Good news (for German cinemas & my job & for international viewers too): The latest TOP 75 study by the German Federal Film Board (FFA) finds viewer numbers of German films have risen by a third. The 75 most successful films of last year attracted 107.1 million German viewers (vs. 89.8 million in 2014) to the cinemas and were therefore responsible for 79% of all ticket sales in 2015. They included 16 German productions that, with 29.5 million viewers, lured over one-third (34%) more people into the movie theatres than the 21 German films of the previous year (21.9 million). In the assessment (on a scale of 1 to 4), STILL ALICE delighted audiences the most last year. The literary adaptation earned the highest grade of 1.27 followed closely by Til Schweiger’s tragicomedy HONIG IM KOPF (HEAD FULL OF HONEY) (1.30) ahead of the French comedy QU'EST-CE QU'ON A FAIT AU BON DIEU? (SERIAL (BAD) WEDDINGS) (1.37). These are the figures in the new FFA study “Evaluation of the TOP 75 film titles of 2015” in which the film board analyzes the most successful films every year.More details from the study:
• The German comedy FACK JU GÖHTE 2 (SUCK ME SHAKESPEER 2) was not only the most successful film of the year 2015, but was also particularly popular among the younger movie-goers: Almost one-third (29%) were between the ages of 10 and 15 although this age group made up only 13% of the average audience of all films.
Continue reading "German Film 2015: Head Full of Honey & Bums..." »
Hollywood’s ongoing fascination with Nazism still perplexes me --is it just the ultimate evil, or the unifying enemy?— but if you need an explanation for the flip side of the Anglo-American fascination with Hitler —Hitler’s fascination with Hollywood— this documentary might help: HITLER'S HOLLYWOOD by director Rüdiger Suchsland (FROM CALIGARI TO HITLER) is out on July 16. Suchsland told ScreenDaily that "Hollywood was always something that the Nazis wanted to emulate. Speeches and documents provide evidence that there was a clear plan by the Nazis, and particularly Goebbels and Hitler, to establish a kind of alternative Hollywood, to copy Hollywood's international success and to use it for Nazi ideology.” Featuring Elisabeth Bronfen, Thomas Elsaesser, and Oskar Roehler.
