The casual American moviegoer’s knowledge of German cinema most often begins and ends with films such as Das Boot (1981) and Run Lola Run (Lola rennt, 1998). While both films merit viewing, a thriving German film industry exists beyond Franka Potente’s shock of flame-red hair in Lola and Das Boot’s boatload of doomed submariners. German films have been growing in popularity in recent years, and with a record number of tickets sold last year, this trend looks to continue with the release of several highly anticipated productions in the coming months.
When one thinks of 20th century German art, a sort of nihilistic-avant-garde-”Vellcome-to-Sprockets-I-am-your-host-Dieter” sense of dread often creeps into the mind. While this is a reasonable reaction to German theater (where impending doom is an actual character in most plays), German cinema has much to offer the American audience. With a diverse showcase of the next wave of German films running at Visions Cinema from Jan. 17 to Jan. 24, attitudes toward German film will certainly be changing.
The opening night of the event, inventively titled New Films from Germany 2002, will feature As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me (So weit die F?sse tragen, 2001), a remake of the 1959 German television miniseries of the same name. The remake remains faithful to the plot of the original show, which is regarded by many as the greatest German TV show of all time. The film centers around the true story of a German soldier, Clemens Forell (Bernhard Bettermann), who is forced to leave his family to fight on the Russian front in WWII. Before he leaves, he promises his wife that he will be home for Christmas (after all, there’s nothing like a Nazi for a sympathetic character). Little does he know that his epic story will soon take on cartoonish proportions. After being captured by the Soviets and sentenced to 25 years hard labor in a Siberian lead mine, Forell vows to escape to fulfill his promise. This movie has it all: a Bering Straits lead mine, a crazed prison camp commander (Anatoli Kotenyov), a mysterious Eskimo woman (Irina Pantayeva) and thousands of miles of frozen Siberian tundra (playing themselves). Following the film, there will be a discussion with Bettermann and film critic Eddie Cockrell and reception featuring an open bar with Beck’s beer and German wine.
In addition to the de rigueur sweeping WWII epic, two critically-acclaimed documentaries are also featured. Black Box Germany (Black Box BRD, 2001) presents the lives of two men and the impact their deaths had on German society. The first, Alfred Herrhausen, was the president of Deutsche Bank and an innovator in the world of high finance until his death from a targeted Red Army Faction car bomb in 1989. The second man, Wolfgang Grams, an RAF commando, was a underground political agitator and terrorist until his death in a shootout with German police in 1993. Ultimately, these men’s deaths shook Germany, Herrhausen’s because of the sophisticated nature of his murder and Grams’ because of the suspicious nature of his shootout death. These two men are bound together by their individual beliefs in the rightness of their beliefs (Grams’ in communism and Herrhausen’s in capitalism). However, it is their respective convictions that make them good targets for their opponents. For a look back at the tumult in Germany following the collapse of the Berlin Wall, Black Box exceeds all expectations.
The festival will conclude with Berlin Babylon (2001), another documentary which could not be more different from the previously mentioned compare-and-contrast-two-lives-gee-is-this-formulaic double biography. The fall of the Berlin Wall revealed a city in shambles; the Eastern section of the city was a decaying mess of monolithic Communist-era buildings. However, in the past decade, Berlin has seen a monumental surge in construction due to reunification and the preparations required for the city to be restored as Germany’s capital. Berlin Babylon chronicles the many challenges of remaking the city. Film critic Eddie Cockrell calls the film “a visual symphony of land, machine, steel, concrete.” This documentary is more than the just a treatment of Berlin’s new architecture; it follows the largest ongoing construction project in the world from conception to design to the inevitable political wrangling that accompanies all projects of such magnitude. Set to a soundtrack by German industrial group Einst?rzende Neubauten (an ironic choice, given the group’s proclivity for naming its albums Strategies Against Architecture, with three volumes to date), this documentary is not to be missed. There will be a discussion following the movie featuring several noted architectural critics.
There will be 11 films playing over the festival’s one-week run, including the re-re-remake Emil and the Detectives, about a young boy who teams up with a group of street urchins to catch a thief; a tale of underage romance, Engel und Joe, featuring a 17-year-old punk who doesn’t know his first name; and several other intriguing selections. If these films are any indication of the state of German cinema today, the future will be bright for American moviegoers looking for a foreign film that isn’t about doomed (insert romance-language place name here) lovers or an exploration of sexuality in a post-industrial wasteland filmed in high-contrast black-and-white.
New Films from Germany 2002 will run from Jan. 17-24 at Visions Cinema in Dupont. Tickets for all films are $8 for adults; $6 for students. Tickets for the opening-night discussion and reception are $20, including free beer and wine and price of admission, while tickets for the closing night discussion are $10, also including the cost of admission. Visions is located at 1927 Florida Ave., N.W.
