FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Wong Kar Wai - In The Mood For Love 

Two people who are in the mood for love. But it is neither the right place nor the right time. Looks full of longing, but everyone has to go home alone. His wife, just like her husband, cheated on her. They sullied the marriages with side leaps. The couple agree that this should not happen to them. But do they really agree? No. They do NOT agree. He wants to sleep with her and she with him. They are prevented only by their moral conviction. At least each of them thinks the other would take this moral attitude. A confusion. Neither throws the first stone. Of course there is room for speculation, because Wong Kar-Wai's classic leaves so many gaps. A lavishly filmed story about unrequited love. Unrequited mutual love. It must feel the same as the songs of Nat King Cole in the movie or the cello motif that permeates "In The Mood For Love". His name is Chow (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) and she is Su (Maggie Cheung Man-yuk). Both live in Hong Kong in 1962, at a time when Chinese must have loved Latin hits like Nat King Cole's! Their apartments are next to each other. The city is overcrowded. There is no room for secrets. Again and again their paths cross. Important things are said at the wrong time. Mostly they don't speak at all. Feelings have to be transported differently, for example by means of their clothes. Our task as spectators: We cannot identify with this couple. But we should put ourselves in their shoes. This is much more difficult than in "normal" love films! "In The Mood For Love" lives from its rich colors and deep shadows. The camera slides back and forth between the two apartments, emphasizing that there are two, not one. In imaginary dialogues they ask: "Do you have a lover? That means her husband, not Chow. But the two cheating spouses never appear on the screen. Adultery is boring - Wong Kar-Wai wants to show us something else. He demonstrates how Chow and Su in their restraint create something like perfect love. They spend their days alone. It often rains. When they meet by chance, they never speak openly. But for lovers no conversation is boring and an empty room fills with the most intimate desires!

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Der Ölprinz 

Now we are in the middle of a phase of living literary criticism and, of course, living film criticism. Karl May, born in 1842, was a child of the colonial age and wrote in the common stereotypes of his time. He was - as far as I know - never in the so-called Wild West, nor anywhere else. Anyone who takes Karl May to task today will not be able to avoid taking a critical look at this view. The same goes for those who look at Karl May films from the Federal Republic of Germany in the 1960s. For it is astonishing how they follow the model! When dealing with ethnic stereotypes of the 19th century by the writer Karl May, you will quickly notice that they never changed until the 60s of the 20th century. Today it is different. We have moved on and may now take a critical look at the poet's work and cinematic adaptations. Many may shy away from this because it also concerns their own childhood memories. And these are personal. But those who actually manage this process of development may call themselves adults in the best sense of the word. "But Winnetou paid no attention to the pain. That's what all great wars did". So it is written. Modern parents would probably laugh when they read this to their children. That's how they are, the Indians! Today, this is called criticism of racism and ideology in Karl May, if you don't just let such sentences stand. Karl May can certainly be accused of racism, but not of malicious racism. Winnetou is the good guy and the cowboys are the bad guys. P.S By the way, Der Ölprinz was filmed in Artur Brauner's CCC Studios in Spandau, Berlin, where German blockbusters such as the Winnetou and Edgar Wallace films were made until the 1970s.

Indie Comedies 

CINEGEEK.DE 80's Comedies 

The question of whether one likes Steve Martin usually ends in a stalemate. Many hate him, others answer that they like him, but not his films, except maybe L.A. Story or Roxanne. These two films have a Woody Allen factor of intelligent comedy, but the typical Steve Martin films are silly and loopy; anarchic humour of the 80s, with no hiding place for a cultural bourgeoisie.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Mia Hansen-Love - L'Avenir 

Isabelle Huppert, over the years she has acquired a proven ability to live. Huppert's characters live from their nonchalant energy. This time she plays a teacher who is abandoned by her husband and yet Huppert develops surprisingly cheerful traits. 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.De Bigas Luna - Jamon Jamon 

This is the funniest and most malicious comedy from Spain ever! Bigas Luna made Jamon Jamon in a time when people still took risks. Eyes closed and through - no matter if the audience goes along with it. The anarcho message of Jamon Jamon is: We may understand sex as a summary of all that is ridiculous in human nature. The film is set somewhere in the south of Spain, in the countryside. The focus is on the richest local family. They make underwear. The underwear is also the symbol of the city. You can see them on a billboard from afar. And of course the obligatory Spanish bull. Then Jose Luis, the son of the underwear family, falls in love with the sensual Silvia. She is the daughter of Carmen, who runs the local brothel. Jose's mother Conchita sees her son already before the altar with the daughter of a whore. She decides to take matters into her own hands to prevent this horror. Her tool: Raul, who works in the local ham factory. Raul is supposed to seduce Silvia to prevent the wedding. By the way, Raul also works as an underwear model for Conchita - and loves ham. The plot thickens. Sexually frustrated Conchita begins an affair with Raul, while Jose has been having a relationship with Silvia's mother for a long time. Carmen warns Jose; if he marries Silvia, she never wants to see him again... Although it is understandable in itself: Since Silvia is still a virgin, Jose has to fulfill his needs discreetly with his mother. Business is business. And there's so much more! Garlic and Silvia's breasts form one unit. Or naked bullfighting. And pigs. Because correctly translated Jamon Jamon means ham ham. Bigas Luna turns it into a lurid melodrama with deep romance and wicked satire. A telenovela, but full of sex. Penelope Cruz plays Silvia; her current husband Javier Bardem Raul. If you think that Jamon Jamon is a single impertinence, then you are right. If you find him insulting, then you're just as right. Tasteless and vulgar? Also. Jamon Jamon goes beyond the boundaries of what is possible in the cinema. 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Jacques Rivette - Haut Bas Fragile 

Jacques Rivette's films often revolve around secrets and mysteries. About conspiracies and secret societies. A foreshadowing of what may come - where life is like a maze. Ultimately, it leads us to places we don't understand. This is roughly how Haut Bas Fragile - Beware Fragile works. Three women are at the centre. In the lives of these three women, the past plays an important role and they are surrounded by secrets... Louise (Marianne Denicourt) woke up from a coma after five years. Now she wants to start a new life in which neither her family nor her boyfriend play a role. Ida (Laurence Côte) was adopted and is now hell-bent on finding her biological parents. Ninon (Nathalie Richard) is fleeing a life of violence - from her ex-boyfriend who stabbed a man to death. The paths of these three women cross, guided by chance. Basically, all three are trying to free themselves from the past. And that's not easy in a Rivette film, because normally Rivette's characters act in cycles, are doomed to repetition. Of course, in Haute Bas Fragile there is also a secret society that meets in a hideout to dare a game of life and death. Is there a conspiracy or is it all smoke and mirrors? Charming is the idea that these women do open up a perspective for the future instead of remaining stuck in their cycle: the seductive power of dance! Because tragedy doesn't have to be a permanent state and the story of life is what we make of it. And what is more beautiful than living silly and exuberant?