God, the arts and science. It cannot be said that he discriminates against individual people, rather he regards the whole of humanity as scum. In truth, his pawn shop serves as a façade for a man who does business with prostitution. The Pawnbroker is a character study that gets by with a minimum of action. Episodically staged, the film stands and falls with Rod Steiger's portrayal. 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Zhang Yimou - Raise The Red Lantern (engl. subt.) 

Zhang Yimous Raise The Red Lantern is about sexual slavery. The main character enters a self-contained system from which there is no escape. It is a 19-year-old student who, after the death of her father, has to work as the fourth "lover" of a rich gentleman, as the mother refuses to support her. She is delivered to his house, which she is not allowed to leave. There are traditional rules. How realistic is that? Hard to say! Zhang Yimou settled his film in China of the 20s. Concubines were no rarity at that time, but the conditions in this house are probably unique. As in all early Yimou movies, the leading role is played by Gong Li. It's beautiful and that's also what the film is about! All four concubines live in their own house, the fifth and biggest one is inhabited by the master. Together they form a complex, the centre of which is a courtyard. Inside the houses of the lovers are illuminated red, red, the colour of passion. Many scenes take place on the roofs, which in turn look like a labyrinth of stairs and staircases. The complex is only apparently clear! Gong Lis figure is called Songlian and often she comes into conflict with the servant of the master named Yan'er (Kong Lin). Yan'er for her part has strong ambitions to become a "lover" herself. The first "lover" is already older and will probably be replaced soon. The second one seems to be kind with a face that isn't at all unlike that of Buddha. The third, an opera singer, is young, beautiful and jealous. Everything is organized by traditional rules that will never change. Of course the servants follow these rules much more obediently than the master himself. The servant, for example, follows the "laws" with such absolution that even then she still seems to be present because she is absent. We never see the Master himself, at least not frontally. His patriarchal rule is so perfect that he does not need his own "character". The Master is not an individual, we do not know his face. He operates through his servant, who assures him of his total dominance. Before Songlian arrives, the three lovers do not live in balance with each other. Songlian becomes their valve for everything that is unbalanced. She learns that the master hangs out a red lantern at night, which determines his favorite for the night. The lucky winner gets a foot massage and can choose the menu for the following day. This competition leads to intrigue and Songlian can never be sure that those who call themselves friends are. It's strange how much these women sacrifice themselves for the master and the family and see each other as enemies! There may be a feminist message in Yimou's drama, but it never becomes explicit. Equally important are the gorgeous colours and beauty of the women (especially Gong Lis!). Of course all these women were raped, but we never see sex on canvas. Yimou's film understands the nature of these rapes as social added value. He shows the conditions of it, not the sex. Maybe the master doesn't even visit his "lovers" for pleasure, but to remind them of their duties. Above all, he assigns them their places. Raise The Red Lantern is divided into a prologue and five chapters. At the end Songlian appears in a close-up, because this is their story. It is their fight against this system - a system controlled by monetary constraints. Zhang Yimou belongs to the fifth generation of Chinese directors after the Cultural Revolution. A generation which worked much more openly than it would have been possible in Mao's time, but which still lived the frustration until the opening of China. Raise The Red Lantern is of such bewitching beauty and clarity, of such uncompromising directness, that one might think that the Chinese film industry would have made masterpieces like this possible, without being able to deal with them now.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Margarethe von Trotta - Hannah Arendt 

FREE ON YOUTUBE (DU FINDEST DEN GANZEN FILM FREI AUF YOUTUBE) Margarethe von Trotta möchte keine "feministische" Filmemacherin sein. Doch sie ist es. Ihre besten Filme wirken genauso unmittelbar wie die grossen Werke des Feminismus der 60er. Im Fall von Hannah Arendt ist das noch beeindruckender, da die Philosophin alles andere als eine Feministin war. Man erinnert sich vor allem an ihre Formulierung der "Banalität des Bösen" über den Nazi Adolf Eichmann. Eichmann seinerseits argumentierte vor den Nürnberger Prozessen, er hätte nur Befehle befolgt. Man könnte ihn deshalb unmöglich wegen Kriegsverbrechen anklagen. Arendt, die nach Amerika floh, wusste, dass die Nazis keine wahnsinnigen Soziopathen waren. Sie sahen aus und wirkten wie ein Haufen Bürokraten, die einfach nur ihre Karriere voran treiben wollten. Man durfte davon ausgehen, dass sie sich nicht in erster Linie einem fanatischen Führer-Kult unterwarfen. So betrachtet, nehmen die Gräueltaten der Deutsch eine ganz andere Dimension ein! Hannah Arendt war eine der grossen Denkerinnen des vergangenen Jahrhunderts. Eine, die sich den Ursprüngen des Totalitarismus annahm. Von Trottas Film aber kümmert sich weniger um Ahrendts Schriften als vielmehr ihre Person einer jüdischen Überlebenden. Ganz zu Beginn wird Eichmann in Argentinien fest genommen. Diese Nachricht dringt auch nach New York vor, dort wo Arendt mit ihrem Mann Heinrich Blücher (Axel Milberg) lebt. Arendt bietet an, über Eichmanns Prozess zu berichten. Wie sieht sie aus, die Natur des Bösen? Wie ein Niemand. So wie Eichmann. Eichmann hatte sich schlicht mit dem Führer-Prinzip eine moralische Leerstelle geschaffen. Kann man diesen Gedanken filmisch auf den Grund gehen? Eher nicht. Schliesslich bringen Arendts Erkenntnisse das Furchtbarste in uns allen zum Vorschein. Denken, so Arendt im Widerstreit mit dem Nationalsozialisten Heidegger (Klaus Pohl) ist ein einsames Geschäft! So stellt von Trottas Film eine Reihe wichtiger Fragen, ohne sie zu beantworten. - FREE ON YOUTUBE Margarethe von Trotta does not want to be a "feminist" filmmaker. But she is. Her best films have just as immediate an effect as the great works of feminism of the 60s. In the case of Hannah Arendt this is even more impressive, since the philosopher was anything but a feminist. One remembers above all her formulation of the "banality of evil" about the Nazi Adolf Eichmann. Eichmann, for his part, argued before the Nuremberg Trials that he had only obeyed orders. It would therefore be impossible to charge him with war crimes. Arendt, who fled to America, knew that the Nazis were not mad sociopaths. They looked and acted like a bunch of bureaucrats who just wanted to advance their careers. It was safe to assume that they did not primarily submit to a fanatical cult of leaders. Seen in this light, the atrocities committed by the Germans took on a completely different dimension! Hannah Arendt was one of the great thinkers of the last century. One who took on the origins of totalitarianism. Von Trotta's film, however, is less concerned with Ahrendts writings than her person of a Jewish survivor. Eichmann is arrested in Argentina at the very beginning. This news also reaches New York, where Arendt lives with her husband Heinrich Blücher (Axel Milberg). Arendt offers to report on Eichmann's trial. What does it look like, the nature of evil? Like a nobody. Just like Eichmann. Eichmann had simply created a moral void with the Führer Principle. Is it possible to get to the bottom of this thought in film? Probably not. After all, Arendt's findings bring out the most terrible in all of us. Thinking, so Arendt in conflict with the National Socialist Heidegger (Klaus Pohl) is a lonely business! Thus von Trotta's film asks a number of important questions without answering them. 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Wim Wenders - Paris, Texas

A man coming out of the desert. All alone, with no future and no past. Shortly before dying of thirst, he comes across a barrack in which a German exile takes care of him. The German takes the stranger's wallet to find out his identity and calls his brother. When I saw these first minutes of Paris Texas for the first time, I could not imagine how the film would continue. Anyone who sees many films knows this feeling: no matter whether a work is great or not, one usually knows quite quickly what will happen next. Paris Texas is different and that alone makes Wenders Film so fascinating. It seems as if we're looking at a picture that moves, but doesn't underline dialogue with pictures. Wenders has created a completely individual work about loss and loneliness. The characters originate from the fantasy of the author Sam Shepard. They fit into the work of Wenders, who prefers to make road movies in which men search for meaning in the vastness of the landscape. He has never hit this vastness better than in Paris Texas. Harry Dean Stanton plays the lost man and which actor seems both more abandoned and more angry? We don't find out the reasons why he walks alone through the desert, but we do learn how great and painful his loss was. In former times he was married and father of a little boy. After his disappearance his son grew up with his brother (Dean Stockwell). The mother (Nastassja Kinski) also disappeared. Hunter Carson plays the boy and he goes to my heart as I never experienced it again with a child actor! Now the lost one (called Travis) has the crazy idea to bring his family together again. Very slowly he approaches his son, although he does not yet know exactly how to deal with a child at all. All he knows about his wife is that she withdraws money from a certain bank once a month. When he meets her, she cuts one of these discs behind which prostitutes talk to their clients by telephone. The john sees the whore, but she doesn't see him. This is the starting point of the most moving scene in the film. Paris Texas expresses feelings, exposes them and this is more important to the film than telling a story. It's less about missing persons than about lost feelings. At the very beginning, Wenders captures them with a Super 8 film that shows Travi's past. Wenders' pictures are always looking for people who lose themselves in the distance. In front of us the stony landscape of Texas, where the Kaffs have strange names like "Paris" or "Manchester" (who wants to play ml Google Map). Nevertheless, it hasn't become an American movie at all: In the denial of "storytelling", which has to give way to the revelation of inwardness, Wenders has made a very German film. He is fascinated by American culture: the film is accompanied by the play of a single slide guitar playing Ry Cooder! American music and mythology are what make Paris Texas so special, with the astonished look of the foreigner. Paris Texas is Wenders best film, certainly also because he has adapted "real" American dialogues to his pictures. Sam Shephard allows his characters to get to know each other without many words. Their deepest thoughts and fears don't have to be explained in dialogues. With his passion to experiment Paris Texas seemed to fit hardly into the popcorn cinema of the 80s. The film is a latecomer, not only the New German Cinema, but also the kind that could be produced in Hollywood in the late 60s. Paris Texas is true, profound and brilliant! For me, it's one of those films that I can see again and again and am happy afterwards.

 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Lars von Trier - Dancer In The Dark 

There will be those who will hate Lars from Tiers Dancer In The Dark and those who love the film. Ideally we will find a solution in which Dancer In The Dark offers something for both factions. The star of the film is Björk from Iceland, who plays a Czech migrant in America. She works as a dancer and slowly begins to go blind. Selma is saving for an operation to spare her son this fate as well. It is worth noting that the film is set in the 1960s and it is likely that it was already possible to pay for such an operation at that time. But now we are not in reality, but in a musical. Lars von Trier conceived Dancer In The Dark as a soap opera (criticizing the plot for its plausibility therefore leads nowhere). Selma (Bjork) and her son live in a trailer behind the house of Bill (David Morse), a policeman who loves her (but is basically too stupid for that). He betrays her trust and that's why a deadly confrontation between them occurs. This may seem stupid, but von Trier has done the same. Selma is followed everywhere by Jeff (Peter Stormare), who wants to be her boyfriend. It is important to note that both Selma and Jeff are simple-minded characters who would be considered disabled today. Selma and Jeff in von Trier's film, however, must be seen as characters in a classic Hollywood melodrama. Selma has a good friend, Kathy (Catherine Deneuve!!!), who recognizes how Selma is going blind and wants to help her. But Selma is extremely stubborn... The movie starts with a rehearsal of Selma for the local musical production "The Sound Of Music". While the film looks like a digital video, the colors of the music numbers appear as bright as in the big Hollywood productions. We have to remember Dancer In The Dark during its creation: Lars von Trier had previously signed the Dogma Manifesto, which contains unconditional naturalism. His musical, however, follows the fashion of modernity, with the plot featuring classic characters from Hollywood's inventory: The heroine, the villain - his own sacrifice and insidious deception. Hollywood fundamentalism. Von Trier underlays this with slippery modernism. Dancer In The Dark is different from "normal" movies: Not particularly "well done", "plausible" or of "good taste". Dancer In The Dark is also not particularly "entertaining". He tears down the walls of habit that carry so much film. Lars von Tirer goes back to the origins of cinema. A bold, ruthless gesture! After all, Björk decided never to make a film again after the shoot.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Me And You And Everyone We Know 

Miranda Julys Me And You And Everyone We Know creates a rare fragile magic. It's about falling in love with someone who speaks and understands your very language of love. Unfortunately, there is hardly anyone like that, the film suggests... Or is it? Maybe me and you and everyone we know? That seems crazy as a description of the film. Imagine two characters as an explanation: Christine (Miranda July) and Richard (John Hawkes) walking down a street in their neighbourhood. She suggests that this road is like her life. Half of the road they have already gone and thus half of their life - and soon they are at the end... Almost impossible to describe the poetry of this scene. I don't think any other film scene I've ever seen was like that! Richard and Christine are the protagonists of the film. Through Richard's son Robby we also meet other characters. We see eleven-year-old Robby visiting an online dating site, a sex chat, although he can't know anything about sex. But about computers and sounding like someone else. He asks open questions and uses the phrases of adults. To what turns him on, he answers with "poop", because Robby thinks it has something to do with sex. Robby's fourteen-year-old brother Peter is pursued by two classmates who show an interest in oral sex (although they cannot yet distinguish theory from practice). All these scenes seem so innocent and full of tact - just as the embarrassing curiosity for sex is at that age. Tracy Wright plays an interesting character as curator of art who is afraid she might break the rules she may not know. She projects her longings into a world without understanding - another scene that made me laugh with admiration! Mirandy July is a performance artist and Me And You And Everyone We Know her debut. The art of performance expresses our little peculiarities that make our lives wonderful and worth living. That's exactly how the movie works. Julys film crosses borders, risks a lot, but lives on her fresh charm and disarming directness. Me And You And Everyone We Know accepts everything human, observes our species in life. (transl. deepl.com)

Sunday Movie FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE John Sayles - The Secret Of Roan Inish 

Many years ago, an ancestor of Fiona saw a creature on the coast. She was both a woman and a seal. We call them mermaids, in Ireland they're called selkies. Fiona's ancestor captured her and married her. Both had children and lived happily together - and yet she seemed to have a longing for the sea. One day she found her second skin, the vision dog's skin, in the attic. Where her husband kept her hidden. Finally it was complete again, went back into the sea and was not seen again. Fiona (Jeni Courtney), who is only thirteen years old, has been told this story not as a fairy tale, but as a family history. Fiona has always believed all this, because until today there are dark-haired children in her family who look longingly at the sea. It's 1946. Fiona's mother passed away; her father spends his life in the pub. That's why Fiona lives with her grandparents, on the Irish coast, on the island of Roan Inish. There Fiona hears the story of her brother Jamie, whose cradle was carried away by the waves of the sea. She also learns the translation of Roan Inish, which means as much as the island of the Selkies. The great secret of John Sayle's almost unknown masterpiece is that he tells the story of Fiona with great seriousness. This isn't just a family movie! Not fantasy, not "cute"! The Secret of Roan Inish is about Fiona learning the history of her family and exploring the island. If you don't believe in Selkies, you should at least open yourself to the idea of their existence! Of course Selkies exist! Just like you and me. Then - one day - Fiona discovers footprints in the sand. She sees a child - it's her brother Jamie! She calls him, but he wants to return to his cradle, which is led through the sea by seals. Of course it is difficult to tell the adults about their discovery... I think the legend of The Secret of Roan Inish stems from the fact that these people live in the country, but FROM the sea. They belong to the land as well as to the sea. To improve myself: Surely The Secret of Roan Inish is also suitable for children. But not for those who expect cute seals. It's a movie for kids like Fiona.

Afternoons at Filmkunstbar Fitzcarraldo 

In the afternoon it starts! Friday and Saturday we are open from 16.00 with our wonderful new tents, thick blankets, DJ in the early evening, Happy Hour prices (for the forbidden guests all long drinks cost only 4,50, a small beer 2,00 and a big 2,50). As a mail from the Bateau Ivre says: We want the old Berlin back! If we have to live like in Söders Bavaria, then we'll start early!

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Klaus Lemke - Sylvie 

To the 80s. Birthday of Klaus Lemke! My former colleague Thomas Groh has raved! When Urgestein Klaus Lemke brought a burned (golden) DVD with self-made covers (paper scissors and glue stick artwork). Lemke came by to give us his most beautiful movie Sylvie from 1973 as a present. Sylvie is not only Klaus Lemke's most beautiful film; it is also one of the most beautiful love films from a country where normally only comedies are shot! Sylvie Winter is as beautiful as a fairy - but I would say she is also greedy and disturbed. A suburban beauty, as they appear not only in Munich, but also here. These are beauties that attract the attention of filmmakers like Lemke! Sylvie meets the cab driver Paul (Paul Lyss), to whom Lemke already dedicated his own film (Paul from 1974, DVD6251 with Lemke cover self-made, only here). Paul explains to Sylvie that he is actually a sailor and not a cab driver. Lemke heroes are great romantics! Sylvie falls asleep drunk in Paul cabs on her way to a rich guy she wants to marry (Sylvie is not as romantic as Paul). This is performed full of love and melancholy. You will never forget some moments in this film! For sure these are the moments that can even change your own life a little bit! Because isn't there such a romantic in all of us? I think the most difficult job in this world is to edit a Lemke film. Once Lemke shot in our bar and outside in the neighborhood. The "actors" only find out shortly before shooting that they are in the film. Otherwise they would mutate into "movie stars" overnight and Lemke doesn't need them! Also, nothing may be changed on the set, no ashtray may be moved. Lemke reacts to everything and everyone. If he meets an interesting girl, he follows her into the apartment with his camera and she is already part of his film. As a result, Lemke films are constantly threatened to get out of hand. This is exactly what the editor has to force into a rhythm. If the tightrope act succeeds, we can enjoy a little Lemke masterpiece. If it fails, we may wonder what is happening. Sylvie is a little masterpiece! Much softer than the other Lemke films. He loves Sylvie, that's for sure! When she devours hamburgers and drives into the countryside. Until Sylvie and Paul look each other in the eyes. We know that's the moment when love shows itself... P.S. If you are looking for a great New York movie, this is it! Because Sylvie is supposed to land in New York and Lemke is going to freak out there, with all the enthusiasm. And nobody can stop him!

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE What People Will Say (engl. subt.) 

To be honest, I didn't want to buy What People Will Say because I wasn't so interested in the subject anymore. Of course I also watched a lot of Culture Clash dramas, but then I became aware that too often filming is done according to genre specifications. The result: Culture Clash films that are all too striking and work with stereotypes. But What People Will Say is different. More differentiated. At the heart of the film is Nisha (Maria Mozhdah), who lives in Norway. Her family comes from Pakistan. Nisha hardly rests, in almost every setting she hurries. She meets normal young people, but at home her father, the patriarch, is already waiting with a worried face. To put it technocratically, Nisha lives optimally "integrated" (according to our ideas), but also always between the worlds. She gets stoned sometimes and doesn't want to wait to get married before having sex. Then everything's fine, isn't it? While Nisha likes to wear navel-free outdoors, she has to put up with completely different clothes at home. Then her father (Adil Hussain) catches her in the room with the boyfriend... What will people say! Iram Haq tells the story of an escalation between the traditional Pakistani people and the "Western idiots". We realize silly prejudices everywhere. Haq tries to do justice to both sides and their arguments and profits above all from their great actors. We can soon translate certain phrases; for example "I only want the best for you" = "What will people say". A conflict that affects not only the daughter, but also the father. We experience him as a torn personality. Is it so that the external pressure on ordinary people is much stronger than those who have experienced something like an emancipation movement? Mind you: Of course this applies to the Berlin suburbanite behind his curtain as well as to the immigrants who are just as entrenched in their own homes. What People Will Say is therefore above all a film about freedom! Freedom and empathy should prevail, not fear of the opinion of third parties! Rebellion, not resignation!

My 00's Romantic Movies 

To be honest, I was only in love with my store in the early 00s. At that time I renovated the very first Filmkunstbar Fitzcarraldo in Revaler strasse, Friedrichshain. With a view of the RAW area. South side. I took so much time that it almost ended in a financial disaster. Every armchair a jewel, the wallpaper incredibly expensive! But that's the way it is when you are in love.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Ingmar Bergman - Smiles Of A Summer Night (engl. subt.)  

Adultery is a major theme in the films of Ingmar Bergman. Who reads his biography knows that it was probably also a private subject for the director who was married five times and also had affairs with his female stars. For example with Harriet Andersson. Bergman probably felt sorry for a lot of this and he worked through his feelings of guilt on film. I can hardly imagine him as a libertine, in any case. The idea of obligation, betrayal and guilt also characterizes Smiles Of A Summer Night. And the need to confess guilt and ask for forgiveness is great! If you read on in Bergman's biography, you will learn that lovers could also become lifelong friends. Is that forgiveness? Smiles Of A Summer Night is often depicted as a turning point in Bergman's work. It was by far his most expensive film until then and he probably ended the phase of his early films. That was 1955, and the comedy was also one of his greatest successes! Bergman joins the ranks of the most important European filmmakers. No kidding, the greatest of all! The film is about adultery and is - unusually for Bergman - staged as a light comedy. Almost a screwball comedy with lots of puns! Fredrik Engerman (Gunnar Björnstrand) lives together with his wife Anne (Ulla Jacobsson), his son Henrik (Björn Bjelfvenstam), who is also studying theology, and the maid Petra (Harriet Andersson), who flirts cheekily with father and son. After all, Fredrik had a mistress for several years. The actress Desiree Armfeldt (Eva Dahlbeck). But of course Fredrik is caught, in the classic way. He talks in his sleep. Murmurs "Desiree". But life with Desiree is dangerous, especially when Fredrik slips, falls into a puddle and covers the dressing gown of her current lover. An earl, who challenges him to a duel... And Petra? She is now flirting with Mrs Armfeldt's groom (Naima Wifstrand). Everybody is human is very alert to the erotic. Especially during the endless summer days in Sweden, when the night only seems like a short wave. And everybody has drunk enough wine, which finally stimulates the seduction arts. And this is supposed to be a Bergman film? Of course it is! Even Smiles Of A Summer Night has its dark, desperate moments. For example when Charlotte reveals her views on men: "Men are horrible, vain and conceited. They have hair all over their bodies." But she says that before she drinks her wine. At one point I read that Bergman generally shot his films in the spring, which is why the images are so clear. Smiles Of A Spring Night, but so be it. This comedy is simply perfect! A beguiling movie, in which the characters act morally reprehensible, but always feel the need to at least explain themselves.

Dear People, please come by early 

Dear people, in the times of the new Berlin curfew (which at least still applies), come by early! Just think, you are visiting a pub in London. We are looking forward to it!

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Shall We Dance (engl. subt.) 

One night - when he drives home late from work - he sees this beautiful woman alone at the window. She is completely lost in thought. The following night she stands there again. It is the window of a dance school, as the advertising sign indicates. On the third night he climbs the stairs to the dance studio. Thus begins Masayuki Suo's film about loneliness, attraction and secrets. Is this man really looking for a woman? Or does he rather care about the question why the stranger looks so lonely and sad out of the window? What might she be thinking right now? The man is called Shohei Sugiyama (Koji Yakusyo). He is a family man who works late into the night in his office. This man now decides to take dance lessons. Let us imagine that we are him! A Japanese employee. For him, the idea of taking ballroom dancing lessons must be synonymous with the temptation to court a mistress. I have always held the view that Japan is the most foreign country to us in the Asian world. Basically, the Japanese still live in a kind of Victorian society. Feelings of guilt and suppressed passion play an enormous role! Let us once again imagine that we are Shohei. If he sneaks up the stairs to the dance school, it would be tantamount to secretly entering a brothel. Shohei now enters the illuminated ballroom. His disappointment is great after he learns that his dance teacher will not be the mysterious stranger at the window. Shohei is taught by a chubby middle-aged woman. And the stranger? "She's all the sweeter when viewed from afar. So Shall We Dance is not about the love of a mirage, but about a man who finally loses his inhibitions in the Foxtrot. His own family thinks that Shohei works too much. That he should finally break out of his little life! A Japanese employee leaves early and returns very late. The relationship with his company is deeper than with his own family. In the ballroom Shohei meets different types, for example the guy with the extravagant dance style. And the beautiful stranger? She is bitter about the separation from her dance partner. But Shohei's wife has a completely different suspicion. She smells a strange perfume... Shohei, meanwhile, invites the beautiful stranger to her first masl for dinner. She strictly explains to him how important dancing is for her - and that she sincerely hopes that he has not only chosen dance lessons to meet her. I am not promising too much when I describe the last third as true Feel Good Kino. But the beginning is much better. The beautiful woman at the window with her secret. Familiarity dissolves eroticism. But of course Shohei has to climb up the stairs and a story begins. But how great would a film be if it simply maintained the atmosphere of this first shot? 

My 90's Romantic Movies 

How can a feeling that I cannot put into words be shown on the canvas? It is the feeling of not being alone. There is someone else besides us. It cannot be understood; it is such a feeling. In Krzysztof Kieslowski's The Double Life Of Veronique, Veronique and the puppeteer Andre are connected. She finds him and flees him. But she has long since fallen in love with him... They are connected to each other.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Christian Petzold - Yella 

Yella (Nina Hoss) is a reserved young woman, whose depth, whose intelligence no one has ever really sensed. But we know there is passion and the willingness to commit crime. Deep inside Yella. When all this breaks out, the thriller begins. Right at the beginning, Yella is pursued by her husband in the street. He's supposed to stalk her throughout the film. Only to escape him, Yella leaves her home in the so-called new federal states, the former territory of the GDR. She moves to the west to Hannover. Yella's mistake: Her husband gets to accompany her to the train station and that's how he finds out where she's going. It is a dangerous man who tries to kill them both. But Yella has courage, escapes and flees to the station. In Hannover Yella discovers the world of business. The man who hired her is himself locked out of his office and fired. She meets Philipp (Devid Striesow) in the hotel lobby and he asks Yella if she likes spreadsheets. Yes. Yella is an accountant. He teaches her the job of bending over close to the client, murmuring something in his ear. But Yella actually studies the spreadsheets. She points out deceptions and false values. Finally, she discovers that Philip is a fraud. Yella doesn't mind, but penetrates deeper into the business of the financial industry. (My friend Philip, who works there, confirms to me that everything in Yella is real). Yella seems ready for a career. But then there is her ex-husband Ben (Hinnerk Schoenemann). Of course he followed her. Sometimes Yella has such a noise in her head. Her ears are ringing, she hears the cry of a bird. Intuitively. They are inexplicable things, which are never explained. Because Christian Petzold never shows more than necessary. Instead, we must read Yella's mind. When she looks at Philip, she smiles almost imperceptibly. Then we see gloomy trees moving in the wind again. We hear the cries of birds. In the foreground, the business deals of the financial world. Philipp tests Yella, bequeathing her 25,000 euros too much. Will she pocket the money? Yes. Yella steals. She passed the test. It's also scary that she's attracted to a certain type of man, because Jørgen looks almost exactly like Ben. Both are ruthless and effective. But the cardinal question I get from a lot of our video store customers is: Did we just watch a horror movie without realizing it? (It was my colleague Thomas Groh who told me that Yella was an unofficial remake of "Carnival Of Souls").

My 80s Feelgood Movies 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Romantic Comedy: Peter Weir - Green Card 

In romantic comedies such as Hollywood, the lovers must collide as unusually as possible. For example, both are loaded with Christmas parcels and collide outside the shopping mall, so that all parcels fly in a jumble. Afterwards they get into conversation... Green Card makes fun of such formulas and uses them as an alibi. The truth is, a Frenchman here is marrying an American woman to get a green card. Officially, however, both explain their story with the Christmas packages as the reason why they are married. Frenchman Georges is played by Gerard Depardieu. He needs a work permit. The American woman Bronte, this is Andie McDowell. She wants to move into a luxury apartment with a roof garden, but this is only rented to married couples. But since the immigration authorities are finding out about them, they both have to live together for a few days, study the "partner's" habits and compare their stories. A film like Green Card can now deliver on two promises: Either the formulas of romantic comedy are preserved or destroyed. Director Peter Weir decides to preserve old principles: At first, the pair is very different, even opposite. Then they make enemies and finally they fall in love. And that's not all: they deny themselves, split up and... We know all the steps, but Weir has added some nice moments and of course the charming characters themselves. Gerard Depardieu was undoubtedly France's biggest star in the early 90s: Bulky, shaggy and rather deranged. He succeeded in each of his roles with effortless charm and it was always so that one could no longer imagine another actor in this role. Green Card was even written by Weir on Depardieus' body with influences from his biography. It's hardly surprising that someone like Georges, aka Depardieu Bronte. She is an ethereal beauty, self-confident and intelligent. But would such a woman marry a stranger just to get an apartment? Green Card argues: That's a possibility in Manhattan. I'm willing to swallow that, although I think the plot has yet to be explained. Green Card works very well with the two actors and the right shooting in a lot of scenes. The passage in which Georges unexpectedly meets Bronte's parents, for example, ignores the standards that Hollywood would now play out: there is no great scandal, Georges and the "in-laws" get along wonderfully. Bronte's father sees through the situation immediately and uses it to test George's character. I also liked the scene where Georges was introduced to Bronte's friends at a party. Of course they are snobbish and of course Georges, after he was introduced as a composer, has to play something on the piano. But what follows is the best scene in the movie! Green Card runs like clockwork and is brilliant in some places. But best of all: Green Card is not part of the Romantic Comedies canon and can still be discovered!