FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Wim Wenders - Faraway, So Close 

Six years after "Wings Of Desire" (1987) Berlin was no longer the same city. Lucky for Wim Wenders, who had announced in the last picture of "Wings Of Desire": to be continued. This sequel - Faraway, So Close! - Wenders could now shoot in the reunited Berlin! That was 1993. Berlin, an adventure playground. While districts like Prenzlauer Berg or Mitte still looked like after the war, all over Potsdamer Platz construction cranes were growing into the sky. You remember; in "Wings Of Desire", Potsdamer Platz was still a green meadow. In part 1, an angel was left behind, alone on the Victory Column. His name is Cassiel (Otto Sander) and just like his friend Damiel (Bruno Ganz), who transformed into a human being in the first part, Cassiel has only one goal: To be close to people. He would love to be one of them! Just as both parts of Berlin were reunited, so it is with the angels Cassiel and Damiel. What does it mean to be alive, especially in Berlin 1993? When the material and spiritual worlds merge? Damiel became human because he loves the beautiful artist Marion (Solveig Dommartin). Cassiel transforms himself to save a little girl from falling off the balcony of a typical prefabricated building on Alexanderplatz. Cassiel, whom we see in colour after his incarnation, simply calls himself Karl Engel. He soon realizes how difficult it is to be human. He feels lonely and desperate. He has no money and no apartment, drowning his sorrow in alcohol. He complains to his beautiful girlfriend Raphaela (Nastassia Kinski), her sign Engel, that he no longer recognizes what lies beyond the horizon. By the way, Cassiel can no longer see or hear Raphaela as a human being. He still feels her, sometimes something tickles him. That's why Cassiel is sitting at the Hackescher Markt station, begging - when he meets Lou Reed. Lou Reed certainly knows the feeling of being at the bottom of the ladder: "You can do it"; says Lou. And Cassiel is still a guardian angel with a mission! He watches the girl he saved being shadowed by private detective Winter (as always as Philip Winter: Rüdiger Vogler). Is Winter looking for the girl's guardian, the chauffeur Konrad (Heinz Rühmann)? Here the trail leads back to the Nazi era in Berlin. Then the windy businessman Tony Baker (Horst Buchholz) appears, who is also related to Konrad and the girl... While Cassiel is confronted with moral decisions, the eerie Emit Flesti (Willem Dafoe) shadows him. I understand him as a kind of guardian of the universe. Or a fallen angel? He confronts Cassiel; "You are irregular". They exist, the former angels. Wenders is parading some of them. Mikhail S. Gorbachev, who thinks about the meaning of life, or Peter Falk, who can no longer see the angels, but feels their presence. Just like a child. "Wings Of Desire" was about love. "Faraway, So Close" was about the age-old struggle of good against evil. A fable that comes to life by showing the effects of this struggle on Germany in 1933, but also on Germany in 1993. Wim Wenders, whose "Wings Of Desire" had been banned in East Berlin at the time, is now allowed to balance his portrait of the divided German city with all its historical scars. With pretty good music by Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, U2 and Nick Cave: "Cassiel's Song" and even more beautiful pictures than in the first part. P.S. At that time Wenders was accused of "Leni-Riefenstahl aesthetics". And that he offered the comedian of the NS era, Heinz Rühmann, the opportunity to present himself as a courageous man. I never shared this criticism. For me Faraway is, So Close! THE Berlin film par excellence. My memory of the exciting Berlin of the post-reunification period!

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Rudolf Thome - Pink 

How does a beautiful love story work? A couple looking deep into each other's eyes? Not enough. We have to feel their love. Or even better: fall in love with ourselves. Rudolf Thome films work like this: Thome himself is in love with his characters AND his actresses. That's why Hannah Herzsprung is omnipresent in pink. The camera loves her. Thome loves her. So do we. She sits in a pink shirt against a blue background. Or in the purple part in front of poison green. Thome does everything to put Herzsprung in the right light. He is just in love. And Herzsprung can be narcissistic, because she is a diva! In addition, there is music that could also come from a French film of the 60s. And isn't Thome the only worthy descendant of the Nouvelle Vague? Pink alias Herzsprung therefore has three admirers. A businessman and typical dream man with a winning smile and a somewhat tranquil eco farmer. Who will she choose? The organic farmer has somehow become rich. Like that we experience as little as the first encounter with these men. But Pink doesn't need any money. She earns her own with readings. "I'll write until I'm dead" is one of her poems. Does that sound like Thome? I would wish it for him, because for some time now nobody has been financing the works of this greatest German independent filmmaker! What a shame! Please look at Pink and change that! Says the filmkunstbar Fitzcarraldo.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Britney Spears - Crossroads 

I have never been particularly interested in the "Free Britney" movement. Until today, when excerpts of Spear's testimony appeared on the record in the Times. Now I am very much interested in how it can be that a person has to take medication against their will and be locked away for more than a decade? Then I searched for Spear's feature film Crossroads and was pleasantly surprised. Crossroads is far from a bad film! "I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet a Woman." It's really not easy growing up. Spears famously never succeeded. Her entire career functioned as an extended adolescence. She was a child star in the Mickey Mouse Club, precocious schoolgirl pop star, then a punchline in the gossip columns of repulsive magazines, and finally the ward of her own father's tutelage. When Spears was just 20, she sang "Not A Girl." Of course, critics at the time trashed her film; but fans knew better. It almost seems like a revelation when Spears belts out her song at the climax of the film! Crossraods is a cute coming of age story about three girls. They cross the southern states of the USA in search of what is called "being grown up". They're threatened by a guy who everyone wrongly thinks of as a bad boy. The stuff of many a teenager's dreams! And wasn't it really a cursed era for young girls back then? In Crossroads, everything is pastel. The colours of Britney Spears. With eyeshadow, mica and endless cleavage. This is what the boom of misogynistic pop star culture and uncomfortably sexualised female singers looked like. Fortunately, Crossroads escapes this trap. Crossroads shows serious sympathy for the problems of the three girlfriends. If you play around with imd a bit, you'll notice that director Tamra Davis is a serious feminist. Spears Lucy always seems innocent, even when she is lolling on a dance pole or singing Madonna's Open Your Heart in the bedroom. In addition, pressing issues such as rape, teenage pregnancy or the body image of young women are not left out. Quite playfully and incidentally. Quite openly, without judgement. Crossroads is a friendly film and when Spears Lucy slowly finds her voice, we genuinely rejoice with her. She has to emancipate herself from her overbearing father (Dan Aykroyd), gets support from her friends. She will find her way. At the time, it seemed like there was hope for Britney Spears....

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Bill Forsyth - Gregory's Girl 

Somewhere I read this in the newspaper and it sounds plausible: a study that says that physically good-looking men are less good at business. They earn less money, marry less "desirable" partners earlier than men with average looks. What conclusion can be drawn? Do the handsome men try less at school because they invest more time in social contacts? Do they rely too much on their charm than on pushing ahead at university? And do they end up marrying women who look more married than career-oriented? Bottom line: the acne-ridden youngster, the geek, does better in the long run than the super-athlete. That's what Bill Forsyth's charming comedy is about. It's an almost forgettable, very funny film about a weird guy. Gregory's Girl is set in Scotland and at least some customers of our video store claim that teenagers in Scotland are calmer and more relaxed. At least than here in Berlin. Gregory (Gordon John Sinclair) is one such guy. A lanky boy who runs around the football pitch in a completely uncoordinated way and suddenly shoots. Totally out of context. He looks like a bird. Then he loses his place on the football team. Dorothy (Dee Hepburn), of all people, replaces him, because she is much more athletic. And Gregory? He falls in love with her at first sight. For those who remember their own school days, Gregory experiences romance in much the same way as a physical illness. Dorothy is sweet to him, but also remains distant. She suspects how much he is in love with her. She is simply far ahead of him in analysing the whole situation and knows how to behave. All this takes place in a suburb of Glasgow. There, where the kids hang around bored and discuss endlessly. They speculate about the impossibility of being happy at seventeen. So Gregory turns to his young sister. She has no interest in boys at all, although Gregory compliments her that although she is only ten, she already looks thirteen. Gregory also comforts his best friend. He is fifteen and a half and has never experienced true love.... Anyone who watches Gregory's Girl notices how much we tend to forget all those things from adolescence. We remember how pointless it is to explain to teenagers what mistakes they make. What for?? After all, every teenager has analysed every single little mistake down to the last detail. Boys in particular are hopelessly overwhelmed in the turmoil of first romance. Lost. Girls, at least, still reserve their own perspective. They react more pragmatically. For it is an unwritten law of the universe that no seventeen-year-old ever immediately falls in love with the "right one". Forsyth's comedy pokes gentle fun at such insights. The film contains much wisdom about what it's like to be young and vulnerable. And it's no great help when, in a situation like Gregory's, you realise that you're not only going through extraordinary agony but, moreover, that you're not even unique. I would give Gregory's Girl a 35+ release. This is a film for adults only. The kind of people who have successfully lived through their first agonies of love. Those who have successfully overcome the pain of unrequited love (hohoho).

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Bound By Honor 

Bound by Honor tells the story of Miklo, the son of a Chicano mother and a white father, who struggles to be accepted by the barrio gangs of East LA. He earns respect and spends much of his life in prison. He grows up with two cousins he calls brothers. Their lives all develop in different directions: Miklo goes to prison, Paco to the police, Cruz becomes an artist and takes drugs. And if you know enough gang films from the 90s, you'll even think you're familiar with the East L.A. milieu. And who doesn't remember when Miklos and Cruz sit in front of a mural that sums up their entire lives as the camera glides skyward? Bound By Honor is one of those films you watched as a teen and never forgot! The epic contains some effective actor performances and moments of deep truthfulness. Presumably, things are the same in prison as they are in the film. If nothing else, Taylor Hackford teaches us a lesson with his work, as the life of a hero leads us to realise that power corrupts. But if power had not corrupted Miklo's life, it would still have been wasted... Are there any role models at all in this story full of nihilism? No. One notices this especially during the passages of prison life. The guards stand on the sidelines while gangs run the institution. They make their own rules, which they execute by force. In prison there are: 1. Chicanos, 2. blacks, 3. whites. They are all portrayed in a racist way. In general, hardly anyone in this film can portray themselves outside the role imposed on them by their skin colour. Miklos' dilemma. The gangs rule through alliances and truces. Miklo's central concern is to bring about a truce between Hispanics and blacks. This way he can break the power of the whites. At first, he works together with the Chicano leader, only to become the leader himself through betrayal. Is it ever possible for a protagonist to rise above himself? To discover what it means to be human? To find out that there is more to it than allying oneself against those one hates (with those who are like oneself and in turn hate the others). The principle of the Other seems to be ghetto reality. Hackford's drama seems realistic. But does it make any sense? A vision? Does it even have to? Life may be meaningless, but isn't it up to art to find ways out? Or am I thinking in Hollywood terms? Bound By Honor is well directed and remains utterly meaningless. Basically, the film lacks a hero, although everything revolves around this hero. There is a zero number at the centre.

FREE ON ARTE John Carpenter - They Live 

They Live is a perfect B-Movie! Maybe even one of the best B-Movies ever! The plot itself is absurd: the story of a homeless guy called George Nada (and surprisingly well played by Roddy Piper, who is not an actor, but a wrestler). Nada walks through Los Angeles and finds sunglasses one day. Through the glasses he realizes that the whole earth is populated by aliens who have taken control. They resemble us - apparently, as Nada notices through sunglasses. Signs like "No Individual Thought" cannot be seen without the new lenses either. Their central effect is the television station and Nada has to switch it off. Without the television station all people are able to see the true face of the invaders. On his way to destroy the station, he kills some aliens without any worries - just like it was usual in the 80s. Sounds like a freak? Well, that's because he's crazy. But John Carpenter's film is a lot of fun, because he doesn't take it too hard, but knows exactly: The metaphorical level is a cheek! But if you compare They Live with other 80s action films, there's this satirical quality that makes Carpenter so special. Fortunately, the parable is not Carpenter's main concern. They Live also has weaknesses, so nothing happens in the first third except that Nada is looking for the sunglasses. Surprisingly, the soundtrack (as always composed by Carpenter himself) is annoying because the motifs are constantly repeated. After Carpenter had unsuccessfully spent some big budgets during the mid 80s, They Live shows how little the film cost (and Carpenter proudly pointed that out at the time). As noted, They Live is not an A-movie, but a B-movie. At no time does Carpenter's work run the risk of reaching the heights of a masterpiece. But considering the low costs, the absence of great actors and certainly the haste in which it was shot, it has become a really good film! Entertaining, frolicsome and unpredictable! A "Hidden Gem" and of course undervalued. You amuse yourself when Nada chews gum and aliens polish your face? Then you're a B-movie friend.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Sonnenallee 

 It takes about ten years until events such as German reunification find their way into the cinema. Remember, most German films of the 90s were set in Cologne or Munich and the characters in them were architects or journalists. Finally, Thomas Brussig wrote the script for "Sun Alley", which was realised by the theatre director Leander Haussmann. That was in 1999 and the "Ostalgie" developed. That's why it's so funny in this musical about the border area. The Berlin Wall looked like this: There were always two concrete walls, between them a sandy strip of about 30 meters with a tarred road for the border vehicles. Every three hundred meters there was an observation tower. In the west there were also such towers, but for tourists, to take a look over into socialism. Sometimes the tourists also threw a "Mars bar" over. Like in the zoo. In general such "Wessies" were something very unpleasant. Leander Haussmann built the wall like this. Like in the theater. Not real, more symbolic. And so everything seems much more ironic than if the real grey concrete wall had been shown. The camera stays mostly down in the border area. In an East German perspective, in Friedrichstrasse or in Prenzlauer Berg. The film throws a look back. It shows a private life that could be painful, but also exciting and moving. It is the life of Micha (Alexander Scheer). Micha is seventeen and in love, who cares about the SED or FDJ? Micha's family is typical GDR: They watch West German television, complain about the state and play the good GDR citizen in front of their Stasi neighbours. Fortunately, this attitude is not denounced in "Sun Alley". After all, almost all of us would have lived exactly the same way. And it works because we experience it from the perspective of a 17-year-old. And 17-year-old boys are actually only interested in girls. Like Mario (Alexander Beyer), who is deflowered by Sabrina (Elena Meissner). Unfortunately, Sabrina is then pregnant and Mario has to cooperate with the GDR state. Because otherwise there is no good job. Mario works from now on for the Stasi. Micha can't believe it, hits his best friend. But he is an opportunist himself and gives a flaming speech during the FDJ meeting, just to impress Miriam (Teresa Weissbach). Maybe the most important change in the life of the GDR kids is called rock music. It starts in the GDR with a delay. You have to know, that the GDR youth listened to 60s rock music even in the 90s. Simply because in the GDR there was more "Cream" than "Depeche Mode". The most important record: "Exile On Main Street" by the "Rolling Stones" - and it can even save lives in "Sun Alley".