The Best Christmas Movies Of All Times 

The obese boy gives Santa Claus a carved pickle. Santa Claus complains that it is not green. Bad Santa (Billy Bob Thornton) is a professional burglar and alcoholic. He suffers from depression and seems to end up. The boy, on the other hand, is not one of the cute kids you are used to seeing in Hollywood movies, but an annoying stalker. Then there's the dwarf who has been cracking safes with Santa for years, but is now annoyed by his constantly drunk partner. Like every year they strike on Christmas Eve, disguised as Santa Claus with his elf - but this year Santa Claus is particularly drunk. Terry Zwigoff's Christmas comedy (produced by the Coen brothers) looks like an insane, twisted comic - and we don't have to worry about a conventional happy ending. Every unwritten law of American mainstream cinema (which, for example, prescribes how an initially puking Santa Claus would be purged in the course of the story) - Twigoff's film tramples it underfoot. Billy Bob Thornton is allowed to rage, tear a reindeer to pieces and do it with a woman who suffers from a Santa Claus fetish. Bad Santa isn't only successful because he's different and bizarre, but also because he's funny until the end! Santa Claus (in real life Willy) and the elf (whose real name is Marcus) use the same trick every year. As a Christmas duo they get into shopping malls to break into them. But this year the security boss has his eye on the two of them... Willy is also distracted by his new girlfriend with the Santa fetish. Then there is the lonely fat boy who promises Willy on the head that he is not Santa (but still follows him on his foot from now on). The boy's parents are not present and that makes him unhappy. Probably this is his childhood. The desperate child and the drunken Santa Claus: Imagine families who accidentally end up in this film - frightening children and horrified parents! But what if these families didn't let themselves be shocked, but simply enjoy Santa Claus because it's a successful black comedy?

CINEGEEK.DE Mindgame Movies II 

One of the characters in Sex And Lucia is writing a novel. What he writes also happens to him. Or he imagines it would happen. Him and his girlfriend Lucia. Or both are only in the novel. In any case, we - the audience - soon know connections that the characters on the screen don't even suspect. Additional connections are created because the actor (who embodies the novel author) plays two roles. One is real. And the other, too, I think. You notice that it is simply impossible to summarize such a plot here. Especially since I'm not sure I understood it at all. Is it possible to understand Sex And Lucia completely at all? Or is confusion simply part of the concept? Once Julio Medem staged a film that resembled a palindrome. The plot begins at both ends and meets in the middle. Consequently, its protagonists were Ana and Otto. Medem likes to play with our minds and can do that well. But he is not a boaster. Because it's about more than mere showmanship. And here the plot comes in very rough form: Lucia (Pax Vega), a waitress, receives a phone call which makes her believe that her lover Lorenzo (Tristan Ulloa) has died in an accident. She desperately drives to an island whose surface appears almost white, but under which there are shallows - caves. There Lucia meets the (naked) diver Carlos (Daniel Freire). He offers her a guesthouse near Elena (Najwa Nimri). In the prologue we learned that Elena is the mother of Lorenzo's daughter. Back then, during a magical night, Elena slept with Lorenzo. They never exchanged their names. They never saw each other again afterwards. Six years later Lucia meets Lorenzo. She tells him that she has read his novel. Lucia confesses to Lorenzo that she has fallen in love with him. Now the sex begins - and there are indeed explicit, great sex scenes (which even seem charming!). But then Lorenzo can't finish his second novel. Basically, his second novel is about Lorenzo finding out where his child is. He visits the child who is cared for by the sexy Belen (Elena Anaya). And now attention! There is a dream sequence that is crucial for the film. Look closely! However: Do these scenes only exist in the novel? And is Elena possibly on the island? On the other side? The characters appear in different combinations. Like in a triangle. And they don't know anything about each other. For example, Carlos, the diver, is also Antonio, Belen's mother's friend. So much for the plot. The pictures resemble those of sex films from the 70s. With a lot of nudity and passionate sex! A real adult film. And through the absurd plot the characters are freed, so that we can concentrate much better on them. Sounds crazy, but that's how it is. Until the end there will be so many alternatives in the plot that it would be unnecessary to commit to one. Sex And Lucia is a movie with a hole in the middle. Just like the island. And then it starts all over again. The single parts work, though. The characters anyway, especially Lucia. We like her and we admire how she deals with her grief. Lucia is for me one of the most sympathetic canvas figures ever! Everything around her is light. 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Who's Singing Over There 

Here comes one of the films that were most requested by you at the Filmkunstbar Fitzcarraldo. On DVD unfortunately difficult to obtain, but a former employee regularly travels to Belgrade and tries on site. Who's Singing Over There (the film by bus) also runs in good quality with English subtitles on youtube. A drunk with a Slibowitz bottle claims the bus driver could drive this route blind. The guests protest not to provoke him! Bets are accepted. He ties a cloth around his eyes and his bus swings down to a pole. Everything falls and staggers, under and over. Then the provocateur with the Slibowitz bottle: "Did you know that he can drive two kilometres backwards?"... The atmosphere of Ko to tamo peva is just as exuberant and over-excited - and in 1941 we are in the Yugoslavian hinterland. There are no roads here. But passengers who act as a cross section of their time: Lovers, policemen, eccentrics, politicians, a hunter with a shotgun... (every character is embodied by real Yugoslavian movie stars!). Something happens again and again that stops the bus. Whether it's a burst tire or a fluttering bridge. But suddenly: A bomb from the Nazi Germans hits. All passengers except one gypsy couple die. The black comedy by Slobodan Sijan was shot in a very short time and on a correspondingly tight budget. In 1980, the year Tito died. A film from Europe? More likely from another universe!

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Die Fetten Jahre Sind Vorbei 

Freundschaft, Liebe und Revolution, darum gehts in Hans Weingartners The Edukators. Dabei ist es gar nicht so einfach, gegen etwas zu revoltieren. Denn: "Es war alles schon mal da und hat nicht funktioniert"; so Jule (Julia Jentsch). Warum sollte es also diesmal klappen? Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei, das ist der Schlachtruf ihrer kleinen Revoluzzer Gruppe, zu der ausser Jule auch noch Jan (Daniel Brühl) und Peter (Stipe Erceg) gehören. Manchmal hinterlassen sie auch eine Mahnung: "Sie haben zu viel Geld". Denn Jule, Jan und Peter brechen in Zehlendorfer Villen ein (einige Jahre später fanden tatsächlich ein paar Demos in Zehlendorf statt und nicht mehr in Kreuzberg). Das Trio bricht in Villen ein, nicht aber, um zu stehlen, sondern um kunstvolle Türme aus Möbeln zu bauen. Die Stereo Anlage landet im Kühlschrank, das Meissener Porzellan im Clo usw. So gehen sie vor gegen die Ungerechtigkeit der Welt, auf der Suche nach... ja eben etwas Neuem. Und wir schauen ihnen beim Denken zu. Darüber hinaus verliebt sich Jule, die eigentlich mit Peter zusammen ist, in den verbissenen Idealisten Jan. Mit Peters Lässigkeit kann sie immer weniger anfangen; sie entspricht auch so gar nicht dem Film. Wie sollen sie sich auch verhalten, in einer Zeit, in der Provokation immer schwieriger wird und Lösungen nicht in Sicht. Die Party ist vorbei als sie in die Villa Hardenberg einbrechen und Jule erkannt wird. Sie nehmen den Reichen mit nach Österreich und die Geisel entpuppt sich als gute Gesellschaft. Hardenberg (Burghart Klaußner) kifft, erzählt von damals, von 1968 und übernimmt mehr und mehr das Kommando. Was geschah mit ihm? "Und plötzlich ertappst du dich in der Wahlkabine, wie du das Kreuzchen bei der CDU machst ..." 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Come On Come On 

Here comes producer Johnny (Joaquin Phoenix), who interviews numerous children about their future. Some of them are anxious, others hopeful and all of them want the world to see them as they are. Johnny thinks little about the future himself. He's just trying to get through the day (like most adults). In any case, people are the driving force behind everything we do. We love them and argue with them or rebel against them. So Johnny also comes to the aid of his semi-estranged sister, traveling to Northern California where she is struggling with her mentally ill husband. Johnny even has to look after his nephew and gets a taste of what it's like to be a father. As that is explored with sincere earnestness (and effortless charm). There are cute moments and missteps. And aren't all relationships8ngen messy experiments? This is one of those movies that makes us think and still works after the credits roll. If you want more, check out Mike Mills' earlier films! 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Kundun 

In the middle of Kundun, the 13th Dalai Lama warns the 14th Dalai Lama in a letter: The culture of Tibet will soon be destroyed by China. What can we do about it, asks the 14th Dalai Lama. An advisor tells him that he knows this. After all, he wrote the letter himself. This is literally how the belief in reincarnation, in rebirth, works. Kundun recounts the life of the 14th Dalai Lama - but that in turn encompasses a larger life spanning centuries. And this is precisely the strength and weakness of the film, as its main character Kundun is not shown as a human being, but as an icon. It is a sacred life that stands above time. It is about perfection in the form of a human being. Before you look at Kundun, you should be aware of this: No human character is shown here. A sacred story is told in anecdotes, almost like in church. Scorsese's films always have a spiritual component. They are about characters who live in sin and are aware of it. So Kundun begins in 1937, at the time of the 13th Dalai Lama in Tibet. The monks find a little boy who they believe to be their reincarnated leader. They place a series of objects in front of the child so that he chooses the right one. As a result, the 13th Dalai Lama will even meet Mao, who proclaims that all religion has died (so that the Dalai Lama can no longer look this man in the eye and instead has to look him in the eye).

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE The Crow 

The Crow became famous, of course, because Brandon Lee was accidentally shot during filming. And indeed, the film is also about someone who comes back from the dead - just as, in a way, Brandon Lee did with the film. A black irony of fate! The story begins with a resurrection from the dead. Rock star Eric Draven (Lee) is murdered the night before his wedding. A crow - so the story goes - transports his soul into the afterlife. But because of the unexplained incident of his murder, Eric's soul finds no peace and returns to earth a year later on Halloween. Eric swears revenge. Nothing more needs to be written about the story. In flashbacks, the murder is reconstructed and then Eric, led by the crow, wanders the streets at night. His make-up resembles a skull. No bullet can harm him, because he is already dead. The story serves as an excuse for the STYLE of the film, because here a very unique world is created that resembles that of Blade Runner. An abandoned urban wasteland where it is always night. Who remembers the gothic extravaganzas in Tim Burton's Batman? This is all so much darker! Obviously The Crow shows inspiration from a number of graphic novels of its time and their over-the-top architecture, and the underlying graphic novels in turn love 40s film noir. The editing and soundtrack of The Crow, however, are reminiscent of music videos, in which the villains like Myca (Bai Ling) again almost look like someone drew them. Those who love 90s grunge will find Stone Temple Pilots, Pantera or Nine Inch Nails here. Probably some even know the soundtrack better than the film! What is said about death and resurrection between the music video numbers is given a melancholic subtext by Brandon Lee's misfortune. Just like his famous father's career, Brandon's ends far too soon - only that Bruce Lee was never allowed to be part of such a great film as The Crow.