Return To Montauk (4 Stars)

"There are only two things that matter; there is the thing you did that you regret, the thing that cannot be undone; and there is the thing that you did not do, that you should have done, that you regret too, but it's too late now. It's easy to say that these things do not matter, because they're over, but they do. They are in fact all that matters. The things in between do not matter at all".

"Return to Montauk" is built around the terrible symmetry of regret. The quotation at the beginning doesn't just introduce the story; it becomes the film's entire emotional architecture. Everything Max does in Montauk is haunted by the two kinds of failure the quote describes: the love he lost through cowardice and compromise, and the life he built afterwards that can never quite compensate for it.

What makes the film so affecting is that it refuses to offer easy redemption. Max returns hoping that memory can somehow be corrected, as if revisiting Rebecca might undo decades of emotional damage. But the film understands that regret doesn't disappear simply because people finally say the things they should've said years earlier. Time itself becomes the enemy. The tenderness between Max and Rebecca is real, but so is the knowledge that they are no longer the people who once had the chance to make different choices.

Director Volker Schlondorff keeps the film quiet and restrained, avoiding melodrama in favour of melancholy observation. Stellan Skarsgard gives Max a weary sadness that feels painfully authentic; he isn't simply mourning a lost woman, but an entire unrealised version of himself.

In the end, the opening quote proves brutally accurate. The ordinary years in between fade into the background. What remains are the moments that shaped a life forever; the choices made, and the choices avoided. "Return to Montauk" suggests that people never really escape those moments. They carry them silently, until memory itself becomes a kind of final reckoning.

We are the night (5 Stars)

Dancer's Top Films #85

As I've said in all my previous posts about this film, it's the best vampire film ever. You might disagree, but it strikes a chord with me. In the vampire mythology of this film it's said that there are only 40 vampires in Europe, 200 worldwide, and all of them are women. The men have been wiped out because they were too loud and too stupid. Now a consensus has been reached that no more men should be turned. As a feminist who believes in the inherent superiority of women over men, I can easily accept this as a premise.

The vampiresses, of whom three live in Berlin, have adapted to the lack of male vampire companions in different ways. Louise has become a lesbian.

Charlotte has lost interest in any sort of sexual activity. The thrill of drinking blood is all she needs.

Nora still likes men, but for sex only. No emotional attachment. After having sex with a man she kills him. That's not a problem, because there are millions to choose from in Berlin alone. She could take and break a man every day for hundreds of years and never run out of willing partners.

Lena is recruited as the fourth vampiress in Berlin. Ultimately, it's her emotional attachment to men that brings her down. Louise offers Lena her love, but Lena isn't ready for a lesbian relationship. She can't live like Nora, because she still has an aversion to killing. She has feelings for a mortal man, a police detective, and she puts his safety above that of her fellow vampiresses. This is a weakness of some, though not all women. Emotions are good, but a woman shouldn't allow her emotions to take priority over her reasoning.

Does Lena eventually act against the consensus and make her lover a vampire? The question is left open at the end of the film. I suspect that she does, but it's up to the viewer to make up his own mind.

This is one of the few German films in recent years that was on general release in UK cinemas. It was still a failure at the box office. Nobody takes German films seriously. The people who haven't seen this film are missing out.

Success Rate:  - 6.6

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We are the night (5 Stars)

Ever since "Twilight" was released I've heard people groaning that vampire films are always love stories. I don't understand what they're complaining about. Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula", written in 1897, was a love story. In the tradition of gothic literature love and tragedy are combined. Count Dracula's love for Mina, a woman who doesn't love him in return, leads to his death. This story was retold in the films "Nosferatu" (1922), "Dracula" (1931) and "Dracula" (1958). In all three films the sole motivation for Dracula's crimes was love. Love drove him to the most hideous of acts. Love and vampirism are entwined so tightly that I'd say that a vampire film without love isn't a real vampire film.

In this film the ancient vampiress Louise (Nina Hoss) is searching for her lost lover. He's long dead, and she thinks she can only recognise him by his eyes, whether he's been reborn as a man or a woman. She believes that the young pickpocket Lena (Karoline Herfurth) is the one, so she makes her a vampire in order to live with her forever.

The film flopped at the box office, earning only $1.2 million from an $8 million budget. The only reason I can give for its failure is that people didn't give it a chance. They didn't think it could be good because it was German. That's a mistake many film fans make today. They forget that the world's first vampire film was German. It took a few years for the film to be noticed, and it's now made a profit from its DVD sales.

A few years ago the English Wikipedia page for "We are the night" was almost empty, just a stub. Now a complete article has been written which isn't based on the German Wikipedia page and contains a lot of new information. In the overview it's stated:

"The film explores themes of depression, self-harm, the consequences of immortality, suicide, and explores Valerie Solanas' idea of an all-female society".

That's an interesting summary which contains thoughts not contained in the German page. I drew a connection with Valerie Solanas the first time I watched the film, but I thought it would be going too far to talk about it in my review. Now I feel bolder. Louise tells Lena that there are about 40 vampires in Europe, 200 worldwide, all of them women. The men were too loud and too stupid, so they all ended up dead. Now an agreement has been reached that no more men will be turned. That's a very sensible strategy. If it's not possible to rid the world of men altogether, it's a good compromise to only allow women to be immortal. If a man is annoying, just let him die.

Critics of the film have said that it copies too many ideas from existing films. Why is that a problem? I would say that every vampire film that's been made for the last 50 years is a pick and mix from what's gone before. It's a genre that loses its appeal if too much is changed.

This is a brilliant film. If you're a vampire fan you need to watch it. If you're a feminist you need to watch it. In fact, if you're someone who likes any sort of film you ought to watch it.

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Barbara (3 Stars)

Barbara Wolff was a highly accomplished doctor who lived in East Berlin in the 1980. She worked in Charité, the most prestigious university hospital in East Germany. She had no particular love for Communism, but she put up with it until she met and fell in love with a visiting doctor from West Germany. She naively thought she would be allowed to leave the country if she submitted an application. That's not the way it worked. East Germany never allowed its most skilled professionals to leave. She's sent to work in a small hospital on the coast close to the Polish border. This means lower wages, and she's given an unattractive apartment to live in.

Barbara doesn't give up. If her legal application to leave the country failed she has to resort to illegal means. She doesn't have much freedom. The East German secret service, the Stasi, is watching her every move and harassing her with random searches.

I heard about this film a few years ago, but I've only just decided to watch it. The film has been highly praised by critics. It was Germany's entry for the Academy Awards as Best Foreign Language Film in 2013. After watching it today I have to ask why. It's not a strong film. It drags on with painfully slow pacing. If you want to see a film about the life in East Germany watch "The Lives of Others" or "Wie Feuer und Flamme". "Barbara" isn't in the same league.

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Return to Montauk (4½ Stars)

"The two most important things in your life are the thing that you did and regret doing, and the thing that you didn't do and regret not doing".

That's a depressing quote, but it sets the tone for the film. It's a film about sadness and regret. There are occasional glimpses of hope, but regret is stronger than hope. Hope is the expectancy that something good might happen at some time in the future. Regret is the knowledge that something bad has already happened (alternatively that something good didn't happen), it's your own fault and nothing can be done to change it. Regret is about facts while hope is about dreams.

Max Zorn, a Skandinavian novelist who lives in Berlin, travels to New York to promote his latest novel. It's a story about a love affair he had when he lived in New York 17 years ago. He's accompanied by his wife Clara, but he feels compelled to look for Rebecca, the woman on whom the book is based. When he knew her she was a poor student, but now she's a wealthy defence lawyer. Max has been with five women over the last 17 years, but he realises now that Rebecca is the love of his life. Rebecca has had one other lover, but she still has feelings for Max. She suggests that they travel to Montauk, a place where they once spent time together.

Stellan Skarsgard and Nina Hoss are two of my favourite actors. In fact, after watching "Return to Montauk" today I have to say that Stellan is my favourite actor outright. His performance as a naive, childlike man who thinks that he can do whatever he wants is overwhelming. He knows about regrets, he repeats the quote twice, but he hopes things can be undone. Nina Hoss is pragmatic. She doesn't talk about regret, but she feels it, and she's not foolish enough to think things can be undone.

The film is based on the novel "Montauk" by Max Frisch, a book about one of his love affairs. It isn't a direct adaptation of the novel. The director Volker Schlöndorff adds to the story elements from his own life when he lived in New York in 2000, 17 years ago. Schlöndorff is telling his own story, using Max Frisch's novel as the background.

This is a deeply moving film. I couldn't help crying. Maybe not everyone will enjoy it. It's a talkie film in which very little happens. Within those parameters, it's a masterpiece.

Gold (4 Stars)

This film takes place in Canada in 1898. It's an unmotorised version of a road movie, since it deals with a journey across 1500 miles across rugged land, alternating mountains and forests. What stands out in my mind after watching it isn't so much the story, it's the beautiful panoramic cinematography. In recent years a lot of  fuss has been made about "The Hateful Eight", but "Gold" is just as magnificent, even without the 70 mm camera hype. The cinematography is much superior to other films like "The Revenant".

Emily Meyer (Nina Hoss) is a woman who emigrated from Germany in 1892. Since then she's been working as a handmaiden in Chicago. That's a long way to travel to become someone's slave, but even in the 19th Century America didn't always deliver what it promised. She answers a newspaper advertisement and joins an expedition of Germans heading to Klondike in north west Canada, where gold has been discovered. The expedition's leader is Wilhelm Laser, a man who found gold in Klondike in 1896 and is now running a group to guide fellow Germans to make their fortunes.

That's the point where Emily should have been suspicious. If Wilhelm Laser had become so rich from digging for gold, why didn't he stay where he was and find even more for himself? Why did he need to charge $500 per person as a tour guide? Could it be that he could earn more as a tour guide than as a gold digger? That's the only logical conclusion. I'm just as sceptical of money-making schemes today. If someone sells me a book for $20 about how to make money fast it's obvious that the author makes more money from the book sales than from the scheme he's recommending.

Anyway, only three other Germans are as gullible as Emily. A fifth person is travelling with the group, a German news reporter, who doesn't plan to stay in Klondike. His only intention is to write about the gold rush for the people of Germany. There's also a packer with them, whose only job seems to be looking after the horses.

Soon after the journey begins the worst suspicions become true. I mean my worst suspicions, the people in the party never expected problems. Wilhelm Laser sits struggling with maps, and it's clear that he doesn't know the way. A few days later he attempts to desert the party in the middle of the night. The five Germans take their money back and sentence him to death by hanging. That's frontier justice at its best. After this they decide to continue to Klondike without him. The packer can evidently read maps better.

They continue on across the hostile terrain, through woods and plains, through valleys and over mountains. As the journey continues their horses die, and the group becomes smaller as one by one they're no longer able to continue.

The film is carried by Nina Hoss's magnificent acting. She plays a woman who's as hard as nails, a woman who's learnt to keep her emotions under control. She's the perfect prototype of a 19th Century pioneer woman. Strong but feminine. Her role cements her position as one of Germany's most talented actresses.

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We are the night (5 Stars)

This is my Halloween Challenge film #27. My last review was longer than usual, so today I'll just say three words.

Best. Vampirefilm. Ever.

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Atomised (4 Stars)

This is a German film with the original title "Elementarteilchen", which means "Atomic particles". It's based on a novel with the same name written by the French author Michel Houellebecq. Since I had problems understanding the message the film wants to give I read a summary of the book. It seems to me that the novel is a deep philosophical work that talks about modern man caught in the battle between Christianity and science, frustrated because they both claim to give answers but neither succeeds. This element is completely missing from the film. The book's main characters and their lives are portrayed in a vacuum, without the book's underlying message. What remains is a family drama interlaced with black comedy.

Bruno was born in Berlin in the 1950's. His mother went to India to join a commune shortly after his birth, after which his father committed suicide, so he was adopted by his grandmother. His mother visited him once a year but showed no emotion towards him. When he was 18 his mother told him for the first time that she had another son, Michael, aged 17, who had lived with another grandmother in Berlin all this time. The two half-brothers met and became friends, united in their disdain for their mother.

20 years later Bruno and Michael have taken different paths, but they're still close friends. Bruno is married with a young child, but he's obsessed with sex, having a series of one-night stands outside of his marriage. He's chosen a career as a senior school literature teacher because he wants to be surrounded by teenage girls. Michael is still a virgin, and he is working in a research laboratory trying to find a way to reproduce human beings without sex.

Bruno suffers a mental breakdown after a 17-year-old girl in his class rejects him. His wife leaves him, he loses his job, and he spends the next few months in and out of mental institutions. Michael stands by him in his time of crisis. Then both brothers fall in love at the same time. Michael reunites with his childhood sweetheart, Annabelle, who is still single because she has always loved Michael. Bruno meets Christiane, a woman in an esoteric holiday camp who shares his obsession with sex, although they rarely have sex with one another; they prefer to watch one another having sex with other people.

Both relationships go badly. Christiane has advanced cell decay in her spinal cord, which leads to her becoming paralysed from the waist down. Annabelle becomes pregnant from her first sex with Michael, but she had previously been warned that she should never get pregnant. The baby is aborted, but there are further complications that mean her womb has to be removed, and even after this she's so weak that she could die at any time. The two brothers are both left with disabled lovers. It can't get any worse, can it? Actually it can. I've given away most of the plot, but the two brothers and their lovers sink deeper into the abyss.

The film's humour is very morbid. We're invited to laugh at sickness, death and even taboo subjects like incest. I don't mind morbid humour. I can laugh at anything. What disturbs me is that the film is inconsistent. After comedy scenes there are long portions of serious drama. Then, eventually, the jokes are packed into the film one after another. I would have enjoyed the film more if the humour had been spread more evenly.

Nevertheless, the film has its strong points. The film features some of Germany's biggest stars, and they don't let us down, making the madness and the suffering of their characters completely credible. This isn't a masterpiece, in my opinion, but it's worth watching as an example of powerful German cinema.

Yella (3 Stars)

"Don't dance with the Devil. When the lights go on and you look in the mirror you might find that you yourself are the Devil" (Dagbok Greymoon).

I watched this film a few years ago and didn't enjoy it very much. I recently stumbled on a review by Roger Ebert in which he highly praises it, so I thought I would give it another chance. It still doesn't appeal to me. Most of the film takes place in the dull world of big business and venture capital. Even the supernatural elements can't make it interesting. When we find out what's behind everything it's disappointing, a cheap way out. It's a powerful performance by Nina Hoss as she stumbles through a nightmare, but the story itself is too weak.

I've decided to dedicate next month, November, to watching my "30 films to watch before you die". It's the last 30-day month till April, so it's a good month. I'll try to watch one film each day. If I miss a day for any reason I'll watch two films the next day.

I've been planning to watch the whole of the Medina Collection for some time. I'll probably begin in December. It's a big collection, 32 films, so I might not watch them all on consecutive days. I might stretch the viewing over two months. I'll see how things go when I start.

A Girl Called Rosemarie (4 Stars)

Have you heard of Rosemarie Nitribitt? If not, you should have. Three films have been made about her, in 1958, 1995 and 1996, not including several documentaries. A musical about her was written and first performed in 2004. What's the reason for the fascination with this girl called Rosemarie? It's because her life is a cross between "My Fair Lady" and "Pretty Woman". She was a poor woman who escaped her background and entered high society, while there was a passionate love story in the background.

Rosemarie Nitribitt was born on February 1st 1933. She never knew her father. When her mother was imprisoned for theft Rosemarie was put in a children's home. She was passed from one foster home to another, never settling in. She became a prostitute at a young age, but it was always her dream to become a star like the actresses on the front covers of magazines.

Rosemarie's time of fame only lasted 18 months. In 1956 she met a rich industrialist, who brought her into the wealthy circles of businessmen, politicians and nobility. In 1957 she was dead. Her murderer was never found. Who were her enemies? Almost everyone she knew. Not content with the extremely high call girl rates she charged, she taped the meetings with her clients in order to blackmail them. She taunted her clients by greeting them when she saw them with their wives. Whoever killed her, it was probably a millionaire or a top politician. People like that don't get caught, they have too much influence over the police and the law courts.

Rosemarie Nitribitt
February 1, 1933 – October 29, 1957

When she was buried in 1957 only her body was buried; the police insisted on keeping her head as evidence. Even after the case was closed the police kept her head and put it on display in a police museum. Her head was finally buried with the rest of her body on February 11th, 2008.

This is Rosemarie's grave in Frankfurt, notable for two things:

First, the date of death on the tombstone is incorrect. When she was buried it was assumed that she died on November 1st, the day her body was found. Examination of her skull after her burial revealed that she died two days earlier.

Secondly, the Bible verse on her tombstone is admirably misquoted. "Nichts Besseres darin ist denn fröhlich sein im Leben". This comes from Ecclesiastes 3:12, and it means "There is nothing better for people than to be happy while they live". This is certainly a very appropriate verse to sum up Rosemarie's life. But let's check the Bible itself. Part of the verse is omitted. The full verse is "There is nothing better for people than to be happy and do good while they live". The omission says as much as the quoted verse itself.

The White Masai (4½ Stars)

This film is based on the first volume of the autobiography of Corinne Hofmann, which sold more than four million copies worldwide. The names of the characters have been changed for the film, but the dates and places are the same.

In 1986 Carola Lehmann went to Kenya on holiday with her boyfriend. While there she became infatuated with Lemalien, a Sambura warrior that she saw dressed in his traditional tribal clothing. On the spur of the moment she decided not to go home to Switzerland. Instead, she moved to Lemalien's remote village and married him.

At first things go well for Carola. Then she realises that life with Lemalien isn't as easy as she imagined. The cultural differences are overwhelming. It's a patriarchal society where the women have to work to support their husbands. The men sometimes go hunting, but they eat the best food among themselves and only give the women the scraps. Carola opens a store to support her family, but this leads to even more problems. Lemalien grows insanely jealous when he sees her smiling at male customers, and he accuses her of having a lover.

The film was made on location in Kenya. Apart from the main actors, extras were used from the Sambura tribe for the sake of realism. The cast and crew lived with the Samburas while they made the film to learn about their lives and their culture.

The panoramic scenery of the film is overwhelming. Obviously the director, Hermine Huntgeburth, fell in love with the beauty of the Kenyan wilderness, and she did her best to present it at every possible opportunity.

Just as overwhelming is Nina Hoss's beauty in the main role as Carola. I've always been fascinated by her face, and the film offers many close-ups. Please forgive me for the many screenshots that I've decided to share with you.

Lemalien is played by the French African actor Jacky Ido. He puts on an amazing performance, considering this was his first film. Since then he's appeared in about a dozen French films, but he's best known for his role as the projectionist in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds". He also has an important role in the German film "West" as the American secret service agent John Bird.

The film was released in America in 2005, but is sadly already out of print. It's still available in Germany, but the German edition doesn't contain English subtitles. Sorry.

Maybe the film's one fault is that Nina Hoss doesn't have a Swiss accent. She's from Germany and was born in Stuttgart. She doesn't speak the local Stuttgart accent (Swabian) in the film, she speaks Hochdeutsch, "high German". The DVD contains an interview with Corinne Hofmann, and she has a strong Swiss accent. It was probably better that Nina didn't try to imitate a Swiss accent. It wouldn't have turned out well.

I intend to re-watch some of Nina's films over the next few weeks. If I get round to it. My pile of DVDs that I want to watch again is getting higher every day. So many films, so little time.

Phoenix (4 Stars)

I'm always happy when a German film is shown in Birmingham. It doesn't happen often enough. When I heard that "Phoenix" was being shown at the Mac, a cinema specialising in foreign films, I was excited. I was even more excited when I found out that it stars Nina Hoss, one of my favourite actresses.

Nelly Lenz was a successful singer. She performed in London in the 1930's. In 1938 she returned to her home country, Germany. The problem was that she was considered to be a Jew. She didn't think of herself as a Jew, but in the eyes of the Nazi party anyone was a Jew who had at least one grandparent who was a practising Jew. She probably thought that marrying a German would make her a German, but it wasn't good enough. The authorities caught up with her. In 1944 she went into hiding in a boat house in Berlin, but the Gestapo found her and sent her to a concentration camp.

At the end of the war she is still alive, but her face is severely scarred from burns when the Nazis tried to destroy the camp and with it the last of the Jews. Nelly's best friend Lene, a fellow singer who had remained in London during the war, supports Nelly while she gets plastic surgery to repair her face. Together they travel to Berlin to set their affairs in order before emigrating to Palestine. Nelly says that she wants to look for her husband Johnny first. Lene warns Nelly that her husband might have been the one who betrayed her. There are hints that Lene might be in love with Nelly, although this isn't clearly stated. Nelly insists. She soon finds her husband working at a club called The Phoenix. Johnny doesn't recognise her, but he does think she bears a slight resemblance to his wife. Before Nelly can reveal who she is, Johnny tells her he wants her to impersonate his wife, because that's the only way he can get his hands on her inheritance. Nelly accepts, and she allows Johnny to buy her clothes and give her a makeover to look like his wife.

This is a very intense film, made darker by the lack of background music. Nina Hoss looks less attractive than she usually does, but this was necessary to make her look realistic as a battered refugee from a concentration camp. Once more, she delivers a stunning performance. I think I should watch a few of her films over the next few weeks.

Anonyma (4 Stars)

How should we live?

In 1954 a book called "A woman in Berlin" was published in America, written by a German authoress who requested her identity to be kept secret. In it she detailed the events of her life in Berlin from April 20th to June 22nd 1945. The book was moderately successful. When it was published in Germany in 1959 it created a scandal, many people denying that it was true. In 2003 an updated, more detailed version of the events was published. The publisher stated that the authoress had recently died and had requested her identity to remain secret. However, in our information age it's impossible to keep secrets, and it was soon revealed that the anonymous woman was the journalist Marta Hillers, who had lived from May 26th 1911 to June 16th 2001. In 2008 the story was filmed with the lead role played by the formidable German actress Nina Hoss. In the film she has no name, she is merely The Woman.

The Woman was an international journalist who had lived in London, Paris and Moscow, but in the final years of the war she returned to Berlin. She felt it was where she belonged. It's easy for us to condemn the Germans as Nazis, but let's try to forget the decades of political propaganda and put ourselves in her place. She was a patriot who loved her country. In the film she's asked if she's a Fascist. She answers that Fascism is about carrying rods, and she doesn't do that. She supports Adolf Hitler because he's her leader. We see the same attitude in all the people around her. No one is politically motivated, they're just women and old men terrified by the advancing Russians and looking to Hitler for protection.

But the Führer doesn't protect them. In the last week of April 1945 the Russians enter Berlin and occupy the area where The Woman lives. The Russians are a drunken mob who treat the female population as spoils of war. They rape as many women as they can find, whether they're young, middle-aged or old. The women who resist rape too forcefully are shot. After The Woman has been raped a few times she decides to take her fate into her own hands. Since she can speak Russian, she goes to the Russian troops and asks to speak to their most senior officer. She meets a major called Andrej Rybkin and offers herself to him as his mistress. This gives her protection from rape for the next few weeks. Other women also find means to survive. Throughout the city apartments are used as brothels where they give Russian soldiers sex in exchange for food. The Russians are happy and call Berlin one large brothel. This doesn't give the women complete safety. Russian soldiers occasionally lose control of themselves and kill women, but the others just accept it and carry on prostituting themselves.

The scandal stirred up by the book isn't the mass rape by the Russians, but the way the women of Berlin found it easy to become prostitutes. In the film all the women have sex with Russian soldiers. The only difference is in their choice of how it happens. Either they can be brutally raped and left battered on the floor, or they can offer themselves willingly in exchange for fish and potatoes. Most of the women were married, and their husbands were away fighting in the German army. By the time their husbands came home the Americans had arrived in Berlin and the Russians had to behave themselves. The women denied having been prostitutes. That's why the book was so scandalous. It was something that nobody wanted to admit, at least not in 1959, so soon after the war. When the book was reprinted in 2003 it was different. Many old women who had lived through the period of the Russian occupation of Berlin spoke out and confirmed that the book's reports were accurate.

I decided to watch this film again because it's the 70th anniversary of the Russians conquering Berlin. The Russians consider it to be their greatest ever victory. I see it differently. The events of 1945 are something Russia should be ashamed of. There has never been such an extent of mass rape in all of history. It's estimated that in a period of six months Russian soldiers raped more than two million women. Some estimates are as high as five million, depending on how the numbers are counted. If the same woman was raped a dozen times, is that one rape or twelve? Today Russia is in a state of denial. They don't just claim the numbers are exaggerated, they say it never happened at all. It's true that soldiers from the other armies also committed rape, but it was never on such a mass scale. For instance, it's estimated that 50,000 Russian women were raped by German soldiers in a five year period.

We are the night (5 Stars)

As I've mentioned before, I hold a monthly film evening in my home for my friends. Each month there I show two films back to back, on varying themes: the same country, actor, director or genre. Today I decided to show two German films. Today's film evening was a flop. Of the people I invited, almost all of them cancelled. For some reason they thought German films might be boring or uninspiring. Strange. Of the two people who said they would come, only one turned up. Thanks, Alex. But the two of us had a great evening together.

This was the last German language film that was shown at my usual cinema, Cineworld in Birmingham. If I remember correctly it was shown at the end of 2011, and only limited showings, one a day late in the evening. That was before I joined the film club in 2013. I asked my friends, and none of them went to see it. They don't know what they were missing out on. This is a film that looks great on the big screen, but that applies to all recent action-packed German films. The cinematography is always perfect, highlighting the special effects.

I've written about this film a few times before, so I shan't say much now. It's a love story against the background of a battle between police and vampires in decadent 21st Century Berlin. My friend Alex, who has visited Berlin more recently than me, was able to recognise some of the locations. While discussing it with him I became aware for the first time that the film offers a tour of Berlin, the good, the bad and the ugly. We see the rich shopping streets, the luxurious hotels and the run-down slums. We see the old pre-unification landmarks and the new buildings. We see street cafes and Russian brothels. We see the shiny yellow underground trains, the U-Bahn, which ironically travel on rails high above the ground outside of the city centre. It's a beautiful film that showcases a fascinating city that everyone should visit at least once before he dies.

We are the night (5 Stars)

The more evil the man, the sweeter the blood.

This is one of the best films made in Germany in recent years. In many ways it's a typical German film. Sexy young women in the dazzling glitter of Berlin, who just happen to be vampires. If you only ever watch one German film in your life, this should be the one you pick.

I noticed today for the first time that my DVD contains a dubbed English version. I listened to it for a couple of minutes. Absolutely awful! The voice actors sound like they were reading the dialogue from the script book for the first time. There was no emotion in their voices. If you can't speak German I suggest that you watch the original version with English subtitles.

A Most Wanted Man (4 Stars)

Ever since this film was announced a friend of mine who is a big John le Carré fan was telling me that I really must watch it. And then another friend who's an Anton Corbijn fan told me I should watch it. But I didn't need the encouragement of either of them. The film stars Philip Seymour Hoffman in the leading role, so I would have gone to see it whoever had written or directed it.

I have never read any of John le Carré's books, but I know a little about him. He is a British author who writes books about espionage. He had the advantage of working for the British intelligence services, MI5 and MI6, which gave him insight into the way espionage works. This film is very different to spy thrillers such as the James Bond films. We don't have spectacular car chases and agents leaping from helicopters while firing their guns at people on the ground. This is a very sober story of the way secret agents really live and work. It's not all excitement being a spy, it's about investigation, paperwork and negotiations with the police and other agencies. Being a spy is a 9 to 5 job, and this film gives an insight into the job for anyone who is considering it as a career.

Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Günther Bachmann, the head of a small counter-terrorism unit based in Hamburg. A Chechnyan terrorist who is being sought by the Russian authorities enters Germany illegally. The German police want to arrest him immediately, but Bachmann persuades them to let him remain free, under observation, so that he can be used to gain evidence that a Moslem philanthropist, Dr. Faisal Abdullah, is secretly financing Al Qaeda.

Apart from Philip Seymour Hoffman and Willem Dafoe, who plays a banker, the film contains the top German actors Daniel Brühl and Nina Hoss. The singer Herbert Grönemeyer has a small part in the film, as well as composing the film's music.

It's interesting that this is the second film I've seen in the cinema in two weeks which includes an excerpt from "The Mussolini", a 1981 hit by DAF. In "A Most Wanted Man" it's being played in a club, in "The Guest" we hear Anna Petersen listening to it in her room. DAF are a group who achieved great success in Germany, but are hardly known in other countries. It would be good to revive interest in them.

Click here for the music video of "The Mussolini".

Fenster zum Sommer (4 Stars)

Nina Hoss stars as Juliane Kreisler, a Finnish translator living in Berlin. She's been living with her boyfriend Philipp for nine years, but she feels that their relationship is going nowhere. She leaves him and goes to live in a hotel. A few days later she meets an attractive man in a train, then continues talking to him while waiting to meet her sister Emily. Emily is killed in a traffic accident before her eyes. The man, August Schelling, comforts Juliane, and they become lovers. A few months later they travel to Finland together. They fall asleep, and when Juliane wakes up she's six months in the past. She's still living with Philipp, and Emily is still alive.

What does she do now? Can she save her sister's life? But if she does that, will she ever meet August? Maybe she should give her relationship with Philipp a second chance. The possibilities are endless. Everyone on this planet, with no exceptions, has done things that he regrets. We have all done things that we can't take back. Juliane has another chance. Will knowing the future make her life easier or more difficult?

When this film was released in 2011 it was shown in English cinemas with subtitles. Since then it has only been released on DVD in Germany, and the DVD has only German subtitles.

Fenster zum Sommer (4 Stars)

Can you escape fate?

We are the night (5 Stars)

As my regular readers know, this blog isn't a film review site, technically speaking. It's my film diary. What I mean is, I tell my readers what films I watch, as I watch them, and I write about them. "So what's the difference?" Simple. If I watch a film twice I write about it twice. That's something a real review site wouldn't do. And that's relevant in this case. This is the third time I've watched this film since I started the blog in September 2010. I already reviewed it in March 2012 and October 2012.

I don't often watch a film spontaneously. Whenever I finish watching a DVD I put the next DVD next to my player. I already had a different film lying there ready to watch. And yet I picked this one. The reason is, yesterday I bought a new television. I bought an LG 42CS460, a 42" LCD flat screen. My first new television since December 2008. My old television, a 32" LCD screen, LG 32LG5020, still works fine, but I was in the mood for an upgrade. I wanted something bigger and better. I wanted to try it out by watching a film that I've watched recently, something that I know has a high quality picture, and I picked up "We are the night". Good choice. I love the film, and the television is great quality for its size.

The television cost me £289 from Richer Sounds in Birmingham. It's only slightly more expensive from other shops, for instance £299 from Argos, but I strongly advise my English readers to choose Richer Sounds. For those of you who don't know it, it's the best retailer for hifi and entertainment systems in England. That's not just an opinion, it's a fact, and anyone who looks at them objectively will agree. First of all, they're cheaper. They have a price guarantee, that they will beat any other price listed online. Not just match the price, they promise to beat it. Not that it's usually necessary, because they're already the cheapest for every article I know of. As well as this, look at the customer care deals, the "extended warranty". For 10% of the purchase price they offer a 5-year warranty, which includes the television being picked up from and returned to my home, and a replacement set being provided during the repairs. In this case I paid £28.85 for the extended warranty. Compare this with Argos. The television is only £10 more expensive, but the extended warranty only lasts for three years and costs £104.99. No comparison, is there? Apart from this, I have to say that my experience with the Richer Sounds staff has always been good. They all seem to know what they're talking about and give good advice. At other stores -- I almost named one I've been to, but I don't want to be sued for slander -- it's all about sales, getting the customer to buy the highest price article to earn the highest possible commission.

Apart from my televisions, over the years I've bought stereo systems, DVD and Blu-ray players, and accessories like cables and headphones from Richer Sounds. There's no reason to shop anywhere else. Please take my advice. You won't regret it.

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Addendum on Monday, 1st June, 2015

Since I wrote this post, things have got even better at Richer Sounds. The five year extended guarantee is now FREE for all their televisions.

We are the night (5 Stars)

If you can never die, what is there to live for?

This is my horror film #13 for October. I've disqualified "The Ninth Gate" from the list. My mistake. I wanted to watch 20 films, but I probably won't get there now. Maybe I should just try for 15?

I already reviewed the film when I watched it in March. I don't want to repeat myself, so check out the link. If anything I enjoyed the film even more the second time. This time I paid more attention to the love triangle and the romantic nuances. Luise and Tom both love Lena, and she has to choose between them.

The film has only recently been released on DVD in England. It's in the stores now. On the cover it says "Lost Boys meets Twilight". I chuckled at that rather trite description, but it's not so inaccurate. The Berlin vampire coven is very much like a high society version of "Lost Boys". The girls live in a luxury hotel, not a cave, but they live for thrills in the same way. And it's a human-vampire romance, like "Twilight", but with the genders reversed.

This is the best vampire film that's been made for years. I've seen mixed reviews on other web sites. If I understand the reviewers correctly, they were disappointed because the film wasn't what they expected. It doesn't glamorize vampires. Their skin doesn't shine like diamonds. They're not all bad either. They're not heartless monsters like Dracula in the Hammer films. They're very practical. They don't kill people because they're evil, they just do it because they need the blood.