Der Baader Meinhof Komplex

Der Baader Meinhof Komplex (2008) | Director: Uli Edel | Constantin Film | IMDB: tt0765432

Der Baader Meinhof Komplex is the 2008 german submission for the 81th Academy Awards (didn’t win, Departures from Japan did). It’s directed by Uli Edel who has interesting powerful works in his CV (Last Exit to Brooklyn) as well as tremendously embarrassing works (Body of Evidence). Baader Meinhof is probably his finest.

Based on the book with the same title by Stefan Aust, the movie follows and tries to account for the early years of the terrorist group Rote Armee Fraktion (RAF, or Red Army Faction), one of the most violent post war extremist groups and responsible for 34 confirmed deaths. It follows Ulrike Meinhof (Martina Gedeck), Andreas Baader (Mortiz Bleibtreu), Gudrun Ensslin (Johanna Wokalek) and other founding members through their escalate from bank robbery to “imperialist enemies” bombings. Countered by the sharp and sensible anti-terrorist specialist Horst Herold (Bruno Ganz), the story tangles in its own intricate details, at times a little hard to follow for non germans acquainted with this particular slice of their country history.

Some critics described the movie as slightly biased or even glamorizing towards the terrorists but I disagree. There’s a lack of focus within the group’s ideology leading to feelings of violence for the sake of it. Not that an orthodox marxist ideology would release the group from their violent inexcusable actions but, what I reckon from watching the movie, is that these violent activists could actually decide to stick to whatever excuse of an ideology on any given moment.

The movie tries to explore their sense of liberalism, almost in a strict european kind of hippie fashion which is much more bourgeois than actually liberal although american audiences will most likely misunderstand them. Ulrike Meinhof, for instance, is seen at the very beginning of the film at a nude beach. An american would typically consider that attitude as liberal but, as any european knows, that kind of easy going attitude is much more related to a lesser faire attitude than a anti-conservative feature.

Despite the long running time, I found the movie to be entertaining and leaning towards factual correctness. The rhythm and innumerable actions and counteractions of the RAF account for the long running time. It is never dull, that’s for sure.

Lars and the Real Girl

Lars and the Real Girl (2007) | Director: Craig Gillespie | Sidney Kimmel Entertainment | IMDB: tt0805564

Understated debut film by Craig Gillespie that, nevertheless, reached three 2007 top-ten lists (Dennis Harvey – Variety; Joe Morgenstern – Wall Street Journal; Kenenth Turan – Los Angeles Times). This was a very impressive year – check this list which is, by no means, all-inclusive: There Will Be Blood, No Country For Old Men, Atonement, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, Michael Clayton, In The Valley of Elah, Gone Baby Gone, The Kite Runner, Once, I’m Not There, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Into the Wild, The Lives of Others, you know, I really could go on. Nevertheless, I consider this a year with a few out-of-bounds hyped but unsatisfying films: Margot at the Wedding, Superbad, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Zodiac, and two that I’m not sure will age gracefully: The Savages, and Juno. If I had to draw comparisons to another 2007 film, it would be the very good and satisfying Dan in Real Life. Yes, there are films that make you feel good and you should embrace that feeling more often.

Lars Lindstrom (Ryan Gosling) is a shy and withdrawn young man living in a small nameless town, much resembling a Minnesota landscape. He works and attends church but that’s about it concerning his social functioning. He lives in the garage of his deceased parents’ house, now inhabited by his brother Gus (Paul Schneider) and sister-in-law Karin (Emily Mortimer). Karin tries in vain to include Lars in their family life, asking him in very persuasive mode to come to breakfast or dinner. Karin is the perfect sister-in-law – now pregnant – concerned about Lars voluntary retreat. Lars spends his evenings alone inside the small flat-garage. One day, a work colleague shows him a website featuring full size and “anatomically correct” vinyl sex dolls. A few weeks later, Lars receives a crate with his own doll, introducing her (Bianca) to his family as a paraplegic missionary of Brazilian and Danish descent whose luggage has been stolen (as well as her wheelchair). Bianca is Lars new and (you may guess, first) girlfriend.

The film has everything to go wrong. From the premise above, you’re correct in believing that it best describes a crude comedy. It does not. It works beautifully. Bianca is Lars way of overcoming his lack of human touch, his bitter pain and his fear for his about-to-be-born-nephew causing danger to his mother (Lars mother died during labour, delivering him). The community overcomes the fact that Bianca is a doll, treating her as the woman she “really is”. Some criticism was raised concerning the fact that the whole community is supportive. Well, in what world do you live and, in what world would you like, in fact, to live? Ditto.

Der siebente Kontinent

Der siebente Kontinent (1989) | Director: Michael Haneke | Wega Film | IMDB: tt0098327

Der siebente Kontinent (or “The Seventh Continent”) is Michael Haneke‘s debut cinematic release. An obscure art house release before earning a small but steady cult follow after Haneke’s bizarre and successful Funny Games, it’s the first in a set of three films the author himself described as his Vergletscherungs-Trilogie (or “Glaciation Trilogy”). Without analysing the other two films (Benny’s Video and 71 Fragemente einer Chronologie des Zufalls), Kontinent is an acidic and fiendish kick in your scrotum. Yes, maybe I’m not being clear enough: it’s a gut-wrenching exercice that will change your perception of art and hopefully, everyday life. But it’s not an easy film to watch. It’s slow, precise, and disturbingly clinical-cold. Haneke‘s dismiss of incidental music gives it a terrifying tone implying that real horror is within the confines of your home.

Anna (Birgit Doll) and Georg (Dieter Berner) live with their daughter Eva (Leni Tanzer) in a upper middle class Vienna neighbourhood. When I say “live” I mean “everyday-life-live”. They have breakfast, dine, go shopping, go to work and school, live a common workingman’s life. You know, could be your family, right? Excruciatingly you watch their routine. And I say “their routine” since I’m assuming the characters are the ones handling the objects we are being shown. Faces are avoided as much as eye contact is avoided within the family. Yes, you see close ups of different objects until you realize that neither Anna, Georg or Eva are the main characters. A clock, a toothbrush, a bowl of cereals, frozen broccoli, a fish tank… Their mundane existence is tedious, monotonous, unexciting, mechanical. The whole first act is a film about every John Doe living in any given western town. One day at school Eva pretends to be blind. Her mother, an optician, demands Eva to tell the truth (if she sees or not), telling her that she won’t hurt her in case she was lying. Eva admits to being lying and Anna slaps her face. Another crack in the paint. Thereon the family leads itself to an unpredictable and distressing final third act.

It’s clear that this people are unable to communicate their feelings but, what feelings are those? Caught in a landslide of mundane existence is there anything to feel? What’s the meaning of it all? Money, objects of routine, meaningless jobs, undetermined neighbours, solitude from emotional interference, worthlessness… These are words that can’t describe the coldness of the film. On the other hand, there are other questions being raised: we, the audience, are spectators of their collapse. Is it worth watching such a thing? Well, perhaps you watch it everyday and either turn a blind eye or deliberately shrug it off.