Slacker Movies 

Was ist eigentlich ein Slacker (Richard Linklater)? In den 90ern definierte man damit solche Typen, die ein Studenten-Leben in Studentenstädten führen. Ergänzung: Das, was Linklater Slackers nannte, heisst bei Kevin Smith Clerks. Er meint damit Angestellte in einem Laden (es könnten auch ein Späti oder eine Tankstelle sein), die den ganzen Tag über zusammen in dem Laden herum hängen und permanent über nichts reden. - What exactly is a Slacker (Richard Linklater)? In the 90s it was used to define those types of people who lead a student life in student cities. Supplement: What Linklater called slackers, Kevin Smith calls clerks. He means employees in a shop (it could also be a late night or a gas station) who hang around in the shop all day long and talk about nothing all the time.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Costa-Gavras - Z (engl. subt.) 

It would be much easier for everyone involved if certain things were not worked through again. If everything remained as it was. Unfortunately, however, more and more facts come to light and suddenly an "accident" becomes a crime... Z is one such case. He deals with the assassination of a Greek opposition leader during the 1960s. Every nation has suffered such a trauma - let us remember the death of a journalist in Malta a few days ago. Z is therefore not about Greece, but about our time today. In general. Z is about the corruption of the political class. A work that will shake you up and fill you with fury! For me, Z is the best political thriller of all time and certainly the most important! The story sounds very simple and is based on facts. Gregorios Lambrakis died in a traffic accident in 1963. Lambrakis was the Greek opposition leader at the time. Then the theory of the accident began to waver and one was forced to investigate. The result: Lambrakis was killed by a right-wing radical organization. High officials of the army and the police were involved. The small henchmen who carried out the murder on behalf of their backers as well as the masterminds were convicted in court. A happy ending? Not at all, because the story of Z does not end here. In 1967 Greece experiences a military coup and as a consequence, the murderers are rehabilitated. Those who had previously solved the murder, however, became "criminals. A classic political thriller? No! The young Costa-Gavras combined a political outcry with a brilliant suspense thriller in Z. His characters change during the film, are no longer perpetrators, but representatives of a system. Ahead, Yves Montand, embodying the murdered victim. Next to her is the widow, played by the great Irene Papas. Then the investigator (Jean-Louis Trintignant), who resists any political pressure to cover up the scandal. By the way, he is not a man of conviction who wants to overthrow the system, but simply a man in search of justice. A truly neutral judge! We should look at the question: Is what helps the state also helpful for its citizens? Z seems to end in triumph. The rotten core of the government is revealed to everyone. The judiciary wins, the government falls. But when the good news is brought to the widow, we see no triumph in her eyes. She looks up at the sea. Full of despair. What's left of her? Nothing, as we'll know later. For many years the right wing controlled Greece. For decades, the population suffered under the murderers. The film Z, the director Costa-Gavras and Irene Papas, they were all banished from Greece. Even the letter Z (which stands for life) was forbidden! During the early 1970s, Z was also attacked in the USA as "hostile to America". Just like today, as the Right maintain a well-ordered network across borders and very well recognize their enemies. Like Costa-Gavras! I would like every Z to borrow on DVD or click on the link. Z is more than a great work - it is an elementary important film!

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE jafar Panahi - Offside (engl. subt.) 

A short introduction for a better understanding, because in Iran the mullahs have banned women from entering the football stadium. Jafar Panahi, counter-revolutionary, draws the material for his comedy from it. The top league in Iran is called Qods, which means "liberated Jerusalem". After all, football is politics! A quarter of a century after Chomeini's revolution in 1979, it became a sport for women to circumvent the ban on football. Camouflaged with baseball caps and wrapped in oversized flags, they are let in: As men. Offside seems like an illegal documentary, we are in the midst of the raging crowd, the hand camera wobbles and tries to capture the action. Behind it hides a cleverly composed feature film with amateur actors and a showdown! The women in the film are shrewd, the men are dolts from the country. With a light hand the Mullah regime is exposed as a farce and an old man in the fan bus finally explains the magic of the arena: You can scream, sing and say whatever you want. However, Panahi's film was not allowed to be shown.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Caramel 

The title Caramel serves as a metaphor. In Lebanon women use caramel for hair removal. A bitter-sweet remedy - just like life itself! Just like the life of these four beautiful women who spend their days together in the beauty salon of Beirut. Si Belle is the name of the shop and the B is hanging crooked from the sign outside. Just like everyday life in Beirut seems to be a bit off the rails. It is the Beirut of Nadine Labaki, which fortunately is not made of pure misery. Of course there are potholes in the streets, but also shops like Si Belle. Caramel is above all a Feel Good comedy about dreams and hopes, but secretly also a utopia: Here, in Beirut, Muslims and Christians and Orthodox and Jews (...) live together. The most diverse religions and ethnic groups. You don't see war in Caramel and that's a good thing! 

FREE ON CINEGEEK:DE Heavy

https://www.cinegeek.de/free-youtube-heavy-1995-rating-80-coming-soon-dvd-filmkunstbar-fitzcarraldo

  "Pete and Dolly's" is a restaurant or bar that is their real home for regular guests. Here not very young, single men fall asleep at the bar and wake up in the hostess's guest bed.  For Dolly (Shelley Winter), her somewhat plump son Victor (Pruitt Taylor Vince) and for Delores (Debbie Harry alias "Blondie") it is definitely their home. They don't have anything better. Here in Berlin "Pete`s And Dollly`s" would be a corner pub. None in Kreuzberg, rather Reinickendorf-Ost. If you spend an evening there and try to guess the sad secret of regulars and waiters, you know what I mean. The terrible secret of such places: There are no secrets at all! Everybody knows everything about each other and has done for years. Dolly sits mainly in her kitchen chair, complaining about her health and quoting her late husband Pete. Vaguely, anyway. We notice that Pete had an affair with Delores years ago. A meaningless affair. Anyway, Delores still works for Dolly. Leo (Joe Grifasi) sits at the bar every night, circling his drink with his forearms protectively. With his gaze he follows Delores. Her or another drink? We know the answer. After all, the dangers of a relationship far outweigh those of another drink! Delores on the other hand knows that there are probably only two men in the world with whom she will never have sex: Leo and Victor, the mama's boy. Victor hears it, but doesn't react, while his eyes flit back and forth like those of an injured animal. He wants a break, but how? This situation has gone on for years. Then Dolly hires Callie (Liv Tyler); a tall, playful student whose sexuality awakens all the sleepers in the bar.  Delores can't help but see Callie as revenge for her affair with Pete. But Callie doesn't notice any of this, as she has her hands full learning how to wait tables. And every move she makes seems clumsy. But at its core, James Mangold's Heavy is about Victor. Pruitt Taylor plays Vince almost without words (Victor whispers more than he speaks). Mostly completely expressionless. Almost always Victor's eyes are following Callie. They are sexual needs, less romantic ones. All this is expressed so bluntly and sadly as in hardly any other movie. They are such lonely people! One time Victor steals a photo of Callie. It's like a doorway to another life he'll probably never live... ...hope is a strange thing. When we think we want to share our life with someone, we never compare our reality to his. We don't weigh them up.  We just compare his reality to our needs. That way, it's a perfect match. Is it foolish that Victor dreams about Callie? But maybe she's lonely too. Who knows, maybe in fifteen years Callie will be like Delores? Or is there a chance that Callie might like Victor too? 

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

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Jacques Rivette - The Story Of Marie And Julien


 No one is sympathetic in this late Jacques Rivette movie!  Julien (Jerzy Radziwiƚowicz) is a blackmailer and his victim, Madame X (Anne Brochet), cheats on her part by selling fake Chinese antique fabrics. Maybe she also killed her sister. Marie (Emmanuelle Béart) and Adrienne (Bettina Kee) live like ghosts condemned to exist in this corrupt, loveless world. Both have terrible love affairs. Even Julien's cat behaves like a monster. It's even this cat that will eventually reveal Julien's dark secret... Everyone has to pay in this world. The evil from the past takes its toll and the present only serves the purpose of correcting that past. But the monster cat's name "Nevermore" tells us that this is not possible. The past can never be restored. If you like the very early fantastic films from France, you will enjoy Rivette's film. Who can still distinguish between dream and reality in his world? Between fact and fiction? But all thoughts and events in The Story Of Marie And Julien are true. But there is no real world - only a manipulated world. If you want to read a little between the lines, you can search for sources like in every Rivette film. A dash of Hitchcock, a little Cocteau... Who remembers "Vertigo"? All characters in it get the chance to correct their past and fail a second time.

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

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Herni Georges Clouzot - La Verite (engl. subt.)

It's only men who judge Dominique. Dominique is accused of murdering the young conductor Gilbert. There is no doubt; she does not share bourgeois values or morals. Worse still, Dominique doesn't seem to know her at all. That's why the public prosecutor's office describes certain episodes from Dominique's life, which prove one thing above all: This young woman is rampant. Henri-Georges Clouzot won Brigitte Bardot for a role that only she can play. Bardot embodies the nymph, all nature, all impulse. But also a murderer? To this end, we must remember the classic character of the femme fatale. The femme fatale acts consciously and amorally. She lies and mad intrigue. She lives within a society whose rules she deliberately undermines. The nymph, on the other hand, exists outside. How could she break rules that aren't her own? Dominique destroyed a doll at the age of eight because she was never allowed to reach out to her ambitious sister. Later she moved to Paris and surrendered to the nightlife. Instead of working, she met men. Gilbert (Paul Meurisse), the young conductor, believed he had found his great love in Dominique. Nevertheless Dominique let herself be taken by friends on the motorcycle! Jealousy - one of the great themes of Henri-George Clouzot. La Verite is about jealousy that Clouzot had equated with hell in another work. He, the obsessive genius of French cinema, stages a humiliating negotiation to present this young woman for what she is: the victim of a prudish and merciless society. La Verite is timeless, because it exposes how hatred is created: Through advanced "rules" of decency and morality. If you do not submit to them, it is basically the same as leaving the common good. Man is no longer man.