Archive for the ‘Cinema’ Category
“Years of Hunger†(Dir. Jutta Brückner 1979) ****½ (4½ of 5)
Men, set your ego aside for 114 minutes and try to understand the motivations of Ursula, the lead character of Jutta Brückner’s film “Years of Hunger.†The reward is worth the loss of masculinity one may suffer. The film details Ursula’s middle to late teenage life during Germany’s economic miracle (1955-1956). Jutta Brückner claims that [...]
July 5, 2007
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1 + 1 = 3 (Director Heidi Genee 1979) **
If you like avant-garde cinema which taunts you and makes you feel uneasy, do not watch Heidi Genee’s comedy 1 + 1 = 3. Although comedy is rare in German cinema, this film’s strongest feature is not its comic approach, but rather its reuse of well-worn cinematic techniques. This comedy is not very funny. 1+1 [...]
July 5, 2007
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Germany, Pale Mother (Director Helma Sanders-Brahms 1979) ****
With its volatile balance of Brechtian distanciation and gripping melodrama, Helma Sanders-Brahms’s Germany, Pale Mother presents the tragic collapse of a family during and after World War II. The story is presented as a dialogue between Anna, who was born during the war, and her mother, Lene. Anna wants to understand what influenced her character [...]
July 5, 2007
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