A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
German and German-language Films
Rainer Werner Fassbinder, “Lili Marleen” (1981) An unhappy tale of thwarted love, Fassbinder’s “Lili Marleen” plays hard and fast with its original source material, a biography…
German and German-language Films
Rainer Werner Fassbinder, “Der Amerikanische Soldat / The American Soldier” (1970) A loosely stitched pastiche of elements borrowed from old Hollywood and French New Wave film…
German and German-language Films
Rainer Werner Fassbinder, “Götter der Pest / Gods of the Plague” (1970) Following on from “Love is Colder than Death” in R W Fassbinder’s trilogy of…
German and German-language Films
Rainer Werner Fassbinder, “Liebe ist kälter als der Tod / Love is Colder than Death” (1969) Gangster films might be an unusual choice for film-makers to…
German and German-language Films, Middle Eastern Films
Herbert Ostwald, “Wild Iran” (2011) This documentary follows the Iranian-German wildlife photographer and environmentalist Benny Rebel on a 6-week journey across Iran taking photographs and videos…
British Films, French and French-language Films
Roman Polanski, “The Ghost Writer” (2009) Circumstances surrounding this film were peculiar enough in themselves: in travelling to the Zurich Film Festival as a special guest…
French and French-language Films, German and German-language Films
Jean-Jacques Annaud, “The Name of the Rose” (1986) Based on Umberto Eco’s novel of the same name, this film is a very good if underrated adaptation…
German and German-language Films, North American Films
Ryan Nagata, “1945A” (2010) Carl Erik Rinsch, “The Gift” (2010) Kaleb Lechowski, “R-Ha” (2012) These films have a few things in common: they’re very short science…
German and German-language Films, Spanish Films
?, “The Diadem” (1966) Wolfgang von Chmielewski, “MiniKillers” (1969) Two curious short films from Germany and Spain respectively, both feature the English actor Diana Rigg in…
German and German-language Films
Kurt Bernhardt, “The Tunnel / Der Tunnel” (1933) Based on the eponymous 1913 novel by Bernard Kellerman and itself a second adaptation of the novel –…