I hate French films. I love Italian cinema. If someone said that to you, you'd have a pretty good idea of what they mean in terms of aesthetics, style, mood. German film? Not so much, at least post-New German Cinema with its heroes Fassbinder, Kluge, von Trotta et al. Of course there is the contemporary (and equally auteur-focused) Berlin School with its Petzolds and Hochhäuslers (which German director Oskar Roehler defined as "slow and depressing"). And recently, Germany has been very strong and internationally successful in children’s films and high-quality animation. But these are vogues or sub-industries rather than a big picture, a brand, a distinct and distinctive brand.
Continue reading "What is a German/European Film?" »
Entries tagged as venice biennale
academy of the arts ai wei wei akin berlin doc documentary film museum munich film museum vienna german film institute goethe films götz george harvard history hitler karmakar kurosaw lumet nazis punk retrospective schlingensief super 8 tykwer venice film festival adaptation berlinale berlinale blogger berlinale people berlinaleblogger book bruehl brühl cannes crime euff euffto experimental fehling festival german german film awards hannah arendt hans-christian schmid holocaust holocaust education week krüger lang lau lubitsch masters music nina koennemann premiere production propaganda residency shorts silents soundtrack talent terror thriller tiff wenders zkm animation auteur cinematheque emerging fassbinder german films goethe-institut industry video art wall eidinger goethe graf heimat husain kosslick krens reitz schilling tv africa argentina arslan art atef babelsberg barbara beer blogger brecht brendemühl buenos aires celeste cid censorship defa django docs dresen eisler forum forum expanded frankfurt gdr hamburg hannah herzsprung heritage hoss hot docs hotdocs hueller imaginative indigenous jeanine meerapfel jewish karl marx klaus kinski kraume la amiga link ludwig lulu wang malou mario adorf market max riemelt maximilian schell nadda naomi watts native neue road movies nikolai kinski nina hoss offenbach opening oscar panorama performance peter sehr petzold pevere philippe diaz post-communist post-system post-war producer rogowski ronald zehrfeld sabin tambrea sarah polley schiller schloendorff schlöndorff short film spain stuber sturm und drang telefilm til schweiger tom schilling uwe ochsenknecht veiel venice visconti war werner herzog wim wenders wolfgang petersen wwii asia award canada environment female gaze film museum filmmaker herzog imagesfestival innovation lightbox ottinger picard planet in focu pov refugees review series shooting stars simard studio babelsberg 35mm austria city+climate coming-of-age culture+economy dok leipzig energy goethe media space heimatfilm idfa images festival moma moving image osnabrueck poland shanghai soccer soundofheimat tbilisi tinatin gurchiani urban space boomers dance franka potente lars eidinger hirsch nekes schroeter snow wyborny cinema genre oberhausen buck comedy goosen radwanski sukowa sönke wortmann trotta western wortmann co-presentation transnational michael snow funding fassinder media new german film pasolini acting bleibtreu bo odar composer donnersmarck family gröning hegemann india item number jasmine ellis jorgen lerdam julia von heinz kari juusonen kika kraus könnemann marcus o. rosenmüller michael ekbald mike marzuk mini cinéphiles mongrel montreal oliver dieckmann oliver husain ozon philipp stennert reel 2 real reinhard klooss robert thalheim star escalator stephan schesch sundance ted sieger tiff kids top ten uni acronym vancouver viewfinders atlantic film festival for youth when santa fell to earth wickie wolfgang groos wunderkind zlin film festival bierbichler clooney freydank george kafka krol lore m'barek munich opera prahl qurbani rosendahl schweiger stadlober steinbichler striesow stölzl tukur vogel wuttke
Tuesday, November 8. 2016
What is a German/European Film?
I hate French films. I love Italian cinema. If someone said that to you, you'd have a pretty good idea of what they mean in terms of aesthetics, style, mood. German film? Not so much, at least post-New German Cinema with its heroes Fassbinder, Kluge, von Trotta et al. Of course there is the contemporary (and equally auteur-focused) Berlin School with its Petzolds and Hochhäuslers (which German director Oskar Roehler defined as "slow and depressing"). And recently, Germany has been very strong and internationally successful in children’s films and high-quality animation. But these are vogues or sub-industries rather than a big picture, a brand, a distinct and distinctive brand.
Continue reading "What is a German/European Film?" »
Wednesday, May 29. 2013
To Romuald Karmakar, c/o Venice Biennale
Dear Romuald Karmakar,
With 19 “clips” over 19 days, with protagonists ranging from animals at Berlin Zoo to neo Nazis on Alexanderplatz, I was surprised but happy to hear you are one of four artists, alongside Germany's favourite Ai Wei Wei (and his mother), to animate the German Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale starting tomorrow –or rather the French Pavilion, as both countries have traded places again this year, harking back to the first post-war Biennale. But that shouldn’t matter to you as a multi-hyphenated German-French-Iranian writer-director-producer of feature films and docs anyway. I was a bit worried about what kind of shot you would be given at the grandiose art spectacle when Deutschlandfunk radio commented on your inclusion in Susanne Gaensheimer's curation: "The film community ignores this honour, the art world is irritated. As usual, Romuald Karmakar polarizes."
Continue reading "To Romuald Karmakar, c/o Venice Biennale" »
