I know its a long ways out, but I've watched Werner Herzog's rendition in preparation for Eggers' eventual remake, and now I'm more excited than ever, particularly because Werner's version left me so frustrated. It's a shame because there are so many things done exceptionally well in his adaptation. The photography is exemplarily, particularly in its ability to instill a fundamentally chilling atmosphere and mood, the way light glimmer's off of the titular phantasm is continually striking. Kinski gives an outstanding performance returning the gothic humanity that was understandably absent/muted in Murnau's version, and the harrowing Gregorian chanting accompanying the score is brilliantly haunting. Yet in many ways this makes me even more frustrated about the work that surrounds it, worst of all being the wooden acting and obtuse dialogue.
I can understand wanting subdued performances to let Kinski shine, but there is such a large gap between what would have been sufficient to highlight Kinski, and the drab line reading displayed here. Whether its in the mundanity of Lucy and Harker's relationship prior to his journey, to Lucy and Van Helsing's thematically climactic conflict on faith, I found the acting (or perhaps more accurately line delivery) in practically every non-Kinski scene to be completely unpalatable. The only exception being the character of Renfield who plays the bubbling lunatic, and yet even his performance is frustrating in that there's no real build up to his vampire induced madness. I understand it is decently unfair to judge an international film on the quality of its English performances, but when said film was reshot almost entirely in English with minimal dubbing, I think there's room for such criticism.
And while my main complaint is largely aesthetic, (upon my inevitable re-watch I will be seeking out the German version of the film), there are still other qualities of this film I find completely aggravating, often sequenced between some stylistically brilliant choices. Take for example the elegant scene which mirrors/pastiches da Vinci's Last Supper, only to have one of the participants verbally name drop the work its alluding to. Or the graceful twisting of the original's ending to work as act of Lucy's agency and selflessness, only to induce a further twist which completely undermines her sacrifice. For every scene as brilliant/frightening/and striking as that with the violin kid standing over Harker, is another sophomoric and
... keep reading on reddit β‘Even if historic fiction when German may have been more common (colonial and rural Pennsylvania), do you know of any films set in America (or other English speaking countries such as Australia) that are primarily in German?
Though English has generally become the lingua franca (pardon the term), I'm surprised by the number of English language films set in continental Europe. For example:
- Marie Antoinette (2006)
- Amadeus (1984)
- Moulin Rouge (2001)
- The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
So I couldnβt crosspost but I thought RBI might be able to help. Here is a link to the OP on r/movies with the stills from the film
https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/r7yq8h/we_found_a_copy_of_an_unknown_1930s_movie_on_a/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
SOLVED
This is a long shot, but I am going to try. I was born in 1990 and before I immigrated to US, I used to watch this film (circa 93/94) that was played on state television a couple times.
All I can remember is that the film was German, and I could be wrong on that, but it sticks out in my memory. I just remember the/an ending scene which takes place in the dead of night, and involves a phantom like marching band, where you see instruments (e.g. drums, trumpets, etc.) marching and playing in unison (the people playing the drums were dressed in all black to give the illusion of the instruments playing by themselves since this was before CGI shit).
And then I think there are these three kids or something that are trying to stop them, like they're from the Goonies or something (like some Scooby Doo shit), before all the instruments fall to the ground, as the kids saved the day.
I feel like the films is 1970s-1980s, maybe even possibly 1960s. It was definitely in color.
I know it's all very vague, but it's what I can remember.
As our school is very hesitant with sex education - our son is now 12 and has not yet received the fundamental information - I would be happy to have some material for discussing this with him.
What can you recommend and from where do I get it?
I'm doing a project on cultural inheritance with a focus on oppressive ideologies and trauma. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Edit: I'm specifically looking at how it's impacted the identity of younger generations (Millenials and Gen Z). Nonetheless, thanks for all the great suggestions!
I saw this on a flight and I can't remember the name!
I want to say it's a French movie about French expats in Germany or another German-speaking country, though the movie is entirely in French if I recall correctly.
A woman unhappy in her marriage goes out to a bar one night after discovering her husband is cheating on her with their child's schoolteacher. She meets a young German (?) guy who becomes obsessed with her. She also outs the teacher as having an affair with one of the children's fathers in her son's class (but it's actually her husband). Eventually the German guy's stalking and obsessing over her becomes too much and she and her husband kill him.
^- ^Second ^World ^War ^tweets ^from ^1944 ^(@RealTimeWWII) ^| ^January ^21, ^2022
What is the best German made war film or film that showed the German side of the conflict?
Movie from 21 century in German language.
Father doesn't like dog. Accidentally runs over dog. Keeps getting caught up in a web of lies in the cover up.
Possibly a Belgian film.
One of the most striking scenes were his own inner monologue and the idea of "Pluto's revenge"
Thanks guys
