Germany

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The latest film by Hartmut Bitomsky is, just like much of his early work, a original film essay about film and film history. Just as in earlier films, he makes inventive use of the potential offered by the medium video to analyse films.The history of the UFA is the story of a risky financial venture in the twenties and a propaganda instrument in the thirties. Bitomsky’s approach stands out because he involvesthis social and political context in investigating and dissecting films.Read More »

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However a VW is put together, what comes out is always the Federal Republic of Germany.

The VW factory is a museum of industrial technology, and at the same time it is its Utopia. The old factory buildings convey the impression of almost like being in a cathedral. In order to communicate with the crane operators high above, the workers beat on the steel griders with heavy hammers. The new buildings, however, are much lower – like in a complex of new apartments, in which you can touch the ceilings with your hands. While going around inside the buildings, you can follow the creation of an automobile and at the same time bid farewell to the industrial age.Read More »

This film was one of the few attempts of the “New German cinema” to produce something like a horror film. Not quite a successful attempt in my opinion since director Niklaus Schilling seems to be rather afraid of anything to do with “genre” and therefore keeps out most the atmosphere that could be achieved by exploiting Germanic mysticism as he does here. The film has an unpleasantly pretentious aura and could’ve made much more of its theme and locations.Read More »

Shy, chain-smoking, insomniac Peter McGowan is an L.A. playwright with a string of hits that preceded his current ten years of failed productions. His mother-in-law is sinking into senility, a stranger is meandering the neighborhood claiming to be him, neighbors have a new dog that barks all night; his wife wants to have a child, and he does not: he’s become impotent. He’s working on a new play when a single mom moves in next door with her 8-year-old daughter. His wife immediately invites the girl into the McGowan household. Will this child stir Peter’s paternal feelings? Will she also help him get his dialogue right? And what of his doppelganger and the neighbor’s dog?Read More »

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Katzelmacher was a revelation. One of only a handful of Fassbinder films which I had not seen before, it seems among his best, and most challenging, works.

Fassbinder’s second feature film, Katzelmacher (1969) is a tour de force of stark visual beauty and ambiguous but riveting characters. Fassbinder adapted his own original play, of the same title, which he had also starred in on stage. (The theatrical script is included in the anthology Fassbinder’s Plays.)Read More »

Hanna Amon and her brother Thomas live on an estate they’ve inherited from their parents. Local veterinarian Brunner loves Hanna from afar, and Thomas is in love with the daughter of the local mayor. Love, however, doesn’t always mean happiness, as both Hanna and Thomas are soon to find out.Read More »

Synopsis:
‘Hans Albers stars as Werner Holk, an engineer who is working with Professor Achenbach on a machine that will turn lead into gold. When an “accident” occurs that costs the Professor his life, Holk swears vengeance, and determines that the mastermind behind the sabotage was Scottish millionaire John Wills, who has his own rival group working on the same machine. Wills actually hires Holk on to help make his machine a success, and while at first Holk is determined to destroy Wills’ effort from within, when Holk meets Wills’ daughter Florence he begins to second guess his mission.’
– AlsExGalRead More »

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A witty and inventive gross-out comedy suggesting a synthesis of John Waters and Terry Gilliam, Martin Walz’s German film adapts Ralf Konig’s graphic comic about killer contraceptives unleashed in a diabolical plot to wipe out New York’s gay population. (Actually the condoms, which eviscerate or castrate their victims, make no distinctions when it comes to sexual orientation.) Luigi Mackeroni (Udo Samel), a gay Sicilian police detective, sets out to track down the source; in the movie’s longest running gag he’s one of the first victims, losing one of his testicles during a hotel tryst. Walz introduces some nice noir shadings (Luigi delivers the ironic voice-overs) and his camera placement is generally smart and revealing–especially in the thoroughly weird shots from the point of view of the condoms. Unfortunately, though, he can’t sustain the wonderful energy throughout the film. Killer Condom certainly isn’t for all tastes–at times it wasn’t for mine–but it’s impossible to walk away indifferent.Read More »

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Army of Lovers or Revolt of the Perverts (German: Armee der Liebenden oder Aufstand der Perversen) is a 1979 German documentary film directed by Rosa von Praunheim. The film, mainly shot in San Francisco, chronicles the rise of gay activism in the United States between 1972 and 1978 in the aftermath of the Stonewall riots and before the arrival of the AIDS epidemic. It explores, among other themes, the initial unity formed post-Stonewall era, splintered into numerous factions. The American gay liberation movement, strengthened by the assault of the Anita Bryant-led anti-gay initiatives, appears foundering into polarization and self-interest groups in an increasingly fractured leadership. The film discusses whether overt sexual expression and promiscuity were helping or hurting the cause of gay rights.Read More »