30 December 2008

My Dearest Enemy (Mein Liebster Feind) Germany 1999 ☆☆

The love and hate relationship of German director Werner Herzog wth actor Klaus Kinski is analyzed extensively in this documentary. With often harsh shooting conditions, director Herzog was able to come up with original movies in which Kinski played major roles.

18 December 2008

Lost In La Mancha (USA, 2002) ☆☆

This documentary tells the making of a movie by Terry Gilliam, Don Quichote de la Mancha. A movie that, of course, was not completed. The actual production took place in Spain, at least the beginning,since heaps of problems, especially losing one of the main characters, the Quichotte, prevented director Gilliam from finishing his dream project. This was supposed to be a 35 million dollar movie, which by European standards is extremely expensive.

15 December 2008




Winter 2008
Burden of Dreams (UK, 1982) ☆☆☆

This feature-length documentary tells the complicated making of the Werner Herzog's "Fitzcarraldo". Trying to shoot the film on location in the Amazons proved to be more difficult than expected. Sick artists, an ever-changing weather, floods, tribe conflicts, political tensions, etc. Almost everything you can imagine actually happened. It took almost 3 years for Herzog to finish his movie. The most amazing thing is to listen to the director during the shooting while he attempts to explain the reason(s) for finishing the movie. His stubbornness paid well at the end, and the movie was realeased in both English and German versions in 1982.

03 December 2008

Reprise (Norway, 2006) ☆☆☆☆☆

This is one of my favorite movies I saw this year. This movie by Norwegian director Joachim Trier tells the story of two friends who strive to become writers. One becomes a famous writer sooner than the other, but the famous one has psychological problems which make him detached from others at times. What I really find interesting is the way the story is told. Right from the beginning, we see a couple of fast scenes where the storyteller starts narrating things that could have happened, or that would have happened. This conditional future tense is used extensively throughout the movie. This new experimenting with plot storytelling is what Trier deliberately strives for.
The whole looks like a turning of age movie, or a teenager love affair, but the characters have much more depth than that. Especially considering that the two main characters are not professional actors in real life.

01 December 2008

The Birds (USA, 1963) ☆☆☆

Alfred Hitchcocks Meisterstück bleibt immer noch aktuell. Was als eine Liebesgeschichte beginnt wird allmählich zu einem Horror Thriller. Eine Frau versucht einem neuen Bekannten ein Geschenk zu erreichen (zwei "love birds"). Sie reist zu einer ruhigen Dorf, wo plötzlich die Vögel (Spatz) fangen an, die Bevölkerung anzugreifen. Gelungene Effekts führen zu einem Kinoklassiker allezeit.
Donnie Darko (USA, 2001) ☆☆☆☆☆

Eine Geschichte, die sich schwierig zu erklären lässt. Regisseur Richard Kelly gelangt ein mysteriöses Drama um ein Jungen, der Visionen hat. Seine Psychologin schlägt vor, seine Krankung mit mehr Medikamente zu kontrollieren, leider vergeblich. Es geht auch um Reisen in die Zukunft und Relativitätstheorien. Aber das traurige Ende wird der Zuschauer erstaunen.