Soul Kitchen, Some Kitchen no soul

This is a cute movie from Fatih Akin, but Fatih Akin's best movies like Head On and Edge of Heaven are not cute.

I love food and stories of restaurants that came together out of nothing and made it, but this one doesn't come together for the love of food, it comes together because of location.

This story reminded me more of a Doris Dorrie film with it's hard to believe characters like Illias, the jailbird and perpetual gambler played by Moritz Bleibtreu, and Neumann, the nasty capitalist.

Once again, Akin brought together a fun cast of characters and gave a peak into the lives of two groups of Auslander, the Turks and the Greeks. The message the film sends about Greeks struggles between cementing stereotypes and disproving them.

Fun to watch, but light.

Counterfeiters

It's a good movie. An interesting take on WWII. An original story I have never heard anything about and the acting is really good. 2008 Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars. I can't believe it took me this long to see it.

Komplex Movie

When I studied German literature and history, the Red Army Faktion (RAF) was one of the genres that I was quite interested in. I think this was partly because I met the man who wrote the book about this terrorist cell, and read his other book The Pirate, and also because, at the beginning, the idea to redistribute wealth and make statements about the injustice in the world, and partly because it was just a lot more interesting to me than reading Schiller or Goethe.

For anyone who has read the various journal articles, books, scene the other movies like The Legend of Rita, about another terrorist, or even The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, you will certainly want to see this movie, if for no other reason than to complete your research. The movie is interesting and it definitely weaves some interesting and unknown historical tidbits into the bigger story, which I found interesting. For example, the writer, Stefan Aust, was actually connected to the group because he had worked at the newspaper where Meinhof wrote her first manifesto. He is actually portrayed in the film for a brief moment.

Ulrike Meinhof is played by Martina Gedeck (The Lives of Others) and Andreas Baader is played by Moritz Bleibtreu--two of my favorite German actors. Oh and Stipe Erceg, he's not so bad either.

Whether this is Oscar winner quality, I cannot say that yet, having not seen most of the other foreign films. I would wait until it's out on DVD.

One thing I can say for sure is that this movie is complex. I had red about how they had codenames for each other from Moby Dick and this became somehow important once they were in jail. Honestly, it was a lot to try to follow. I think it's an aptly named film.

Die Frau und der Fremde aka The Woman and the Stranger- Salute to Veteran's Day

It's not often that I sit down to watch a film about WWI but I had to see this one because it won one of the awards at the Berlinale back in the 80s and as we know some of the best German Film of the last century was from the 80s.

This film was a great slice of history, made me think about love and marriage and the impact that war has on them. War brings about some very interesting questions of ethics. There were both stories of eros love and agape love.

As usual, I enjoyed the attention paid to the detail of the sets and costumes but also the bit of history and some things that I never realized may happen as a result of a long war.

You will have to see it yourself to find out what I mean.

A for acting as well. If there is a rating for skin, I give it to Anna. I don't know if it was the makeup artist or what, but her creamy smooth skin is something to strive for. She is just so sweet, you can't help but fall in love with her. So what if she married I guy, whose name she didn't know..... formalities.

It's interesting that Rainer Simon, the director, and the other actors have not been in many films since. They have done mostly TV. Perhaps a result of being actors in East Germany. I will have to look into that.

Stop Nuclear Power- Start Here

Die Wolke was one of the most moving films I have seen in a long time. How long? I am not sure but as long as I can remember I haven't cried that hard. Amount of tears that I shed was probably in the same range as when I saw My Girl. I felt like I could relate to every moment of it. No, I am not German. No, I am not in high school. No, I don't think I live within 200 km of a nuclear reactor, do I? But I did live in Germany and this modern day interpretation of the German novel has a little bit of something for everyone in the audience: single mother, first-grade brother, high school daughter, high school misfit son, unhappy rich father, stroke victim rich mother, punch drunk in love high schoolers, stupid high school partyers, emergency response team, distant aunti, und, und, und. Not only does it speak to many different viewers it portrays for the first time in my experience a nuclear disaster in present day context with what seems to me like a lot of details that most of us citizens of the world or should I say of the western world have learned about emergency response since September 11th and Hurricane Katrina. For example, no one wants to be immobile in an emergency and people will do crazy stuff and sometimes forget their ethics when push literally comes to shove.

The love story was so sweet it made you want to go back to high school and be kissed again for the first time. It made me want to change may career track to emergency response. And after it made me do all of these things it made me want to stop nuclear power from coming back, which it might well do in the current carbon-fearing paradigm that we are living in. See this movie and take your friends that don't speak German too. The girlfriend I went with hasn't been to Germany and doesn't speak the language and she went through as many tissues as I did, if not more.

The Adventures Return with Prince Achmed

The Adventures of Prince Achmed (Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed) is an undiscovered gem. This 1926 animated feature film is the creation of Lotte Reiniger. It is the oldest animated feature known to be in existence. If that is not enough to make you want to see it, the score for this film is also quite amazing. It's like a symphony was composed just for it. Although there is no dialogue, the titling interspersed in the film are very dramatic and the story is quite compelling. On top of that the detail of the silhouette animation, a technique that she created after the Japanese shadow puppet technique. In one scene she takes care to even show the reflection of the characters in the lake using her special technique to pull off very Romantic imagery.

The story is based on one of the 1001 Arabian nights tales. Reiniger pulls off a fantastic animated film. Being the oldest known feature-length animated film, it's a must see for all German film lovers.

the German Exorcist!

2006 film by Hans-Christian Schmid, Requiem. Like this photo, this film made me cringe so hard that it hurt watching this movie about the death of Anneliese Michel. Anneliese's character is renamed Michaela. She is a student in Tuebingen, who is tortured by her medical condition and her strong Catholic upbringing. Strong is an understatement! Her family ultimately is responsible for Michaela's demise. She just wants to enjoy the simple life as a Studentin--boyfriend, Fachschaft Fete, Stockerkahn fahren im Neckar uzw.

I appreciated the acting, that this story was told, and on a lighter note-- that she studied in Tuebingen and lived in a dorm room much like the one I er... enjoyed in 1995 in Tuebing. W.H.O.

This film was on the festival circuit and may not be available on video yet. If this entry has gotten you down scroll forward to be uplifted.