[lbo-talk] BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ released today

BklynMagus magcomm at ix.netcom.com
Wed Nov 14 07:49:05 PST 2007



> . . . but the movies that tend to lose my interest
are the ones that become overly invested in self-referentiality.

I think that can be applied to many of his films as his mise en scene is always calling attention to itself through framing devices, mirrors, reflections, etc. RWF did not pursue the "invisible" style of filmmaking.


> For instance, I have a limited interest in the films
that he makes about making films.

The only film that would fit this category to my knowledge is BEWARE OF THE HOLY WHORE, his account of the making of WHITY, his only Western. I think many directors have a movie-about-moviemaking in them: 8 1/2 (Fellini); Day For Night (Truffaut); Contempt (Godard) which was heavily influenced my Mankiewicz's movie-about- moviemaking The Barefoot Contessa.


> I'd be curious to hear your take on the other directors
that came out of New German Cinema though.

Wim Wenders: started to lose me with FARAWAY, SO CLOSE, but I perked up with THE END OF VIOLENCE and MILLION DOLLAR HOTEL. My favorite is THE AMERICAN FRIEND.

Werner Herzog: his documentaries are great works made in his own distinct voice and vision. For me, they grow out of the earlier fiction films he made which always leaned toward the documentary form anyway. I always feel Herzog's presence as auteur whether he is narrating/on-screen or not. The dancing chicken at end of STOSZEK -- sublime.

Werner Schroeter: the mad eccentric of German film, his THE ROSE KING is poisoned romanticism at its best. After Fassbinder, his films are the most personal and definitely the most non-mainstream.

Volker Schlöndorff: uneven at best, I have never felt compelled to see a film by him a second time.

Magarethe von Trotta: I have liked what I have seen, but need to do a deeper investigation of her work.

Brian



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