The Germans are (not yet) coming - directors perspective.

Postmaster said:
I´m not in, for repeating history.
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Strange joke though. Are you from Germany ?

Germany today has built one of the most stable, liberal societies on the globe. It confidently looks back on 60 years of democracy.

One can feel throughout many media productions that the Germans are happily embracing their culture more and more.

The film quality on several levels is not yet satisfiyng seen from a consumer point of view, but there are many indicators the industry is improving every year.

What makes me most forward looking is the inner European co-op scene which tends to have higher budgets while making stories with an international (EU) scope
 
Dr Cosmo said:
What makes me most forward looking is the inner European co-op scene which tends to have higher budgets while making stories with an international (EU) scope
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Yes and no. Still sometimes too complicated to set up and finance - but evolving. What I really am missing are smaller German/American co-productions on the indy level which have real German/American stories. Too much Hollywood stuff get's shot here where Germany is more or less only the co-financier and brings in the technical equipment & team. But on a level of, say, 2 to 4 million $ overall budget a lot could be done here with American partners - given it makes sense for the story to take place in the country of the Huns.

And Berlin-Shmerlin .... too many Berliners or Berlin-aficionados believe the whole country rotates around their city. I love the city a lot - will happily come for the Berlinale -but the country is much richer and much more diverse than people in "Mitte" believe at times. Says a happy Frankfurter...
 
Quite frankly, although it would be interesting to see Am/Ger co-productions on indie level, I can´t see the basis for it. Where are the contacts ? Where is the network ? Where is the finance ? The Euro-Co-production-market is institutionized in finance and distribution, the major TV networks are involved. The geographic proximity here is key. For Co-op on an independent intercontinental level I see not much room, unfortunately.

And regarding Berlin: In my eyes the whole German film scene just begins to form in the capital. I see Berlin, although it is probably the only hope for Germany (even Europe) to become a high class film center, still as immature. The German film academy, centered in Berlin, is only 10 years old. The Hollywood productions in Babelsberg pulling in a lot of experience have been seen only for a decade, thats not long.

I do believe that Frankfurt/ the state of Hesse could do more to support the movies. It should establish a film school and set up stronger film funds. The stories and the talent should be there to install a strong regional center.
 
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Dr Cosmo said:
Quite frankly, although it would be interesting to see Am/Ger co-productions on indie level, I can´t see the basis for it. Where are the contacts ? Where is the network ? Where is the finance ?
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Honestly: I see in principal no problem whatsoever to set up a German/U.S. co-pro, given it is shot over here and story and setting are appropriate. I don't say it's easy, but should be doable. A story structured like "Buffalo Soldiers" with a stronger German link - why not? We are developing a love story spanning 60 years with a strong German-American nexus right now....

I have, btw, studied on a Berliner Film Academy and that was a bit longer than 10 years back.... ;-) And pleeeasse: Not another film-school in Germany. We get swamped with people getting an education as directors and writers and those have almost no chance whatsoever to really work and develop their talent in the "industry"....
 
Berlin was and is an island. The Berliners seldom leave the town.
Not only on a physical level, but much more their minds don´t leave that town.

The whole thing is IMHO already incestuous, interbreeding and uninspired.
I see that since more than 10 years now. If something comes out of Berlin it almost always has a strong signature to it,
you can tell it from 10 miles away. Not a good sign for a craft, not a good sign at all, for an art form.

There is nothing new, interesting or fascinating coming out of Berlin or the Berlin school (let alone something inspiring).
It´s the same mix-mashup of different styles, cultures, influences andwhatnot - covert with a good chunk of grit.
Over and over again - since years. Bores me to death.
And on top of that, the absence of any form of craft is than called art.

I know that I gonna get some Flak for that, but that´s my view.

Frank
 
Postmaster said:
I know that I gonna get some Flak for that, but that´s my view.

Frank
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No flak certainly, the comment is rather amusing.

Emmerich just finished Anonymous, Tykwer/ Wachowski shot Cloud Atlas (100 mil €). Berlin has the Berlinale and the European Film Academy, every month it is the center of German/European Hollywood premieres. The most well known German directors are living or producing in Berlin: Röhler, Dresen, Wenders etc.

The "Berlin school" never existed. Its a label without content, rather honoring the city as "potential" creative center than a new cinematic style. The movies or directors belonging to the so called "school" had neither box office success or an award winning record. Its a fantasy.
 
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tipota said:
Typewriters? Did I just read "type writers"....??? In Frankfurt? Where and why?
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The Wife collects Schreibmaschinen... Our whirlwind tour took us to the area near Rammstein, several pick ups between there and Frankfurt, and one slightly north east of Frankfurt. I don't have the exact itinerary any more, but we did see more of the 'German Country Side', than we usually have by just going to major cities... (well we did spend a week in Eibrechsdort Austria... but I digress... and it was only 1.5 hours bus ride from Wien...)... oh, yeah, and the Garmin was a life saver...

I think we picked up mostly Torpedos and Alpinas. I just picked up a box from Germany today. The son of a collector is liquidating his father's collection, and we got 6. I recently got a Groma Kolibri. We also have a red Kolibri as advertised in "Das Leben der Anderen"(2006)... but there was some question as to whether that was a Kolibri or not... I have to watch again... A more collectable we picked up in Holland, a Mignon.

mignon4.jpg



In any case we are well prepared in case of massive power outage for at least typing our memoirs...

When we first started looking at the German Ebay there were quite a number of typewriters for a starting price of 1 euro. We asked why when we picked up the typewriters, some of them for 1 euro... and the response was 'because there isn't a fee for listing for 1 euro... and who said the swiss or dutch were cheap... I mean thrifty...
 
tipota said:
Honestly: I see in principal no problem whatsoever to set up a German/U.S. co-pro, given it is shot over here and story and setting are appropriate. I don't say it's easy, but should be doable. A story structured like "Buffalo Soldiers" with a stronger German link - why not? We are developing a love story spanning 60 years with a strong German-American nexus right now....
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When I was more active on 'regie.de', I did write a little short film script for a informal competition... Some people made it through my 'schlechtdeutsch' enough to give commentary... I've not re-written it in English as of yet...

The other entries did not strike me as utterly without redeeming value... I fact a couple I was thinking of offering to shoot here, in the So. Cal area, but unfortunately I got busy with my day job, and the people who wrote them drifted away...
 
If, I could, I would like to say thank you to many of you. I can only speak for myself, and for my narrow thinking. I was not really aware of much German film-making, sadly.

This has helped me broaden my thought process.
 
j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
When I was more active on 'regie.de', I did write a little short film script for a informal competition...
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The problem is: With a short it could be harder actually to find money here. It would be interesting to see, if a production could be set up of either a straight (postscriptum: full feature length) TV-Movie or a not-big budgeted film for theatrical release that flies on a lower level. Would there be any content that could be interesting for both sides (apart from the usual Nazi-stuff that get's shot anyhow)? As far as my recollection of history lessons go, Germans have been the biggest group of immigrants to the U.S.. There must be.

The complicated part is how to set up such a film with the German side being not only a "service production" and how to cope with the different cultural viewpoints. And no: I do not mean serious arty heavy Teutonic stuff, not Nietzsche reloaded. I would dare people if they could set up a more intelligent "Road Trip" meets a teutonized "French Kiss" for instance. The problem is that too much filmguys either from Germany or the U.S. believe that if it's German than it has to be "deep" - resulting, sorry Dr. Cosmo - still much too often in movies that are made perfectly well but often are just that: clunky.

And: In a time when film-making has become - internationally and nationally - even more mobile through digital technology to believe that one city alone will be "the axis of everything" is a bit strong. Germany is not and never will be structured like Great Britain or France with one city way up above all the others, but rather like Italy with three or four centres of power.

And: I am old enough to have seen what the introduction of cameras did in the late 70, early 80s that could shoot sync-sound while not being the size of an air conditioner and little Nagra's freeing sound engineers from schlepping a centner of gear, electricians working with lamps the size of a garbage bin. Today, with people either in production or in post often working with others who are sitting on another continent, this only will be enhanced.

And Frank is, in my view, maybe not perfectly right but also not very far way off: Berlin "Mitte" is fine. But in a lot of aspects it's sometimes much more provincial than especially the people living there do realize ..... ;-)
 
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tipota said:
still much too often in movies that are made perfectly well but often are just that: clunky.
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Well, the German cinema at this point as a whole shouldn´t be defended at all, right. The thread title makes it pretty clear. Germany in terms of cinematic achievement is not yet satisfiyng, entertaining, creative or sometimes financed enough to provide success on an annual basis.

My point is, that Germany as a society has become more relaxed, more confident, more courageous in speaking out its cultural genes during the last 10 years. The country realized that it is not only an economic giant and political power player (in Europe) but that it is also attractive. Thats why Berlin does play an important role. The city has become a freewheeling magnet for all sorts of artists around the globe.

Together with institutionalized incentives like the German Film Fund which has been only established a few years ago, a rise in European co-ops, and the rise of Babelsberg as International service and production center it seems many aspects culminating at the same point in time.

Conclusion: Its all layed out, the preconditions for movie productions, be it Indie, Doc, TV, Mainstream, Auteur or Euro co-ops have never been better.
 
Dr Cosmo said:
Conclusion: Its all layed out, the preconditions for movie productions, be it Indie, Doc, TV, Mainstream, Auteur or Euro co-ops have never been better.
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No disagreement here - roughly you can make out three post-WW2 periods in German filmmaking: First phase (50s to 60s) was denial, second (late 60s to late 80s) was realization of what went wrong and why people would not talk about the state of things, third (early 90s to today) trying to find ways for defining a new identity. Of course you can find in every such phases movies, writers, directors who already tried different ways, no doubt about that .... so: do it.
 
tipota said:
The problem is: With a short it could be harder actually to find money here. It would be interesting to see, if a production could be set up of either a straight (postscriptum: full feature length) TV-Movie or a not-big budgeted film for theatrical release that flies on a lower level. Would there be any content that could be interesting for both sides (apart from the usual Nazi-stuff that get's shot anyhow)? As far as my recollection of history lessons go, Germans have been the biggest group of immigrants to the U.S.. There must be.
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There are a few groups who have maintained German Language, and specifically for 'group identity, and attendant religious beliefs'. The Amish are 'famous', but there are others. The Hutterites figure in a film, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Matrimony_(1994_film). But for the most part, most european immigrants have assimilated. Even jews who are not of the Hasidim, do not maintain Yiddish as their mother tongue. Yiddish Film active until the late 40's is all but dead.

On the other hand, there's the time I was in Death Valley in July. Stopped in the only gas station/convenience store in the bottom of the valley, luckily it was open, and a group of German tourists, looking near heat exhaustion... when asked, 'why Death Valley in July'... 'their tour agent had 'sold' them on the scenic sights of the area... but hadn't mentioned the heat of the desert in summer...

Could be a good start in to a horror film, "Die Hügel haben Augen"... or some such... And perhaps for those who need to have long 'deep' stuff in German Films... one of the characters can recite portions of 'Sonnenuntergang' or something...
 
j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
But for the most part, most european immigrants have assimilated......
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And the Germans rather more quickly than others it seems - not much of a German-town or Little-Teutonistan in NYC it seems... ;-)

Still: There are a lot of German-American related stories hidden in the histories of both of our countries waiting to be excavated.

j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
... one of the characters can recite portions of 'Sonnenuntergang' or something...
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On the other hand: Have a group of American Tourists stumbling into the madness of the Carnival in Cologne....
 
tipota said:
And the Germans rather more quickly than others it seems - not much of a German-town or Little-Teutonistan in NYC it seems... ;-)

Still: There are a lot of German-American related stories hidden in the histories of both of our countries waiting to be excavated.



On the other hand: Have a group of American Tourists stumbling into the madness of the Carnival in Cologne....
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I'll have to make an other trip to 'check out the possibilities'... And I already have some shots of the Kölner Dom when I visited there in 2006... Helped some Morrocans who didn't speak German, but did speak English... find their way around... Like I knew where I was...

Perhaps a 'Midnight in {Berlin,München,Köln}'...

I think I could do a München pre-WWI time capsule... there would be Frank Wedekind, Vasily Kandinsky, to name a couple, and the community of 'Schwabing'... and of course my favorite Otto Gross...
 
tipota said:
This is by far the best news in a long time and really well deserved. Hope he wins.
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It always depends on the competitors of course, but I have a good feeling about it. Wenders is a big name who has not yet won an Academy Award, its about time, considering the usual Award politics ;). The Doc is shot with 3D cameras and put an innovative twist to the genre.....
 
j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
and of course my favorite Otto Gross...
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Oooops .... interesting choice. Had to read up on him. Having been in my student days somewhat of a W. Reich-Fan, I agree on that choice ...

My personal Teutonesque "strangenesses" - apart from Grimmelshausen and the beloved Büchner - are those two guys

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._T._A._Hoffmann
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Dietrich_Grabbe

Personally my interests in German history go a bit more far back as all of my adult life I've tried to come to terms with "The Fatherland" after the shock my generation had experienced when it became a bit clearer what happened in the 3rd Reich - and about what nobody wanted to talk. Since then I tried to find out what "The Germans" really were and why - over a a longer period starting with 1525 peasant uprising - every movement for emancipation and/or democracy got shattered and drowned in pools of blood by the powers to be ....

Now: No history lessons here.... here a link to a Finnish/German (oh, the irony) Nazi-spoof. No idea if this will be funny or pure trash ..... probably both.

http://www.ironsky.net/
 
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