Run Lola Run/Lola Rennt (1998) - Tykwer's zeitgeist amuck run

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Chopped up, manipulated images of the two stars make up this poster for Tom Tykwer's Run Lola Run

Lola is a fiery red-haired young woman, whose boyfriend is a dopey drug dealer, who loses a lot of money, which he now reckons that she must get back for him. - In 20 minutes!

 

Run Lola Run is written and directed by great German filmmaker Tom Tykwer (Friday Afternoon (1986)). The original title translates to, 'Lola runs'.

As a film it impresses for a while with its equilibristic changes in style and the momentum of movement that it creates, but once it becomes clear that its plot rests on us going through more or less the same scenario three times (each with variations of decisions, chance, fate, behavior etc.), Run Lola Run becomes repetitive for me and loses its freshness. Furthermore Moritz Bleibtreu's (Angel of Evil/Vallanzasca - Gli Angeli del Male (2010)) boyfriend character is a dope, and Franka Potente's (Eichmann (2007)) Lola also isn't sympathetic: She lives as if the entire universe revolves around her, (in fact I was most on the side of her beleaguered step-father, which almost certainly wasn't Tykwer's intention.)

This drama plays out as a young, rave-punked work of new-age mysticism, a minor ride, which imagines that it says something deep and profound, which it actually doesn't.

 

Related post:

 

1998 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 1.75 mil. $

Box office: 22.8 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 13.02 times its cost)

[Run Lola Run was released 20 August (Germany) and runs 80 minutes. Shooting took place in Berlin, Germany from June - July 1997. The film opened #34 to a 123k $ first weekend in 12 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #19 and in 172 theaters (different weeks), grossing 7.2 mil. $ (31.6 % of the total gross). In production country Germany the film was the highest-grossing of the year with 13.8 mil. $ (60.5 %). The film was nominated for a BAFTA, a European Film award, won 7/7 German Film award nominations, a National Board of Review award,  and a prize at Sundance, among several other honors. It was Germany's official entry to the Best Foreign Film Oscar category of the year but went without a nomination. Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch higher than this one. Tykwer returned with The Princess and the Warrior/Der Krieger und die Kaiserin (2000). Potente returned in Am I Beautiful?/¿Bin Ich Schön? (1998); Bleibtreu in Love Your Neighbor!/Liebe Deine Nächste! (1998). Run Lola Run is certified fresh at 93 % with a 7.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Run Lola Run?

East Side Story (1997, documentary) - Ranga and Horn's fascinating - and fascinated - doc. of the Soviet musical

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This grainy DVD cover for Dana Ranga's East Side Story was the best promotional material for the film that I was able to scrape up

From the 1930s to the fall of USSR, about 40 musicals were produced in the East Block. East Side Story portrays these films' audiences, along with the difficulties that went into their creation.

The film is made by Dana Ranga (I Am in Space (2012), documentary), co-written with Andrew Horn (We Are Twisted Fucking Sister! (2014), documentary). It exists in a TV version and in a longer version, which is the one I saw. The TV version probably suffices, as Ranga doesn't draw long conclusions based on his material in East Side Story.
The documentary contains many long clips from the propagandistic Soviet musicals, also known as 'tractor musicals', which Ranga and Horn are clearly extremely fascinated by, - and they are fascinating in their own peculiar way. 
The interview subjects contribute with each their own expertise and opinion about them. The film encourages its audience to make up his or her own mind about these musicals and about the concept of art in general.

This is a video which claims to have the best Soviet music of the 1960s - check it out

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown
[East Side Story premiered 25 June (USA) and in its most usual version runs 75 minutes. I regrettably did not note down the length of the longer version that I saw. Shooting took place in Germany. Details about its release are extremely scarce online. 195 IMDb-users have given East Side Story a 7.3/10 rating.]

What do you think of East Side Story?

The Marriage of Maria Braun/Die Ehe der Maria Braun (1979) - Fassbinder blows up post-WWII Germany

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A German poster for Rainer Werner Fassbinder's The Marriage of Maria Braun that exudes romanticism and downfall

Maria Braun is incredibly unfortunate with her marriage, as it only lasts 1½ day before she looses her beloved husband to the demands of World War II. But she persists in her love to him, - and after several years, he returns.

The Marriage of Maria Braun is written by Pea Fröhlich (Der Bulle & das Mädchen (1985)), Peter Märthesheimer (Lola (1981)) and Kurt Raab (The Island of the Bloody Plantation/Die Insel der Blutigen Plantage (1983)), with German master filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder (Ali: Fear Eats the Soul/Angst Essen Seele Auf (1974)) contributing idea and dialog. The film feels like a heartfelt chastisement of his native Germany, told with a lot of show by Fassbinder, which I think is somewhat overrated in some circles. There is a sense of moral bankruptcy, resignation and emptiness to Maria Braun and her countrymen here.
The Marriage of Maria Braun is a peculiar movie, - and a wild one, - with some good scenes but also some slightly dull periods. Its intro credits are ghastly. SPOILER The ending with the gas explosion, on the other hand, is unforgettable. This is a film especially for the Fassbinder and/or Germany-interested cinephile. 

Related post:

Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Ali: Fear Eats the Soul/Angst Essen Seele Auf (1974) or, Ali und Emmi und die Anderen

Watch a short clip from the film here

Cost: Reportedly 2 mil. DEM
Box office: Unknown (but in excess of 8 mil. DEM)
= Uncertainty (but at least a big hit)
[The Marriage of Maria Braun premiered 20 February (Berlin International Film Festival) and runs 115 minutes. The script was born out of an unrealized TV project. Producer Michael Fengler oversold the rights to the film's profits to scrape its budget together, which ballooned during production, partially to fund director Fassbinder's rampant cocaine use, which killed him in 1982. Shooting took place from January - February 1978 in Germany, including in Berlin. It is the first film in Fassbinder's BRD (Bundesrepublik Deutschland) trilogy that also contains Lola (1981) and Veronika Voss (1982), which are about women in post-WWII West Germany. Fassbinder was busy writing Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980), miniseries) during shooting and was in a self-destructive, bleak period of his life. Fengler and Fassbinder broke their bond over the film, and Fengler Film never made another film. At the film's Berlin festival run, it ('only') won the Silver Bear and an actress award for lead Hanna Schygulla (The Clown/Ansichten eines Clowns (1976)), which disappointed Fassbinder. The film eventually sold a reported 1.9 mil. tickets in Germany, grossing 4 mil. DEM there, released in both West and East Germany, the latter as the first Fassbinder film reaching the other part of his country, which happened in 1981. It was also a hit abroad, grossing 1.8 mil. $ in North America. Roger Ebert has added it to his list of Great Films. Other figures regrettably remain elusive. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe, won a David di Donatello award (Italy's Oscar), 5 out of 6 nominations at the German Film Awards, a National Board of Review award and more. The film's rights battle continued in a legal battle in the late 1980s before they ended up with the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation. 9,321 IMDb-users have given The Marriage of Maria Braun a 7.9/10 average rating.]

What do you think of The Marriage of Maria Braun?

The Boat/Das Boot (1981) - Petersen's awe-inspiring WWII epic

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The formidable German poster for Wolfgang Petersen's The Boat, using a newspaper-like graphic that seems to set the high-seas drama of the film in poignant relief. The tagline means, 'A voyage to the end of sanity'

In 1942 World War II is in full swing, and German u-boat U-96 heads out to fight in the Battle of the Atlantic.

 

The Boat is written and directed by German master filmmaker Wolfgang Petersen (Ich Werde Dich Töten, Wolf (1971)), whose 4th feature it is. It is an adaptation of the same-titled 1973 autobiographical novel by Lothar-Günther Buchheim (Die Festung (1995)). The original title translates to, 'the boat'.

The Boat is a really suspenseful, West German U-boat WWII epic from the now retired, German filmmaker Wolfgang Petersen (In the Line of Fire (1993)), who specialized in grand tales of men facing incredible elements or enemies. He also directed films like The NeverEnding Story (1984), Outbreak (1995), Air Force One (1997), The Perfect Storm (2000), Troy (2004) and Poseidon (2006).
The Boat is genuine, claustrophobic submarine terror. There are a number of versions available, including a mini-series version and an 'Original Uncut Version' of nearly 300 (!) minutes, but this review is based on the most commonly seen 150 minute version. The Boat is and was at its inception a giant movie, the most expensive German production ever since Fritz Lang's sci-fi masterpiece, Metropolis (1927). It is a spectacle to behold, and cannot and should not be removed from this part of its attraction.
For a suspense film, it is impressive that The Boat 'only' really peaks twice within its 2½ hours, - and still remains 100 % unnerving. This is perhaps due to its ambitious and formidable shoot, which was chronological and ran for a year (!), keeping the cast living almost as real submariners for that period.
The film is impressive and educative for anyone interested in knowing how a German U-boat functioned during WWII. The history is already known, so to speak, when it comes to the German side Nazi depiction of the war, (it's a misguided tragedy in other words), SPOILER and this is one of the rare war epics, where you will follow what for all intents and purposes seem like 'heroes' for a long playing time, - and still not weep a tear, when they are all blown to bits in the end. (At least I didn't.)
One thing that annoyed me was the fact that the large boat crew was made sympathetic in such a degree that it only contained one real Nazi member. I wonder how we would have seen and experienced The Boat, had the soldiers in fact been Nazis. Reading about the point online I gather that it is unclear at best, if naval soldiers were less Nazified than the rest of the German army and people were at the time depicted, and so this critique seem to stand and be justified.
Still, The Boat is one of the great war films of the 20th century, and perhaps one of the greatest German films period. Especially for the war and/or historically interested, this is a must watch.

 

Related post:

 

Wolfgang Petersen: Top 10: Best epic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Approximately 18.5 mil. $
Box office: 84.9 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 4.58 times its cost)

[The Boat was released 17 September (West Germany) and runs 149 minutes - with longer versions also available. The majority of the budget was reportedly spent on constructing the u-boats. Shooting took place in France and Germany from 1979-81, with most of the filming completed in one year, in which the actors were strictly kept out of sunlight to make them pale. The film was afforded the widest release to its day in West Germany, where it reportedly grossed 5.1 mil. $ within its first 2 weeks of release. It made 10.9 mil. $ (12.8 % of the total gross) in North America, most from the original German, subtitled version, although an English dub version was also released. The film was nominated for 6 Oscars, winning none: It lost Best Cinematography (Jost Vacano (Spetters (1980))) to Billy Williams and Ronnie Taylor for Gandhi, Director to Richard Attenborough for Gandhi, Sound Effects Editing to E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Editing to Gandhi, Adapted Screenplay to Costa-Gavras and Donald E. Stewart for Missing and Sound also to E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. It was also nominated for a BAFTA, a Golden Globe and won a National Board of Review award, among many other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. The Boat is currently voted in as #79 on IMDb's user-generated Top 250, sitting between Inglourious Basterds (2009) and Avengers: Endgame (2019). Petersen returned with The NeverEnding Story (1984). Jürgen Prochnow (Hitman: Agent 47 (2015)) returned in War and Peace/Krieg und Frieden (1982). The Boat is certified fresh at 98 % with a 9.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Boat?

Amour (2012) - Tender love, unstoppable death in Haneke's pictures

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+ Best French Movie of the Year

An almost painfully intimate moment between the film's central aging couple is used on this poster for Michael Haneke's Amour

An old married, French couple. One day, the woman loses the ability to move in her one side. Her health rapidly deteriorates, while her husband cares for her until the last breath.

 
Amour is written and directed by great German filmmaker Michael Haneke (The Seventh Continent/Der Siebente Kontinent (1989)). Amour is French for 'love'.

Emmanuelle Riva's (Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) performance as the ailing old woman, who loses control of her faculties, is taboo-breaking and incredible, and the intimacy and realism of the loving tragedy and the couple's relation is infectious in a surreptitious manner, seeming to crawl under your skin without you noticing. - Or, more accurately, you notice its doing so by the intense unpleasantness that you experience from being put expertly in their shoes, a weight that is making some term the film unbearable.
The very intense journey towards inevitable death in Amour is long-winded and truly awful to be on, and the love between the two so beautiful that the film is very nearly unbearable, - which could be called a trademark for all of Haneke's films. This one ranks among his finest.

Related posts:

Michael Haneke: 2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2012 in films - according to Film Excess
2007 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Funny Games (2007) - Haneke recreates his strong critique of movie violence consumption for the American audience 

Top 10: Best drama-thrillers reviewed by Film Excess to date 

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 
Hidden/Caché (2005) - Haneke's slick, cold surveillance drama-thriller  

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 8.9 mil. $
Box office: 29.6 mil. $
= Box office success (returned 3.32 times its cost)

[Amour premiered 20 May (Cannes Film Festival, in competition) and runs 127 minutes. Haneke went through a writer's block during his making the screenplay, which he wrote specifically with Jean-Louis Trintignant (L'Été Prochain (1985)). Trintignant broke his prior 14 years of retirement to appear in the film. It was mostly inspired by the suicide of Haneke's own rheumatism-plagued 90 year-old aunt. Shooting took place from February - April 2011 in France, including Paris. The film opened #37 to a 68k $ first weekend in 3 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #19 and in 333 theaters (different weeks), grossing 6.7 mil. $ (22.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 4.2 mil. $ (14.2 %) and the Netherlands with 2.2 mil. $ (7.4 %). The film was nominated for 5 Oscars, winning 1, for Best Foreign Language Film. It lost Best Picture to Argo, Actress (Riva) to Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook, Director to Ang Lee for Life of Pi and Original Screenplay to Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained. It also won a Golden Globe, 2/4 BAFTA nominations, the Palme d'Or in Cannes, 5/10 César award nominations, a David di Donatello award, 4/6 European Film award nominations, an Independent Spirit award, a National Board of Review award and several other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. Haneke returned with Così fan Tutte (2013, TV movie) and theatrically with Happy End (2017). Riva returned in A Greek Type of Problem/Tu Honoreras ta Mère et ta Mère (2012); Trintignant in Happy End (2017). Amour is certified fresh at 93 % with an 8.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 
What do you think of Amour?

The Baader Meinhof Complex/Der Baader Meinhof Komplex (2008) - Horrible political times dubiously portrayed

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Face images of 12 of the central characters of Uli Edel's The Baader Meinhof Complex splashed in dangerous red and black form this poster for the film

The Baader Meinhof Complex is a chronicle of the German Rote Armee Fraktion's left wing terrorism in Germany in the late 1960s and 70s.

Some audiences enjoy Complex merely as action entertainment; something I was unable to, as I don't think the film should or does work like that. But it is indeed an action-packed and very fast-paced film. It is written by Bernd Eichinger (Downfall/Der Untergang (2004)) with its director Uli Edel (Christiane F./Christiane F. - Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo (1981)) collaborating, based on the same-titled 1985 book by Stefan Aust (Der Pirat: Die Drogenkarriere des Jan C. (1990).
I was astonished at the amount of terrorist acts that the RAF actually pulled off; countless assassinations, bombings and robberies. It also seems as if Eichinger and Edel's approach was to cover almost everything the group did, and to pack as much as possible into the movie in terms of the group's operations. The staging of these crimes and huge scenes like the violent demonstration against the German visit of the Iranian shah in the film's beginning or the university or court meeting scenes later on, is very impressive, and it thankfully seems like a very different, past time in Europe, looking at it today, although this may be an illusion.
This is a very big film, - in some places described as the most expensive German film ever made, - and a rather long one, and I was not subjectively very attracted to its content: But also more objectively, there is not one single lead character in the film, whom we come to know and like, - which would require more background knowledge (and less shooting), - but instead a plethora of mostly young, repulsive leads, whose journey into deeper levels of madness and criminality must somehow (perhaps through the action-focused depiction or their place in German history), the filmmakers seem to gamble, interest us. 
Only about halfway through the movie is an anti-terrorist unit formed, and a real opponent to the group comes forth in the sympathetic Bruno Ganz (Downfall) playing the unit's chief. Before this we are mostly left in the company of the deceitful Ulrike Meinhof, who leaves her husband and children to spread murder and mayhem; the shouting, simple-minded gorilla-like man Andreas Baader (Moritz Bleibtreu (The Lark Farm/La Masseria delle Allodole (2007)) portrays him as intensely impassioned, despicable and stupid, - especially brutish in the PLA (the Palestinian Liberation Army) training camp scenes), and the merciless witch Gudrun Ensslin. Their violent escapades are intercut with scenes that seem to try to explain their actions: Images of the times, the war in Vietnam, the protests, and the uprising, and youthful anarchy different places around the world.
Many have felt it admirable that the film leaves it up to its audience to judge the actions and characters. I would have liked a stronger opponent to the group, - or a completely different take on the story; perhaps centering on one operation, or focusing on the terrorists' time in jail and the group's dissolution.
The ending of The Baader Meinhof Complex is abrupt and doesn't leave a clear understanding of what finally happened. The RAF terrorists were in my mind so much in the wrong that I think Complex goes too far in its openness of a kind of accept of their actions. A film on this topic must never have the potential to become a worshiping item for new generations of Communist crazies, picking up on the perceived strengths and faults in the tactics of their predecessors. I think The Baader Meinhof Complex walks too close to the danger line in this respect.
Another element of the film that leaves a dubious aftertaste is that the widow of a leading banker assassinated by the RAF was so infuriated with the apparently "almost completely false depiction" of her husband's death in the film that she turned in her Federal Cross of Merit to the German state, because the state co-funded The Baader Meinhof Complex. Such a criticism is serious and detrimental to a moral defense of the film.
The impressive scope and technical accomplishment of The Baader Meinhof Complex may account for the majority of its many accolades, - something I do not think it deserves. Watch the trailer and just ask yourself, if we'll ever see a similar, one-sided action movie depiction of Islamic terrorists bombing and murdering civilians to the tunes of popular rock music? - Are there such a thing as good and bad terrorists?
I am assured that the answer is no. There are simply terrorists, - and they are never good.

The artsy poster work of the cool-looking, shade-wearing terrorists here are part of the aestheticizing of political criminals that Uli Edel's The Baader Meinhof Complex regrettably commits

Watch here, in lieu of a trailer for the film at hand, which isn't available at the moment, the great scene from Edel's classic Christiane F. (1981), in which young Christiane attends a David Bowie concert

Cost: 19.7 mil. $
Box office: 16.4 mil. $
= Huge flop (returned 0.83 times its cost)
[The Baader Meinhof Complex premiered 16 September (Germany) and runs 149 minutes (an extended TV cut runs 164 minutes). Funding included 6.5 mil. €, almost half the budget, from German subsidies. Shooting took place in Germany, including Berlin, Morocco, Prague, the Czech Republic and in Rome, Italy from August - December 2007. The film opened #60 to a 17k $ first weekend in 2 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #40 and 38 theaters (different weeks) and grossed 476k $ (2.9 % of the total gross.) The film's other markets' gross numbers have regrettably not been made public. The film was nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, lost to Japanese Departures. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, 3 European Film Awards and 4 German Film Awards, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 2.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Edel returned with Time You Change/Zeiten Ändern Dich (2010). Bleibtreu returned in Lippels Traum (2009); Martina Gedeck (Sergeant Pepper (2004)) in Beloved Clara/Geliebte Clara (2008); and Ganz in The Dust of Time/Trilogia II: I skoni tou hronou (2008). The Baader Meinhof Complex is certified fresh at 85 % with a 7.05/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Baader Meinhof Complex?