FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Francois Ozon - Swimming Pools 

Charlotte Rampling embodies the most wicked thoughts you've ever had and never dared to speak out. Remember their early roles. Rampling was always sexual and courageous, but also a woman who deceives men. A femme fatale who became famous as a Nazi whore. Swimming Pool by Francois Ozon knows the early roles of Charlotte Rampling and even assumes them. Here she plays Sarah Morton. An insecure, tired and British-inhibited writer. Her publisher offers Sarah a holiday in his villa in southern France. Sarah goes there to write, but also in the hope of a holiday together with her publisher (Charles Dance)... Instead she arrives unexpectedly and in the middle of the night: Julie (Ludivine Sagnier), the daughter. Sarah reacts angrily. Her privacy and her sense of decency were violated. Julie is very self-confident about her effect on men. The burgeoning sexual power of a teenager. She brings home men who have nothing in common. Never mind! Julie sleeps with everyone and takes them in. Sarah reacts as disapprovingly as fascinated. And Julie? She seems to be completely indifferent to Sarah. Sarah, on the other hand, even steals insights from the girl's diary (which she dresses up for her own book). One evening Julie Franck (Jean-Marie Lamour) brings home with her. But he shows more interest for Sarah. A turning point. Violence, guilt, deception find their way into Francois' film. A thriller! What is more disturbing than having to hide a crime that cries out to be solved? A paranoid nightmare develops... And finally Charlotte Rampling is allowed to show her sexual boldness. This is not a fight between the sexes, but a fight between young and old! Swimming Pool is one of those films that our customers at the video store give me back and recapitulate once again. What did I just see? What was that like? But for me one thing is certain: Swimming Pool doesn't offer different approaches, only THE one solution! That's your motivation!

FREE ON CINEGEEK.De Valeska Grisebach - Western 

That's good. The most interesting new films from Germany are made by women. Western is the third feature film by Valeska Grisebach, born 1968 in Bremen and raised in Berlin. A friend Maren Ades, whose distributor "Komplizen Film" Western also produced. If you want to know more about Grisebach, read in the production notes that she grew up with the Western genre. Even more; as a child she could identify best with cowboys! Now she is testing her role models. On the surface, it's easy: Western is a Western. But it's a western playing in Bulgaria. There are no cowboys either, but there are construction workers and farmers. But we discover typical Western set pieces: A campfire, a horse, the stranger in town, rivalry, a woman and even a gun. A group of German construction workers are to build a power plant there in Bulgaria, somewhere on the Greek border, but everything is missing. After all, they fly the German flag. Then foreman Vincent (Reinhardt Wetrek) allows himself a silly remark while the construction workers bathe naked, while a group of women show up on the other side of the river. When construction worker Meinhard (Meinhard Neumann) roams the village, history has already got around... There is a lot of talk about the Germans, who of course don't understand a word. But we're in the Western and cowboys hardly speak either. They look each other in the eye and that way they know who's lying... 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Apichatpong Weerasethakul - Uncle Boonmee 

And what if our identity exists for all time and occasionally shows itself on the surface of life? At the moment we become aware of this, life would be without time limit. Isn't there this thought that we still knew heaven as children? As we get older and nearer to death, we receive them again, the greetings of the other side. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives offers this possibility. The title sounds as mysterious as that of its director Apichatpong Weerasethakul. At least for western ears. But if you are open to stories with ghosts who sometimes visit us, you have come to the right film! When I saw Unlce Boonmee for the second time, I realized that the movie was easy to understand. A dying man like Boonmee is also not particularly productive for a plot or action. He's taking his leave. Some things may seem strange like meeting a catfish. But that changes, if you look at the work from the point of view of reincarnation. Uncle Boonmee (Thanapat Saisaymar) lived as a farmer in the south of Thailand. It wasn't a very happy life. His nation was in turmoil during his lifetime and he certainly experienced more of it than he deserves! Now he dies with some family members and a nurse. He dies in his house in the jungle, in the middle of nature and sometimes ghosts appear to him like his dead wife (as beautiful as in his lifetime) or his son (with red eyes). But this is not a "classic" ghost movie, just because the ghosts are different than we expect them to be. Basically, they behave like humans and probably also exist in the consciousness. One time Boonmee enters a cave that looks like a womb. If man and the world are one, why should it not be the earth that gives life? In the end, I wondered whether the "real" world has more substance than that of hallucinations and visions? Doesn't what just happens in our heads happen? Is this "real"? Boonmee remembers during his last days the moments of his life and those who accompanied him. It's as simple as that.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Dawson's Creek 

Kevin Williamson is synonymous with the teen films of the 90s like no other, whether in cinema as the writer of Scream or on television as the creator of Dawson's Creek. (Although many would probably consider his Vampire Diaries (2009) to be the most important Kevin Williamson work). You notice we are in the middle of the Kevin Williamson teen universe. Anyway, Dawson's Creek was considered a controversial teen drama with indie traits in the late 90s. And on television! Even the pilot addresses: sex with teachers, the stigma of virginity, homosexuality (was this actually on the agenda of teen movies before Dawson's Creek?) and dysfunctional families - but the recurring question is: can women and men just be friends? Dawson's Creek introduces teenagers who sound quite precocious today. And isn't it all a bit sensationalist and overly melodramatic? And would one's own life one day really turn out like Dawson's Creek? Enter Dawson Leery wearing cargo shorts. How did Dawsons manage to make friends in the first place? And how did he manage to date Joey Potter? Dawson's Creek is about angsty teenagers. Those like Dawson, who fear any change and would prefer to stay in their nursery forever. Kevin Williamson created teenagers who wisely fantasise about the future and ask life's big questions at 16! So Dawson lives close to his family and friends in the picturesque coastal town of Capeside, Massachusetts, which doesn't exist. Dawson wants to be a filmmaker when he grows up. Like Steven Spielberg or Kevin Williamson. Of course, the 90s are the age of teen horror films (Williamson's Scream), Buffy or Beverly Hills 90210. But none of these productions flattered teen self-esteem as much as Dawson's Creek: these teenagers speak in long, well-considered sentences, are well versed in pop culture, are sensitive and capable of intense self-reflection. They suffer unrequited love, innocently dote on each other. They fall in and out of love (and speak in these extraordinarily long sentences). And Dawson Leery? Back in 1998, no one actually liked him. Dawson is self-absorbed, moody and confused. But we are left with Joey Potter, daughter of a dead mother and a criminal father. Or the "bad girl" from New York, Jen Lindley, who takes drugs and was caught having sex by her parents. The punishment: off to Capeside to her grandmother. But most people like Pacey Witter, who has the charisma Dawson lacks. Fortunately, Pacey is the least prone to monologues about his state of mind. Together, at any rate, they provide a convincing picture of teenage yearnings. Doesn't that sound nicely nostalgic? And who knows, maybe they are even capable of real friendships between girls and boys?

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Lucky 

Lucky starts with a series of shots of the Arizona desert. With cactuses reaching into the sky and a turtle crawling through the sand. Then we experience their human equivalent: It is Harry Dean Stanton as Lucky. No, not AS Lucky. Harry Dean Stanton IS Lucky, as the movie poster says. Harry Dean Stanton, then 89 years old and deceased before the film was released. During the following 88 minutes we will spend almost every moment together with Lucky. A veteran from World War II, retired a long time ago. Lucky has friends, but he often snubs them. He has his routine and as with most old people, this routine shapes his everyday life. During his walks, he stops in a cafe, talks to the owner (Barry Shabaka Henley) and a waitress (Yvonne Huff), who behaves almost like a daughter. We get to know his tiny home and his favourite bar. In the morning Lucky does some pushups to stay fit. Lucky achieves his depth with the shots of Harry Dean Stanton in front of a panorama that would adorn any western. Lucky is about death and fear of death. It's about loneliness and the will to stay healthy. It's about decisions that have never been made. Lucky regrets a lot. This is probably mainly because he prefers to argue with people rather than just talk to them. He is never open and he is certainly not vulnerable. Essential: Lucky's atheism, which in turn reveals a lot about his relationship to death. "Friendship is essential to the soul"; explains his friend Paulie at the bar. Lucky disagrees. She doesn't exist. The friendship? No, the soul. Lucky is also about friendship and this becomes most obvious in the conversations with Lucy's friend Howard (David Lynch). We remember: Harry Dean Stanton IS Lucky and Lynch Harry Dean Stanton's friend and something like his house director. Lucky is one of those men who doesn't want to make new friends at some point in their lives. All the more surprising for us and himself when he opens up to younger people! I've seen so many American movies trying to be Lucky. They play in small towns or in neighborhoods that meet in bars. Full of eccentrics, of course. But only very few of them are as elegant as Lucky and above all as safely staged! This was not necessarily predictable, as Lucky was shot by actor John Carroll Lynch (not related). That's because he trusts Harry Dean Stanton completely. That's why he succeeds in scenes like the one in which Lucky smokes and thinks about cigarettes at night. One of Johnny Cash's late songs is on. One of the songs Cash recorded in the face of death. Harry Dean Stanton's tanned face acts like a film in the film. We experience a whole life in this face! Certainly one of the most powerful scenes I've ever seen. Somehow I had the feeling that I had actually known him. We get to keep this scene as Harry Dean Stanton's estate.

FREE ON YOUTUBE Bob Rafelson - Five Easy Pieces 

Try showing Five Easy Pieces at a video night with your girlfriends. This is how your evening will go; with explosive laughter, deep silence and stunned attention. Five Easy Pieces is a film of unusual depth and intensity and presents one of the most unusual characters in the history of cinema. Robert Eroica Dupea, whose name was inspired by Beethoven's symphony. He is embodied by Jack Nicholson, who shortly before became a film star through the New Hollywood movement (after a career of almost ten years in smaller films). Nicholson flourished during the early 70s, playing outsiders, capable of anger, sarcasm, self-pity, but also tenderness. And in Five Easy Pieces he is a revelation! Imagine experiencing such a great film in the cinema in 1970! That was exactly the direction in which the New Hollywood direction was developing! With idiosyncratic characters and dialogue with a sense of the vulgar & literary, with a plot driven by the development of the characters (and always surprising us!) and finally an existential ending. That's how New Hollywood works! In addition to Jack Nicholson, quirky supporting characters also appear, embodied by actors who were all newcomers. Director Bob Rafelson is considered one of the most creative minds of New Hollywood cinema and whoever the camera reminds of Easy Rider - both films were made by Laszlo Kovacs. Nothing is predictable in Five Easy Pieces. The screenplay allows itself deviations and excesses that never disturb but delight us every time. and how many moments went down in the collective memory of cinema? Who could fail to quote the famous Chicken Salad scene, called Geek? After all, the chicken salad scene let Jack Nicholson go from movie star to legend. His Deupea, by the way, is a voluntary outcast. A man who cannot return to his former life. However, he also has no way to move on. Somewhere he is stranded. Stranded between different jobs, ambitions, even social classes. He is a character that does not fit into the film. In no scene does he feel at ease with the people around him. Nowhere is he at home. Always Booby Deupea disappointed others or he didn't perform enough or he misbehaved. During the first half, Bobby works as an oil driller in California. He lives with waitress Rayette Dipesto (Karen Black), whose fear of losing him seems pathetic. At one point he learns from his crazy friend Elton (Billy "Green" Bush) that Rayette is pregnant. When Bobby wonders what he's even doing with crazy Elton in his living cheeks, we wonder how crazy Bobby actually is? Otherwise, we follow Rayette and Bobby and Elton in their blue collar world. At one point Bobby has sex with Betty (Sally Struthers), afraid of bonding with Rayette. But Betty, the ripper, isn't what he's looking for either. And at one point we can see Bobby playing the piano (the piano is on the loading ramp of a truck). He plays frantically, furiously, loudly. And at one point, when he meets his sister and learns that their father has had a stroke, the second half of Five Easy Pieces begins.... Bobby will go to the Washington coast, back to family. He meets Catherine, who asks him, "You have no love for yourself, no love for family, for friends--how can you ask for love?" It sounds like Fellini's 8 1/2, which is exactly the depth of Five Easy Pieces. It involves us in the life of Bobby and his friends. It implicates us in its time and place. We remember Rayette and Bobby because they are fully themselves. Needy, tightly driven and so brave in their loneliness! Once you've seen Five Easy Pieces, you'll find it hard to go back to the netflix agenda. 

Black Comedies Pt. II incl. FREE STREAMS 

Most certainly, London's Ealing Studios, which produced a series of black comedies such as Ladykillers during the 1950s, are considered non plus ultra: their series of inspired cheap comedies (which they made in series) thrived on the contrast of nefarious machinations and restrained, almost apologetic behavior. Indeed, Ealing Studios' comedies were above all an exercise in restraint.