FREE ON CINEGEEK.De Jean Paul Belmondo - La Viaccia 

Foggy, rainy Florence; we stroll through the narrow streets and piazzettas and end up at Maison Tellier, lovingly re-constructed with its plush curtains and upholstered sofas. A wonderful picturesque charm! But what is behind it? What can still hold our attention today? Quite simple; Claudia Cardinale, who was at the height of her fame in 1961, and Jean-Paul Belmondo, who triggered what was called "Belmondomania" in France. The young star of the Nouvelle Vague! The story goes like this: a young peasant goes to town and falls in love with a girl from the Maison Tellier. He tries to convince her of the depth of his love, takes on degrading jobs. Then it comes to a showdown, a knife fight with a suitor.... Both live in an impoverished society, made greedy and mean by their hardship. The love relationship, however, remains vague. We can never let ourselves fall and feel this love. Perhaps it is also because we always imagine Belmondo casually grinning, always with a cigarette between his teeth, even when he slumps down dead? Do we really believe him as a sad lover? Claudia Cardinale, on the other hand, embodies the ideal woman. She is cool, reassuring, beautiful - but uncritical. She knows no answers. In the end, her Bianca is just as hopeless as everyone else. In the thoughts of the sad lover, however, she transforms into a comforting muse. What love is like.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.De Dardenne - The Unknown Girl  

Usually there is genre cinema on one side and what the Dardenne brothers represent on the other. They look to the side of the losers in the world of work. Bitter, but never cynical. It's not about motivating them, it's about the people. In the Dardennes' films they are in social predicament and this is presented in a realistic style. La fille inconnue, however, is above all strange, somewhat artificial and completely without passion. Dr. Jenny Davin (Adele Haenel) is a young doctor about to take an important step in her career. She examines patients, writes prescriptions and there is no question how much this work means to her. Then comes that fateful night. She already finished her practice when there was a knock. Usually it often works far beyond its opening hours. But this time she won't. The next day we find out that an African woman was murdered on the riverbank who had been looking for entry shortly before. Davin has a serious accusation. She cancels a lucrative job in the clinic and takes over her predecessor's practice instead. She also sets out in search of the identity of the dead. Suddenly we're in the middle of a thriller. Previously friendly neighbours drop their masks and a few shady characters appear... The problem with the film: Davin's character is so meaningless that the camera can't tell us anything about her inner life. Is there a trial in her life? I don't think so. She's too clever. It's a bit disappointing when you think how passionate Dardenne films usually come along! But everyone who loves her as much as I do should make up his own mind about La fille inconnue. After all, even a slight misstep by the Dardennes is even more interesting than most of what happens in the cinema. 

Film List 90's Romantic Comedies 

The genre of romantic comedy demands a whole range of obstacles that stand in the way of true love. And nothing is funnier than love itself! The biggest difficulty in itself: girls never tell you what to do next. Basically, what is commonly called "life" works the same way: love, friendship, happiness and the loss of all that.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE David Lynch - The Straight Story 

On the surface, of course, David Lynch's The Straight Story is about Alvin Straight's odyssey through the Midwest and its sleepy communities. But there is much more! The Straight Story is also about all the people who care about Alvin and listen to him. So much kindness among strangers? But The Straight Story is based on a true incident. Yes, it does exist, this kindness among strangers! 73-year-old Alvin Straight (Richard Farnsworth), for one, is from Iowa. He learns that his brother is dying. Alvin wants to see him one last time! But neither he nor his daughter Rose (Sissy Spacek) own a car. The only thing they have is a tractor-like lawn mower. One look at the vehicle and Alvin knows how he will get to Wisconsin to see his brother. 300 miles lie ahead of him to Zion - the name of the town where his brother lives. On the way, we learn some secrets about Alvin, including some very painful ones from the war. Alvin is a cultured man, but when he talks, we notice how rarely he has had any conversations at all in his life. Yet he always finds exactly the right everyday words full of calm and conviction. Back when The Straight Story was released, the David Lynch community was waiting for something new and bizarre from him. I'm sure everyone thought The Straight Story was about to go off the rails. But it never does. Not even when Alvin meets Spinner. He simply follows the country road and there are never any shoals like in Blue Velvet. It is a journey into the past. Alvin remembers when he (and his brother) were young and full of wonder! Back when they sat together and looked at the stars. Then Alvin got engaged and married. He joined the army, lost many years to drunkenness and meanness. But he came out of it all a better man. The people along the way seem to sense that. The greatest thing about The Straight Story is the FACE! Alvin aka Richard Farnsworth looks like an old leather rag and you could do a whole Italo Western trilogy with this ensemble otherwise! Men sitting at the end of the bar or serving behind the bar. Just like proper good old-fashioned bartenders who always hit the right note. even David Lynch always hits the right note. Who do you think the dying brother will be? What will he say? And one thing we learn: Just because you haven't seen someone for ages doesn't mean you have much to tell them.... 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.De The Motocycle Diaries 

If Ernesto Guevara de la Serna hadn't later become the pop star "Che", who adorns countless T-shirts and I'm afraid even coffee cups etc, nobody would be interested in this trip from Argentina to Peru. It's one of the countless movies about young men who wake up sometime and then are "Che", Dalai_Lama or anyone else. For those who weren't too interested in Che Guevara, he is a folk hero. If you read his "Philosophy" in more detail, you will notice that he was also repressive and authoritarian. Just like his fellow fighter Fidel, I would assign him to the right spectrum and not to the "communists". Che claims he loves his people. Their freedom to express or write down their own opinions was never meant! In the end, Cuba became more or less what someone like "Che" dreamed it would be... In Walter Salle's film Ernesto and his friend Alberto are planning a road trip. Neither of them ever sat on a motorcycle, let alone ever left Argentina. First stop: Ernestos girlfriend Chichina (Mia Maestro), whose rich father doesn't agree with the guest. Chichina may love him - but she doesn't know for how long. Would she wait for him forever? The shy Ernesto still owes an answer. Walter Salles turns the trip into a wonderful picture film. Mountains, lakes, forests and deserts are crossed and the two travellers are always dependent on strangers. Both are basically broke. On their journey they make good friends like the doctor from Lima or the farmer and his wife, whom they meet on the road. The farmer, an expellee from his own land by the capitalists. Again and again Ernesto looks at the suffering of the poor and in the end he confesses to his friend that something has changed in him. In the credits we learn how he joined the Cuban Revolution, later fought and died in Bolivia and the Congo. Now his legendary status was allowed to develop, courted by the left. Salles occupies the almost inhumanly nice Ernestu with Gael Garcia Bernal, the woman's favourite, and thus donates another piece of the puzzle that serves the myth. His film lives on the political correctness that it is simply not appropriate to be against the "Che". However, the political is weakened in the movie and sometimes Salle's work even seems a bit tired. We understand that Ernesto and Alberto are friends, but beyond that both are not developed and we also don't get to know anything about them. Quite different from good road movies! Their dialogues are quite limited for the fact that they should later mature into radical intellectuals. Everything they say serves the plot. There is no deeper insight. Ernesto isn't the "Che" yet, but a student. Maybe the journey changes him, but we don't experience that. At least Salles lets the poor farmers and workers pose for the camera, like stills in black and white. We understand that here we see the memories of the "Che". Imagine Salles trying to tell us that the "Che" would have helped these people later. I'm afraid the opposite was the case: he just inflicted more suffering on them.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Ghostbusters 

Ghostbusters combines something that should be repelled according to the laws of Hollywood: 1) A blockbuster full of special effects. 2) A comedy with clever dialogues, just as if a clique of students were joking with each other - because that's exactly what the Ghostbusters troupe seems to me. So while a (para)psychological earthquake hits Manhattan, everyone is talking to each other as if the professor had just disappeared from the seminar for a moment. Fortunately, Ghostbusters breaks the rule that effects ruin a good comedy! Isn't it true that a comedy needs spontaneity, while an effects storm consists of painstaking detail work? Ivan Reitman's film can do both! Ghostbusters offers a whole host of effects - at the height of 1984's technology, and who doesn't like to remember a green-transparent slobber monster devouring a few hot dogs? But these arts are all in the service of the actors without exception. Here come Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis - second generation graduates of National Lampoon and Saturday Night Live. They are funny, but also witty. At high speed they play on American clichés, combining irony and cynicism with very banal nonsense. If you are looking for a definition for the cultivated humour of the 80s - here you go! And how many films are there that can boast such a large number of one-liners that are still in the vernacular today? The plot, if there is one at all, sends this parapsychological task force all over Manhattan. Things get difficult after Sigourney Weaver discovers some strange eggs in her kitchen. Her neighbor, Rick Moranis, also meets some real hell monsters. Apparently both live in apartments that function as a gateway to a parallel world. It's a location for the Ghostbusters, who are arming themselves with nuclear weapons. A lot of obscure stuff has to be discussed until the showdown, in which a monster the size of a skyscraper leads the fight of evil against good... In Ghostbusters, the fragile original idea actually survived a multi-million dollar production - again, good obviously succeeded! That's no justification for blockbuster comedies, but I'm thankful for every cent invested in Monster!

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Alain Resnais - Night And Fog 

Over 90 years old he became. His career lasted over six decades and he always had his finger on the pulse of his time: Alain Resnais. He became famous in 1955 with this documentary about the German concentration camps. Even today my father tells me how they showed Night And Fog at the film club. Some long-time members resigned as a result. They felt attacked by the young "Beatnicks" and their disrespectful films. Especially in Germany of the 50s Night And Fog must have been a brutal experience. And it still works today! Resnais was one of the very first to take up the subject of Nazi concentration camps. He invented a new technique to combine black and white images from the archives with color images of the abandoned camps. Right at the beginning we lose the ground under our feet. A supposedly safe room turns into a dangerous one. Crash. Below an idyllic landscape a barbed wire comes to light. Finally this barbed wire is the foreground. If we previously felt a feeling of satisfaction, this is now lost. The narrator comments: "A concentration camp is built like any stadium or a hotel". Even a church can lead to a concentration camp. We understand: Any place can be charged with hate and anger and xenophobia. In the following there will be nothing else but the Holocaust. No way to distract our gaze. The catastrophe becomes tangible and accompanies us through the montage of the film until the present day: "Are their faces really so different than ours?