天空の城ラピュタ (1986, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Hayao Miyazaki)

Another film by the grand old man of Japanese anime. However, I see that my inner Japanese is not really fully developed. Although I am basically curious, I am now a bit tired of this genre.
Another nice film about saving the world, restoring a once golden age, Paradise Lost, Refound and Lost Again.
I don't want to make fun of it, but I just had too much Miyazaki - or maybe the program committee of Film4 made a poor selection and chose too many films with similar plots. What again was the difference between this and Nausica?
8/10 -- and now I need a break from Miyazaki

Sheeta and Pazu, the orphaned heroes of this film

The grandmother of the pirates - who will trust this woman?

Laputa - uprooted and floatingaway

Vyšší princip (1960, Jiří Krejčík)

This movie from Czechoslovakia was banned in West Germany. They said then that it was hostile to Germans. I bet today a word with -phobe might have been used. Surprise! Czechs make a film about the occupation of their country. Who would expect a Germanophile result?
A quality of the film is, however, that it is not only black and white, but shows a variety of different reactions in the population. Many are just angry, but don't join the resistance actively. There are opportunists who adapt to the circumstances. In a way it portrays daily life of Czechs during the occupation.
On the other side there are the German forces. They are not, as in many other movies, a homogeneous mass, but there are discernible individualities, e.g. the head of the Gestapo.
The main emotional appeal of this movie is, of course, to show how the lives and ambitions of three young people are crushed and wasted for some stupid joke.
Propaganda, certainly, but with shades and gradings. Art? The director definitely could  do more than he is showing to us here.
4/10

Die Welle (2008, Dennis Gansel)

Habe ich diesen Film schon einmal gesehen oder bloß schon soviel gehört, dass ich glaube ihn gesehen zu haben? Ich weiß es nicht mehr. Jedenfalls jetzt habe ich ihn gesehen und dabei oft dieses Déjà-Vu-Vernehmen gehabt.
Ja, wir wissen es mittlerweile: wir alle haben das Potenzial zu Anbetern einer Autorität zu werden in uns. Sich einzureihen und der Gemeinschaft zu folgen, ist so leicht. Mit ruhig festem Schritt und links zweii drei. Wie das geht, wird plausibel in diesem Film vorgeführt: einfache Botschaften, das Gefühl zu einer Elite zu gehören, Riten und Routinen zu haben - und vor allem einen leicht identifizierbaren und à la longue auszurottenden Feind.
Projektwoche. Thema ist Autokratie. Während einer Diskussion wird behauptet, es könne in Deutschland nicht mehr zu einer Diktatur kommen, man sei ja aufgeklärt. Der Lehrer - hervorragend dämonisch von Jürgen Vogel dargestellt - kommt nun auf den Gedanken, diese Behauptung nachzuprüfen. Er führt allmählich Disziplin und Ordnung ein. Dabei kommt ihm zugute, dass er Autorität ausstrahlt. Einmal auf der schiefen Ebene legen die Schüler allmählich ihren kritischen Verstand: Eigenverantwortung und Selbständigkeit wird der Gruppendynamik geopfert. Es sieht auch so aus, als ob der Lehrer es genießen würde, von seinen Schülern geliebt, ja angehimmelt zu werden.
Wie bei diesen Experimenten üblich, droht das Konzept aus den Fugen zu geraten. Der Lehrer kann am Ende wie der Zauberlehrling nicht mehr die Kräfte bändigen, die er hervorgerufen hat. Vor allem aber nimmt er einem Außenseiter, der in diesem Experiment plötzlich seinen Lebensinhalt fand.
8/10

Big Game (2014, Jalmari Helander)

I haven't written so much here recently, This could mean that I am just plain lazy or that I am living in the real world, neglecting the virtual one and also neglecting these notes for my later reference.
What to say of a movie that has the doubtful reputation to be the most expensive film from Finland.  In times of financial crisis it would have been better if they had used the money more meaningful.
This was shown at the Copenhagen Film Festival. I really need to stop thinking that only because something is shown at a festival makes it worthwhile. This one was junk.
Who will watch such stuff? Who is the target audience? Grown-ups? Hardly! Maybe this is something for big boys and other people before adulthood and maturity.
The most powerful man in the world? Right, the President of the United States of America. The least powerful man in the world? A boy from the rural Finland who needs to go through a rite de passage to become a man. Bad odds. Add a handful of terrorists that want to shoot down and kill said President and construct a situation in which only the skills of a Noble Savage can save the president. That doesn't sound interesting and it isn't. There are different action circles, chasing and shooting and what else is supposed to be an integrated part of a thriller. Will the murderers win? Any qualified guesses?
2/10 - feeling generous

The villain could be a George W lookalike - interesting1

風の谷のナウシカ (1984, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Hayao Miyazaki)

As normal European viewer it is at face-value not so easy to understand the hype about animation films in Japan. Viewers like me need to overcome their prejudices against this genre - the shadow of Disney is too powerful in this part of the world.
Film4 had a series with Miyazaki animations - and I realized that they were famous among lovers of fantasy films. Long time ago I had a visitor from Japan, traveling with Japanese cartoons - probably I have seen more Miyazaki films than I realize. Maybe later I will recall what I have seen in the past.
Now this is a dystopian. The earth is largely uninhabitable, large insects roam around and toxic seeds pollute the jungle. Thanks to the winds that make the seeds drift away, one valley is still populated by humans. They live there in rather poor conditions. Of course there has to be a fighting and at last all ends well. Humanity can be rebuilt.
Although the animation is very attractive, the pure fantasy content didn't really appeal to me. It was attractive to see what fuels the Japanese imagination. In short: I see the qualities of this film, but still I cannot be a great fan of it.
5/10

Prometheus (2012, Ridley Scott)

After some months I will probably have forgotten that I saw this film. Science Fiction is not my cup of tea, usually. Knowing this, I shouldn't have bothered to see it in the first place.
Just now I find it also in a list about the most expected and most disappointing films.
The film tries to live by stunning visuals covering a bad manuscript and a half-baked plot. I think I chose this film, because of Michael Fassbender (because I liked him in Shame, but in general his filmography is like a list of unnecessary movies) and Noomi Rapace (to see her as a normal person without dragon-tattoo).
The plot? A sort of creation myth from a foreign civilization. When an expedition gets there, they don't find their friendly forefathers, but slimy brain-eating creatures.  They infect the members of the crew, so most of the members die one after another. There is also an android who survives as head, after his body has been snatched by a monster. When they have found out that the habitat is not so friendly, the leader of the expedition can manage to stop an attack on good old Earth and manage to flee. So what?
The film tries to be smart, at times even pretends to some philosophical and metaphysical level, but it doesn't come close to its pretentious level about the roots of mankind. Instead it uses the typical ready-made sets about gradual elimination and worn-out Alien imagery. Stunning pictures cannot save a poorly crafted script.
2/10

Lengthy parts of this film occur during twilight

Aliens are getting in your eyes

Noomi Rapace

Michael Fassbender - the well-combed android