Archive for August, 2008
Next Entries »Das Wunder von Bern – German Football Legend
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008It was the best German film of the past year – Sönke Wortmann’s Das Wunder von Bern (The Miracle of Bern) (Germany, 2003). And not just for audiences who like sports. For soccer fans, however, an absolute must! This is the story of Helmut Rahn, the lad from the industrial Ruhr who scored that winning […]
Herr Lehmann – Westalgie Blues in Berlin-Kreuzberg
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008Given that Leander Haussmann’s Sonnenallee (1999) was the mother of all Ostalgie films, TV shows, and other phenomena coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall, this “nostalgia for the GDR” goes a long way to explain why Good Bye, Lenin! (Germany, 2003) became such a huge success at the box […]
Immer nie am Meer – Forever Never Anywhere Farce
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008It’s been a long time since I laughed so much as I did upon viewing Antonin Svoboda’s wonderful, way-out, black comedy Immer nie am Meer (Austria, 2003). Forever Never Anywhere begins when in the middle of the night the unfortunate solo-entertainer Schwanenmeister (Heinz Strunk) lands with his car in a ditch because of a failed […]
Das Herz ist ein dunkler Wald – Bourgeois Sex Runs Amok
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008Das Herz ist ein dunkler Wald (Germany, 2007), the second film by actress-director Nicolette Krebitz, is an exceedingly stylized film about real existing sexual relations in the (petite) bourgeois world. The middle-class housewife and mother Marie (Nina Hoss) discovers that her husband, a successful musician (Devid Striesow) has not only betrayed her, but that he […]
Prinzessinnenbad – Teenager Trio in Berlin-Kreuzberg
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008In Bettina Blümner’s debut feature Prinzessinnenbad (Germany, 2007) we are abruptly tossed right in the middle of the shimmering life of young girls. The story is easily told. We accompany Klara, Mina and Tanutscha, all 15-years-old and the best of friends, as they live each day as it comes. Their playground is multi-ethnic Berlin-Kreuzberg, where […]
Kirschblüten – Hanami – Cherry Blossoms Fairy Tale
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008From white sausage idyll to cherry blossoms, from Bavarian grumbler to Butoh dancer, a broad wondrous curve is drawn taut, and somethings are indeed astonishing in Doris Dörrie’s Kirschblüten – Hanami (Cherry Blossoms) (Germany, 2007). The story of an elderly couple in the Bavarian province, it opens when she finds out from doctors how hopelessly […]
Le Silence de Lorna – Dardenne Brothers Mafia Caper
Monday, August 11th, 2008At the Cannes Film Festival, Jean Pierre and Luc Dardenne presented their latest work Le Silence de Lorna (Belgium/France/Italy/Germany, 2008) – a film about the Mafia’s racketeering and the passionate path of an Albanian emigrant in Belgium. Lorna, an Albanian woman who lives in Belgium, has one single dream: together with her boyfriend Solko she […]
43rd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2008
Monday, August 11th, 2008One glance at the lineups of the top A-category competition film festivals, and you can rate and measure – even criticize – them for their respective portfolios carried proudly on their backs. Cannes is honored as an authentic “auteur festival,” respected each May for discovering new directorial talent while furthering the careers of past auteur […]
Filmfest Dresden Sommernacht in Berlin 2008
Monday, August 11th, 2008Robin Malick, director of the Dresden International Short Film Festival, is always on the lookout for more film friends in Berlin. Last April 1st, he presented a preview of the 20th Filmfest Dresden (15-20 April 2008) in the Vertretung des Freistaates Sachsen in Berlin-Mitte. Then, on April 26, he returned to Berlin to present a […]
Artur Brauner – 90 Years Old
Saturday, August 2nd, 2008Celebrating his 90th birthday on August 1st (on the same day as the Swiss National Holiday), Artur Brauner, Berlin’s legendary film producer, can look back on more than 250 productions from 1948 onwards under his CCC (Central Cinema Company) logo. A remarkable achievement for the son of a Polish wood-merchant born in Lodz, particularly when […]
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