Germany

Rote Sonne aka Red Sun
Rudolf Thome, Germany 1970
Runtime: 85 min
Language: German

“… one of the best German movies since the silent era … “

Dark and zany, Rote Sonne provides a fascinating snapshot of 60s culture, juxtaposing the B-film crime and science fiction genres with early feminist fervor. With the tag line “Frei, wild, cool und tödlich” (free, wild, cool and deadly), it depicts a group of young women who decide to kill their boyfriends if they insist on a relationship lasting more than five days.

Rote Sonne quickly grew into some early German cult movie with a constant growing importance. Only a few years later the critics called it one of the most important German movies from that time.

Between 1968 and 1971 Rudolf Thome shot four movies in a row (including Rote Sonne). Then he was broke and had to escape Munich. He started a new life in Berlin but it took years until he started to do movies again – unfortunately never achieving such a classic again.Read More »

Munich in the late Sixties must have been the coolest place on earth. At least when you look at some of the movies that were made around that time. “Detektive” is Rudolf Thome’s feature debut, one year before he shot “Rote Sonne” (Red Sun) Link , and naturally it was a movie about girls and guns (and two cool dudes, proto slackers). The story is almost forgettable, it’s all about the style. And, of course, Uschi Obermaier, the star of “Rote Sonne”, whom Thome had discovered for “Detektive”. (Consequently, for most of the time, Uschi runs around in her undies) The dialogues are hilarious, super deadpan, the crime plot is ridiculous, the cinemathography (b/w and scope) beautiful. Heavily indebted to the French Novelle Vague and Hollywood’s classic gangster films, “Detektive” is miles away from the German New Wave around Wenders, Kluge and Fassbinder. That’s what makes this little flic, shot with friends on weekends (and between tours through the bars in the Schwabing district), so special.
In the lead, the great Marquard Bohm, something like the German Belmondo (a face like no other) and Uli Lommel, who went on to direct the German serial killer film “Die Zärtlichkeit der Wölfe” and numerous Hollywood b movies. Nuff said. Enjoy this very special gem!Read More »

“Frauen sind keine Engel” was made on a moderate budget and has generally found not as much attention as that which has been rightfully accorded to his ‘Viennese trilogy’ made at about the same time. Please don’t expect the outward splendour of some other Forst films, even though script, acting and direction leave nothing to be desired. However, like many of Forst’s more important films this one not only provides great entertainment, but is also a thorough examination of the relation of fiction/art and reality.Read More »

This film comes from the Schloss Archive of His Highness, Herr Graf Ferdinand von Galitzien:

Quote:
Born Franz Wygand Wüstenhöfer in Malstatt (Saarland), Hofer began his career as a stage actor and playwright in 1909. A year later he began working as a screenwriter for Messter’s Henny Porten series and for directors such as Viggo Larsen—Die schwarze Katze [The Black Cat] (1910)—and Walter Schmidthässler—Das Weib ohne Herz [The Woman Without a Heart] and Der Zug des Herzens [The Pull of the Heart] (both 1912).Read More »

Improvised sex and small crime fiction, shot during and involving the real soccer world cup 2006 in Hamburg, GermanyRead More »

Plot

The core plot begins with the kidnapping of Patrick, the son of a wealthy industrialist. Sexual and romantic engtanglements push the drama forward. At the film’s climax, Gudrun delivers a soliloquy on the importance of personal life in revolution. She puts particular emphasis on the breaking of heterosexual and possessive sexual norms, urging her comrades to join “The Homosexual Intifada”.

The pressure of Gudrun’s controlling personality causes the group to break up. Most of the urban guerrillas escape into the night. In the dénouement, the characters are visited some time later. Several have found happiness in the homosexual relationships established during their revolutionary activities. Che has become a terrorist trainer in the Middle East. Patrick escapes with Clyde, where they embark on a spree of bank robberies. This action is reminiscent of Patty Hearst’s actions with the SLA. Gudrun and Andreas settle down and have a child named Ulrike (after Ulrike Meinhof), whom Gudrun believes could embody the next generation of the Red Army Faction.Read More »

A comment from an Imdb user:
It’s been a while since I saw this film, so I’ll talk about as much as I can remember. I happened to catch this film at the Sundance Film Festival. I knew nothing about the directors status or his past work. I heard from others at the festival that this film was straight up gay porn, which caught my interest. Being gay I’m always interested in seeing films with gay themes. I assumed the people were wrong. To my sexual arousal they were right! Almost…The film was hilarious, glamourizing the idea of “terrorist chic.” In the film a group young of virile young men under the leadership of a woman (Gunfrun) kidnap the son of a wealthy man. Read More »

From timeout.com:
Few film-makers wear their hearts as openly on their sleeves as Margarethe von Trotta, and her fascination with women (their relationships with each other and their definition – often redefinition – of themselves) is as apparent in this, her first solo feature, as it was in the later The German Sisters or Friends and Husbands. Christa Klages (Engel) is a young mother who turns terrorist and bank robber to prevent the closure of a crêche which she helps to run and her daughter attends. On the run with her friend and sometime lover, Christa is pursued by the police, and more mysteriously by a young woman (Thalbach) who was her hostage in the bank raid. What von Trotta has to say about her women is compelling, and she remains one of the few film-makers to portray terrorists convincingly. But the enigma of the hostage runs through the film as elusively as a character in a dream – vitally important at any given moment, but irritatingly meaningless when taken as a whole – and undermines the conviction of this feminist thriller which is otherwise so gloriously rooted in West Germany’s present.Read More »

Olga and Ruth become friends. Olga is independent, separated from her husband, living with an immigrant pianist… Read More »