FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Gianni Amelio - The Stolen Children 

If we translate the Italian title exactly, Gianni Amelio's winner of the 1992 Cannes Film Festival should be called The Child Thief. The Child Thief kidnaps children out of great desperation, but only for the reason of showing them for a few days that life can also be full of joy. This is the heart-touching story of a man who acts as a friend to children - almost like a better parent. The story begins in Milan. There, eleven-year-old Rosetta lives with her little brother Luciano and their mother, who forces Rosetta to work as a prostitute. However, this repugnant element of the film is not explored further. Both children are taken away from their mother. They are placed in the care of the young policeman Antonio (Enrico Lo Verso), who is supposed to take them to a children's home. Antonio is not enthusiastic about the task and the children are suspicious and withdrawn after years of abuse. This is to change. At the church children's home, the children are turned away. Their terrible past could be passed on to the other children. Without further ado, Antonio takes them to Sicily and slowly a bond develops between the three. The Stolen Children is a road movie. The people and experiences along the roads bring about a development in the strange trio: Antonio learns to love the children and they learn to trust an adult for the first time. It is small events that change everything, right up to that magical day on the beach when the children from the oppressive Milanese slum neighbourhood run across the white sand. But what they all don't know yet; a scandal is brewing around the disappearance of the children.... If you want a list of the most beautiful films of the 90s: The Stolen Children is definitely one of them!

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE You, Me & Marley 

If you drop by our Filmkunstbar Fitzcarraldo on a Tuesday, you'll get to know (and understand, which takes a while) Aoife. She comes from Belfast. And if you read up a bit on Belfast and the Northern Ireland conflict, you'll come across two newspaper stories: 1. in the early 90s, a couple of teenagers were shot dead by a policeman who was later released. 2. the trend of "twocking" and "hotting" = stealing cars and organising illegal races. This is what You, Me & Marley is about. Basically about antisocial youths, but presented with understanding and complexity. They live in a society that has nothing for them: Catholic Irish in Northern Ireland. What could be more natural than making fun of the establishment? And what can guys as different as the oddball Marley (Michael Liebmann), the intelligent Frances (Bronagh Gallagher) or the retarded Sean (Marc O'Shea) believe in? Northern Ireland is corrupt and deeply brutalised. That's exactly how we learn about it in the film. The RUC has lost all moral compass, ready to beat up teenagers. But Richard Spence's TV film finds the IRA and any paramilitaries even worse. Hypocritical, according to the IRA's actions, profiting from stolen cars. And the common people? In another worse film, they would be innocent. But not here. Effective measures are demanded, but supposedly no one knows anything about vigilante justice. At one point Mary is tied to a lamppost and women douse her with paint: "I am a hood". The great thing about You, Me & Marley is these believable and morally complex characters in the bleak landscape of Northern Ireland. Who is to blame? But that would be the wrong question. Instead of simple solutions, we are offered a humanistic lament for wasted lives and the culture of blame.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Yasujiro Ozu - I Was Born, But 

Here comes a silent film by Ozu and like all Ozu films, must-see for all of us who LOVE films! It is the story of Kennosuke (Tatsuo Saito), a businessman who moves to the suburbs of Tokyo with his wife and rather naughty sons. The boys are disappointed in their father, who (in their opinion) is too subordinate at work. Their experiences contrast with those of the father. The father is an adult, whatever that means. But what does it mean to be an adult? Ozu doesn't believe that growing up has identifiable starting points or even a conclusion. It simply means struggling, being seduced (and resisting). It is an experience. Ozu never falls into kitschy platitudes; instead, he has made a tender and gentle coming-of-age film. The camera is always at eye level. Sometimes in the perspective of the children, sometimes at the height of the adult. When the children ask the father why he makes a fool of himself in front of his boss, they realise for the first time that adults are not necessarily role models. Basically, they act just as childishly and chaotically! We have goals, but ultimately little control over our future. We are born, grow older and then at some point we become adults - whatever that means.

90's Comedies on CINEGEEK.DE 

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Darren Aronofsky - The Fountain 

Assuming The Fountain is ambitious nonsense - then form and subject would fit together wonderfully in this case, because The Fountain is about eternal life. Darren Aronofsky has decided to put his film on three different narrative levels at the same time. He chooses three completely different directions, which, unlike previous experiments of this kind, cannot necessarily be traced back to the same core. Aronofsky's work was ridiculed and described as stupid at film festivals. That's easy, because The Fountain has a very rare quality: it's a work of the utmost seriousness! The reason: The Fountain is more about the possibility of escaping death than about eternal life. The conflict of a man (or the man himself) with death. At the beginning we experience Tomas (Hugh Jackman) during the Spanish conquest campaigns. In the land of the Maya they search for the biblical tree of life at the behest of Queen Isabella (Rachel Weisz). In the 21st century, Tommy (Jackman) is a surgeon who treats a tumor in the brain of his wife Izzi (Weisz). She is currently writing the fairy tale book The Fountain, which in turn contains passages from the 16th century. In the 26th century Tom (Jackman) is a kind of astronaut who acts according to the principles of Zen philosophy. He moves in space with a dying tree and the spirit of Iz (Weisz). A mysterious fog lies before them... Does that sound weird? But the actors take their roles just as seriously as Arronofsky takes his film. It's almost like they're grounding the whole project. The Fountin exaggerates in every respect: The subject, the effects, the ambitions - that's exactly why I like the film! Haven't there always been young filmmakers who tried to put everything they wanted to express about life into a single film? Crazy, sometimes successful, sometimes not. Not a movie you can watch just like that. But that's a good thing!

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Harry Belafonte - Island In The Sun 

Harry Belafonte is certainly one of the most played artists in our bar, especially "Jump In The Line" and "Matilda". He passed away today, having been one of the icons of the Black Power movement since the 50s. We were last privileged to hear the 90 year old speak on the occasion of the civil rights movement "Democracy now!" - just one month after Donald Trump's election victory. Belafonte called for more rebellion, more adventure! He stood alongside Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela, called himself an actor who sings, but above all an activist. For Belafonte grew up in a time when racial segregation and the Ku Klux Klan were simply everyday occurrences. At the age of 90, at the very end of his life, he said he had never experienced America as racist. Barely 50 years after the time of Martin Luther King! And so he announced a 4th Reich, a never-ending nightmare. His musical career and his film career mostly showcased a very different Belafonte. Island In The Sun takes us to Georgetown harbour and the magnificent view of the sea. An eternal summer, filmed in CinemaScope. Behind it, the human drama, the racial conflict develops. The film, however, leaves it at allusions, for example in the depiction of the love affair of an English officer with a black woman. A blunt indictment on the subject of racism admittedly looks different from what Zanuck's 20th Century Fox dared to do back in 1957. The film even shies away from a kiss, probably for fear of appearing hurtful. Island In The Sun is good as a document of a time when such things were simply not allowed on the screen. Belafonte, who was the Godfather of Hip Hop and producer of Beat Street during the early 80s, is much more visible. In our bar, we love to play The Rock Steady Crew from it. If you fancy a walk, Beat Street is available from us as dVD8542 - sadly no longer free on youtube at the moment. In memory of Harry Belafonte!

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Wedding 

Back when Wedding was still rancid! With guys like S-Bahn driver Klaus (Heino Ferch), who thinks his wife is cheating on him. So he simply gets off the S-Bahn and walks over to Pankstrasse, where his wife works in the furniture shop (the S-Bahn just stops). While his wife Susanne (Angela Schmid-Burgk) is in customer service, he hits her, goes home and threatens his child - while the police arrive. Klaus flees, but he doesn't get far. Only as far as where Wedding ends - to the Berlin Wall... The year is 1989. Behind the Bauer lie the Jahn Stadium and the dilapidated grounds of the Eberswalde railway station, where the Mauerpark is today. "Why are you torturing me like this?" asks Susanne Klaus. "Because I love you," says the toxic husband. And here at the end of the world, at the Berlin Wall, his showdown ends. A shot from the policeman Markus (Roger Hübner) goes off. Klaus falls down dead, Markus walks away from the scene. Wedding, however, is neither thriller nor drama. Markus, who wants to get married in a week, meets his school friend Susanne, of all people, at the Eberswalde train station years later. She, in turn, is dating the good-for-nothing Sulle (Harald Kempe). Fortunately, director Heiko Schier doesn't make anything out of this constellation.... nothing. At some point Susanne and Markus have sex in an old shed and Sulle tries to drive his Ascona into the wall (but it doesn't work because the petrol runs out). Nice 80s funk comes out of the synthesiser and the focus is always on the scene: Wedding. Sulle claims to have gone to sea, Susanne would like to be on TV and Markus would like to be a commissioner. If only there hadn't been that fatal shot! These guys are never shown off, let alone betrayed. The film likes them just as much as Wedding. It's not about grand gestures! A few months later the Wall falls and the world of Susanne, Markus and Sulle will be a different one.