2010 Audi Festival of German Films

Dates & venues:
Adelaide, Palace Nova Eastend; 7 - 9 May
Brisbane, Palace Centro; 28 April - 4 May
Melbourne: Palace Como and Kino Cinemas; 22 April - 2 May
Perth: Cinema Paradiso; 22 - 26 April
Sydney: Palace Norton St and Chauvel Cinemas; 21 April - 2 May

The ninth Audi Festival of German Films again provides a wide-ranging palette of entertainment, now adding Adelaide to its audience. Here’s a selection of the films I’ve been fortunate enough to preview from the many excellent pictures on offer.

Any new film from director Michael Haneke invokes interest, his previous dark essays with an edge of violence like Funny Games have given him a reputation for the confronting in German cinema. The White Ribbon sees Haneke in the classic mode - there’s violence but hidden behind doors. Harking back to the great days of the Swedish and Danish cinemas, this finely crafted film, superbly shot in austere black and white, is more Bergman than Bergman.

The stark story of intolerance, mistrust, revenge and death in a remote German village is set in the early twentieth century. Sins of the adults are foisted on the children as strange happenings in the God-fearing village unnerve the inhabitants. The town’s dour men feature as being brutal and angry, especially their nightmarish pastor (Burghart Klaubner), who resembles Gunnar Bjornstrand from the Ingmar Bergman stable. Fine work from the strong cast, with credible recreation of the place and period, makes this a visual treat and powerful drama of the angst variety. My favourite of the previews; but then I’m a die-hard Bergman fan.

If you figured (like someone I know) the German Cinema is full of introverted dramas you’d be quite wrong. Do see Simon Verhoeven’s Men In The City, one of the funniest feel-good movies ever to grace a film festival. The film features interwoven stories of a five very different men - who all belong to that bastion of masculinity, a fitness studio - trying to work out how to be a man in today’s world of uptight situations. It’s a sparkling, fast-moving comedy with snappy, clever dialogue and even touching moments. The original title of Mannerherzen (Men’s Hearts) might have been more appropriate.

Justus von Dohnanyi steals scenes as schmaltzy songster Bruce Berger, who becomes a pop-star under the unhappy guidance of his producer Jerome (Til Schweiger from Inglourious Basterds). Ravishing Jana Pallaske (another from Inglourious Basterds) as Nina provides the romantic interest for happy dreamer Philip (Maxim Mehmet). Head-butting’s in vogue as everyone (even the kids) seem to need anger management. Funny stuff includes the email dating, the walk out by Bruce Berger, and the uncontrolled wrath of train driver Roland (Wotan Wilke Mohring). Whipped along on up-tempo tunes, Berlin shining in the sun never looked so enticing.

Whiskey with Vodka directed by Andreas Dresen, is a gentler whimsical comedy dealing with relationships of the cast on a film shoot. It makes intriguing viewing for anyone interested in a behind the scenes look at the industry. A slightly past the post alcohol-fueled movie star Otto (Henry Hubchen) causes problems during the filming of a 1920s melodrama “Tango for Three”, falling about drunk on the set. The film’s uptight director Martin (Sylvester Groth) accepts the producer’s command to provide backup to Otto’s scenes with a second actor Arno (Markus Hering) in case Otto can’t complete the picture.

The romantic escapades of the film’s characters (a mother and daughter seduced by the same man) are reflected in the offscreen activities of the cast held together in the cosy restrictions of a location shoot. With humourous insights into the filmmaking process, the leads work well together. Hubchen brings hurt dignity to his philandering Otto, Markus Hering with flyaway hair has a Gene Wilder charm as Arno, while romantic interests are well served with Corinna Harfouch as Bettina the perfect flapper, and Valery Tscheplanowa as the cute sexy Heike. The lyrical sound track of 20s pops provides nostalgic atmosphere.

Two films reflect the years before the Second World War in quite different perspectives. Berlin 36 tells the near-unbelievable story of the devious efforts employed by the Nazis to prevent a German-Jewish high jumper Gretel Bergmann (Karoline Herforth) winning at the Olympic Games of 1936 in preference to their own Aryan stooge. Hitler has a dilemma - under pressure from the United States he has to allow a Jew to compete in the games, but a Jew winning to the Fuhrer was unthinkable.

The solution comes in the form of Marie Ketteler (Sebastian Urzendowsky) a young man raised as a girl. ‘She’ will be Gretel’s effective rival, agreeing to the Nazi set-up under the offer of a sea career. If either wins there could be awkward repercussions. The story is told like a TV documentary with a minimum of dramatic flourish by director Kaspar Heidelbach. A surprise comes at the end when Gretel Bergmann still alive today is actually interviewed on camera.

John Rabe tells the story of a forgotten hero of the rape of Nanking in 1937. Rabe (Ulrich Tukur) was for 30 years the German manager of the Nanking Siemens telecommunications plant. Rabe’s alarmed when the Nazi regime back in Berlin decides to close it down, at the same time as the Japanese forces attack the city. He and his wife Dora (Dagmar Manzel) are persuaded to stay in Nanking by college principal Valerie Dupres (Anne Consigny) and Jewish-German diplomat Dr. Rosen (Daniel Bruhl) to set up a safety zone for civilians as the Japanese invade the city. Quickly overrun, the safety zone has serious difficulties, but despite being a member of the Nazi party, in Schindler style Rabe manages to save some 200,000 Chinese from the massacre of exceptional brutality.

There’s little doubt the German cinema can recreate wars effectively on a big canvas. Yet director Florian Gallenberger manages to balance human interest against the elaborate set pieces. This time the Japanese are the bad guys, and the leaders live up to the legend of inhumane barbarity, with the exception of one major who’s appalled by the executions of all the Chinese soldiers. Outstanding performances, particularly from Ulrich Tukur who exudes a quiet authority, and a delightful moment from Steve Buscemi as the overworked American doctor who does a frustrated Colonel Bogey march. With a strong script and powerful, often confronting visuals, this is a film of true epic proportions.

Wolves of Berlin is equally in the epic mould, evoking Heimat. Friedemann Fromm’s Emmy winning TV mini-series covers three important periods in Berlin history and the effects on the lives of six people first seen as teenagers in 1948 in the aftermath of the war and the partitioning of the city. The six are Bernd and Kurt who both dream of owning their own bar; Silke a committed Communist, Jacob a Jewish survivor of the concentration camps, Lotte a hopeful singer, and her younger brother Ralf. They form a gang called ‘The Wolves’, taking a blood oath that nothing can ever separate them, not even death.

We follow their tumultuous lives in three stages over the next fifty years - how they cope with the construction of the Wall in 1961 and its demolition in 1989 - reflecting the social changes and political conflicts or the era. Remarkable for the excellent sense of period enabled by the clever use of seamlessly integrated archival footage, the newly filmed material constantly alternates black-and-white or colour. Different sets of competent actors appear in each episode without affecting the flow of the story. Despite a tacked-on happy ending, this sure-footed dramatic television provides a gritty and realistic view of vital years in Berlin’s history, especially the first episode “Nothing Can Part Us”.

John Bale