The idea is not bad. Jella Haase is the perfect choice. But then... nothing really works. Instead of telling a story they.lock you up in an eye candy store, where too much is happening just for the camera, where too much is just copy-pasted out of "Kill Bill", a key dialogue from "Heat" and so on. Of course you can borrow and even steal but you have to know why, what for, and you have to know your limits and deal with them. There are moments when you feel: Well, this could be about characters who'd like to act like in the movies, and the gap between these movies and their behaviour becomes obvious, pretty funny and even moving. But instead of making this part of the story, it's just.a show off. For example: "On the nature of daylight" by Max Richter has been used in soundtracks pretty much - to support moments of tragedy and pain. But if there is nothing to support, if you actually just name but don't tell what's tragic and painfull and hope for deep emotions, just by using that kind of music, you don't know what you're doing. In the end you have nothing but content for a well working marketing campaign. Please watch Jella in "Berlin Alexanderplatz", a great movie without a big marketing budget, sadly pretty much ignored by the audience.
Reviews
19 Reviews
Jesus Cries
(2015)
Jesus cries... me too.
26 March 2016
Warning: Spoilers
I am crying out of anger about this pretentious stylish waste of time. Here you see the passion of Christ transferred – not so much in the contemporary or near suspected future but in the world of advertising film's aesthetic. Most of the actors look like being casted straight from the catwalk, performing most serious actions like they were posing for an ambitious shooting. The settings, the light - it's all about beauty shots (even Judas' hanging loop looks like a pastiche of the "Conjuring"-poster) mixed with scenes of violence supposed to be graphic (yes, it hurts, when a nail is hammered through your palm, so what?) and to appear political (with a few suits and ties the Sanhedrin is turned - guess what? - into a bunch of bankers. Isn't that one of the most obvious antisemitic clichés by the way? - Put a black bag over Jesus' head and kick him in a tiled basement - there you go Abu-Ghuraib, but why?). There is not a single interesting idea to be found here - except maybe the question: What did Lazarus do, when he heard that his Saviour couldn't save himself? Meanwhile the story is mostly sticking to the biblical template it's mounted with found footage of various street riots all over the world (but obviously NOT in the world the film is actually showing). What is supposed to illustrate the world wide crisis, the gap between the few riches and the poor majority Jesus came to solve, is just illustrating the gap between provincial longing for meaningful artistic action and media's reflection of the reality. In short: this seems to me the worst example of misled ambition, maybe since Mel Gibson idea to take a long lens shot through the stigmata's hole of resurrected Christ in his own passion.
Half Brothers
(2015)
Still laughing! Enjoyable counterpart to "The Elementary Particles"
17 April 2015
Warning: Spoilers
Three half brothers - guess what they make: a) one and a half brothers or b) a really enjoyable German comedy? Believe it or not: b) is the right answer. This film might not be perfect but it's made with compassion, wit and joy - and all that finds it's way to the audience. The three main characters are well casted, they all hold the balance between self-irony and "serious" acting. They meet each other for the first time and go on a German autobahn-trip to find the mysterious heritage their late mother left for them. It turns out, the mother was a real radical hippie, never present for their children, but a disciple of free love. And in contrary to e.g. Oskar Roehler's "Elementary Particles" she will not be remembered with shame or disgust. As a memory she'll become a beloved part of the unlikely unification of a family that was never supposed to be one (most of the time). What a family can mean to you (as a present father) is told almost by the way when you see Sido's character struggling with serious money problems, haunted by the collection agencies in the shape of a ugly pink bunny (!) Seriously, this is digging the truth far more than you usually see in German cinema and TV-movies, which tend to a "social realism" that is nothing more but swaggering kitsch of misery. But above these tender and serious grounds there is a lot of comedy going on in the first place. Well written one-liners seem to go hand in hand with moments of vibrant improvisation. And - of course, it's a Christian Alvart-Film, it's fun to watch all the references to film history. Since I saw it I always have a smile on my face when I think about "Halbe Brüder", and when I think about the joke with the record-deal, I still burst out in laughter. Actually, I would give it an 8. But since neither the audience nor the critics in Germany seem to get it - it has to be 10 as a statement...
Head Full of Honey
(2014)
A long good bye to senses
6 April 2015
Thanks to the reviews of AccessCardRequired and feyza-balak for pointing out some of the astonishing weaknesses of "Honig im Kopf". In addition to that: The problem of the editing is not just about the film's length in general and the louche number of "subplots" (which are more or less excuse for showing the audience proudly the desire of almost every known actor and celebrity in Germany to be a part in a new Til Schweiger movie at least for a second. It seems to be the latest fashion...). Though the story itself urges for intimate scenes where the actors have space to show their talent in favor of their role and the scene, it's high-speed edited in a unnecessary way I've barely seen before. Even the most simple dialog between three people there's hardly one image that stands longer than two seconds. It seems like no one is trusting the impact of the story here. Why else should you cut a quite relaxed dialog like it's an action movie's final car chase? "Honig im Kopf" is a perfect example for what happened to a part of Germany's filmmaking in consequence of 30 years of (bad) commercial TV: it's not about telling a story anymore, true to it's idea, it's characters. It's just about creating a chain of small plot points which have to peak in something that is supposed to be "highly emotional" oder "just funny". The rest is eye-pleasing: interior design out of the cheesiest life style magazines, spectacular shooting locations and of course: super expensive super-slow-mo-camera from time to time just to watch parents and child reunion like they show football-players these days, celebrating themselves after they managed to score. The sad thing is - no one of the teams seems to see or care, though they all did their job far better before (like in "Kokowääh", the first one. the sequel was hell) . And of course: If there'd be anybody out there who could tell Til what kind of path he's walking down, he could easily say: "What do you want? Almost 7 Million Germans went to see my movie, they cried and laughed. So get lost, stupid artsy fartsy guy!" So after all: Is it just a matter of taste? No it isn't. It's a matter of success, that's eating itself. What comes out of that still might look like success, and 30 years of fly-breeding might give you the impression that it's still a success, but if you just take your time - little more than 2 seconds, and check your senses you will realize the smell. Til doesn't seem to have nor time nor interest - no wonder, he's shooting film after film. Even his character here is like that: After Tilda burnt half of the super high class kitchen, he comes home and instead of taking a breath and wondering about the likely smell, his wife has to explain where all this soot is coming from. In it's mixture of lowest level storytelling, high level emotionalizing and inhibited jokes which mostly refer to farting and flippancy - here you have the wiedergänger of the infamous regular UFA-entertainment from once upon a time...
Banklady
(2013)
Pop, guns and circumstances
1 April 2014
In the aftermath of "westgerman wirtschaftswunderzeit" a young girl's dreams got trapped between the low expectations of her parents, her fiancé (who promise her almost with tears of joy in his eyes: a brand new washing machine, so that "she doesn't have to wash his clothes by hand, anymore") and all the sweet promises of modern life. It's like a Trümmerfrau's daughter wants to climb through Hamburg's shop windows right into the consumer's wonderland. All of a sudden a buddy of her fiancé show's her how to do it. Gisela got her gun - they rob banks for fun and fortune and, at least for her and her slightly naive adaption from magazine's front pages, for fame. Gisela became Germany's first postwar female bank robber. This is based on a true story but full of links to the present as well as it sketches a certain 60's pre-68-melancholia and it's lust for life pretty well. A number of critics in Germany put it down for not giving the "German answer to Pulp Fiction or Bonnie & Clyde". Though it's a thought worth, if Christian Alvart's ambition to make a low budget production look like a bigger budget production sometimes gets him out of focus of what he really wants to tell, it's still a pity that German critics once more stick to their own, often quite limited expectations and show no interest in a perspective that might differ from their own. This is a vision of it's own inside the genre, not a failed pastiche or "answer" at all.
Eat Pray Love
(2010)
Art of Life? What about the Art of Filmmaking???
23 September 2010
This is one of the worst films I ever saw! It looks like the most expensive travel-home-video ever, mixed with some breaks in commercial-style, only that they forgot to name the product. There is not even one original idea to tell Lizs story, there's not even one idea to set landscapes, towns and characters in a proper frame: it's all just supposed to look good. It's maybe the material's fault, but the editing is a mess too, lacks of rhythm, tension, sense. The soundtrack is as superficial as an average radio-airplay. The only thing I liked again, is about Julia Roberts. No Hollywood-Star has the bravery to look so damaged, poor, hopelessly alone like her. She gives the film a slight chance of honesty, ten minutes long. the rest is 130 minutes of nothing.
12 Paces Without a Head
(2009)
pirate in a midlife-crisis - a smart triumph of a movie
15 May 2010
Warning: Spoilers
if you wonder about a pirate movie, you think about battles, ships in flames, tough guys with beards and the endless ocean. this film is about all that, as far as a not so big budget-film is able to manage that. but infact and in the first place it's a glorious piece about friendship, unjust economics of a brutal selfish society, the mysterious art of storytelling, legend-building and finding your way, or even your place in life. It's based both on humour and passion, it's full of heartbreaking tragic and nevertheless a joy to watch. directed and acted with a fine sense for details. a shame what warner did in germany: they burnt the film a week after releasing "zweiohrküken" when their own blockbuster occupied most of the screens. watch out. you won't regret it...
Trade
(I) (2007)
what happened to Kreuzpaintner?
24 August 2008
Warning: Spoilers
well, a few years ago here in Germany it was a common thing for directors to point out that their main intention is TO ENTERTAIN. it was some kind of excuse for being German, maybe to prevent a mix up with the tradition of new German cinema in the 60s to early 80s, which was not supposed to entertain but to be art in the first place. how primitive it is to draw the line between ART on the good and ENTERTAINMENT on the bad side should be common sense, and Kreuzpaintner did succeed with his relaxed but intense coming out-drama "Sommersturm". but Trade is a perfect example of missing the goal. it tries to mix horrible real-life-drama and "Entertainment" (which was the main intention, as Kreuzpaintner points out in interviews) in order to raise awareness of the topics of human trafficking and forced prostitution and child abuse. but the drama is so clearly designed to evoke suspense that you feel just manipulated, you feel almost more sorry for the poor actors being exploited for ENTERTAINMENT, than you feel sorry for their characters. for example: when the two kidnappers drive over a very high mountain and that one guy gets out to punish Veronica who tried to escape few minutes ago, you just wonder: well, why are they doing it stupidly on the edge of a cliff? so that the camera has a more beautiful view in the background? for one, but mainly because Veronica is about to kill herself surprisingly by jumping into the abyss. on the one hand Kreuzpaintner always tries not to characterize people just black and wide in order to stay "authentic", on the other hand he's constantly bending the storyline in every direction that is needed to have a little more dramatic impact in order to ENTERTAIN, regardless of staying believable or not. You should watch out for Kreuzpainter's new film "Krabat" where he's getting in to the same trap from the other direction. He's trying to prevent suspense to be more authentic and that doesn't work either... I am afraid, that Kreuzpaintner's talent is getting corrupted by his unfitting companions and the pressure of budgets that are too high for a guy who did just a bunch of 3-4 films. He should stick to his roots, grow strong and try again. if you're interested in good films that can be compared to Trade you should watch out for "Lilya 4 ever" concerning the topics and "Dr. Alemán" concerning the storytelling.
Like the moon, partly shadowed, in more than one sense...
10 August 2008
In the beginning, there is stress: How annoying the cadrage is..., how breathless the editing... Of course you notice that the camera concept is about to make sense, because our Hero Hanna is breathless and emotional quite over the edge. But glorious DP Florian Foest (watch out for "Jagdhunde!") is taking it too far, in the first, maybe, forty minutes. He doesn't like too much indoor or incar light either. BUT what comes out of that is pure painting, watch it in a dark cinema, on TV you maybe will not see a thing in this brilliantly organized shadows... The beauty of this film is... well I'll tell you... But first it's important to point out that the storytelling is tending to be quite scrappy, it's like a whole cup of dramas that happen to Hanna, but it has broken to peaces and the biggest parts are adjusted in a slightly imperfect way. A lot in this film is too big, too much color on the lips of thalbach's, too much emotional rock in the score. but after all, this is a film, that seems to be... reigned by love. and like live and love, it doesn't care too much if it's getting on once nerves, sometimes too much. it's funny, it's sad, it's touching. and has great photography, at last.
The Red Baron
(2008)
missing target
12 April 2008
Few days ago I read an interview with Schweighöfer in which he's wondering why "The Red Baron" didn't get any subsidies. "Maybe they didn't like the script". They were right! And I don't think, the script was too controversial... I wish, it'd be. It's a pity that private financed productions like "As far as my feet will carry me" or even Vilsmaier's "Marlene" and now "The Red Baron" have producer's that are obviously willing to make the best movies they can, even without public money. they spent their budget on the cast, effects, good looks but they don't have a clue what to do with their values. They hire authors and directors who turn out to be just unable to cope with their projects. And most of the critics just complain about historical facts... I don't get it. It's a movie! But a badly told one. If you want to make a movie about a world war pilot who tries to be the best, then tell us, how he does it. And not in the main case, how he tries to win a nurse's heart! There are a lot of good love stories around, but THIS is the story of guy who liked to fly and shoot down enemies. If you pick it, stick to it. Don't be ashamed of your choice. It's quite funny to see a few quite impressing battle scenes, but the battles that mattered for the story are simply ignored. They get on the plane. Cut. Hospital. Everything that matters in the story is in the dialogs, not in actions. And even the important dialogs are filmed in cowardly undramatic distant shots... A waste of talent, chances and money.
Eden
(2006)
another kind of cracked actress in a beautiful movie!
20 November 2006
On of Germany's bravest filmmakers did it once again. "Eden" is a film with a cast, with a camera, with a sound like never before. Wee see a very fat genius of a cook and a quite lonesome mother. She falls in love with the cook's... art. A tricky relationship, intensely captured with a lot of close ups, painful, funny, it celebrates the beauty of life in a way you won't expect. And you won't expect the brilliant former Music-TV-Legend Charlotte Roche to give a perfect performance in her first leading role. In fact it's a pain to see her, pretending to be a waitress in the first minutes of the film. You don't believe a word. You feel high stakes and great pressure but if you're patient she'll convince you the more she gets quiet, the more she's herself (or the way we know her way of talking from TV-shows and fabulous interviews). You'll be irritated, maybe disappointed at first, but she gives you precious looks which you have never seen before on screen. She's of course not the "cracked actor" David Bowie sung about, in fact, she's not an actress (yet?) BUT it's a hard part, just to BE in front of a camera, it's a rare beauty to see people thinking and feeling on a screen. And you can see her thinking, feeling in "Eden". She's the "Cracked Actor" in Leonard Cohen's sense who once wrote "There's a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in". Charlotte Roche is the crack in "Eden". After "Sophieee!", Hofmann's radical film about panic, this is an intense work about different shades of happiness and joy. Thanks so much for having the courage to fail, this movie didn't fail at all.
Bob Roberts
(1992)
Happy Birthday Bob! And thanks for "Bob Roberts"!
16 October 2006
I hope I'll make it to show it in a cinema as a double feature with Pennebaker's Dylan-Documentary "Don't look back" because "Bob Roberts" is not only a funny satire about politics and music-business, it's a homage of course to Bob Dylan ans his early career but it is indeed a cover-version of "Don't Look back". For example the whole scene with the politician's wife and her gorgeous sons who even have their own band you can find almost similar in both movies. In fact you couldn't have understand this movie completely, if you've never seen the other. Andt thats of course it's only weakness - it's a kind of insider joke. Anyway, I'm looking forward to your new films Bob!
Antibodies
(2005)
One of this year's best movies
19 June 2005
On the 7th day god watched this movie. Afterwards he mourned: Maybe I made some mistakes yesterday? One archangel replied: Your imperfect creation is at least capable of creating films like this.... Michael, a straight catholic father with part-time jobs (policeman and farmer) is afraid of his grapes of wrath and weakness. Gabriel Engel, the beast without beauty, killed kids to paint with their blood. Michael lives in a small village, in which a young girl was brutally killed one year ago. (Some flashbacks remind of Egoyan's Exotica" not a bad reference)... The more you try to retell the story the more you realize, that you have to see the characters, you have to get in touch with the astonishing score to feel what antikörper" is really about. It's one of this year's best movies with an addictive atmosphere and a giant step ahead for curiosity and the cat"-director Alvart. As far as we know from this movie, he neither believes in one truth, nor innocence. He doubts love and further more happy endings. But he truly believes in miracles and maybe that is what a real cineast is all about.
Jena Paradies
(2004)
Worth watching but...
21 May 2005
... too cautious sometimes. Jeanette's perhaps 30, single mother. She handles the "Every day's guy stuff" but lacks the right tools to deal with her parents and more and more even with her own son. We never get to know why, anyway, Jeanette prefers to fall for her married new neighbour and to enjoy the company of the local soccer-team she's working for. Beautifully shot the film captures a close to life atmosphere in Jena. It's historical "outlaw part" is still called "Paradise" - nice title for those who still have dreary clichés on their minds when it comes to an eastern German town. "Jena Paradies" tells you something about Jeanette's strength, hopes, and disappointments but seems to be afraid of the most dramatic parts in her life. Mittelstaedt's watching with joy and so do we, but he doesn't show what lies beneath. Thanks to the actors it never gets too boring. Stappenbeck e.g. is an astonishing mixture of down to earth woman-power and childlike-borderline-behaviour. Heartwarming.
Crows
(1994)
Simply Beautiful
15 January 2005
One of my favorites. Pictures, acting, music, sound all matches perfectly. The both girls are a mystery. Kedzierzawska told at the Berlinale, that after months of casting they already began shooting but the young actors failed and right on the marketplace in the city they shot, they found their "substitutes". Good example of the typical (?) polish way to mix fairy tale - atmosphere with artistic strength and docu-like approach to reality. It could change your view on childhood forever. AND it never crosses the thin red line to artsy kitsch, as unfortunately Kedzierzawskas following movie did (where she told the true story of a child murder with Hamilton-like way too soft pictures.)
Before the Fall
(2004)
Why does my heart feel so bad?
15 January 2005
Warning: Spoilers
Ouh, it's so emotional, can you feel it? these hard times? man, i really like Dennis Gansel's approach to commercial stuff and even more his co-writer's Peren. but yesterday i saw I'm receiving the Bavarian film award for "best director" and he said, that he always wondered and never understood why so many Germans felt attracted by the Nazis. mmh, i always thought director's do have a bigger imagination, but so what - his conclusion : sons didn't get enough respect from their fathers and did like sports and uniforms, is after all not THAT surprising, eh? NApola tells his story from the similar naive,not very interesting point of view "Der Untergang" did recently. in fact a lot of critics etc. always wanted German films to be more like professional entertaining Hollywood stuff - here it is. Napola is not boring. Well acted. BUT the friendship of the main characters is not convincing, unless you understand it as a kind of "Love at first sight" homo-couple. (Why NOt? But I'm afraid Gansel didn't get it). There's no scene showing the meaning of their friendship - even the one stroll in the snow lasts just a few seconds in a very distant shot. Maybe they cut a lot to be more effective in a commercial sense, whatever. AND the "Farewell-SCENE" on the ice is really bad. Riemelt spend so much time with crying and screaming, you wonder why he didn't try to get back in the water to help his friend. The Points of view "Through but not really through the ice" is after all the worst moment in a movie. They chose "the beauty shot" instead of being real in this moment... All in all, not bad, could have been much better without less commercial value.
Curiosity & the Cat
(1999)
Brilliant Score, Well Cut, Astonishing: High Hopes!
12 December 2002
don`t get mislead by hiphop-star thomas d.s first performance in the beginning, it`s amusing, charming but he would definitely fit better in a screwball comedy. though the story could have been better, the looks and the whole atmosphere is definitely worth watching. fascinating production design. the score is intense, sometimes it`s hard to recognoize what`s original aphex twin and what's original score. you couldn`t find anything like this in germany... look out for the dvd-specials. strange but you learn a lot about chaostheory and independent filmmaking. what a shame that eva renzi didn't want her excellent performance to remain in that movie!
Lost in La Mancha
(2002)
touching and horrifying
1 March 2002
at the berlinale i had the pleasure to see this film in an extra screening because the first and supposed to be the only one was overcrowded. the film starts as a very good making of, because they documented weeks of preproduction too. the camera comes very close to gilliam, his childlike enthusiasm and high professionality. so you feel closer to him when the drama begins. heavy rains in the spanish desert and especially Jean Rocheforts serious illness made the shooting a mess and they had to stop the project after five days. it´s a real horror- movie, especially for those who have at least a little experience on a film set. the few shots in 35mm and (very nice idea) when we here gilliam reading parts of the script while we see the storybook like a cartoon makes us feel the loss and let us hope,that they can continue their work someday...
Don's Plum
(2001)
what´s wrong with hands in his pants?
24 January 2001
Yesterday I saw this piece in a small cinema in the basements of berlin. Great Expectations! LeoTitanico in a film he seems to be ashamed of now. But it´s only about a few guy and girls, hanging out, joking and crying, flirting and hurting. I felt touched and amused like watching nick Cassavetes Jr. doing a remake of one of his grandpa´s "everybody gets drunk except the d.p."-kind of "Pre-Dogma"-movies. You can see in Leo´s acting, that he´s not very concerned about "real" acting... He plays an arrogant but hurt young guy, blaming everyone for the mood he´s in and seems to be interested in nothing but f**king. I felt so old, nearly everyone in the plum is about 20! And I´m 26. So afterwards in the subway-station I read the press-notes and I couldn´t believe my eyes: "If you are over 25 you might not like this film" they say. I hate and love you guys for that!
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