Film Reviews
« Previous EntriesEdgar – a short film by Fabian Busch
Monday, May 17th, 2010Internationally, German actor Fabian Busch may be best known for his role in Hans-Christian Schmid’s 23 (1998), playing opposite August Diehl, in Oliver Hirschspiegel’s Academy Award-nominated Downfall (Der Untergang, 2004), and, most recently, as Kate Winslet’s defense lawyer in Stephen Daldry’s Oscar winner The Reader (2008). Besides an impressive list of feature film and television [...]
Florian Gallenberger’s John Rabe
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009Thirtysomething filmmaker Florian Gallenberger’s John Rabe, a biopic of a card carrying member of the Nazi party who saved around 250,000 lives in Nanking, China during the Sino-Japanese War, is a nuanced and skillfully crafted narrative. It features fine performances, multifaceted realism and dramatic ironies that make this particular true story truly worth telling. Despite [...]
Deutschland ‘09 – 13 short films about the state of the nation
Tuesday, March 31st, 2009One of the highly anticipated films in the main section of the Berlinale was the German Anthology Collection Deutschland ‘09 – 13 kurze Filme zur Lage der Nation (Germany ‘09 – 13 Short Films about the State of the Nation) (Germany, 2009). Initiated and produced by Tom Tykwer and Dirk Wilutzky’s production company Herbstfilm, the [...]
Kai Wessel’s Hilde
Tuesday, March 31st, 2009Hildegard Knef – German actress, singer and writer – was an icon of postwar Germany. Born in 1925, she studied acting at the UFA film studios during the Second World War, became a theater and film actress, then a celebrated Broadway star, chansonnier, and later on in life a best selling author. Kai Wessel’s feature [...]
Neele Leana Vollmer’s Friedliche Zeiten – Peaceful Times
Thursday, January 15th, 2009The new year kicked off with another successful German Premiere screening at the Tribeca Cinemas. This time, German Films Service + Marketing’s NY representative Oliver Mahrdt presented Friedliche Zeiten (Peaceful Times) (2008) by emerging filmmaker Neele Leana Vollmer to a NY audience. Based on Birgit Vanderbeke’s book by the same title, this charming drama was [...]
Connie Walter’s Schattenwelt – Terrorist’s Long Shadows
Friday, December 19th, 2008In November 2004, German Film Services launched German Premieres, an ongoing presentation of new and noteworthy German films for the US market. This very successful screening series opened with Dennis Gansel’s Napola. Since then, German Film Service NY representative Oliver Mahrdt has presented more than 15 films to the NY industry, ranging from such high-end [...]
Auge in Auge – eine deutsche Filmgeschichte
Sunday, November 23rd, 2008In Auge in Auge – eine deutsche Filmgeschichte (Eye to Eye – All About German Film), a compilation documentary by film historians Michael Althen and Hans Helmut Prinzler, the “eyes” belong to ten prominent German film personalities who talk with unbounded enthusiasm about their favorite German films. The viewer is also treated to a tour [...]
Michael Klier’s Alter und Schönheit – Age and Beauty
Saturday, November 8th, 2008Lonely people, desolate urban landscapes, and moral dilemmas are at the core of Michael Klier’s Alter und Schönheit (Age and Beauty) – as found in all films of his self-styled Berlin cycle, a collection of simple stories with penetrating observations by a genuine auteur with a style and vision to match, each lensed by the [...]
Christian Petzold’s Jerichow – James M. Cain Remake
Saturday, November 8th, 2008One of the highlights of the 2008 Hof Film Festival, Christian Petzold’s Jerichow arrived fresh from the Venice film festival. The title refers to an East German town located not far from Wittenberge on the Elbe River, where Petzold’s previous film Yella (2007) had been shot. From the standpoint of the director’s auteur credentials, Jerichow [...]
Der Baader Meinhof Komplex vs RAF Film Chronicle
Saturday, November 8th, 2008More than a dozen German productions (film, TV, stage) have been made about the Baader-Meinhof RAF phenomenon long before Uli Edel filmed Stefan Aust’s bestseller on Der Baader Meinhof Komplex (2008), the official German entry for this year’s foreign-laguage Oscar. Producer Bernd Eichinger, who also wrote the screenplay, has insisted that his and Edel’s fast-moving, [...]
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