Ethelred Unraed's Journal: Modern German movies

I already posted this in response to sielwolf's response to my previous JE, but thought it would be a good idea to have this as a separate JE as well.

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There are actually some good modern German movies, but they weren't exported to the American market.

One that was exported was Lola rennt (in America it was called "Run Lola Run" or "Lola Runs"). A very good movie overall, with a slick soundtrack from German hip-hopper Thomas D.

One that was not widely exported -- a pity, really -- was a German comedy (which is usually an oxymoron, but this one was hilarious): Nur über meine Leiche (literally "Over My Dead Body"). The plot is formulaic, but the acting and directing is brilliant. Basically is about this asshole who uses women who dies, is given a second chance by Charon, the Styx boatsman (who the asshole refuses to believe is real, until he tries to kill Charon, which of course he can't); his task is to woo and win a hopeless scatterbrained woman, played by Katja Riemann. In the process he "dies" over and over again, but because he's already dead, he bounces back. Really funny movie.

Another German movie that did well (though I haven't seen it yet) was Knockin' on Heaven's Door . It got rave reviews.

If anything the problem is the lack of money for German movies. They're quite capable of making great movies, but they don't have the budgets, and Hollywood is usually more interested in pilfering ideas and doing remakes than actually buying the originals...

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A couple of other German movies that I'd recommend: Schtonk! , starring Götz George, one of Germany's best actors, is a comedy about a true story, the faking of the Hitler diaries. Absolutely hilarious.

A really chilling one: Der Totmacher (The Deathmaker), also starring George. The movie focuses almost entirely on two characters -- a psychopath who murdered 17 boys, played by George, and the criminal psychologist interviewing him. Really intense acting throughout.

Also mentioned elsewhere: Bruno Ganz, who starred in the classic Wim Wenders movie Himmel über Berlin a.k.a. Wings of Desire as the angel Damiel, and who may be one of the best cinema actors alive, is starring in a new German production called The Downfall (Der Untergang). His intense portrayal of Hitler is already getting stellar reviews. The wide-release cinema trailer certainly looks intense...

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Re:Das Experiment

[Doctor O]

Yes, I was thinking about mentioning this one, too, but the acting is too awkward at times. It's a good movie if you can ignore that, having a very interestic topic and being based on things that actually happened.

Some more...

[Doctor O]

...which are really great:

Bang Boom Bang [imdb.com] is *hilarious*, and it gives a lot of insight about how life is in the area known as Ruhrpott or Ruhrgebiet, because it's not *all* exaggerated. One of my all time favourites, starring some of Germany's greatest actors such as Martin Semmelrogge ('Das Boot' [imdb.com]), Willi Thomczyk (an original Ruhrpott character) and the greatly-missed Diether Krebs.

Then, of course, "Das Boot" [imdb.com]. Nuff said.

As for comedy, Der bewegte Mann [imdb.com] was quite funny, a relationship drama containing c

Good Bye Lenin!

[sbuckhopper]

I just got finished watching Good Bye Lenin [imdb.com] this weekend and I really liked it. It was a strange, yet entertaining movie. My wife got it for me for a birthday present because it had gotten good reviews.

My only complaint with the movie is that they cut too much out of it (though it was a long movie with the cuts). I watched the deleted scenes and they have a lot of charater development for Lara that makes a lot more of the scenes in the movie make sense if these were included. But at least you have th

Re:Good Bye Lenin!

[Ethelred Unraed]

I'm way ahead of you [slashdot.org]. ;-)

Cheers,

Ethelred

Re:Good Bye Lenin!

[sbuckhopper]

I'm way ahead of you. ;-)

Doh! I didn't do enough research! That was a good review that you gave. I feel good that I did get two of the jokes (the only thing German about me is my heritage -- from my great, great grandparents), although I probably didn't appreciate it as much as I could've if I understood the culture.

I will have to check out some of the other movies you mentioned as well. I'm slowly seeing myself get hooked on German movies as I have slowly been getting tired of the same old Hollyw

Re: Run Lola Run

[tomhudson]

Watched it in German w English subtitles (not that you needed the subtitles to understand "shit! shit! shit!" in any language) - I thought it was pretty neat - esp. the last few seconds.

Oddly enolugh, nobody else liked it. Guess it's a matter of taste.

Re: Run Lola Run

[Ethelred Unraed]

Oddly enolugh, nobody else liked it. Guess it's a matter of taste.

Or getting used to something new. Lola rennt is a tad different from what the bulk of North American viewers are used to seeing, after all...

Hollywood movies tend to kill brain cells after a while. Pretty soon you start to think that that's the only way to make a movie (Hollywood certainly seems to think so). But both Japan and Europe produce a lot of awesome stuff, too -- and I'm sure other regions of the world do as well, just that I ha

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[account_deleted]

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Das Boot?

[Alioth]

How can you NOT mention Das Boot? That film is one of my all-time favorites - probably the best war film I've ever seen.

Wings of Desire

[stoolpigeon]

is quite possibly my favorite movie of all time.