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Guillermo del Toros Pans Labyrinth is one of the great cinema fantasies. Dark and terrifying, like the stories that frightened us as children. Deep in the heart of Pan's labyrinth they are hidden, the fairy tales from our childhood. Pan's Labyrinth is not only enchanting and enchanting, but also brutal and horrifying. A fairy tale for adults. The film itself is a narrative labyrinth with different narrative levels, which are brought together with dreamwalking certainty. It opens in 1944 in Spain. Rebels have hidden in the forest to fight against Franco. Suddenly we are seized by the voice of the faun (his name can only be pronounced by the wind), who announces the voice of a dead princess. Her father awaits her to take the empty seat on the throne at his side. The film introduces us to the turbulent imagination of Ofelia (Ivana Baquero), an eleven-year-old girl who loves books. We arrive at an old mill in the forest, where Ofelia's soon-to-be stepfather, the evil Franco Captain Vidal (Sergi Lopez), leads his fascist troops. Just a few steps further, a path leads into an ancient stone labyrinth where you can easily get lost. Ofelia tells of a rare blue rose that blooms at night on a hill surrounded by poisonous spines. The camera shows an enchanting insect that flies from the rose, past the moon, into the sleeping chamber of Ofelia and her mother. The rhythm of Pan's labyrinth is so elegant, multi-layered and yet seamless. Entire worlds open up before our eyes; dimensions of time and space. 

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Who knows the hierarchy of the great car chases in film history? I'm sure William Friedkin is in it twice. Not only with "The French Connection", but also with To Live And Die In L.A., his comeback from 1985, a film that is hardly in demand in our video store and I want to change that! The big chases always reflect their city and since Friedkin's film is set in L.A., the hunt MUST go over the freeway. The Secret Service has to catch a counterfeiter who's been tricking the law for years. On the side of the law is Richard Chance (William L. Petersen), the film's hero. Friedkins Plot revolves around friendship, loyalty, arrogance and anger - central emotions. Then it's time for the car chase. By the way, it is not one of those useless hunts that were supposed to breathe some life into unsuccessful films in the 80s. Hunting is part of the plot. An impressive ballet of timing, speed and imagination! In general, the large car chases are never simply a means to an end. They add something to the film; a strange vehicle, an unexpected challenge or an unusual situation. In To Live And Die In L.A. Friedkin is not satisfied that the hunt takes place on the freeway. It takes place against the traffic on the wrong side of the freeway! Today, in the digital age, as one can soon expect animated cars, Friedkin's choreography is all the more astonishing. How much fender bender would that cause? The best thing is the shots from the air, so we see hundreds of cars over four lanes! They're all heading for the escaping car! The key to everything is Friedkin's direction. He had made great but very disappointing films during the New Hollywood era and can be considered a pioneer of blockbusters. In the 80s, the veteran of action cinema could now also teach the next generation how to film action. Great also the actors, especially the young Willem Dafoe, who teaches us his craft of faking in a cool and professional way. I like films that have obviously researched their subject! To Live And die In L.A. knows as much about the counterfeiting trade as it does about the Secret Service. Friedkin's film is not simply about policemen and robbers. It is about two systems, how to do business and how one system always tries to defeat the other. That's interesting! So is the hunting. 

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I wanted to watch John Frankenheimer's The Birdman Of Alcatraz with my girlfriend (she refused, no Prison Break please) - but in the end, we both loved this unusual intimate play! Because The Birdman Of Alcatraz is really no Prison Break in the traditional sense! The film simply reverses the usual formula, bringing depth and humanity to this film adaptation of the life of Robert Stroud. After a true story. For 53 years the over 70 year old "Birdman" was in prison. Burt Lancaster vividly shows how this time leaves deep scars, how one forces something like privacy in prison. Highlight of the film: Birdman's clash with the vindictive prison warden. Robert Stroud, convicted of murder, continues his education behind bars, dedicates himself to bird breeding. In fact he discovered cures for bird diseases, which he eventually published. Like in the biggest and most important movies of Frankenheimer during the 60's, The Birdman Of Alcatraz is about the dignity of man. The redemption of the dignity of the individual in an inhuman system. Because true freedom, it always comes from within! By the way, the hateful prison warden finds out the opposite. One day he must realize that he has grown old with Birdman. Just like his inmates, he has spent most of his life behind bars. Both men, the Birdman and the prison warden, have to realize that they spent their lives on Prison Island of Alcatraz...

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A harrowing documentary by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, who previously garnered attention with No Other Land. Naza is a film difficult to describe and even more difficult to watch. Based on revelations by The Guardian, corroborated by 24 Israeli intelligence officers, Naza is not told from a Palestinian perspective, yet it features Palestinian voices, recorded on their mobile phones. After October 7th, the intelligence apparatus of surveillance was running at full speed, and we witness how revenge turned into genocide. Many reject films shot from the perspective of the oppressor (see Claude Lanzmann). Although Naza features exclusively Israeli voices, it doesn't fit into this category, as it is an investigation into state violence. A journalistic piece in real time. We hear from those involved not years later, but while they are still carrying out the orders that led to genocide. We learn just how intensive the surveillance was. We learn that someone who inflicts such massive harm on the population of Gaza is indifferent to its destruction. Many deny their guilt, claiming they are merely following orders. Few confront their actions. Naza will anger and disappoint many. Israel has already questioned the authenticity of the images, and Palestinians will criticize the fact that only the oppressor is given a voice. NAZA refers to the unit of measurement used to count Palestinians killed as collateral damage. The film attempts to refute genocide deniers who (as was the case during the Nuremberg Trials) rely on subjective arguments. In an ideal world, a film that has to prove the existence of genocide wouldn't even be necessary. Why don't we simply believe those who have lived through hell in Gaza?

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*Sound Of Falling* spans a century and several generations of a family from the Altmark region. The film is set entirely on this family’s farm. We first see the farm around 1910. This might sound like a linear narrative, but that is precisely what director Mascha Schilinski avoids with her extensive material. She does not tell the story chronologically. Instead, she interweaves the generations and links them once again through the setting – the farm. Almost like an Impressionist painting. The timeline unravels, the past overlaps with the present. Almost like a ghost story featuring a haunted house and a ghost – that is the story. In every generation, there is a curious young girl surrounded by death on all sides. And every generation struggles with unspoken, forbidden longings. Our task is to find out who these people are and what era we are in. It always comes down to the ‘life lived in vain’ – an expression that crops up time and again. Floors creak, flies buzz, a deafening silence. What is it? The feelings we never admit to? Time in all its relentlessness? Time does its work, people are forgotten, and yet... something remains. Something around us.

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It's easy to forget; Peter Sellers, a British comedian who started his career in the 50s, had a furious start in Hollywood thanks to his in-house director Blake Edwards, but also lots of stupid comedies. The Party, 1968, is definitely not an off-the-shelf Peter Sellers comedy. In Blake Edwards The Party, Sellers develops a character and simply plays it through. For better or for worse. Whereby; in The Party there are almost exclusively terrible moments. Sellers embodies Hrundi V. Bakshi, an Indian actor who politely, even delicately sabotages an entire evening. Supported by an incredibly drunk butler. Scene: The villa of a Hollywood producer with many, many guests and an elephant. The party there begins inconspicuously with cocktail music in the background. You nod at each other discreetly - representing your own status. Like at a Neuköllner Hipster Party. The music is discreet, everyone wears strange clothes. Behind them, however, madness slowly escalates. At first, the events remain painfully close to life. Could that happen to us? The film says: It's possible!

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The French found the term "Nouvelle Vague Allemande", the Germans say "Berliner Schule". But school is the wrong term for a loose group of directors who shoot mainly in Berlin and whose films are minimalist and oriented to everyday life. More and more often, however, one hears that these films of the Berlin School seem to be unworldly and hostile to the spectators. In 2001 the impossible happened, Christian Petzold's Arthaus Action film Die innere Sicherheit was awarded the German Film Prize. Petzold's fame was colored by Angela Schanelec (My Slow Life) and Thomas Arslan (The Beautiful Day). This was not the German mainstream with its bestselling films, but the revival of great role models such as Robert Bresson, Eric Rohmer or Kiarostami. When Christoph Hochhäusler's Milchwald ran at the Berlinale, he was given the label "Berlin School". Filmmakers grouped around the film magazine Revolver, Christoph Hochhäusler, Benjamin Heisenberg, Valeska Griesebach, Ulrich Köhler and Jessica Hausner, were now Berlin School. Formulating one's own subjectivity means alienating figures or places. The almost frozen-looking inner worlds of Milchwald, the apathetically observing sleeper of Heisenberg, the passengers of Petzold in ghosts. Just a moment ago friends or parents, disappeared in the next moment just like ghosts...

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Als ich Ghosts zum ersten Mal sah, bemerkte ich, wie aus dem Tiergarten so etwas wie ein Geisterwald wurde, da verstand ich, was das Label "Berliner Schule" eigentlich bedeutet. Zu aller erst umfasst es, nie mehr zu zeigen als das Allernötigste. In Ghosts erzählt Christian Petzold die Geschichte von zwei jungen Mädchen im Tiergarten und einem Paar, das seine verlorene Tochter sucht. Die Geschichte verknappt Petzold so konzentriert, dass es fast unheimlich wirkt. Je einfacher einer der vielen Möglichkeiten des Films dargestellt wird, desto mehr Alternativen dieser Möglichkeit zeigen sich auf. Da kreuzen sich die Wege zweier Mädchen. Und ein Paar tritt auf. Dann verschwindet ein Mädchen und alles löst sich wieder auf. Wie so oft, orientiert sich Petzold an Vorbildern. Hier am Märchen vom "Totenhemdchen" der Gebrüder-Grimm. Die Untoten erscheinen am helllichten Tag. Sie sind aber nicht gefährlich, sondern einfach nur auf der Suche nach einem Ort, zum Bleiben, Obwohl die Bilder von Christian Petzold den Eindruck machen, der Tiergarten wäre der kälteste Ort der Welt, spüren wir die Verzweiflung der Mädchen. Die Glut der Leidenschaft. 

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Das alte Problem; die Handlung dieses Almodovar Films zusammen zu fassen oder auch nur zu skizzieren, ist kaum möglich. Zumindest nicht, wenn man NICHT vorhat, einen Roman zu verfassen. In der Gegenwart wird eine Geschichte aus der Vergangenheit erzählt, teilweise als Film im Film und irgendwann gehen beide Kategorien ineinander über. Etwa so als wenn die Erinnerungen einer Person kurioser Weise die Erinnerungen einer anderen Person enthalten. Der ganze Film funktioniert wie ein geniales Spielzeug. Wie ein Zaubertrick, den man nicht analysieren sollte, weil er sonst keine Wirkung mehr zeigt. Auftritt eines jungen Filmregisseurs namens Enrique (Fele Martinez). Er bekommt Besuch von Ignacio (Gael Garcia Bernal), der wiederum eine Geschichte geschrieben hat. Die soll Enrique lesen. Normalerweise würde er das auch tun, aber Ignacio ist DER Ignacio: Enriques erste Jugendliebe in der Schule. Das war damals als Ignacio von einem Priester in der Schule missbraucht wurde. Tatsächlich liess er den Missbrauch zu, um Enrique aus einigen Schwierigkeiten zu befreien. Diese Handlung (und das ist weniger als eine Skizze), erlaubt es Almodovar, transgressives Sexualverhalten während der Zeit, die Almodovar ganz bestimmt am stärksten geprägt hat, zu zeigen: Der Zeit der faschistischen Franco Diktatur. 

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In der besten Szene von Peter Bogdanovichs The Last Picture Show geht Sam The Lion mit Sonny und Billy fischen. Sie fahren raus zu einem See, den man eher als Loch bezeichnen möchte. Mitten in der texanischen Prärie. Eigentlich gibt es in dem See nur Schildkröten und gar keine Fische. Das aber ist Sam egal. Er mag sowieso keinen Fisch. "Try one?" - Sam bietet Sonny eine handgerollte Zigarre an. Dann erzählt er, wie er vor zwanzig Jahren mit dem Mädchen, das er liebte, zu diesem See fuhr. Sie schwammen und ritten mit ihren Pferden hindurch. Sams Mädchen aber war bereits verheiratet und er auch schon vor zwanzig Jahren nicht mehr jung... Während er erzählt, stellen wir fest, dass wir dem Mythos von Sams Leben zuhören. Seiner Vision von Schönheit, die ihn überhaupt am Leben erhält in der Einöde einer sterbenden Stadt: Anarene, Texas. 

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I watched the first film by Christopher Nolan, the British no-budget production Follwing and was amazed: His debut is the core of all his films! In Following, we notice Nolan's penchant for a nested narrative structure with a twist at the end - in which ultimately all pieces appear as a whole. In a different context of meaning, of course! Sometimes you might wonder how necessary individual passages may have been for the big picture - but in any case they contribute to the fact that Following is simply fun! When we opened the Videothek Filmkunst (or today Filmkunstbar Fitzcarraldo) ten years ago, we didn't have many titles yet. Still, people came to borrow the stuff that didn't exist in other video stores. One of these "neighbourhood blockbusters" was Following. Constantly lent, always in circulation! Rightly so: the thriller is intelligent, aesthetic and very entertaining! Bill (Jeremy Theobald) is a lonely and neglected writer. He follows people on the street, in search of material for his (possibly never appearing?) book. In truth, Bill is obsessively searching for what he lacks: his own identity. One of his subjects, Cobb, confronts him. Cobb (Alex Haw) is a burglar who is less interested in prey than in the privacy of his victims. Cobb now teaches Bill and commits burglaries with him. In an apartment they find photos of a beautiful blonde (Lucy Russel) - again Bill reacts passionately and falls in love with the unknown. His teacher Cobb spies on Bill on his own and finally speaks to her in a bar. She tells him that she is being blackmailed. Bill decides to help her... On the surface Following is told more or less linearly. A second level of action seems to take place in the narrator's consciousness, as if his story is taken over... The moment he puts the individual parts together, we see what really happened. The big twist, it doesn't develop many of the narrative strands any further, nor does it enlighten them. Still, it's a nice ending point. By the way, Nolan himself was in charge of the camera and is responsible for the dirty, grainy black-and-white photography that makes up so much of the film's effect. Let's remember the scene in the bar, which is so dark that we basically have to think about most of it. With Following we see a 28-year-old filmmaker, already in full possession of his powers - without a budget, but with ideas! And what is the thriller about now? From a would-be writer who gets a lesson about human nature? Just about picking anyone out of the crowd and constructing a story around them? A story that works quite differently than it seems? A film about the process of storytelling itself? Or what do you think?

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You can recognise Tinder dates by the way they sit in secluded corners of pubs and have strangely detached conversations. The precursor to this, the personals, abbreviate complex human relationships with abbreviations like "SWM". This is exactly how Desperately Seeking Susan begins. Susan is desperately wanted by ad using this abbreviation. Roberta (Rosanna Arquette), a bored housewife, sees the ad and becomes curious: who is Susan and who is looking for her and why? So she simply turns up at the meeting place and meets Susan (Madonna), who draws her into her world. So begins an almost forgotten American indie film from 1984 that reminds us what a great filmmaker Susan Seidelman is and what Madonna looked like before her surgeries and how a whole generation was into Rosanna Arquette (that's actually the one from Toto's song of the same name). Anyway, Roberta gets so drawn into Susan's world that she even becomes Susan for a while. Complicated? Exactly! This comedy is extraordinarily complicated! Because Desperately Seeking Susan is a comedy of mistaken identity based on several instances of mistaken identity. 

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*Bad Boys*, starring a very young Sean Penn, tells the story of a couple of street lads from Chicago who get into a lot of trouble, end up in a youth detention centre and get into even more trouble there. Unfortunately, cinema always demands that films like this reach a moral resolution at a certain point: when the bad boys become good boys. That’s a shame, but up until then, *Bad Boys* is a really good film with a great feel for its setting! Sean Penn plays Mick O’Brien, a teenager of Irish descent from the Bridgeport neighbourhood, and Esai Morales plays Paco from the Latino district of Pilsen. Both are tough, mean and anti-social. Their paths cross over a drug deal. A shootout ensues in which Paco’s younger brother is killed. Mick killed him. Paco takes his revenge, rapes Mick’s girlfriend (Ally Sheedy), is caught and sent to the same prison as Mick. Mick already knows his way around prison, and Paco’s a quick learner. Only the strongest survive, and everyone in prison knows that Mick and Paco will have to fight each other to the death for their honour... The first hour is so good it’s actually a bit scary! Incidentally, *Bad Boys* is the first film about street gangs in which they aren’t glorified (*The Warriors*) or romanticised (*The Wanderers*). That was back in 1983. Unfortunately, though, the film becomes a bit predictable in the second half, even though the day-to-day life in prison is portrayed in great detail and feels authentic. But the absolute best thing about *Bad Boys* is, of course, the young Sean Penn!

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It’s not so much about the content – quite the opposite, in fact. When directors like Wim Wenders make a thriller, they take great pleasure in cutting out the key elements of the crime story. In doing so, he challenges us, because we don’t watch thrillers just for the plot, but at least as much for the atmosphere. New German Cinema of the 1970s and late 1960s thrives precisely on this: an atmosphere in which we are immersed. New German Cinema always came across as affected and strange (in which respect it resembled German Expressionism of the 1920s). The directors relied on garish lighting and colour effects and pushed their characters to the very limits of human behaviour. There is always a deliberately artificial dimension to it. Realism was of no interest to New German Cinema. Was that the reason why the audience always reacted so reservedly? Directors such as Fassbinder or Herzog made films that forced you to form an opinion. You couldn’t just sit back in your cinema seat.

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Wim Wenders made two films in 2023 and here comes another beautiful feature film by the soon-to-be 85-year-old auteur filmmaker! Perfect Days was shot in Tokyo, using an almost SENSATIONALLY beautiful colour palette, almost entirely in Japanese. But not much is spoken. Koji Yakusho plays Hirayama, a toilet attendant who hardly ever speaks. Essentially, Wenders' film is about how we follow Hirayama through Tokyo, how he cleans toilets and plays tic-tac-toe with a mysterious guest who leaves leaves for him in the toilets. There's also a real Wim Wenders soundtrack: Lou Reed, who of course provides the title, Nina Simone or The Animals are playing and when Hirayama's niece (Arisa Nakano) turns up at his door, something like a plot develops. But: Perfect days is not a plot film, but a Wenders mood picture. Yes, a picture, because Wenders prefers to use paintings as models for his cinema pictures. This may sound a little weak to some, but Perfect Days is also a nice way to let your mind wander and immerse yourself in Wenders' transcendence. And if you liked Perfect Days, then try the complete catalogue of Yasurijo Ozu, the declared role model of this film!

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Summer Of Sam was the first "Spike Lee Joint" without African-American actors. But Lee works on a theme that is familiar to "blacks" and other minorities: the scapegoat. It's the summer of 1977 in New York. The serial killer SAM is up to no good. All of New York is seized by the paranoid fear of the serial killer. In the Bronx, where the Italo Americans live, everyone who is different from the others is suspicious of being SAM. Summer Of Sam vibrates with guilt and fear and lust. And also with comedy! For once it's not about the murderer, but about his victims. SAM kills young brunette women - and the neighbourhood has formed into a kind of mob, ready to lynch the beast. One of the ugliest sides of man: To find someone guilty and to accuse someone who is different. 

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What traps are there if you want to make a political film? First, the tendency to self-satisfaction. A very little liberal and therefore unsympathetic way of thinking. Secondly. The emphasis on the historical context, because that would quickly make your film forget. And who should remember the specific context in the future? Who knows, perhaps there are so few political films because of these two traps? Let's think back to the time of the Brazilian filmmaker Glauber Rocha. To the time around 1968, when film scholars in particular demanded that FILM be the image of society. FILM should draw attention to social and political grievances. Particularly important at that time in Brazil (and in South America as a whole) was the rejection of American cinema! What alternative did you have to produce as your own films? That's how Cinema Nuvo was born. Representation of the social reality of Brazil. Filmed on the streets, in the slums with amateur actors. Cinema Nuvo sees itself as Anti Hollywood with its genre stencils. Cinema Nuvo is REVOLUTIONARY!

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What's it like in the afterlife? Probably you wait. And watch the relatives. Until those whom one still knew in this world die slowly. and then it gets really boring. In Almodovar's Volver, so often underestimated by our video store customers, the deceased matriarch is called Irene (Carmen Maura). She comes from a colourful Almodovar town in the Spanish hinterland. In this colourful city the men die early and the women happily take care of their graves. From here we travel with the camera into the past to understand it as part of the present. In the present we meet Irene's daughters Raimunda (Penelope Cruz) and Sole (Lola Duenas). There is also a beer drinking, staggering husband. But of course he doesn't play a role in Almodovar's world. He is only capable of disturbing peace through his presence as a stabbed corpse. Paco is the name of Raimunda's husband, who is now lying dead on the floor. And the spirit of Irene? He wanders where he is most needed: To Raimunda. This mix of black comedy and reincarnation drama works so elegantly. And actually, Raimunda's plan to found a restaurant is also in the centre of attention. Almodovar is, as we know, a women's director. He loves women, young and old! With Carmen Maura's performance, the woman who once discovered and promoted him returns to his work. In this paradise of women, there is a random solution to every problem. In addition, we get to know everyday life in the village. It certainly resembles the village where Almodovar was born! Volver means "to return" in many ways. Irene returns to Raimundas life, Carmen Maura to Almodovar's work and Almodovar to his village. Almodovar obviously loves the Hollywood melodramas of the 50s with their bright candy colors and naive optimism. In Volver everything is red. Blood red. For all those who expect something like a metaphysical film: Volver is not metaphysical at all. On the contrary, the protagonists approach all challenges with common sense. A dead woman appears as a ghost and is immediately involved in very practical family problems. Volver deals with daily life, even if murder is included. And who knows, perhaps Almodovar felt like a ghost himself as a young gay country man in the past Spain of the Franco regime?

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Haifaa Al-Mansour is the first director from Saudi Arabia, the first to break through the wall of silence. Her film, a darling of the audience! It is a work about freedom, but also about winning! But how will Wadjda arrive with all his insider jokes? The story is charming. A girl who wants to buy a bike. She has to submit to the law, hide more or less. Wajdja is not a pure comedy. The film is about how women live in Saudi Arabia. Depicted as drama, but also as satire. Again and again there are these moments, which are brutal on the one hand, but also heartwarming! At the end we see a fairy tale of hope: A little princess from the suburbs of Riyadh. Wadjda is so complex and profound that you can see him several times and yet discover something new. The great difference between private and public space, the clash of civil society with tribal rites, life in pre-modern times. Basically, the girl Wadjda is restricted from all directions. She is never free to do what she wants. Even her best friend, he blocks her path. When you read about Wajdja, you read above all about the conditions of production. Yes, there is no cinema in Saudi Arabia, Sharia instead. It is ruled by a conservative king who sees art only as a means to an end to honour the Prophet. But let's just look at the film: it doesn't bend over itself, it simply shows the lives of women. He doesn't seem indignant, although Wdjda provokes them with her colorful sneakers. She wants to buy her bike with the money she wins in a Koran competition. We are basically experiencing a rebel here! Who knows, maybe women in Saudi Arabia will even be allowed to ride their own bikes in the future?