Fritzi - eine Wendewunderrgeschichte (2019, Matthias Bruhn / Ralf Kukula)

Es scheint, dass viele Jugendliche heute nicht mehr wissen, was 1989 vorgefallen. Fall der Mauer in Berlin? War da eine Mauer? Für viele Jugendliche ist Geschichte heute kein Schulfach mehr. Kein Wunder, dass wir eine Generation Doof haben.
Diese Wendewundergeschichte ist kindlich und niedlich aufgemacht. Fritzi lebt in Leipzig. Im Sommer 1989 kehrt ihre beste Freundin nicht mehr aus dem Urlaub in Ungarn zurück: sie ist mit ihren Eltern nach Westdeutschland geflüchtet. Langsam beginnt sie, sich für ihre Umwelt zu interessieren. Ihr wird klar, dass etwas faul ist im Arbeiter-und Bauernstaat. Benni, ein Non-Konformist, hilft auf dem Weg der Erkenntnis.
Dies ist ein Kinderfilm. Es wird sofort deutlich, wer gut und böse ist. Die Geschichte der beiden Freundinnen wird in den zeitgenössischen Kontext eingebaut. Der Film ruft direkt nach einer didaktischen Aufbereitung in der Klasse. Ich meine, dies ist ein gelungener Kinderfilm. Die Handlung ist ansprechend. Es kann allerdings sein, dass sich Fritzi nicht gegen die mächtige Anleime-Konkurrenz behaupten kann. Es wäre schade.
8/10
Großen Dank an das Filmfestival in Aubagne, das diesen Film zugänglich gemacht hat.

De Patrick (2019, Tim Mielants)

This blog has been orphaned again; I have promised myself to write more and shorter memos. I hope, I will eventually defeat my laziness.
Before all a big THANK YOU or rather MERCI BEAUCOUP to the Film Festival in Aubagne, who generously opened the films in the main competition for online viewing. Maybe I can be there next year for real and not just online.
De Patrick  is a  kind of deadpan existentialist comedy. It is up to the viewer to make the ends meet.
In the first shot we see a bulky middle-aged man floating as "dead man" in a lake. Patrick is relaxing. He is janitor in a naturist camping. While everybody greets Patrick, he is avoiding eye contact. Patrick is already 38 years and still living with his parents, a blind mother and a very sick father. The condition of the father gets worse and he dies eventually. At this time Patrick discovers, that a hammer is missing from his set of tools. Patrick is actually a gifted carpenter and designs chairs. - Instead of sorrowing, Patrick tries to find that tool. The father is gone for good, but he might be able to retrieve the hammer.
Of course the guests in the naturist camp are naked. Nudity does not create equality among the guests at this site. This place with naked people is far from being a restoration of lost nature or paradise. On the contrary, they are scheming and plotting. Especially Herman sees a chance to get his fingers at the site.
Nudity in De Patrick is not at all erotic, but rather a functional gimmick to make the story work. This is a genre-bending coming of middle age film, which is absolutely worth a watch.
7/10

Joy (2018, Sudabeh Mortezai)

Ladies and Gentlemen  - or rather: Gentlemen of the Oscar-Academy!
With no respect - you are a bunch of jerks, because you disqualified Nigeria's submission for best foreign movie. Did you ever hear that English is a national language in Nigeria? So why are you surprised that people talk this language along regional languages.
And SHAME on distribution companies. You may have lived happily with the thought that this is a little festival film that will silently disappear in the shelves. Instead Netflix bought the distribution rights. Yes, among the piles of junk Netflix has also quality in their catalogue. Thank you Netflix for making this available.
This said, I need to say that this is a necessary film, maybe not necessarily from the top drawer, but a film that is very relevant.
Joy starts with a ceremony. Later we will learn that it is called juju, a ceremony which has the purpose to "protect", but mainly to frighten the young women who are about to be trafficked to Europe. Once they are in Europe - if they come there alive - they have an immense debt which they pay to a Madame. Joy is to introduce a newbie, Precious, to the daily life of a street prostitute. Joy is already a veteran sex worker. We follow her, as their are occasional glimpses of hope, followed by pressure from home to send more money. There is always a risk that a violent customer might beat her up or - even more threatening - that the police might catch her and send her back. We see that joy is in a vicious circle that cannot be broken.
6/10

Matthias et Maxime (2019, Xavier Dolan)

Some critics like to put artists in drawers. For Xavier Dolan the drawer enfant terrible seems suitable, remembering the raw, often hysterical energy of I Have Killed My Mother of 2009. However, now at 30, Dolan is too old to be a wunderkind. Already It's Only the End of the World was for me a turning point towards a more mature and reflective Dolan.
Dolan has become a grown-up and so have his characters also. Matthias (Gabriel D'Almeida Freitas)is already climbing up the career ladder in a law firm. His best buddy Maxime (played by Dolan) is a bit restrained by his addicted mother (Anne Dorval, almost a follow-up of Mommy from 2014). Maxime is about to leave their gang to work in Australia for two years.
Matthias and Maxime are working out together; it is an open question if they are also making out together. At a party Rivette's annoying little sister imposes her both "impressionistic and expressionistic" film project on them. The project involves kissing between Matthias and Maxime.
"A kiss is  just a kiss"? Not when oppressed sexuality is involved. The two buddies are, maybe, to discover new facets in themselves.
The party at the beginning is full of that nervous energy that used to be the trademark of Dolan, but already the quarrels with his mother show that the pubertal rebellion is replaced more lowered reactions. - There is a bit melancholy about not more so young twens. When the summer is over, nothing is no longer as it used to be. There is great tenderness in this film, which is also a great hymn to friendship.
We are always very close to the actors, with only some few notable long shots. There are brilliant, sometimes sensational beautiful shots. And Dolan is not afraid of big feelings.
Here is a  big welcome to the mature and more restrained Xavier Dolan. It is exciting to see an artist in the making. And what a great actor Dolan is!
9/10

War (2019, Siddarth Anand)

It is the war on terror. In the beginning we see one of Indian super agents aiming at a terrorist leader. He shoots - but the leader giving the order is shot instead. Then come the the titles. Later we will learn, that we started with a flashforward.
Helicopters arrive and Hrithik Roshan descends, as if he was on another Mission Impossible. He is agent Kabir, setting up a special team to fight the terrorist merchant Rizwan Iiyasi (Sanjeev Vasta). Khaled (Tiger Shroff) wants to be a member of that team also, there is only a slight problem: his father was a traitor and Kabir shot him. However, Khaled points out, that his mother revealed the treason. So his mother's blood flows in his veins also. Khaled gets a chance when Iiyasi has been spotted in Morocco. He remains loyal, but there is another traitor, so the operation fails
Then we get a flashback after the interval. Naina (Vaani Kapoor) seems to become the female lead in this film. At first it seems that the director felt the need to some women in two-part bathing suits. Naina is a dancer and works very hard to get the money for her little daughter's private school. The terrorist merchant is a great admirer of Naina. Kabir uses her first as "civilian asset", but slowly she becomes his romantic interest. In a wiretapped conversation Kabir learns, that the terrorist has people from the official instances on his payroll. When Naina is murdered, Kabir tries to trace these moles.
Now it seems that Kabir has gone rogue. Khaled tries to chase him down...
The plot is told in a rather messy way. While the cinematography is stunning at times, the editing is too harsh. We move from Tikrit in Iraq to Marrakech in Morocco, have a motorbike chase in Portugal and sandwiched in between a Holi Celebration (with some good dancing by Roshan). The plot twists seem to be contrived - including face surgery in Switzerland. Those twists are not really surprising, but laughable.
The strong part is the acting between Roshan and Shroff, the testosterone pumped buddies. However, the action scenes are too much to be realistic. They would fit in a martial arts film, but seem to be misplaced here. The weaknesses of the storyline are covered by action scenes. It is always a bad omen when a film relies exclusively on special effects.
The main problem is, however, that the main persons lack depth. Both appear like bone crushers and killing machines, but lack almost completely human aspects. It is really remarkable that the romantic aspect was first introduced after the interval.
War suffers mainly from a poor script and rough editing. It lives through well-staged action-sequences and nice cinematography, but has else very little to offer.
5/10

First dance sequence: Holi as relaxation from terrorist chasing

Only bromance before the interval

Apprentice versus teacher

Has the Artic Circle before served as a location in a Bollywood movie?