The German Film Festival 30 November to 9 December 2007
At the Irish Film Institute The German Film Festival introduction
he irish film institute hosts a number of The Paulaner German Film festival offers a diverse foreign-language film festivals throughout range of new features and documentaries ranging T the year to promote film culture in Ireland: from our Opening Film Eight Miles High about the life The Paulaner German Film Festival is one of the of hippie nymph extraordinaire Uschi Obermaier who permanent fixtures in Ireland’s cinema calendar, became the embodiment of sexual freedom in 60s and reflects the healthy diversity of current German Germany; to the award-winning Four Minutes, a prison cinema. With recent films such as The Lives of Others drama featuring outstanding performances from and The Counterfeiters both at the forefront of art- Monica Bleibtreu and newcomer Hannah Herzsprung, house success, this year’s festival brings a new crop about the battle of wills between a female inmate of productions from a country whose film industry who is a young talented pianist - and her tutor. is showing us all how it's done. the paulaner german film festival 2007 Eight Miles High November 30 6.30 pm Aguirre, Wrath of God December 1 2.10 pm Losers and Winners December 1 2.10 pm Four Minutes December 1 6.30 pm The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser December 2 2.10 pm Just An Ordinary Life December 2 2.10 pm My Führer December 2 6.30 pm Full Metal Village December 3 6.30 pm Pool of Princesses December 4 6.30 pm Rage December 56.30 pm Shoppen Munich December 6 6.30 pm Nosferatu the Vampire December 8 2.10 pm My Best Fiend December 8 4.40 pm Fitzcarraldo December 9 2.00 pm
Irish Film Institute 6 Eustace Street Temple Bar, Dublin 2 Many thanks to Iris Ordonez Box office: 01 679 3477 at German Films for her invaluable help. www.irishfilm.ie All tickets b9. Membership required. Eight Miles High Losers and Winners Four Minutes Das wilde Leben Vier Minuten director Achim Bornhak directors Ulrike Franke, director Chris Kraus November 30 (6.30pm) Michael Loeken December 1 (6.30pm) December 1 (2.10pm) Eight Miles High chronicles the life Schubert, Mozart, Chopin and a of flower-child extraordinaire Uschi This fascinating documentary by bunch of killers are all part of life Obermaier, who became the embodi- Ulrich Franke and Michael Loeken for 80-year-old piano teacher Traude ment of sexual freedom in 1960s charts the dismantling of Dortmund’s Krüger (Monica Bleibtreu, mother of Germany. Combining the sexy giant coking factory at Kaiserstuhl Moritz Bleibtreu). Sour spinster Miss poutiness of a Teutonic Brigitte by 400 Chinese workers who plan to Krüger has been giving piano lessons Bardot with just a dash of Jane transport and reassemble the modern in a women’s prison for many years, Fonda’s chic revolutionary zeal, facility back home. The last remain- as if she herself was paying for some Obermaier not only shook conservative ing 30 German workers are supervising crime. She has never met an inmate German society but also the anti- the Chinese operation, but communi- like Jenny (Hannah Herzsprung), a establishment and feminist move- cation between the two groups is dif- young killer who beats everything ments. Flaunting her romances with ficult. The Germans are concerned around her to pulp. Traude at first the likes of Mick Jagger and Keith about issues of safety and environ- refuses to take on the fiercely Richards, the hippie nymph and mental protection — just the things rebellious youngster as a pupil, but successful model never let business the Chinese like to ignore. While the changes her mind when she hears get in the way of pleasure. Chinese work 60 hours a week, the Jenny play. As a child, Jenny was a In director Achim Bornhak’s Germans are hardly present at the musical prodigy and could easily take biopic, the Munich-born Uschi site for more than 8 hours at a time. part in piano competitions outside of (played by rising star Natalia Avelon) Who are ultimately the winners and the prison if only she could be tamed. moves into the legendary Berlin who the losers in this particular The ensuing battle of wills between ‘Kommune 1’. When the commune example of globalisation? the self-destructive inmate and her falls apart in 1968, she takes to the Spending 18 months shooting the strict, conservative teacher is played road with the charismatic adventurer whole process, the film-makers were out as searing drama by director Chris Dieter Bockhorn (David Scheller). able to establish a strong sense of Kraus, who drives his excellent actors They set out in search of the summer trust with both groups. The results to a frenzied climax in which Traude of eternal love, but their idealism dis- make for a wonderfully revealing yet has only four minutes to prove her sipates when Dieter cannot handle sympathetic portrait of workers with musical talent on stage. with Uschi’s desire for independence. different methods and beliefs whose destinies are controlled by regimes germany, 2006 • subtitled germany, 2007 • subtitled that are anything but benign. colour • dts stereo • 112 min. colour • dolby stereo sr • 114 min. germany, 2007 • subtitled Director Achim Bornhak and colour • dolby stereo sr • 96 min. actress Natalia Avelon will attend the screening.
1 Just an Ordinary Life My Führer – The Truly Full Metal Village Ostfotografinnen Truest Truth about director Cho Sung-Hyung director Pamela Meyer-Arndt Adolf Hitler December 3 (6.30pm) December 2 (2.10pm) Mein Führer – Die wirklich wahrste Wahrheit über Adolf Hitler This disarming documentary takes a Director Pamela Meyer-Arndt reveals bemused look at the sleepy German an unusually tender and feminine director Dani Levy farm town of Wacken, which once a view of reality in this poetic study of December 2 (6.30pm) year wakes up to the din of a music how censorship in the GDR affected festival attracting 40,000 head- the creative work of photographers. It has taken many years and consid- bangers. Director Cho Sung-Hyung In a journey back in time, three erable courage for the mainstream (born in South Korea but now living East German photographers of world German film industry to make a and working in Germany) plays her renown—Sibylle Bergemann, Helga comedy about Hitler. The fact that culture-clash card wisely by focusing Paris and Gundula Schulze Eldowy — Swiss-born writer-director Dani Levy on the town’s inhabitants and only remember and talk about what work is Jewish helped to protect My Führer gradually introducing elements of and life was like under the GDR against some criticism, but it didn’t the festival. regime. Many of the photographers prevent certain Jewish groups from Wacken’s population is aging, as of the time lived in fear, and some questioning the film’s suitability. youngsters leave for greener pastures even went to prison. But their experi- Despite a mixed response overall, and oldsters struggle to maintain ences are individually very different Levi’s film was a hit at the German small agricultural concerns against and it becomes clear that censorship box-office. competition from factory farms. in the life of each photographer has Part no-holds-barred farce and Opinions vary about the annual affected them in different ways. part comedy-drama with a message, onslaught of ‘gruesome music’ and The film features a series of My Führer tells the fictional story of long-haired, black-clad guests, photographs from three decades of a Jewish acting coach named Adolf though most citizens happily lay life in the former GDR, dealing directly Grünbaum (the late, great Ulrich aside any personal prejudice to take or indirectly with contentious issues Mühe of The Lives of Others) who is advantage of the brief, surging cash of society. Astonishingly enough, plucked from a Sachsenhausen con- flow. A vanishing way of rural life is despite a strict censorship regime, centration camp to coach the ailing the real subject here, with glimpses most of the photos were published Hitler (comedian Helge Scheider) for of festival attendees and performers without difficulty. an important speech just before the reserved for the last couple of reels. end of WWII. In what starts out as a Attractive cinematography high- germany, 2006 • subtitled kind of Teutonic Carry on Adolf, lights the nicely assembled package. colour • 71 min Grünbaum is brought to Nazi head- — Dennis Harvey, Variety. quarters in a heavily bombed area, where he’s given a ham-and-cheese germany, 2007 • subtitled sandwich and told not to take the colour • dolby stereo • 95 min. Final Solution personally.
germany, 2007 • subtitled • colour dolby digital stereo • 95 min.
2 Pool of Princesses Rage Shoppen Munich Prinzessinnenbad Wut Shoppen director Bettina Blümner director Züli Aladag director Ralf Westhoff December 4 (6.30pm) December 5 (6.30pm) December 6 (6.30pm)
Director Bettina Blümner’s superb German public broadcaster ARD’s Amazingly the first full-scale feature Pool of Princesses runs rings around decision to postpone a primetime set in the world of speed dating, most current documentaries as it screening of Züli Aladag’s provocative Shoppen (Shopping) is a frisky, beauti- coolly and patiently observes the and potentially explosive Rage caused fully played and written comedy that lives of three 15-year-old girls living much controversy in Germany. just goes with its oddball characters in Berlin’s multicultural Kreuzberg Aladag’s film, which went on to rather than trying to draw social district. The original German title gain considerable critical acclaim on messages from its subjects. The first puns on Berlin’s popular public pool, the festival circuit, tells of a middle- feature by Munich-born writer-director Prinzenbad, where teens Klara, class German teenager who is bullied Ralf Westhoff, a former journalist, is Tanutscha and Mina are first seen by a Turkish youth and the German ready-made for audiences who frolicking in the water. family’s futile efforts to prevent the appreciate good dialogue and lively The three girls are all children of abuse. Can (Oktay Özdemir) is a character comedy. divorced, proudly permissive parents. cocky young Turk who beats up and The opening reel introduces some Wisely, Blümner never comments on extorts money from Felix Laub of the characters, and the final half- these parents’ choices and values, (Robert Höller). While Felix is trying hour follows up on the results of some instead showing how the kids live in to play down Can’s behaviour and of the encounters. But the heart of the single-parent homes with maximum simply wants to get on with life, his movie is its central section, in which freedom. It’s not all fun and games, father Simon (August Zirner), an eight men and eight women take part much as a seemingly wild girl like academic, becomes increasingly in a speed-dating session. Rules of the Klara might want it to be. Tanutscha, angry at Can’s behaviour and sets game, supervised by a guy with a who talks tough but reveals a softer about solving the problem. His efforts large clock, dictate that everyone personality underneath, has cut all only succeed in further antagonising moves along to a new partner every ties with her Iranian-born father but Can, whose rage is unleashed in a five minutes. Participants are all from remains close to her German-born spiral of violence and revenge that Munich and the setting is a plain mom. Neither has the kind of steady ends in a climax reminiscent of white hall, with no distractions. It’s a beau Mina can claim in sweet- Michael Haneke’s Funny Games. neat idea that’s well sustained by natured George-Daniel. Pointedly, Aladag’s film may be less sophisticated Westhoff’s efficient direction. this beautifully observed film leaves than Haneke’s, but it’s undeniably effec- —Derek Elley, Variety. us with lingering questions about its tive in illustrating the titular rage of its subjects’ future prospects. Turkish protagonist. germany • 2007 • subtitled colour • dolby stereo • 94 min. germany, 2007 • subtitled germany, 2006 • subtitled colour • dolby digital stereo colour • 112 min. 90 min.
Werner Herzog: Aguirre, Wrath of God The Enigma of Visionaries and Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes Kaspar Hauser Eccentrics director Werner Herzog Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle December 1 (2.10pm) director Werner Herzog To coincide with the release of Rescue December 2 (2.10pm) Dawn, the Paulaner German Film A defining film for Herzog in many Festival is pleased to present five of ways, Aguirre saw his first use of One of Herzog’s most acclaimed Werner Herzog’s earlier works. These crazed actor Klaus Kinski, gruelling films, this is an inspired interpretation are the films that established the location filming in South America, of the true story of a young man who director’s reputation in the ’70s and and considerable success. Telling of appeared on the streets of ’80s, and include three of his key the mutinous conquistador Lope de Nuremberg in 1828, having spent his collaborations with the actor Klaus Aguirre (Kinski) in his quest for the entire 17 years in a dark cellar, virtually Kinski (plus Herzog’s amusing legendary El Dorado, city of gold, in devoid of any human contact. documentary about their love-hate 15th-century Peru, Herzog turns Herzog’s masterstroke here is his relationship, My Best Fiend). history into myth as he dramatises casting of the extraordinary Bruno S., his own working methods, with the who himself spent many years in As each film demonstrates, Herzog arduous process of making the film asylums and prisons. The effect is has little interest in conventional or (on location, in the middle of the remarkable: Kaspar is presented as ‘normal’ society. In making these jungle) mirroring the thrust of his an alien being whose unique vision punishing fables about the discontents plot about swashbucklers venturing of things is beyond the understanding of civilisation, Herzog has pushed his into the untamed wild in search of of 19th-century polite society. Kaspar actors (notably, the resilient and greatness. Visually, the film is truly is seen as a freak and ill-treated by the remarkable Kinski) to astonishing spectacular, from the unforgettable authorities. To Herzog, it is society extremes. As with all visionaries, the opening sequence of the conquistadors that is deformed, not Kaspar, who line between madness and sublimity descending a steep mountain to responds to nature and experience in is a thin one, but life is never dull, the closing shot of a demented a warm, vital, instinctive manner. and neither are their films. Aguirre alone on a raft swarming with monkeys. west germany, 1974 • subtitled colour • 110 min. west germany, 1972 • subtitled colour • 95 min.
German Films Service and Marketing The Goethe-Institut is the cultural GmbH is the national information institute of the Federal Republic of and advisory centre for the promotion Germany. It promotes knowledge of the of German films worldwide. German language abroad and fosters www.german-cinema.de international cultural cooperation. www.goethe.de/dublin 4 werner herzog
Nosferatu the Vampire My Best Fiend Fitzcarraldo Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht Mein liebster Feind—Klaus Kinski director Werner Herzog director Werner Herzog director Werner Herzog December 9 (2.00pm) December 8 (2.10pm) December 8 (4.40pm) One of Herzog’s most ambitious but Herzog’s take on the Dracula myth is The remarkable Klaus Kinski was disaster-prone projects, Fitzcarraldo handsomely mounted and surprisingly Herzog’s muse and nemesis over five saw the director return to the Amazon erotic. The vampire becomes another of films. This documentary portrait jungle for another story of an obsessive the director’s existential anti-heroes, an traces the love-hate relationship that adventurer driven to extremes. Jason outsider who transcends the limits of nevertheless produced some out- Robards was originally cast to play the human possibility and evokes the standing work and constituted one lead, but it’s difficult to imagine anyone terrors of Nature in his wake. As of the great actor-director partnerships. more qualified than his replacement, Nosferatu, Klaus Kinski follows the Max To put it mildly, theirs was a tempes- wild man Klaus Kinski. It might seem Schreck make-up (from Murnau’s film) tuous relationship: on Aguirre, like a rerun of Aguirre, and in one down to the bald pate and rat’s teeth, Herzog threatened to shoot Kinski if respect Fitzcarraldo even surpasses and gives the vampire count a sympa- he left the set; on Fitzcarraldo, that film, with the central character’s thetically fragile aura. Herzog rather rel- Kinski’s behaviour was so outlandish mad scheme to build an opera house ishes the demonic plague unleashed by that some local Indians offered to kill in the rain forests of 19th century Nosferatu on the bourgeois community; him. Kinski made more than 150 Latin America being matched by at last something shocks them out of films, but only his work for Herzog is Herzog’s decision to film on location their smug complacency. Appropriately, truly memorable. Indeed, it is almost and having a large boat hauled over a this is one of the director’s most stylish impossible to imagine Kinski with- mountain for real. Yet the two films films, with outstanding contributions out Herzog, and it’s equally true that are very different in tone and mean- from cinematographer Jörg Schmidt- some of the director’s greatest films ing. Unlike Aguirre, Fitzcarraldo is no Reitwein and composer Florian Fricke owe much to Kinski’s incredibly maniacal seeker of power but a some- (of Popol Vuh fame). intense performances. And it wasn’t what innocent dreamer who just all bad blood between actor and wants to bring opera to the jungle. west germany-france, 1979 director, as this amusing film shows. subtitled • colour • 107 min. west germany, 1981 • colour uk-germany-usa, 1999 •subtitled english version • 157 min. colour • dolby stereo sr • 95 min.
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