Die Fälscher (The Counterfeiters)

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Berlin, 1936. The Jew Salomon Sorowitsch is the best counterfeiter in Germany. He is living a comfortable life of gambling, booze and women until he is caught. Straight away he is sent to a concentration camp where he is able to use his skills as an artist to get some extra food by painting pictures of his superintendents.

After some time Salomon is transferred to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp where he is forced to play a big part in Operation Bernhard. Here the Nazis want him to produce counterfeit British pounds and American dollars in order to fund the war and disrupt those economies. Salomon and the other inmates try to save their skin by playing along with the Nazis. Adolf Burger, who is politically active, is the only one to sabotage the operation. He manages to delay the process of making the perfect replica of the dollar long enough until the war is over.

Although the film is quite good and the acting is great, I was surprised to hear that it won the Oscar as Best Foreign Film.

The film is based on a true story. This is an interview with the real Adolf Burger, who survived the war.

Interview

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The political journalist Pierre Peters (Steve Buscemi) has the, in his eyes, dreadful task of interviewing the slasher-film actress Katya (Sienna Miller). He is completely unprepared whereas she is entirely unmotivated to do the interview. The two of them somehow manage to find a way of communicating. They like and hate each other at the same time, they fight, they kiss, they cry.

Most of the film is set in Katya’s incredible loft apartment. I find it fascinating that the relationship between the characters can hold the audience’s attention even though it is mainly two people in one room. Plus it’s more or less filmed in real time. But it just works. It is a captivating, amusing and intriguing story.

Steve Buscemi is as brilliant as ever. He is so beautifully eccentric that it is hard not to love him. The stunning Sienna Miller gives a great performance as this spoiled but surprisingly clever starlet and her American accent is excellent.

The film, directed by Buscemi himself, is actually a remake (or tribute) to Theo van Gogh’s Dutch version.

(Foto: Straight no chaser/flickr)

The Forsyte Saga (Series One)

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The story of the Forsyte family is entwined in six episodes. Marriages, break-ups (even divorce!), love, hate, despair, all the good stuff! As my dear friend says, hours and hours of Victorian fun. Based on the book by John Galsworthy.

Soames Forsyte (Damian Lewis) falls in love with Irene Herron (Gina McKee). Here the drama starts. Irene is not in love with Soames, but marries him against her better judgement (for he is rich and she is poor).

After a few years she falls in love with someone else (a rather handsome fellow by the name of Phillip Bosinney). Obviously she has to steal him away from an engagement with her best friend (and cousin via marriage) June. Unfortunately their life together is ended by a rather inconvenient accident before it can even begin. This leaves Irene homeless (for she has already left her husband) and Soames son-less. As luck will have it there is the other side of the family, where several generations of Jolyon Forsyte’s (one of them played by the great Rupert Graves), can look after the beautiful Irene, although Soames’ obsession with her does not make her life easy.

This series is a must for those who like to lose themselves in a costume drama with intrigues, betrayal and love affairs (such as me!).

Irina Palm

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Maggie, a fifty-year-old widow, gets caught up in the sex trade. Her grandson is very ill and the family has no money for his treatment. She finds herself wandering the streets of London (after several attempts of getting a job) and randomly walks into a club called “Sexy World” with a sign “Hostess wanted”…

The film is a lot more subtle then what its synopsis suggests. It is actually surprisingly witty and charming. Marianne Faithful’s performance is astounding. The horror in her face when she goes to work as Irina Palm is wonderfully touching and comical. This is an immensely moving and absolutely enjoyable British comedy.

(Photo: hjw223/flickr)

Jesus Christus Erlöser (Jesus Christ Saviour)

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1971. An evening with Klaus Kinski. He is performing a monologue on Jesus Christ that he wrote himself. I have to say, this man was weird, no…crazy, no… maybe completely insane. Even though the monologue itself wasn’t that interesting to me, I was very impressed by the performance. Kinski certainly had presence and I was almost glad that he was only on screen and not live. Scary, scary man! Some of the audience members were trying to have their say on the speech which did not impress Kinski one bit. He kept shouting at people in the audience and left the stage several times in a complete rage. The show is well worth watching.

The director Peter Geyer was at the cinema for a Q&A after the film. He was almost as strange as Kinski himself. He had a lot of anecdotes about Kinski, his family and life itself and was happy to talk for hours. Apparently he randomly got the old film reels at an auction and spent the last nine years of his life editing it (among doing lots of other things).

It’s good fun to watch some interviews with Kinski on youtube. They are hilarious. A talk masters nightmare!

Marie Antoinette

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This Film is by far the pinkest and fluffiest film I’ve ever seen. It’s a love letter to cake, champagne, parties and gambling. It got pretty bad reviews when it first came out and I have to say the first time I saw Marie Antoinette I didn’t really like it. But after reading the biography it is based on (by Antonia Fraser) I started to fall in love with the film. Sofia Coppola really knows how to convey the feeling of having absolutely nothing to do. Plus the costumes are amazing! I also quite like the mix of a historical piece with with modern music and fairly contemporary language.

Tip: The best way to watch this film is with champagne and cake!

(Photo: French cake/ Ness)

Paris, je t’aime

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I couldn’t agree more with a title. I’ve always been fascinated by Paris. And now there is a whole film dedicated to the city of love! It is a compilation of eighteen short films by twenty-one leading directors. There are quite a few famous actors in it as well. (Such as Juliette Binoche, Natalie Portman, Elijah Wood, Emily Mortimer and many others). It’s really fun to watch and because there are so many little stories, there is something in it for everyone. Most of the stories are (of course!) about love, or the lack of love. I couldn’t even say which sequence I like best, there are just too many…

In my view the film is like the city itself: diverse, romantic and beautiful.

(Photo: Paris/Ness 2008 )

Ben X

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Fairly traumatizing Dutch teen drama. The autistic Ben gets bullied at school and retreats into a world of on-line computer games. There he is all powerful (level 80 at least!) and can protect himself against his enemies. There he has a girlfriend, a fellow worrier, who fights at his side. Unfortunately this does not translate into the real world. Ben gets severely tormented by his classmates and does not have any friends. This leads to suicidal thoughts.

The story is truly touching and the film is beautifully made. This is Greg Timmermanns’ (Ben) first role and I was amazed by his acting. The only thing that I didn’t like was the ending. (Don’t worry, I am not going to spoil it for you…) It just seemed unlikely (or maybe too idealistic?) in this rather realistic narrative. The film is still worth watching though!

Sense and Sensibility

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“Can the soul really be satisfied with such polite affections?

To Love is to burn, to be on fire. Like Juliet or Guinevere.”

I just love this film. And I’ve seen it at least 200 times. Somehow I kept thinking about the scene where Marianne finally gets the letter from Willoughby, saying that he cannot be with her. Her sister Elinor asks, “Did he ever tell you he loved you?”, and Marianne answers “Yes. No. It was every day implied but never declared.” It’s just so tragically beautiful. Obviously I had to re-watch the entire film to see that one scene.

Oh, I do miss England and its fine countryside and magnificent estates.

Fun Fact: Emma Thomson is now married to Willoughby (Greg Wise). Who can blame her? Let’s face it, who didn’t fall in love with him?

(Photo: Ness. Montacute house in Somerset, some of the scenes were filmed there.)

Rainbow Brite (Regina Regenbogen)

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This is highly embarrassing. We (I’m using the word we intentionally to make clear I did not watch this in my room on my own…) spent the evening watching Rainbow Brite. To be honest it was actually quite gruesome. Scary monsters and robots. And a horse (Sternschnuppe) with the biggest ego in the universe. Don’t watch it, it’s freaky.

(Photo: amycgx/flickr)