News about German Films & other topics related to things German will be posted here in English or German by Ingrid Eggers.  Check back often!

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4/8/13

SPRING HAS ARRIVED with new German Films at SFIFF 56

Check out the German language films (Austria’s MUSEUM HOURS and Switzerland’s ROSIE – included). I have not seen any of these films but heard from friends who went to the Berlinale that DAS MERKWÜRDIGE KÄTZCHEN / The Strange Little Cat was the best German film at the festival in 2013, it was shown in the Forum section. I’m very pleased to see that it made its way to San Francisco so fast, in previous years Berlinale films would have to wait  for the next spring to be included in the SFIFF. Sorry to say that I will be in Japan and China during the festival, bad timing for a trip that was long overdue. But I hope to get your feed back.

http://prod3.agileticketing.net/websales/pages/list.aspx?epguid=db9c7f13-edc8-489f-bc28-5aa111f9970e&cp155=German&

Also a “Musikvideo der Woche” made by Milena (my daughter) during her Berlinale 13 visit. Jeans Team came to SF a few times over the past 10 or so years and some of you might remember — here “Berliner Schnauze” at its best:

http://detektor.fm/musik/musikvideo-der-woche-jeans-team-scheiss-drauf/

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3/18/13

ELLA born March 8

My granddaughter arrived and she lives close by, so I can visit often and soon do all the things grandma is supposed to do, like teach her how to blog… I can see talent there, yes, bloooooog, she said on day 5, but mama has doubts.

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3/3/13

GERMAN FILMS AT LANDMARK THEATRES

Landmark Theatres has several acclaimed German films opening in our venues in San Francisco and the East Bay.  These 3 upcoming movies LORE, THE SILENCE, and BARBARA promise to be riveting and definite food for thought for any German affiliated groups. My comments about BARBARA (Germany’s bit for this year’s Oscars) are further down on this blog, yes, worth seeing. THE SILENCE I saw at the Munich Filmfest when it premiered there in 2010, a film packed with village oddballs and lots of suspense that did not quite work for me. Couldn’t put the puzzle together but you might. LORE, Australia’s Oscar nomination for 2013, takes place in Germany, is in German with German actors, and tells a riveting war story.

Check the movie pages for times at the various Landmark Theatres, BARBARA will open March 8, LORE and THE SILENCE are playing now at Embarcadero and Shattuck in Berkeley.

2/12/13

DER DEUTSCHE PAPST

Yes, the Pope is German which qualifies him to get a space on my blog. I clicked on his resignation speech given in Latin and written by a press woman on his staff who seems to know Latin as well as he does. Why in Latin? Are those the rules of the game in papal circles? Nobody blinked while he was reading the text, like a sermon he had given 100 times before. No signs of emotions anywhere in the chapel among those who listened or  read along with texts in hand. No surprise looks on their faces, not a trace of a shake in the  Pope’s 85 year old hands when he was holding this historical piece of paper. The last time a pope resigned was around 1200 AD. Leave it to the Germans, they know how to make history.

Here some critical comments about his rule from today’s New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/12/opinion/farewell-to-an-uninspiring-pope.html

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2/11/13

BERLINALE & BEYOND

Photos by Milena Pastreich

The only German film in the competition of this year’s Berlinale, GOLD, by Thomas Arslan who is know for making films in the Berliner Schule tradition (i.e. slow, composed, detailed) seems to have tried something different, a German Western starring wonderful and ubiquitous Nina Hoss. Here a review from DER SPIEGEL http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/kino/berlinale-wettbewerbsfilm-gold-rezension-a-882341.html High marks are given to Ulrich Seidel’s HOFFNUNG, the last part of a trilogy  (LOVE premiered at Cannes 2012, FAITH at Venice 2012, and now HOPE); the three films will come to YBCA in June. Seidel fans mark your calendar! Here SPIEGEL’s comments – auf Deutsch http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/kino/berlinale-ulrich-seidl-zeigt-abschluss-der-paradies-trilogie-a-882178.html

2/3/13

Don’t miss these German films showing in the Bay Area – there aren’t that many and these are favorites of film snobs and other film apassionatos. At Cinequest ,O BOY, a new film recommended highly by Charlie Cockey, one of the snobs and programmers of Cinequest, and RUN LOLA  RUN screening in Petaluma. She has been running for many years but hasn’t lost any of her appeal, especially after Tom Tykwer’s latest disappointing collaboration on CLOUD ATLAS.

http://payments.cinequest.org/WebSales/pages/info.aspx?evtinfo=6968~78899376-35a9-4153-8303-e1557be2dc32&epguid=70d8e056-fa45-4221-9cc7-b6dc88f62c98&

http://www.petalumafilmalliance.org/2013-spring-schedule/

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12/1/12)

LINCOLN – HITCHCOCK – ARGO – ANNA KARENINA – CLOUD ATLAS

The best thing to do on a rainy day – and we just had lots of them, grey and beautiful – watch the raindrops or watch movies. Here is what I saw last week, mostly big American productions but the biggest of it all, CLOUD ATLAS, a German coproduction – to stay true to my mission.

LINCOLN: Spielberg had  Leam Neeson as front runner for the part and I wonder what the result would have been. Daniel Day Lewis seems the perfect choice. You couldn’t get closer to the real man than this performance. Witty and agonizing, always concerned for others yet talking to himself and his own conscience we see an old man who is willing to have a whole generation of his country slaughtered in order to move history a step forward. The film should have been released before this year’s election to remind people of the difficulty of the democratic process and the cruelties of war, not much has changed since 1865. Well, Obama won without the support of LINCOLN, the democratic process seems to be working.

ARGO: I didn’t know much about this chapter of history which took place in the shadow of the Iran hostage crisis 1979. A well made thriller not always true to the real events – Hollywood seeped in there especially at the end – nevertheless I was fully captivated.

HITCHCOCK: Knowing him from so many of his films and from TV makes it hard to see Anthony Hopkins with round face and stuffed out suit to be the great master of suspense, but after a while you get into it. A curious mix of the “making of” Psycho, of a (famous) husband-(devoted) wife relationship with all the tension, and the master’s obsessions with his blond stars and with the killer in Psycho, it is a little bit like a Hitchcock film without the suspense. We know the outcome of all the story lines which made me look at my watch a few times. But mostly entertaining and engaging.

ANNA KARENINA: It is hard to come close to Greta Garbo as Anna, and Keira Knightley is far from it. Also miscast is Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Vronsky. Both seem too young, too foolish, not convincing of the love and the destruction that Tolstoy had in mind. I liked the monkish Jude Law as Karenin and the boisterous Oblonsky (Matthew Macfadyen). Director Joe Wright squeezed the many layered novel into the refines of a theatre, which is daring but does not really work. The first 20 minutes felt like a musical without the singing – I was hoping that the clerks in Oblonsky’s office would break out into songs. Then several scenes moved from inside the theatre to outside landscapes. Beautiful fields under misty sky and soft heaps of hay to rest in. And a toy train that becomes a real one covered with snow and ice steaming into Moscow station and eventually killing Anna. With so much moral and political conflict to digest and so many characters to follow the setting in a large theatre which, I suppose, should remind us of life being a stage and vice versa, diverts and distracts. Does it contribute to a deeper understanding of the novel. I’m not convinced.

CLOUD ATLAS: 3 hours of wasted time. Ruminations about mankind, its failures and how to save it through love and compassion sound so familiar. It has been done before, better, and shorter. If you like special effects, there is lots of it and if you want to see what make-up can do, then wait for the credits. The 5 or so main actors morph into faces you will not recognize. Great, but it did not save money. The costliest movie ever made and xFilme, Tom Tykwer’s production company in Berlin was part of it. Sorry to see that Tykwer is going that way. I loved his early films WINTERSCHLÄFER, TÖDLICHE MARIA, LOLA RENNT.

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(11/14/12)

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(11/1/12)

Als ich eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen erwachte, fand ich mich auf dem Fensterbrett an meinem Haus zu einem grünen Ungeziefer verwandelt. Ich klebte mit den dünnen Beinen an dem weißen Brett und sah, wenn ich den Kopf mit den langen Fühlern ein wenig hob, das Fenster, die Tür und den blauen Himmel über mir. Was ist mit mir geschehen? dachte ich. Ein Grashüpfer, der am Balken von meinem Haus festklebt. Vorsichtig hob ich erst einen dann den anderen Flügel. Sie bewegten sich. Ich beugte die langen Beine ein wenig, auch sie bewegten sich. Vorsichtig ging ich mit allen vier Beinen in die Hocke, die Gelenke federten wie ein Gummiband und stießen plötzlich mit Schwung vom Fensterbrett ab. Ganz von allein breiteten sich im Moment des Absprungs die Flügel wie beim Flugzeug aus und fingen an so schnell zu flattern, daß ich keine mehr Zeit hatte, mich umzusehen. Ich flog. Ein wunderbares Gefühl. Hoch und immer höher lenkten mich die Fühler wie Antennen durch die warme Luft. Den Himmel über mir und unter mir die Menschen, die Häuser, die Straßen, die Autos. Ein schöner Traum indessen ich erwachte. (Frei nach Kafka und Goethe)

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Thanks Tim, for keeping us up to date with upcoming German events in the Bay Area:

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(10/8/12)

DIE WAND / THE WALL at B&B and MVFF

I hope it is not too late for you to check out this film at the Mill Valley Film Festival. The second and last screening is on Tuesday, Oct. 9 at 9.30pm at the Sequoia 1. A film I can recommend – after seeing it at the Berlin & Beyond Film Festival last weekend. THE WALL, based on Austrian writer Marlen Haushofer’s acclaimed novel  from 1963 is about a woman trapped in the mountains and separated from all living beings by an invisible wall. I love the novel, read it a few times and couldn’t imagine a film to be made out of it. With one actress, one dog, a cat, a cow and the mountains. Yes, mountains can be a powerful backdrop and screenwriter/director Julian Roman Pösler and his cinematographer used them as exactly that,  majestic, threatening, intense, beautiful. They act like a companion to the trapped woman, something she has to struggle and come to terms with, and much more unpredictable than the dog who became her close friend. In the end we think that the invisible wall is more a protection than a threat for her. The filmmaker decided to stay close to the text of the novel by illustrating passages from the book, journal entries read by the woman, with powerful images describing those passages. I wish Pösler had come up with more  than just translating the text into images and adding Bach music to it, but thanks to Martina Gedeck’s (THE LIVES OF OTHERS) sensitive portray (and narration) of the trapped protagonist and thanks to the beautiful scenery and the dog and the cat, the film captures a lot of what Haushofer described. I hope you have a chance to see THE WALL. It has US distribution and might eventually come to a theater near you.

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(9/23/12)

BERLIN & BEYOND Film Festival

It’s coming up on Sept 27 and here my recommendations. BARBARA is a great opening night film  (I wrote about it on this blog a few pages down), the same about the closing night film THIS AIN’T CALIFORNIA (my recent comments are also on this website). Mario Adorf deserves to be honored. Yes. I would have liked to see him again in his break-through performance of   THE DEVIL STRIKES AT NIGHT / Nachts wenn der Teufel kam (the PFA used to own a copy), and in ROSSINI (Bernd Eichinger wooing Patrick Süskind for the rights of DAS PARFÜM), however DAS TOTENSCHIFF and LOLA (shown recently at B&B) are powerful examples of Mario Adorf’s long and prolific career. – A few more recommendations: BATTLE OF THE QUEENS/Kampf der Königinnen, — I love cows and recently went to Switzerland where I ran into some of those queens; COMBAT GIRLS/Kriegerin, an impressive first feature about Neo-Nazis; and WESTWIND, in case you missed it at last January’s GERMAN GEMS. I’m curious to see THE WALL based on one of my favorite novels by Marlen Haushofer (Die Wand). A woman’s story taking place in the Austrian mountains and of course, with cows, playing an important role. And then there is Sokurov’s FAUST, partly filmed in Iceland, a dark jewel that I only recently discovered. Check it out.

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(9/13/12)

LAST STOP: KRÖLLER-MÜLLER MUSEUM

The last stop on my way back from Germany to San Francisco was at the Kröller-Müller Museum in The Netherlands, one of the best kept secrets in the art world that I know. It not only has the biggest collection of Van Goghs (more than 90 paintings) outside the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam but also a sculpture garden with close to a hundred pieces by, among others, Richard Serra, di Suvero, Christo, Lipchitz, Sol LeWitt, and JeanDubuffet. All this is embedded in a park so big that you can easily loose your way when you go around by bicycle and that’s what everybody is doing. Bikes can be found all over the park and they are free to use. When you go bring a picknick and lots of time. It’s worth it.

art by Mario Merz, Mark di Suvero, Cai Guo-Qiang, Richard Serra, Oswald Wenckenbach (M. Jaques), R.W. van de Wint

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(8/31/12)

BYE-BYE BERLIN

Nach 2 Monaten in der Hauptstadt hier 2 Dokumentarfilme, die ich gerade in Berlin gesehen habe und empfehlen kann. DOPPELLEBEN von Douglas Wolfsperger  (sicher erinnern sich noch einige von euch an seinen  wunderbaren Film über das Wiener Kino BELLARIA, der 2003 bei Berlin & Beyond gezeigt wurde) verfolgt die  Geschichten von 3 Personen, die aufgrund ihrer Ähnlichkeit mit lebenden Politikern, eine steile Karriere als Doubles von Angela Merkel und Bill Clinton gemacht haben.

Ich hatte keine Ahnung, dass es so etwas gibt, dass diese Doubles nicht nur zu Geburtstagsparties und Unterhaltungssendungen im Fernsehen eingeladen werden, wo jeder weiß, das ist “Ersatz”, sondern auch zu ernsthaften Tagungen von Energie-konzernen, zum Tag der deutschen Einheit beim Goethe-Institut in Hong Kong, zu Reisen durch afrikanische Staaten, wo die richtige Angela Merkel nicht hin kommen konnte und zum Signieren ihrer Autobiografie. Der Film ist voller Überraschungen und radikaler Veränderungen, die vor allem die Lübeckerin Susanne Knoll in ihrer neu entdeckten Karriere als Angela Merkel durchmacht. Sie spielt nicht nur Deutschlands Kanzlerin sondern lebt sie. Beim Q&A nach der Premiere trat sie auf wie eine erfahrene Politikerin und nicht so wie in ihrem vorherigen Leben als unsichere Mutter und Hausfrau. Der Film trifft nicht immer ins Schwarze, denn zum Schluß laufen die Fäden nicht zusammen und die Spannung läßt nach, aber trotzdem eine durchaus amüsante und empfehlenswerte  Dokumentation .

THIS AIN’T CALIFORNIA auch eine Dokumentation, so scheints jedenfalls,  über die Rollbrettfahrer – skate boarder –der achziger Jahre vom Alexanderplatz. Aber der Schein trügt. Die Protagonisten sind von Schauspielern gespielt, die Geschichte ist zum großen Teil erfunden. Man weiß nicht, was ist wahr und was ist gestellt. Nichts Neues, Mockumentaries gibts seit vielen Jahren und ich, z.B. falle immer wieder drauf rein und ärgere mich am Ende bei den credits, daß ichs nicht längst  vorher gemerkt habe. Hier wird aus dem sommersprossigen frechen Jungen ein platinblonder cooler Teenager, dem die Mädchen nachlaufen, auch eine Westdeutsche, die im Laufe des Films ebenfalls unglaubhafte Veränderungen durchmacht. Aber davon mal abgesehen ist  Marten Persiels Film eine sehr gelungene, unterhaltsame Collage über ein Lebensgefühl, die von Nostalgie geladene Erinnerung einer Generation, die ein Stück DDR Geschichte wieder zum Leben bringt. “Ein Möglichkeitsszenario” (critic.de)  der jüngsten deutschen Vergangenheit. Zum gleichen Thema sehr zu empfehlen ist Nico Raschiks wirklich hervorragender Dokumentarfilm HERE WE COME (Berlin & Beyond 2007) über Break Dancing in der DDR.

Fotos u.a. von Harald Schmitt und Patric Steffens

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(8/27/12)

YES, ICELAND – IT’S A COOL, HAPPY, AND INCREDIBLY BEAUTIFUL PLACE

If you try to describe Iceland, photos can say so much more than words – unless you can write like Halldór Laxness. It is an amazing place where nature rules. The weather, an unpredictable enemy or friend, has left its marks everywhere; on the woolly sheep, the tough, little horses, the mossy landscape, huge waterfalls pouring into nowhere, glaciers ending right next to the road, and in the open, unpretentious faces of the people. According to researchers, Iceland is supposed to be a happy country (like Switzerland and Bhutan). Get into the spirit by listening to OF MONSTERS AND MEN and then book a flight…

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(8/9/12)

GRÜEZI MITEINAND

Endlich mal eine Reise in die Schweiz und nicht zu den allerhöchsten Bergen. In Appenzell bin ich gewandert zwischen Kühen mit riesigen Glocken, wunderschönen Seen und schmucken kleinen Häusern. Überall war es schmuck und sauber, ordentlich und freundlich, nicht zu freundlich. Bloß nicht über die Stränge schlagen, nicht auffallen und bitte keine ausgefallenen Wünsche, liebe Touristen, wie etwa Fotografieren in teuren Läden. Das ist gegen die Vorschriften und davon gibt es viele, die jeder brav einhält.  Zwischen Zürich und St. Gallen, wo ich eine Woche verbrachte, befolgt man die Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzungen schon bevor das Schild in Sicht ist, überhaupt hält man sich an alle Gesetze, über die man ja mit abstimmen kann. Mehr Urlaub stand auf einer Liste und das Volk sagte NEIN, wir brauchen nicht mehr Urlaub, wir wollen arbeiten und das zeigt sich. Überall wird etwas produziert: Milchpulver, Büromöbeln, Maschinen, Düngemitteln, Mastvieh, Schokolade und Uhren nicht zu vergessen und alles in sauberen, modernen Anlagen. Arbeit wird gut bezahlt in der Schweiz, Arbeitslosigkeit liegt bei 3% und Zürich ist die teuerste Stadt, die ich kenne. Eine kleine Kugel Eis $4. Würde ich  in Zürich leben wollen? Nein, soviel Schönheit, Ordnung und Perfektion ist beklemmend, San Francisco oder Berlin sind mir lieber. Aber zum Wandern in den Bergen geh ich gern mal wieder hin, wenn ich genug gespart habe.

Die längste Bank der Welt neben dem schönsten Kaffeeladen und oben die größten Kuhglocken über der Kaffeetasse und die schönsten Holzstapel…

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(7/17/12)

DIM SUM IN BERLIN

My answer to a sudden craving for Dim Sum in Kreuzberg SO36 is the LONG MARCH CANTEEN. Coming from San Francisco and used to the best I was surprised about the quality and variety in this stylish, dark Dim Sum place decorated with smiling faces from the Long March. The spot lights are on the food placed in front of you by charming Asian women –none of them Chinese, but that’s okay. My favorites: Shanghai dumplings ( bigger and spicier than what I know from Shanghai Dumpling King on Balboa St.) but very tasty, Octopus salad with turnips and for dessert traditional fried Bananas. The tab of about 30 Euros is many times that of Curry Wurst or Döner dinner…as expected  in Kreuzberg. ——Guten Appetit.

Adresse: Wrangelstr. 20 —Photos by Didier Laget

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(7/7/12)

Sommer vorm Balkon in Berlin, warm, black birds singing at 4.30 am and 8.30 pm, no wind, just balmy with thunderstorms interrupting the lazy heat of the day…and then suddenly everything can change into a cold summer day. It hasn’t happen to me yet, but it will come, I know the German weather. Although Berlin has “Sommerpause” there is a lot going on. Festivals of all kinds –fashion week is in full swing with Blue Jeans at center stage, everybody wearing them to everything, also Mayor Klaus Wowereit, only James Franco, promoting the jeans label 7 For All Mankind, doesn’t care what he is wearing.

I saw 3 films in 3 days. BARBARA by my favorite German director Christian Petzold, was the only German film shown on the plane coming over here. I was impressed that LH included a serious German movie that just premiered at the Berlinale in the flight entertainment program. When I walked up and down the isle, though, I didn’t see anybody watching it, besides me. A fine film, not his best, I think, but very good. Will try to see it again on big screen at Hackesche Höfe.

I just missed the SFS Youth Orchestra playing under Donato Cabrera at the Philharmonie and the reviews were fabulous. Der Tagesspiegel wrote about “fulminante Leistung…unter Donato Cabrera vom minimalistisch swingenden Shaker Loop von John Adams, der eine feine, homogene und doch immer wieder mit individuellen Farben hervortretende Streichergruppe zeigte, zu Solist Lars Vogt, der eine perfekte Einheit  mit dem Orchester demonstrierte, ob in lyrischer Zurückhaltung oder explosiven Steigerungen…”

Will keep you posted about my summer in Berlin.

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(6/17/12)

Lots of things happened since I posted last on German Gems. I saw a a couple of outstanding films at SFFS theatre on Post St. Bela Tarr’s supposedly last film THE TURIN HORSE which has nothing or very little to do with Nietzsche hugging a horse before he collapsed into madness. Shot in black & white and several hours long with not much happening, like most of Tarr’s films that I got sucked into, it does not quite make it to the top of my list, like SATANTANGO or WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES, but it is worth watching. The other film I saw at the same theatre ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA was mesmerizing. Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan won the Palm D’Or at Cannes 2011 for this masterpiece that for the first  hour and a half is a road movie shot at night. Searching for a corpse, a handful of people – murderer, prosecutor, doctor, drivers, –  drive around the country side to find the place where on a country road next to a tree the dead putatively was buried. All roads look alike especially at night. The intense search not just for the corpse but for the stories of the men involved in the investigation, goes on into day light when things finally clear up.

Last week I went to LA to attend an award ceremony for UCLA’s students where my daughter Milena was center piece with 2 awards for 2 of her films. A good start for a very competitive career in a city that otherwise should be avoided. Too many cars, insane… And here in SF don’t miss Frameline’s film festival going on for another week with a number of German entries. Check them out. http://ticketing.frameline.org/festival/film/results.aspx?CID=9&FID=49 I don’t know any of them but that doesn’t mean much. So many good films are being made and shown in SF.  In July and August I will be writing from Berlin, Kreuzberg, my summer residence. So keep in touch.

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(5/31/12)

Cannes 2012 - Milena’s frontrunners got top awards with Michael Haneke’s LOVE receiving the Palme d’Or. Can’t wait to see it and compare it to Andreas Dresen’s  HALT AUF FREIER STECKE /STOPPED ON TRACK which won an award at Cannes in 2011 and tackles the same topic –dying–only Dresen’s character is 35 not 80. Also I heard that Haneke’s film has a nude scene of the eighty or so year old Emmanuelle Riva, a fabulous actress – remember HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR? – and even  that has been addressed by Dresen’s CLOUD 9, which was shown in Cannes in 2009. It  depicting nudity and sex between septuagenarians. Is Andreas Dresen always ahead? I will have to see the latest Haneke film to confirm. In the meantime we will wait patiently for the winners and losers – they might be good too.

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(5/20/12)

The Cannes Film Festival started a few days ago. Still the most sought after festival by filmmakers and stars alike, it is known for screening the best of all genres – and where are the German entries? Under SPECIAL SCREENINGS I found the documentary MÜLL IM GARTEN EDEN (POLLUTING PARADISE) directed by Fatih AKIN and in SHORT FILMS GASP directed by Eicke BETTINGA. That’s it. If you browse through the program don’t forget to check out the Director’s Fortnight, a non-competitive sidebar not listed under Official Selection: http://www.quinzaine-realisateurs.com/2012-selection-h201.html From its initial program in 1969, the Director’s Fortnight created a breeding ground for prestigious auteurs, like Werner Herzog, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Michael Haneke, Jim Jarmusch, Sophia Coppola and many others. Michel Gondry’s latest THE WE AND I opened the series.

My spy at the festival is my daughter Milena, the cinematographer of THE BALLAD OF FINN + YETI, which will be shown in the short film competition of the Cinefondation. She was blown away by BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD , a Sundance 2012 favorite directed by Benh ZEITLIN. And Michael Haneke’s LOVE moved her to tears, very very sad, she said, another masterpiece.

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(5/10/12)

Don’t miss Rothko and Richter. Berkeley Rep has a few more performances of RED, an award winning play by John Logan who says that the play is about fathers and sons and not about art. I disagree. It is about art, about painting, about Rothko and that’s why comparing it with GERHARD RICHTER PAINTING came to my mind. Two giant painters at work and talking about it. The Richter film at the Roxie will end today….

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(5/7/12)

A recent article in the New Yorker (9 April) dealt with Karl May and the fascination of Germans with the Native Americans. Check it out. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/04/09/120409fa_fact_galchen And here a few more thoughts that came to my mind when I read the piece.

The fascination of Germans with Native Americans began long before Karl May entered  the scene. When early German settlers came to the East Coast, many lived with Indian tribes, learned their languages, became translators and often part of the tribal families. The Roman historian Tacitus described the German tribes, like Germans would describe Indians, as uncorrupted, primitive, fierce and at one with nature, a people on the edge of a corrupt and voracious empire. Centuries later romantic writers like Novalis, Eichendorff. Brentano, Mörike, the painter Kasper David Friedrich and others dug deep into the primordial Germanness of man and nature and man’s longing for being one with nature in hostile surroundings. German Romanticism prepared the ground for Karl May’s success story.

In 1992 the Goethe-Institut in San Francisco presented a program of Germans and Native Americans with many distinguished tribal leaders present. They had visited some of the Indian Clubs in Germany and were impressed by the numbers, thousands of Germans masquerading every weekend as Indians from the North-American plains, and by the thoroughness that Germans seem to apply to whatever they do. “Driving on the Autobahn and seeing hundreds of teepees along the Rhine river, that was incerdible”, said Floyd Red Crow Westerman.

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(4-26-12)

Fahim Abassi is the lucky winner of the Glawogger tickets. Gratulation!

The first week of the International Film Festival is over and I have to admit that I didn’t see much. DREILEBEN last Saturday was a bit of a disappointment. The first part by Christian Petzold, whose films I find fascinating, did have the usual ingredients of small town people looking for a way out, a murderer hiding in the dark woods, passion and mystery,  but it did not add up to what Petzold has done in previous films, like JERICHO, YELLA or THE STATE I AM IN. The 2nd part of DREILEBEN was too convoluted, too much happening, too much talking. A beautiful old house, yes, with a voluptuous, very attractive woman living in it. And the 3rd part left too many questions open. For a crime story I need more answers that make sense.

SCHLAFKRANKHEIT, also by a director from the Berliner Schule, like Petzold and Hochhäusler,  shows some of their trademarks of long shots, slow plot development, composed beautiful images. The film kept my attention and initiated lively talks afterwards.

Two documentaries – not German – are the best of what I have seen so far, AI WEI WEI: NEVER SORRY and WOMEN WITH COWS. Ai Wei Wei is a fascinating, charismatic character so courageous and so full of ideas that have been turned into his art projects. The film is just the beginning of a story that will need to continue. And the women devoted to cows are just out of this world. I grew up on a small farm with cows and could not of dreamt up anything like these characters living now and in Sweden. Go and see for yourself.

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Thanks so much for sending in all the correct answers to the Richter question. The lucky winner is Anni. Gratuliere!

And here another pair of tickets to give away to a film of your choice by Austrian filmmaker Michael Glawogger at the PFA in Berkeley, May 4 -6. A retrospective of his documentaries and features will be shown there with the filmmaker present for Q&A. His films are very powerful stuff, especially MEGACITIES which has stayed with me since I saw it more than 10 years ago. More on http://bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries/glawogger

And the question is: Which cities are portrayed in MEGACITIES? The first correct answer will win.

(4/25/12)

GERHARD RICHTER PAINTING  at the Roxie in San Francisco, May 4 to 10

One of the world’s greatest living painter, German artist Gerhard Richter, has spent more than half a century experimenting with a wide range of techniques and ideas addressing everything from mass media representation and uncomfortable historical issues to intimate personal experiences. Media shy like his colleague Anselm Kiefer, Richter for the first time in many years agreed to appear on camera for this fascinating document which juxtaposes his creative process with  personal comments and rare archival footage. He just turned eighty , so don’t miss this once in a lifetime portrait. More on http://www.roxie.com/events/details.cfm?eventID=E5D6762E-1143-DBB3-C67431715AA7D8A7

To win a pair of tickets for this show please answer the following question. The 2nd correct email to germangems@gmail.com is the winner.

Question:  In which German town does Richter live today – Düsseldorf, Berlin, Köln or Dresden?

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(4/18/12)

A big round of applause to all of you who sent in the answers to the DREILEBEN questions. All were correct, but only one winner, alas, whose email arrived yesterday at 14.29. Herzlichen Glückwunsch David.

Hope to see you all at the movies.

(4/17/12)

Thanks to all who sent in their answers to the SLEEPING SICKNESS question. The winners are Victor and Sylvia. Herzlichen Glückwunsch. And here the question for the trilogy DREILEBEN. The winner will get 1 set of 3 tickets for the 3 films screened on Saturday, April 21, starting at 1.30 pm at the Kabuki. True to form, the 3rd email with the correct answers  to the three-part question will win.

Please name the 3 films of DREILEBEN  (titles in German and English), the 3 filmmakers, and the English translation of Dreileben.

Viel Glück!

(4/15/12)

Here the question you have to answer for winning a pair of tickets to SLEEPING SICKNESS on Sunday April 22 at 6.30pm at the Kabuki. Will give away 2 pairs of tickets. Send your answer to germangems@gmail.com – first come first serve

What are the titles (in German and English) of Ulrich Koehler’s feature films (3)?

Good luck – and on Tuesday we will give away 1 set of tickets for DREILEBEN, a trilogy of German films also screened at SFIFF.

(4/13/12)

Win a pair of tickets for SLEEPING SICKNESS, shown at the SFIFF on Sunday April 22, 6.30 at the Kabuki. Check back here this coming Sunday, April 15 for the question you have to answer correctly in order to qualify.

And for the weekend I recommend ANY GIVEN DAY at the Magic Theatre. Bold, moving, disturbing, funny, just really good. No German is spoken in the play, but it could also happen in Germany on any given day.

(4/9/12)

San Francisco International Film Festival - April 19 to May 3, 2012

German Gems is pleased to co-present the latest film by Ulrich Koehler, recipient of the Best First Feature Award for BUNGALOW at Berlin& Beyond 2003

SCHLAFKRANKHEIT / SLEEPING SICKNESS

A German doctor working to fight a sleeping sickness epidemic in Cameroon must make difficult choices as he decides whether or not to return to Europe with his family. Ulrich Köhler’s award-winning film, a subtle and meditative examination of the social and psychological forces that intersect western aid to Africa, follows Dr. Ebbo Velten (Pierre Bokma) as he prepares to turn the medical program over to his replacement. Three years later, we see the consequences of Ebbo’s choice from the perspective of Alex Nzila (Jean-Christophe Folly), a young doctor who has come to evaluate the program. An African raised in France, Alex finds both African attitudes and Dr. Velten elusive and enigmatic. Köhler creates a palpable sense of dread and danger, stemming as much from the characters’ internal landscapes as from the corruption and military conflict that surround them. At times lushly beautiful as well as languorous and claustrophobic, the film’s echoes of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness suggest the degree to which colonial attitudes remain embedded in contemporary minds. For showtimes and tickets visit festival.sffs.org.. Link to:  http://festival.sffs.org/films/film_details.php?id=92

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(3/30/12)

Für den Frauenmonat März hier meine Erinnerungen an FRAUEN HINTER DER KAMERA 

Von 1989 bis 2009 gehörte ich beim Goethe-Institut San Francisco zu den Frauen hinter der Kamera, die zwar keine Filme gemacht haben, aber zahlreiche Filmprogramme, oft mit der Kamera in der Hand, und sogar vor der Kamera zusammen mit Regisseurinnen wie Doris Dörrie, Monika Treut, Nina Grosse, Bettina Oberli oder Erica von Möller. Schon in den achziger Jahren waren Frauen im Filmprogramm des Goethe-Instituts sehr präsent. Ich erinnere mich an “ausverkaufte” Filmabende schon lange vor meinem Amtsantritt (damals zahlte man noch keinen Eintritt) mit Ulrike Ottinger, Helke Sanders und Helma Sanders-Brahms. Manfred Triesch veranstaltete legendäre Parties, wo ich u. a. Margarete von Trotta kennenlernte. Zu einer meiner ersten Filmveranstaltungen, die mir in Erinnerung geblieben ist, kam Ulrike Ottinger 1990 mit ihrem Film COUNTDOWN ins Goethe-Institut.  Sie setzte sich lächelnd mitten in den anfangs noch vollen Saal. Ihr Lächeln verschwand aber, als immer mehr Leute den langen Film auf den harten Stühle nicht durchsitzen konnten und den Raum verließen. Der Countdown im Saal entfaltete sich als Gegenstück zum Countdown auf der Leinwand, der mit jubelnden Massen beim Fall der Mauer endete.

Die Filmtradition fortzusetzen und auszuweiten machte ich, als Programmfrau, zu meiner Hauptaufgabe, die sich bald zu einer wahren Leidenschaft entwickelte. 1996 wurde mit Hilfe von Institutsleiter Ulrich Sacker auf meine Anregung hin BERLIN & BEYOND ins Leben gerufen, ein einwöchiges Filmfestival, das endlich die vielen hervorragenden deutsch-sprachigen Filme auf großer Leinwand zeigen sollte, die sonst nirgens in San Francisco zu sehen waren. Mit dem Goethe-Institut als Veranstalter und dem wunderschönen Castro Kino als Partner boten sich ungeahnte Möglichkeiten und große Herausforderungen. Die 1500 Plätze im Castro auch nur zur Hälfte mit einem Publikum zu füllen, das weder die deutschen Schauspieler noch die Namen der Regisseure und schon gar nicht die der Regisseurinnen kannte, würde keine leichte Aufgabe sein. In den  fünfzehn Jahren, die ich mit dem Festival zu tun hatte, wuchs B&B schließlich so an, daß das Kino manchmal ausverkauft, oft voll und meistens so gut besetzt war, daß die deutschen Gäste voller Staunen waren. Und natürlich gab es unter ihnen immer mehr Frauen, oft Absolventen deutscher Filmschulen, die aufgrund einer umfangreichen Filmförderungspolitik eine erfolgreiche Zukunft im Filmgeschäft versprachen.

Amerika habe ich als Quotenland kennengelernt. Ein Filmprogramm ohne Regisseurinnen zu veranstalten, war für mich als Leiterin des Festivals undenkbar, was sich nun, viele Jahre später beim Durchblättern der Berlin & Beyond Programme bestätigt. 1996, zum Eröffnungsfestival, stand MEIN LIEBER MANN von Eva-Maria Bahlrühs auf dem Programm und schon zwei Jahre später waren vier Regisseurinnen von  insgesamt etwa zwanzig Filmemachern eingeladen. 2009 war der Anteil der Frauen auf weit über 30% gestiegen. Einige Namen tauchen immer wieder im Programm auf, wie Doris Dörrie, Barbara Albert (Österreich), Angela Schanelec und Caroline Link. Oft entpuppten sich aber kleine Filme von unbekannten Frauen als große Publikumserfolge, wie BIN ICH SCHÖN von Katinka Feistl, FRÄULEIN STINNES REIST UM DIE WELT von Erica von Möller oder Nathalie Steinbarts ENDSTATION TANKE und Birgit Möllers VALERIE, die beide mit $5000 und dem Best First Feature Award des Festivals ausgezeichnet wurden. In fünfzehn Jahren lernte das Publikum bei Berlin & Beyond über sechzig Filmemacherinnen kennen, deren Filme, bis auf wenige Ausnahmen, nicht in US Kinos gezeigt werden.  Nur Carline Link, Doris Dörrie,  Margarete von Trotta und Monika Treut, die Veteranen unter den Regisseurinnen, werden oft von US Verleihern gekauft. Gab es typisch weibliche Themen oder Sichtweisen? Gewalt, Kriegsverbrechen, die Brutalität der Neonazis waren selten ihr Fokus, vielmehr ging es um Beziehungsgeschichten,  Frauenschiksale, historische, dramatische oder romatische Stoffe. Eine Ausnahme ist Brigitte Barteles Film NACHT VOR AUGEN, der auf viel subtilere Weise als Kathryn Bigelows THE HURT LOCKER das Kriegstrauma eines Soldaten beschreibt. Bigelow bekam 2010 als erste Regisseurin einen Oscar für ihren Film.

Publikumsliebling bei Berlin & Beyond war Doris Dörrie. Wenn sie in roten Turnschuhen,  Stretchhosen und weißer Windjacke auf die Bühne sprang, jubelten die Zuschauer im vollgepackten Kino und gaben auch einem Film wie NAKED soviel Zuspruch, daß man nach zusätzlichen Beweggründen für soviel Begeisterung sucht. Der Titel half sicher und vielleicht auch ihre enge Verbindung zum Zen Center in San Francisco. Doris Dörrie und ihre Filme zogen auf jeden Fall genauso so wie Fatih Akin, Tom Tykwer, Wim Wenders oder Werner Herzog, die alle bei uns zu Gast waren.

Hollywood hat mit seiner mächtigen über hundert Jahre alten Filmindustrie kaum Regisseurinnen hervorgebracht und 2010 zum ersten Mal einer Frau den Oscar für “Best Director” gegeben. Deutschland dagegen hat aufgrund seiner besseren Finanzierungspolitik den Frauen im Filmgeschäft eine viel breitere Unterstützung ermöglicht, die auch Studentenfilmen Türen öffnen und Wege bahnen kann, die zwar selten zu den Oscars, aber oft bis nach San Francisco zu Berlin & Beyond geführt haben.

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(3/20/12)

I had lunch at the Zen Center in San Francisco recently where I ran into so many German speaking people that I asked myself, is there a special relationship between Zen and Germans. What is it that attracts Germans and Swiss (I didn’t meet any Austrians) to Zen Buddhism? One of my former interns ended up at the Zen Center and part of the deal was that she could extend her stay in the US as a student of Zen. The other part was serious work from cleaning rooms, helping in the kitchen, gardening to practicing Zen from 4am to 8pm. A long hard day. My friend Bernd, trained as a modern dancer, has been a student of Zen since 1984 and spent most of those years at the Zen Center in SF. He will move back to Germany and open a center in Berlin this summer. Richard Baker, serving as the head of the ZC from 71 – 83, is now dividing his time between Colorado and in the Black Forest, Germany. I can think of many other Germans who go to ZC for practice sessions, spend a few months in Green Gulch, or, like me,  just sit for an hour in the practice room, dimly lit by candles, to start the new year in peace and quiet. Sitting is difficult when you do it so rarely and at my age. The first 15 minutes I can only think of the pain in my legs, the next 15 minutes I try to think of nothing, the mantra of sitting, and in the final stretch I forget about everything and just sit. Stephanie Levy describes a workshop that she attended in Germany as follows:

“The Zen workshop was very interesting, very disciplined, and led by a Japanese Zen master from Tokyo. It was truly a new cultural experience for me. I never thought about how certain aspects of Japanese and German culture are so similar – the love of order, punctuality, hierarchy, perfection…”

Next time I will pay more attention to order and perfection at the ZC. I love their lunch menu which is always cooked to perfection. Check it out. http://www.sfzc.org/

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(2/24/12)

Went to the Goethe-Institut last night for a book reading with Marica Bodrozic (sorry for the missing accents on the z and c) and Gregor Hens, young writers from Germany. The lounge where the reading took place had been renovated with bright colors, spotlights, a bar area, a bench with comfy pillows, all very inviting but only a handful of people showed up.

Gregor Jens read from NIKOTIN, part autobiography, part longing for the cigarettes that he had given up when he started writing the book. Why had he given up smoking, asked someone in the audience, since he had so many good things to say about it (at least in the opening chapter of the book that he read).  Marica Bodrozic read from TITO IST TOT, a collection of stories from 1998, dealing with Yugoslavia, her homeland, and the death of the dictator. In beautiful German and a beautiful melodic diction that made you wonder if the story had been translated into German, she described her grandfather and a small village in which she had grown up. Unfortunately none of these books might be published in the US – NIKOTIN, a hard sell, because the pleasures of smoking is not what smoker or non smokers want to be reminded of,  Marshall Tito, however, has become a person of enormous interest for writers and filmmakers. CINEMA KOMUNISTO (2011) is the latest documentary, I saw, about the dictator’s extravagant life style. Fascinated with celebrities and movie stars, like Richard Burton, who helped turn Tito’s own partisan battles into action thrillers, Tito was loved by many, especially his long time projectionist who showed him movies every night. So TITO IST TOT  might eventually find a way to  US bookstores. I hope so. And I can’t wait to read Marica’s other books, “das gedächtnis der libellen”, “Qittenstunden”, “Windsammler”, and more.

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(2/18/12)

UND DIE BÄREN gehen an…

http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/kino/0,1518,816182,00.html

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(2/17/12)

TRANSPLANTS OF HANDS AND FACE

Just read an article in the latest NEW YORKER about the first full face transplant in the US in 2010 after only a few partial transplants had been done in France and elsewhere. An amazing story about Dallas Wiens whose photos went around the world a couple of years ago. There is nothing German about the story. The head surgeon at the Brigham grew up in the Czech Republic, French surgeons did ground breaking work in transplantation of hands and face, no German hospital was mentioned, no German surgeon – but when they talked about the first hand transplant (in 1998 in France, first kidney transplant in 1954) and the dramatic twists and turns it involved, I thought of ORLACS HÄNDE, a silent masterpiece from 1924 by Robert Wiene that foreshadows all the psychological problems of a hand transplantation. Conrad Veidt, in one of his memorable performances, portrays Orlac, the pianist, who loses his hands in a train accident and got new ones from a murderer that turned Orlac into an evil person. So sobering to hear today’s surgeons say: There is the heart, liver, brain-and the face which is skin, tissue, muscle, and blood. And those who argued that the recipients would suffer an identity crisis were wrong. Our obsession with identity goes back a long way. Before The Hands of Orlac there was Freud and long before him the Brothers Grimm. One of their fairy tales tells about three Army Surgeons (Die drei Feldscherer) who not only cut off their own heart, eyes and arms and paste them back together with a miracle ointment, but have no problem transplanting  organs of pigs and cats and the hands from a thief. The heart of the pig made the surgeon want to roll in the mud, with the cat’s eyes the second one could only see at night, and the hands of the thief turned the third one into a thief, of course.

Identity crisis after transplants today do not seem to be the biggest problem. Face-transplant recipients appear to adapt quickly, because they do not see their face constantly, says Dubernard, one of the experts. Hand transplants are much more psychologically straining, especially single hand transplants. New hands can not be easily ignored, and, unlike a double transplant, a single one makes you compare constantly. Dubernard now refuses to do single hand transplants. He would have saved Orlac.

Check out these articles

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/02/13/120213fa_fact_khatchadourian
http://www.kinoeye.org/02/04/goldberg04.php
http://www.grimmstories.com/de/grimm_maerchen/die_drei_feldscherer (in German)

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(2/12/12)

CINEQUEST in San Jose, CA and THE TIN DRUM

Thank you, Tim Griesser, for pointing out the German films that will play at Cinequest 2012 (Feb 28-Mar 11). Here they are:
ABENDLAND
KAMPF DER KÖNIGINNEN / Battle of the Queen
DICKE MÄDCHEN / Heavy Girls
HOW I WAS STOLEN BY THE GERMANS

I saw KAMPF DER KÖNIGINNEN at last year’s Berlinale and yes, go and see it even if you don’t care about cows. I grew up on a farm and love cows, those big, warm, friendly, slow animals –  remember the very long opening shot of Bela Tarr’s SATANTANGO with cows trodding through poop and mud forever? That was more like my farm life in the North German flat lands. BATTLE OF THE QUEENS is different. It’s Switzerland where in isolated valleys, surrounded by mighty mountains, cows are treated like majestic queens, pampered and groomed for the annual competition. It is not a bloody bull fight, no, as soon as one combatant turns away, the fight is over. As SF’s own Charlie Cockey puts it in his always elegantly written blurbs : “The contest is won by mere demurral… where even the losers are winners”. The film is preceded by another Swiss story, ICH BIN’S HELMUT, one of my favorite shorts that  played at B&B 2010. A great program, check it out. http://www.cinequest.org/schedule.php

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(2/10/12)

BERLINALE 2012 

If you are in Berlin right now check out the German films in the competition of the Berlinale. Three veteran filmmakers, known to San Francisco audiences from their films and visits to the Castro, present their latest works: Christian Petzold (JERICHO B&B 2009, YELLA B&B 2008, GESPENSTER/Ghosts B&B 2006, WOLFSBURG B&B 2004, just to name a few) is showing BARBARA, again starring his muse Nina Hoss, who again seems to be drifting through life — this time in East Germany in the summer of 1980. Hans-Christian Schmid’s (NACH FÜNF IM URWALD B&B 1997, LICHTER/Lights 2006, REQUIEM 2009, STURM/Storm 2009) WAS BLEIBT/Home for the Weekend, stars a.o. Lars Eidinger who played Georg Trakl in TABOO, this year’s closing night film of German Gems. The story: a family reunion in a small town outside of Berlin which ends with things falling apart. Has been done before but Christian Schmid will add new touches, I’m sure. And Matthias Glasner known for not shying away from uncomfortable topics (SEXY SADIE B&B 1997′s Opening Night film, DER FREIE WILLE/ The Free Will B&B 2007) presents GNADE/Mercy with his favorite actor, Jürgen Vogel. The story takes place high up in Norway, in winter, of course, where in a shadowy nocturnal world a melodrama unfolds. For more go to The Berlin Film Festival

and here a fantastic review (in German) of BARBARA in Spiegel Online.
Barbara review

Wish I were there…
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Thank You to all the wonderful people who helped turn my last picture show into a very memorable event. The day was packed with great films, engaging discussions, enthusiastic audiences and heart-felt farewells.
Danke für alles und bis bald im Kino.
ingrid eggers
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Saturday January 14, 2012 at the Castro
Sunday January 15, 2012 in Point Arena

The 3^rd and final edition of German Gems was a two-day showcase of new German-language films that are hard to find on any US movie screen except at the fabulous Castro Theatre.  Four narrative features and a documentary, all in German with English subtitles (with a Happy Hour squeezed in) were part of a jam-packed Kinotag, a selection of which traveled to the charming Arena Theatre on the Mendocino Coast.

All films are in German with English subtitles
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11am UNDER CONTROL Unter Kontrolle
DIR/SCR/CAM Volker Sattel with Stefan Stefanescu
Germany 2011, 98 min, 35mm
PRINT SOURCE credofilm

Gloriously shot on 35mm and Cinemascope®, UNDER CONTROL unfolds a breathtaking yet disturbing, often science fiction-like panoramic view of nuclear power plants in Germany. Volker Sattel got permission to enter control rooms, reactors and storage facilities for atomic waste where experts discuss risk management and security measures. The camera focuses on the power plant like an archeological dig that tells the history of civilization.  Reflecting on a technology that was once a synonym for progress the film traces a hidden tragedy. At the end, the power plants are deserted, and the spirit of the atom has escaped and left its mark. Variety calls UNDER CONTROL “…a monumental film on life and death of nuke plants.”

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2:15 pm WAY HOME Vergiß dein Ende
Germany 2011, 93 min, DCP
DIR Andreas Kannengießer, SCR Nico Woche, CAM Stephan Fallucchi, CAST Renate Krößner, Dieter Mann, Hermann Beyer
PRINT SOURCE HFF Potsdam

For several years Hannelore has been taking care of her husband Klaus who suffers from dementia and she has reached the end of the rope. One day, on the spur of the moment, she jumps on the train and follows her neighbor Günther, leaving her husband behind. Irritated about the stalker, Günther tries to shake Hannelore off but with no success. Together they end up on a small island and a story of two isolated, desperate people unfolds. WAY HOME is a film about two lost souls who, by helping each other, find a new beginning. With memorable performances by veteran actors like Renate Krößner, known from the 1980 DEFA classic SOLO SUNNY.

Andreas Kannengiesser (will attend the screening)
was born in 1978 in Nordhausen and grew up on Ruegen. Before enrolling at the Film & Television Academy in Potsdam in 2004, he worked as a garbage collector, a dental technician and then as an intern at the North German Broadcasting Service (NDR).  His work as assistant director includes KROKO (B&B 2005) and DETROIT (2004). PLANET CARLOS (2008) and WAY HOME are his directorial debuts.

Preceded by
FLAMINGO PRIDE by Tomer Eshed
Animation, 6 min, 35mm

Buy tickets for WAY HOME and FLAMINGO PRIDE
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4:30 pm ABOVE US ONLY SKY Über uns das All
Germany 2011, 88 min, 35mm,
DIR/SCR Jan Schomburg CAM Marc Comes CAST Sandra Hüller, Georg Friedrich
PRINT SOURCE Bavaria Film International

Martha’s well-balanced life comes to a sudden halt when she finds out that Paul, the man she loves and has been living with for several years, disappeared without a trace. When the police knocks at her door to identify him, she looses her grip on everything that has existed. Is Paul the man the police has found? Was he a phantom?  A lie? As Martha tries to cope with the loss, she meets Alexander who reminds her of Paul. But can he fill the gap?  Probing deep into the mind and heart of a woman who is desperately trying to hold on to a broken life, Jan Schomburg’ intense feature debut has been described as suspenseful thriller, and a powerful story about coming to terms with loss. A genuine highlight of the 2011 Berlinale with an extraordinary performance by Sandra Hüller.

Jan Schomburg (will attend the screening)
Born in Aachen in 1976. After studying visual communications in the film and television department at Kassel College of Art he graduated in film directing from the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM). In 2008 he was awarded a fellowship to study at the Andrzej Wajda Film School in Warsaw. After making several short films, some of which won awards (NEVER EVEN B&B 2005), ÜBER UNS DAS ALL marks his theatrical feature debut. He lives in Cologne.

Buy tickets for ABOVE US ONLY SKY
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7:30 pm WESTWIND
Germany, Hungary 2011, 89 min, 35mm
DIR Robert Thalheim, SCR Ilja Haller, Susann Schimk, CAST Friederike Becht, Luise Heyer, Franz Dinda, Volker Bruch
PRINT SOURCE Betafilm

It is 1988, a year before the fall of the Berlin Wall and inseparable 17-year-old twins Doreen and Isabel from East Germany spend a summer at Lake Balaton in Hungary. The twins are decorated oarswomen sent by their country to Soviet satellite states like Hungary to bring home trophies. Hungary’s borders are porous and West Germans can visit Lake Balaton.  When Doreen falls for Arne, a West German tourist from Hamburg, the twin’s well-structured summer begins to crumble. Risking a promising career as a rower and the twin’s close relationship, Doreen will destroy everything that the twins have lived for if she follows her heart across the borders to West Germany. Based on true events, Robert Thalheim’s third feature paints a beautiful, engaging picture of first love on the backdrop of harsh political realities.

Robert Thalheim
Born in 1974 in Berlin, Thalheim was an assistant director at the Berlin Ensemble before he began in 2000 to study directing at the Filmhochschule Potsdam-Babelsberg. His debut film NETTO (2004) won several awards (Best First Feature at B&B 2006). His second feature AND ALONG COME TOURISTS (Am Ende kommen Touristen, B&B 2008), shot on location in Auschwitz, was invited to the Cannes Film Festival in 2007.

Actress Friederike Becht will attend the screening

Buy tickets for WESTWIND
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9:30pm TABOO-THE SOUL IS A STRANGER ON EARTH Tabu – Es ist die Seele ein Fremdes auf Erden
Tabu-ES ist die Seele ein Fremdes auf Erden
Germany, Austria, Luxembourg 2011, 94 min, DCP
DIR Christoph Stark CAST Peri Baumeister, Lars Eidinger
PRINT SOURCE Eclypse Filmpartner

Vienna at the turn of the century. Splendor. Glamour. Facades. Pretense. Behind it is insecurity, melancholy, suicides, rumors, and sex, with Freud the analyst, Karl Kraus the satirist, and Schnitzler, Klimt and Schiele, the documentarians of sexuality. This is the background to the story of two solitary children who go from clinging to each other for companionship to becoming soulmates, then lovers; and no one can tear them apart. They are Georg and Margarete Trakl, the great expressionist poet and his sister Grete, his muse, his love. Based less on historical facts than on Trakl’s poems that show his deep connection with his sister, the film portrays “… the wild, consuming passion and longing which is so magnificently reflected in the dark and powerful imagery of Georg Trakl’s poetry,” says director Christoph Stark. Shot on location in Vienna and Luxembourg by award-winning DP Bogumi Godfrejow (REQUIEM & STURM) the film is a radical portrait of a forbidden love, so engaging and absorbing that we long for its fulfillment.

Co-presented by the San Francisco Film Society

Preceded by
MARLENE’S BERLIN by Jerry Ross Barrish

Buy tickets for TABOO and MARLENE’S BERLIN

Buy tickets for ALL 3 GERMAN GEMS at the Arena Theatre

2pm WAY HOME Vergiß dein Ende
Germany 2011, 93 min
DIR Andreas Kannengießer will be at the Q & A

Preceded by
FLAMINGO PRIDE (2011, 6 min)
by Tomer Eshed

Buy tickets for WAY HOME and FLAMINGO PRIDE at the Arena Theatre
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4pm ABOVE US ONLY SKY Über uns das All
Germany 2011, 88 min
DIR/SCR Jan Schomburg will be at the Q & A

Buy tickets for ABOVE US ONLY SKY at the Arena Theatre
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7:30pm WESTWIND
Germany, Hungary 2011, 89 min
DIR Robert Thalheim
Friederike Becht (actress) will be at the Q & A

Buy tickets for WESTWIND at the Arena Theatre