At first, the Dallinger family seems like an idyllic, typical middle-class family: Hans (Tobias Moretti) and his wife Elli (Stephanie Japp) live in a nice suburban house with their two kids and a dog. They are shown playing ping pong in their backyard, joking around and having a good time until Hans spots their neighbors’ new satellite. The previous, happy…
The zombie as a metaphor for dysfunctional and alienating systems in our society is a popular since the Night of Living Dead. The concept of living flesh, as in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, is a manifestation of feeling alien in your own skin and in your environment.
As the title of Doris Dörrie’s new film is taken from a Mexican Mariachi song, it already establishes the theme of her new film, a documentary about the Mariachi culture in Mexico City. In Que Caramba Es La Vida, Dörrie, mostly known for feature films such as Cherry Blossoms and The Hairdresser, follows a…
When Beat Street, a film about the early 80s hip hop culture is officially released in the cinemas of the socialist German Democratic Republic (Eastern Germany), breakdance is first introduced and inspires teenagers to pick up this new trend. This includes Frank (Gordon Kämmerer), his best friend Alex (Oliver Konietzny), the like-minded breakdancer Michel (Sebastian…
There is a countless number of self-referential films on the craft of filmmaking, the technical artwork and the industry itself, especially centered on Hollywood. Truffaut’s La Nuit Américaine, Donen’s and Kelly’s Singin’ in the Rain and Fellini’s Otto e mezzo are among these successful pictures reflecting not only on the status of a film but its effect on the audience and the…
Shared living arrangements are mostly common among the younger generation, especially among students who split the costs of otherwise unaffordable apartments. Ralf Westhoff however, the writer, director and producer of Wir sind die Neuen or “We Are the New People”, introduces his audience to an unusual flat share that clashes with the norm. The comedy, shown in the
As part of the Queer Outlaw exhibit, TIFF Bell Lightbox are giving filmgoer’s a treat with a Bruce LaBruce film retrospective. LaBruce’s films encompass a rebellious element that tests cinematic techniques and distorts its pornographic and experimental foundations. In Raspberry Reich, LaBruce infuses his unique methods with …
As if itself inviting the assured Allen comparisons that equally abounded in considerations of its close cousin Frances Ha, A Coffee in Berlin concludes with a montage of city sights that’s straight out of Manhattan. But it’s not only to acknowledge…
There’s something deeply discomfiting about the idea of being watched. Not only is it invasive in the usual way, depriving you of your privacy and security, there is something more insidious there. The idea that you are being watched takes some control away from you. If you can be seen wherever you go, if you can be known whatever …
It’s fitting, for the time it lasts at least, that the sole title card gracing the screen at the start of Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas reads Mads Mikkelsen. Here is a film of land disputes and legal tedium, of valuing honour and integrity, made meaningfully intense by the furrowed brow of its leading man. After a time, other …