Does anybody know of any good german films?
August 9, 2007 7:37 AM Subscribe
Does anybody know of any good german films?
I recently saw Schultze Gets the Blues and I really enjoyed it so I would like to see some other german films.
I recently saw Schultze Gets the Blues and I really enjoyed it so I would like to see some other german films.
Check out the films of Werner Herzog and Wim Wenders - they, along with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, comprised the "New Wave" of German cinema in the 70's.
posted by billysumday at 7:41 AM on August 9, 2007
posted by billysumday at 7:41 AM on August 9, 2007
And here's the wiki of contemporary German cinema - there are a couple of good suggestions there. Particularly The Lives of Others - a really fantastic film. If you're just interested in slow, droll films, though, definitely check out Herzog. Also check out Scandanavian films.
posted by billysumday at 7:43 AM on August 9, 2007
posted by billysumday at 7:43 AM on August 9, 2007
German movies on Netflix.
The Lives of Others, which won the foreign-language Oscar this year, is excellent.
posted by mkultra at 7:45 AM on August 9, 2007
The Lives of Others, which won the foreign-language Oscar this year, is excellent.
posted by mkultra at 7:45 AM on August 9, 2007
Das Leben der Anderen was my second favorite movie from last year (Children of Men was first, if you're interested.)
I also enjoyed Der Untergang, Lola Rennt and, to a lesser extent, Das Experiment.
You should also check out the Expressionism of the 20s/early 30s.. Fritz Lang (M, Metropolis, Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse), Josef von Sternberg (Der Blaue Engel), F.W. Murnau (Nosferatu), or Robert Wiene (Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari). My favorite from that group is probably Metropolis.
posted by soonertbone at 7:47 AM on August 9, 2007
I also enjoyed Der Untergang, Lola Rennt and, to a lesser extent, Das Experiment.
You should also check out the Expressionism of the 20s/early 30s.. Fritz Lang (M, Metropolis, Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse), Josef von Sternberg (Der Blaue Engel), F.W. Murnau (Nosferatu), or Robert Wiene (Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari). My favorite from that group is probably Metropolis.
posted by soonertbone at 7:47 AM on August 9, 2007
Run Lola Run, Das Experiment.
posted by infinityjinx at 7:47 AM on August 9, 2007
posted by infinityjinx at 7:47 AM on August 9, 2007
Response by poster: Thanks for all the suggestions so far I have
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, Stroszek, the lives of others, and Der Untergang in my netflix queue
posted by hexxed at 7:51 AM on August 9, 2007
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, Stroszek, the lives of others, and Der Untergang in my netflix queue
posted by hexxed at 7:51 AM on August 9, 2007
I love The Tin Drum, or Die Blechtrommel. Beautiful but exceedingly strange.
posted by iconomy at 7:52 AM on August 9, 2007
posted by iconomy at 7:52 AM on August 9, 2007
I love Die Zweite Heimat (which holds the Guinness World Record for 'Longest Film Commercially Shown In Its Entirety')
posted by martinrebas at 7:57 AM on August 9, 2007
posted by martinrebas at 7:57 AM on August 9, 2007
Run Lola Run is one of my all time favorite movies and it has an awesome soundtrack.
posted by bluesky43 at 8:15 AM on August 9, 2007
posted by bluesky43 at 8:15 AM on August 9, 2007
Seconding Das Leben der Anderen (or The Lives of Others in English) truly cracking film. Really highly reccomended!
posted by prentiz at 8:18 AM on August 9, 2007
posted by prentiz at 8:18 AM on August 9, 2007
Seconding Wings of Desire, which is one of my all-time favourites.
I was also quite taken by Yasemin but it has been a long time since I last saw it.
posted by sueinnyc at 8:20 AM on August 9, 2007
I was also quite taken by Yasemin but it has been a long time since I last saw it.
posted by sueinnyc at 8:20 AM on August 9, 2007
Viktor Vogel Kommerz Man (Victor Vogel - Commercial Man) is a really good comedy flick and it's also available in English under "Advertising Rules!"
posted by Phire at 8:22 AM on August 9, 2007
posted by Phire at 8:22 AM on August 9, 2007
I didn't like Run Lola Run or Der Untergang very much. From what I've heard Goodbye Lenin is more cute than funny. Sorry to be so negative about others' suggestions but for my money:
Head-On (Gegen die Wand) -- about the Turkish subculture in Germany and its centrifugal and centripetal forces, also basically a love story about a Turkish guy who has rejected his ethnic identity and lives like a German punk and a Turkish girl who has to marry someone to get out from under her parents' dominion.
Schultze Gets the Blues -- pretty dry comedy about a fat working-class German who retires and discovers an interest in zydeco, which takes him on a trip through the deep South. You won't laugh much but you'll smile afterwards.
Herr Lehmann -- a comedy about the Bohemian life of Mr. Lehmann, who everyone addresses with the informal 'you' but by last name, set in Kreuzberg, traditionally a working-class district, now an immigrant quarter.
posted by creasy boy at 8:33 AM on August 9, 2007
Head-On (Gegen die Wand) -- about the Turkish subculture in Germany and its centrifugal and centripetal forces, also basically a love story about a Turkish guy who has rejected his ethnic identity and lives like a German punk and a Turkish girl who has to marry someone to get out from under her parents' dominion.
Schultze Gets the Blues -- pretty dry comedy about a fat working-class German who retires and discovers an interest in zydeco, which takes him on a trip through the deep South. You won't laugh much but you'll smile afterwards.
Herr Lehmann -- a comedy about the Bohemian life of Mr. Lehmann, who everyone addresses with the informal 'you' but by last name, set in Kreuzberg, traditionally a working-class district, now an immigrant quarter.
posted by creasy boy at 8:33 AM on August 9, 2007
Lives of Others was decent, moving in parts. For a more zany comedy about the East, instead of Goodbye Lenin I would recommend:
Sonnenallee -- about being young in a part of Berlin where Westerners could actually look down at you over the wall and laugh at you.
NVA -- about youths conscritpted into the East German army just before the wall fell.
Not sure if they exist in translation.
posted by creasy boy at 8:40 AM on August 9, 2007
Sonnenallee -- about being young in a part of Berlin where Westerners could actually look down at you over the wall and laugh at you.
NVA -- about youths conscritpted into the East German army just before the wall fell.
Not sure if they exist in translation.
posted by creasy boy at 8:40 AM on August 9, 2007
"Erleuchtung garantiert" aka "Enlightenment Guaranteed". It's about two German men going to a Zen monastery in Japan and getting lost. A funny film.
posted by GuyZero at 8:41 AM on August 9, 2007
posted by GuyZero at 8:41 AM on August 9, 2007
And a charming and weird sort of comedy: Out of Rosenheim, aka Bagdad Cafe...it's set in America and features a Bavarian woman stranded in a dusty one-horse town when her husband drives off. It's a feel-good story but its odd enough for this to be forgivable.
posted by creasy boy at 8:43 AM on August 9, 2007
posted by creasy boy at 8:43 AM on August 9, 2007
Oh, and I missed the fact that Schultze was the starting point of your question. But in my mind Fassbinder is subtle and underplayed in a similar way, although he doesn't go for laughs at all. He's made a shit-ton of films, I have no idea what the best ones are.
posted by creasy boy at 8:47 AM on August 9, 2007
posted by creasy boy at 8:47 AM on August 9, 2007
There's also a later Nosferatu by Herzog, who of course also just made Rescue Dawn.
posted by creasy boy at 8:49 AM on August 9, 2007
posted by creasy boy at 8:49 AM on August 9, 2007
I'm happy to see that the original Heimat is available from Netflix in a 6-disc series. Content is highly recommended (although some of the reviews indicate that the DVD quality may not be tops--I haven't seen the series on DVD). It follows life in an ordinary rural town from before World War I to 1982, and how events in the greater world affect people there in different ways.
(I'll have to check out Heimat II as well, as mentioned above, which I haven't seen yet.)
posted by gimonca at 8:50 AM on August 9, 2007
(I'll have to check out Heimat II as well, as mentioned above, which I haven't seen yet.)
posted by gimonca at 8:50 AM on August 9, 2007
Das Versprechen is an amazing movie if you can find it, I haven't looked in a while but it wasn't on netflix last I checked.
I'd second Das Experiment too, that movie was deeply disturbing, and everythign billysumday and soonertbone said.
posted by Large Marge at 8:56 AM on August 9, 2007
I'd second Das Experiment too, that movie was deeply disturbing, and everythign billysumday and soonertbone said.
posted by Large Marge at 8:56 AM on August 9, 2007
I thought Requiem was spectacular. It's based on the same true story as The Exorcism of Emily Rose, but while that movie is a cheap horror flick, Requiem is a quiet look at a conflict between religion and science.
posted by polytropos at 8:57 AM on August 9, 2007
posted by polytropos at 8:57 AM on August 9, 2007
Some German movies I liked are: Sonnenallee (similar to Goodbye, Lenin but much better), Bandits (I'm not sure this is really a great movie, I haven't seen it since I was 16), Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, Comedian Harmonists, Halbe Treppe, Im toten Winkel (this is an interview with Traudl Junge, Hitler's secretary that she gave shortly before she died. It's just an old woman talking for 90 about her life for 90 minutes, but I found this far more touching and interesting than "Der Untergang" which is based on her story), Kleine Haie, Lammbock, Das Leben der Anderen, Lola rennt, Man spricht deutsh (brilliant movie, but I'm not sure the humor really translates well, it's very very German), Knocking on Heaven's Door, Nach fünf im Urwald (Franka Potente's first movie), Pappa ante Portas, Sommersturm, Verschwende deine Jugend
posted by snownoid at 8:58 AM on August 9, 2007
posted by snownoid at 8:58 AM on August 9, 2007
After seeing The Handmaid's Tale I got into the works of Volker Schlöndorff. He has some good powerful dramas but may be a little too depressing if you are after comedies.
posted by JJ86 at 9:02 AM on August 9, 2007
posted by JJ86 at 9:02 AM on August 9, 2007
I liked also:
Zuckerbaby
The Nasty Girl
(incidentally, a Calgary band once named themselves after Zuckerbaby)
posted by Flashman at 9:04 AM on August 9, 2007
Zuckerbaby
The Nasty Girl
(incidentally, a Calgary band once named themselves after Zuckerbaby)
posted by Flashman at 9:04 AM on August 9, 2007
Halbe Treppe was good....the actor Axel Prahl seems to be in a lot of good movies, like Willenbrock. A lot of these German movies have this real underplayed true-to-life feel to the human interactions, almost like Altman: I would say Schultze, Willenbrock, Halbe Treppe, and Out of Rosenheim all exemplify this. It feels like a lack of artifice and that the interactions aren't being steered toward jokes, plot points or catchphrases in the slightest. The cop drama Tatort that comes out every Sunday is famous for this.
posted by creasy boy at 9:10 AM on August 9, 2007
posted by creasy boy at 9:10 AM on August 9, 2007
Sophie Scholl - Die letzten Tage ("The Final Days "), about Sophie Scholl.
posted by kirkaracha at 9:25 AM on August 9, 2007
posted by kirkaracha at 9:25 AM on August 9, 2007
nthing both Run Lola Run and The Lives of Others. The Lives of Others is really, really good.
posted by Quidam at 10:39 AM on August 9, 2007
posted by Quidam at 10:39 AM on August 9, 2007
If the purpose is to learn German don't discount American or British (or whatever) films with German dubbing. Problem is very few DVDs have a German soundtrack option.
posted by Gungho at 10:54 AM on August 9, 2007
posted by Gungho at 10:54 AM on August 9, 2007
The same star and director as the excellent Run Lola Run: The Princess and the Warrior.
posted by The Deej at 11:17 AM on August 9, 2007
posted by The Deej at 11:17 AM on August 9, 2007
i can also recommend Run Lola Run, The Princess and the Warrior and The Lives of Others (out on DVD on Aug21 in America)
posted by sporky at 12:33 PM on August 9, 2007
posted by sporky at 12:33 PM on August 9, 2007
nthing Goodbye Lenin and The lives of Others. Elementarteilchen (Atomised) was pretty good too.
posted by juva at 12:45 PM on August 9, 2007
posted by juva at 12:45 PM on August 9, 2007
Werner Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God is a personal favourite - a Heart of Darkness like tale of a doomed conquistador expedition travelling down a river in the Amazon in search of El Dorado. Features the normally crazy Klaus Kinski at his most utterly insane.
YMMV on Wings of Desire. For some reason, I've probably seen it a dozen times or more, but mostly find it laboured & pretentious. Watch the first half hour - which is excellent - but then skip straight to the performances by Nick Cave & Crime and the City Solution. If you watch the whole thing, whatever you do, fast forward through the female lead's endless nauseating emo-existentialist waffle.
posted by UbuRoivas at 5:08 PM on August 9, 2007
YMMV on Wings of Desire. For some reason, I've probably seen it a dozen times or more, but mostly find it laboured & pretentious. Watch the first half hour - which is excellent - but then skip straight to the performances by Nick Cave & Crime and the City Solution. If you watch the whole thing, whatever you do, fast forward through the female lead's endless nauseating emo-existentialist waffle.
posted by UbuRoivas at 5:08 PM on August 9, 2007
Response by poster: Thank you everybody I appreciate your answers.
posted by hexxed at 8:17 AM on August 10, 2007
posted by hexxed at 8:17 AM on August 10, 2007
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by box at 7:38 AM on August 9, 2007