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 animation auteur cinematheque emerging fassbinder german films goethe-institut industry production shorts tiff video art wall eidinger goethe graf heimat husain kosslick krens reitz schilling tv ade africa argentina arslan art arte atef babelsberg barbara beer berlin wall berlinale forum blogger brecht brendemühl buenos aires celeste cid censorship competition corona defa django docs dresen east germany eisler asia award awards baldwin co-productions encounters environment female female filmmakers female gaze 35mm 3d austria bauhaus city+climate coming-of-age conflict culture+economy dance dok leipzig energy feature forum goethe media space hamburg heimatfilm ai boomers cbc ethics franka potente herzog hot docs berlin alexanderplatz Carstensen filmmuseum hirsch nekes schroeter snow sukowa wyborny arthouse cinema genre grisebach hoss images festival indie interview koehler locarno moma nina hoss oberhausen osnabrueck planet in focu kraume petzold stuber buck comedy cyber espionage fritz lang goosen hannah herzsprung co-presentation forum expanded frankfurt imaginative indigenous native offenbach shanghai short film soundofheimat sönke wortmann tbilisi tinatin gurchiani transnational content michael snow premium residency series streaming thriller distribution film law funding producer support telefilm composer dubbing lola oscar post-communist post-system score soundtrack voiceover wenders zkm fassinder media new german film pasolini academy award acting bleibtreu bo odar co-production donnersmarck family fascism fingscheidt gröning hanks bierbichler clooney freydank george kafka krol link lore m'barek munich opera prahl qurbani rosendahl schweiger stadlober steinbichler striesow stölzl
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" »
