German Gems

9/23/12

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.

9/13/12

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

8/31/12

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

8/27/12

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…

8/9/12

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…

7/17/12

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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….

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.