Still my favorite Christmas Flick

Still my favorite Christmas Flick

There are plenty of new films in the cinemas these days, that are certainly worth forgetting about the world outside the screening room for 90 minutes. But if you ask me there is only one film we need right now.

Of course there are better films, deeper films, more meaningful and arty films than this one, but when you want to get ready for Christmas to stop fighting and begin enjoying the crazy shoppers and Christmas lights, this truly is what you need…

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Blue Jasmine

Blue Jasmine

If you know less after a film than you did before, that’s actually a huge compliment. Because art is meant to startle you, to plant questions in your head and trigger new thoughts. That’s why it’s great, fun and important. Blue Jasmine managed to do precisely this to me. The latest Woody Allen film made me think about things I hadn’t thought about in a long time and reigned the conversation after…

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Let’s watch some Porn!?

Let’s watch some Porn!?

When I went to the Berlin Porn Film Festival for the first time a couple of years ago I was nervous. Of course I pretended to be super cool and calm, but when I walked into the Moviemento I did have a bit of a weird feeling and wasn’t sure what to expect.

It didn’t help that everyone in the cinema seemed to know each other and the bar was dark and red, but I fought my way to a seat and  actually really enjoyed the documentary I saw. It was a film by Rosa von Praunheim, and until today I have not made it to a public porn film screening but who knows, this might be the week that changes…

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The King of Lust

The King of Lust

9 Songs

I’ve been a fan of Michael Winterbottom since he made the scandalous 9 Songs. He announced it was the first film of a new genre in which a mixture of Art House films and hard core porn merge to form Art Core. I adored the film and his comments about the depiction of sexuality and was excited to see what he would do next. Unfortunately Winterbottom went back to shooting fairly standard films instead of proceeding his just developed genre. His latest work The Look of Love is now hitting German screens…

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Friday Night Comedy – The Heat

Friday Night Comedy – The Heat

To be entirely honest, I haven’t really watched many films over the last few weeks. Summer is finally here and I feel more like hanging out with friends and have a beer outside than to look at a screen for two hours. This feeling of „filmlessness“ is pretty new and somewhat odd, but after I had enough of the beer last week, Friday night was perfect for an easy watching night and so I spent the evening with Sandra Bullock und Melissa McCarthy watching The Heat.

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A Trailer Party

A Trailer Party

It was way too hot to go to the movies and I was too addicted to New Girl (not advisable when apartment hunting – simply nobody can keep up with those roommates) to watch exciting DVDs. So all I can offer is a little Trailer Party with beautiful, exciting and hopefully good films and some namedropping: Pedro Almodovar, Ryan Gosling, Antonio Banderas, Nicolas Winding Refn, Kristin Scott Thomas...

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SMASHED – Alcohol revisited

SMASHED – Alcohol revisited

Drinking alcohol is normal, socially accepted or even expected. But when it becomes excessive the evaluation quickly shifts to embarrassing, dangerous and frowned upon. But how much is too much? And when is it time to pull the emergency break on drinking? Last year’s Sundance Film Festival showcased a film that deals not only with these questions, but also takes a look at the desperation that arises when a young woman tries to fight against her dangerous addiction. Smashed is a heartfelt, honest and partially painful film, certainly worth watching, which finally found it’s way onto the German silver screen last week.

Read more after the jump….

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Side Effects – Thrillingly great Theatre

Side Effects – Thrillingly great Theatre

Rooney Mara, Jude Law, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Channing Tatum and Steven Soderbergh! What a mass of star names for just one film. Certainly the story about pharmaceutical drugs, their use and misuse, their advantages and dangers wouldn’t have needed big names to succeed. It’s well written and structured and probably would have been a hit with no-name actors as well. However, the famous faces didn’t do any damage. Each of the actors seems to have dropped their ego for the duration of the shoot. They all click together, deliver great performances and make Side Effects a pretty great piece of modern cinema that premiered at the Berlinale in Feburary.

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Charming – Mademoiselle Populaire

Charming – Mademoiselle Populaire

Films aren’t what they used to be. But not just the medium itself has changed (gaining sound and colour), but so have the story lines. Films in the 50s used to be influenced by a patriarchal world view. Men were the heroes – regardless of genre – and opinion leaders and the ladies tried to win their attention and affection with their beauty, wit or charm. Today women are emancipated, voice their own opinions and male characters are frequently just as „soft“ as females. Generally all characters are developed in more depth today than they were at the beginning of movies or even still in the middle of the last century.

This development goes hand in hand with changes in our social environment of course. It is thus even more surprising if a 2013 production feels like it’s just been catapulted onto the screen from a 50s production studio. Now one could think I’m enraged about this, but I am not at all. I am more so surprised, amused and almost a little impressed.

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Hitchcock – Hollywood Entertainment

Hitchcock – Hollywood Entertainment

Who directed When Harry met Sally, The Black Swan and Grease? Rob Reiner, Darren Aronofsky and Randal Kleiser are the masters behind these big successes, whose names are probably unfamiliar to most people. We tend to only remember the names of those actors whose faces are irreversibly tied to the memories of the images. The directors, who often develop the story, are responsible for the entire staging of the film, direct the play of the actors and often oversee the editing, are regularly overlooked.

It’s even more impressive that the entire world knows Alfred Hitchcock. The Master of Suspense (the tension building from the audiences advantage in knowledge over the characters, i.E. that a bomb is ticking underneath the table of the unknowing dinner guests) is known around the globe, his films are loved and highly respected as masterpieces of the art of film. Much has been written about The Birds, Rear Window or Psycho, Truffaut’s interview-book Alfred Hitchcock: A Definitive Study is a classic for all film students and a discovery tour through his work and now there is finally a Biopic about the workaholic.

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