Lissy (DDR 1957) Konrad Wolf

Wie schön ist es, in Zeiten zu leben, in denen (fast) alles verfügbar ist. Als die DDR noch real vor sich hin vegetierte, hätte ich diesen Film wohl kaum sehen können? Wo denn? Im Kino vielleicht oder gar im TV? Jetzt holt man ihn sich beim Goethe-Institut und schaut ihn zu einer Zeit, die einem selbst am besten passt.
Neugierig zu sein, hat auch Schattenseiten. Allzu oft ist ein interessanter Fund ein Griff ins Klo. Manchmal gibt es auch interessante Entdeckung. Oft ist es aber: naja, geht so gerade. So auch in diesem Film. Ich hatte fast schon wieder den Titel vergessen.
Lissy Frohmeyer ist aufgeweckt, lebenslustig, mit dem Herz auf dem rechten Fleck. Aber der Überbau bestimmt den Unterbau, so ist es nun einmal, im Marxismus. Lissy wird aus dem Bahnhofskiosk entlassen, weil sie ihrem notgeilen Arbeitgeber eins aufs lüsterne Maul gibt. Auch ihr Mann wird entlassen, von einem jüdischen Arbeitgeber. Außerdem ist sie auch noch schwanger, so dass das Unheil seinen vorhersehbaren Lauf nehmen kann. Zwar versucht sich ihr Mann von den Früchten seiner ehrlichen Hände über Wasser zu halten. Das gelingt allerdings bloß notdürftig. Dann trifft er einen Kameraden, der ihn belehrt, dass der Jude an allem schuld. Und der politisch ungeschulte Einfaltspinsel glaubt das auch sofort. Er macht mit bei den Nazis und schon geht es aufwärts mit der Karriere als SA-Rabauke. Lissy hat bei alle dem zwar ein ungutes Gefühl, ein Gefühl das zu Überdruss und Abscheu wird. weil die Schläger ihren Bruder erschießen. Lissy hält eine flammende Anklage und dann ist der Film auch schon aus.
Konrad Wolf macht zwar keine plumpe Propaganda, versucht auch die Typen zu individualisieren, aber sie bleiben eben bloß Typen und werden nicht zu vielschichtigen Personen.  Wolf traut sich nicht soviel wie Falk Harnack 1951 mit dem Beil von Wandsbek (das auch vorausschauenenderweise verboten wurde). Es macht sich nicht gut, bei den Kommunisten allzu viel Individualität zu seigen.
Dabei ist dieser Film handwerklich gut und sollte eigentlich als Zeugnis dafür wie sich die DDR mit dem Nazismus auseinandersetzte gewürdigt und geschätzt werden.
Lissy bringt es deshalb, auch wegen guter schauspielerischer Leistungen auf 7/10.

Nach 111 Minuten gehen Lissy die Augen endlich auf.

The Hidden Blade (隠し剣 鬼の爪) - Yoji Yamada 2004

Who would have thought that I ca appreciate a samurai film? Yamada does not write a heroic epic of the glorious deeds and the honors won in battles, but tells a story about the twilight of one culture, its corruption by worthless local powerful people and the ultimate destruction of their honor code by soulless technology.
Munezo lives far away from the capital. He is a samurai, but not a super-warrior. Instead he cares of his family and especially of their housekeeper. He has a crush on her, but she is not an appropriate choice for him, as she is from another class. This setting makes the movie far more epic and interesting than a normal action-packed samurai-movie would be, at least for me.
Munezo's sword brother Yaichiro has been involved in a conspiracy against the shogun. Munezo is ordered to catch and kill him. Munezo knows that he only has a chance, when he learns more from their old teacher. This teacher teaches Munezo a trick that works during the final duel, but the mortal blow coms from those modern guns.
Munezo learns that the chief retainer of the clan has betrayed him. Munezo kills the retainer with the technique of the "hidden blade".
His life has become empty. Together with the house maid he will start a new life on a distant island.
A samurai movies without brave warriors and almost no fighting. No wonder that the fans of the genre esteemed this movie as boring. Instead Yamada gives us an epc about the decadence  of one epoch and the dawn of a new era, in which there is no more room for those traditional values. Thia is tale that could be told about many generations. The films focuses on inner drama, not on outer action. I likes it and I want to see also the two remaining movies from Yamada's samurai trilogy.
8/10

Munezo - the disillusioned samurai

In Another Country ( 다른 나라에서) (Hong sang-soo 2012)

This film is light and airy like a meringue; entertaining and intriguing - and that's it.
A young film-student is passing time at a desolated seaside resort somewhere in Korea. She is writing the same plot about a woman and her encounter with local lovers. These are three variations of the same plot, three variations in their own right, like Theme and Variations as knows in music.
I don't think that these is about the failures in the process of creative writing, as I see each of the episodes as valid variations, three possible developments.
I don't see why some reviewers call the plot extremely complicated. It's is very easy to follow the story line in each episode. Those who get easily confused might notice the color of Isabelle Huppert's dress. But even without that it should be easy to follow the plot and its many amusing variations and some overlapping also.

Muscular, but not too bright -- Yoo Jun-sang as lifeguard with an interest in Isabelle Huppert

 Forget all about meta-narrative and cross-cultural encounters, just lean back and enjoy this movie. I think I have recorded more films by this director.
9/10

Gone Girl (David Fincher 2014)

David Fincher is known for making efficient thrillers, often with twist. Fight Club and Se7en I still remember somehow, even though I saw them many years ago. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was actually not needed, but as American viewers hate to read subtitles, they had to be presented with a complete new re-filming of the book.
And now Gone Girl. What to do when you are married to a psychopath and want to get out of the marriage? What id the psychopath makes an elaborate plan that includes even her own suicide as a part of the elaborate plot to bring the husband to the gallows? And what if the biggest revenge is just to return as deus ex machine, pretending to their marriage a second chance?
In the exposition we watch the accelerating deconstruction of the once happy marriage; Nick wants to break out, but before he can arrange that, his wife is disappeared. Where did she go? The violence seems to hint at a kidnapping, but ever more clues seem to hint at that Nick might be responsible for her disappearance.
This is a intense plot with supreme performance and very well-written dialogues. The plot has several twists and after one more turn of the screw we are back at the beginning. Very noir - very intense. But also very long.

Gone - and still present

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

This film has been around for a while; at last I also saw it. There are so many films which I want to see and the 2C-list gets longer all the time.
I watched the films from Sweden, so the question is: What can this version give what the Swedish film didn't have already?
OK, this is not a remake, but an independent adaptation of the original novel. There are some minor differences, unimportant variations which put a slightly different accents on different aspects of the plot. Some critic said, that this version is more "filmic", whatever that is supposed to mean.
The main actors, Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara, were obviously cast to look like the Swedish protagonists.
So -- an interesting attempt to make the US audience interested in this plot, but essentially an unnecessary film.

Seems that David Fincher is preparing the next step in this unnecessary refilming

Rossini oder ... (Deutschland 2007)

... die mörderische Frage, wer mit wem schlief.
Ein umständlicher Titel, gewiss. Aber auch eine Mediensatire, die keine speziellen Insider-Kenntnisse über "die Medien" voraussetzt. Der Plot soll mit Anspielungen gespickt sein, sei's drum.
Es geht um die Verfilmung eines internationalen Bestsellers, jedoch verweigert der Verfasser der Vorlage die Herausgabe der Rechte. Die entscheidenden Verhandlungen werden im Edel-Lokal Rossini stattfinden. Mario Adorf spielt brilliant den alternden Platzhirsch Paolo Rossini; überhaupt ist dieser Film bis in die Nebenrollen mit Spitzenkräften besetzt.
Eine Komödie, gewiss, aber auch eine Tragödie, denn einerseits spielen sich die Medienhanseln vor, wie aufgeklärt und locker sie doch sind, aber andererseits haben sie aber dutchaus ihre Begrenzungen, ja sogar bürgerliche Beschränktheit. Fliegt das Spiel auf (wie etwa im Fall der umbuhletn Valerie, die eis genoss, von zwei potenziellen Liebhabern umbuhlt zu werden), kann die neu entdeckte Öde auch mal zu einem Suizid führem
Insgesamt ein amüsantes Vexierspiel auf dem Jahrmsrkt der Eitelkeiten.
8/10

Leide weckt das Plakat eher Erinnerungen an einen Soft-Pornor

A week in Istanbul (2)

Meeting history - a walk along the city walls
This may not be on the top 5 list of a tourist, but being a bit of a historian, I decided that I wanted to walk along the city walls. The wall as such is a monument in its own right and secured the survival of Constantinople for 1000 years. And Church of Our Holy Saviour in Chora is a top site. It's very hidden and was under reconstruction. Still they ask 15 lira entrance fee, however what you see is worth the money. Shortly before it died away, there was one last explosion of creativity, a symphony of colors. It is an amazing church and it should be on everybody's to do list.

Chora Church - one last outburst of creativity during the Byzantine Empire

Some of the original gates are still in use; at some places the wall  was removed to give place to highways and some stripes are being reconstructed, though some specialists don't seem to be too happy with the methods applied. At last that made it clear why Constantinople survived every attack - until the cannonballs (topkapi) of Mehmet the Conqueror.

A gate from the Theodosian Wall

Day 4-7 -- museums
In many places they have one day with all museums closed. Istanbul. Some museums are closed on Mondays, others on Tuesdays or on Wednesdays, so  you can every day go to one museum or other.
Some are world famous - like the Topkapi Collection - but the entry fee is also five star. Even relatively unimpressive sites like Hagia Eirena cost 15 Lira, so it is absolutely recommended to buy a Museum Pass which gives access to state museums (and saves time to queue before Hagia Sophia or Topkapi.
It showed that it was a good choice to use the museum pass from Tuesday to Thursday, as the weather started to get bad.
As Topkapi is closed on Tuesdays, I started with the Istanbul Museum of Archeology. The concept of the museums in Istanbul is problematic. It seems by the way that all museums are under reconstruction at the moment.
So in this museum they heap lots of things together and put labels like "Box, late Ottoman Period" on it. It is as if they don't know which story to tell with their exhibits or what is the specific about that item from that period. We see lots of items without learning what is the specific trait about them. We see mainly a collection of artefacts and leave the museum confused and quite unenlightened.
Of course in Aya Sofya the room gives a structure, the room tells a story. Or maybe no story as the barren cross from the iconoclast period in Hagia Eirene.
Also in the Mosaic Museum the artefact tells it own story - or for once it is nicely explained. I wished all the mseums in Istanbul followed the concept of this museum.
I was looking forward to Topkapi, but got quickly bored. Handicraft, exposition of skills, etc. Yes, lots of luxury things and relics from the early time of Islam, like hairs from the beard of Mohammed. And I was surprised that a state-owned museum in a secular state tells the story of a religion in the terms of the religion. In the Vatican we don't expect critical distance to the exhibits. But in a secular state? Really!
Best was the Harem section in the Topkapi museum. This one gave an idea about life in that place and was only putting things together. But even better I liked the Kitchen. These showed that the placed once was used and that real people lived there.

Lots of things to look at in Topkapi

 The Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts has also a problematic concept. Actually it explains the history of Islamic Empires, but is not very explicit on what is the particular about the art they have created. Of course it correct to connect history and art, but what was the specific contribution of each empire. The ethnographic section was closed when I visited the museum. One staff member said it was somewhere else, another one said that it was not accessible. Strange, people like to give information, even though they are not always very helpful.
The Museum for the History of Science and Technology in Islam follows a slightly different approach. It depends very much on text, so there is a lot of information. Even an embarras de richesse for someone who is not familiar with the matter. There are certain highlights and the museum tries to point them out to the inquisitive visitor. They make a great effort to praise those scientists in western countries who communicated the efforts and achievements of the Islamic world in the west. The museum is very comprehensive. So you either concentrate on some subject or leave the museum with the impression that there was a lot. However there is no sufficient explanation why the former outburst of science and technology now is completely dried up.
On my seventh day I chose to see the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, on recommendation by a local in the knowing. This was a good recommendation after a concentrated infusion with history it was good to see that there actually is modern culture also. All  of the people who found their way to Istanbul Modern were completelu unknown to me. It is however a good idea to return to the present time, so I was thankful to get this recommendation.
There was much left to see, enough for another visit. I didn't experience many things, almost never I went out during the evenings, I didn't explore the local alternative scene, I didn't try many different local food specimens -- a selection is necessary with a limited budget and limited energy and most of all, the ever present riskof bad weather and wet feet.
One time is not enough for such a multi-facetted city.

Installation in Istanbul Modern