Better Things (2008)

Recommended

UK/Germany

Feature Film

Writer/Director: Duane Hopkins

Cinematographer: Lol Crawley

Composer: Dan Berridge

Cast: Liam McIlfatrick, Che Corr, Tara Ballard, Freddie Cunliffe, Rachel McIntyre, Patricia Loveland, Betty Bench, Frank Bench, Megan Palmer, Kurt Taylor, Mike Randle, Michael Socha, Katie Samuels, Kerry Rowe

Although some of the performances are a tad wooden, and the dialogue occasionally feels a little awkward, Duane Hopkins’s feature debut – following on from a pair of excellent shorts – is an often ethereally beautiful concoction (one sequence in particular, in which a grieving heroin addict fantasises about embracing his dead girlfriend whilst his drug of choice makes its way through his veins, is amongst the most achingly beautiful sequences I’ve ever seen), but at other times, this portrait of disaffected, lovelorn, drug-addled youth is merely wrist-slittingly depressing. Iain.Stott

Read More

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Recommended

USA/Germany

Feature Film

Writer/Director: Quentin Tarantino

Cinematographer: Robert Richardson

Cast: Brad Pitt, Mélanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Eli Roth, Michael Fassbender, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brühl, Til Schweiger, Gedeon Burkhard

Two separate plans to assassinate the upper echelons of the Nazi regime at the Paris premiere of a violent propaganda film – one a joint operation between British intelligence and The Basterds (a band of Jewish American Nazi-hunters), and the other concocted by the Semitic owner of the film’s venue – come explosively to fruition, in Tarantino’s cartoonish but inspired piece of historical fantasy. Iain.Stott

Read More

Whisky (2004)

Highly Recommended

Uruguay/Germany/Argentina

Feature Film

Directors: Juan Pablo Rebella, Pablo Stoll

Writers: Gonzalo Delgado, Juan Pablo Rebella, Pablo Stoll

Cinematographer: Bárbara Álvarez

Composer: Pequeña Orquesta Reincidentes

Cast: Andrés Pazos, Mirella Pascual, Jorge Bolani

When his younger brother flies in from Brazil for their mother’s unveiling ceremony, an ageing sock factory owner asks one of his employees to pose as his wife for a few days; all goes smoothly until an impromptu trip to an off-season tourist resort brings simmering sibling rivalry (almost) to the fore, in Rebella and Stoll’s quietly funny, gently moving, and subtly perceptive film, filled with melancholically expressive mise en scène. Iain.Stott

Read More

Antichrist (2009)

Recommended

Denmark/France/Sweden/Italy/Poland/Germany

Feature Film

Writer/Director: Lars von Trier

Cinematographer: Anthony Dod Mantle

Cast: Willem Dafoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg

Following the accidental death of their infant son, a grieving couple travel to an isolated cabin in the woods in an attempt to work through their grief, guilt, and fear, but their problems merely become exacerbated, in von Trier’s polarising psychological horror film; a harrowing, painful, and occasionally brilliant work, boasting two exceptional and exceptionally brave performances. Iain.Stott

Read More

Severance (2006)

Recommended

UK/Germany

Feature Film

Director: Christopher Smith

Writers: James Moran, Christopher Smith

Cinematographer: Ed Wild

Composer: Christian Henson

Cast: Danny Dyer, Laura Harris, Tim McInnerny, Babou Ceesay, Andy Nyman, Claudie Blakley, Toby Stephens, David Gilliam, Drajkó Juli, Viktor Judit

A group of office workers for a multinational arms company travel to the mountains of Hungary for team building exercises, but instead of paint balling and partying they find themselves fighting for their lives as a gang of masked, well armed men set siege upon them, in this oft surprising, gruesomely inventive, and generally hilarious horror comedy, filled with cracking sight gags and delicious satirical touches. Iain.Stott

Read More

Deathwatch (2002)

Recommended

Germany/UK

Feature Film

Writer/Director: Michael J. Bassett

Cinematographer: Hubert Taczanowski

Composers: Curt Cress, Chris Weller

Cast: Jamie Bell, Ruaidhri Conroy, Laurence Fox, Dean Lennox Kelly, Torben Liebrecht, Kris Marshall, Hans Matheson, Hugh O'Conor, Matthew Rhys, Andy Serkis, Hugo Speer

War is Hell – literally – in Bassett’s thoughtful, heartfelt, and suitably creepy if slightly familiar low-budget feature debut, in which a company of First World War British soldiers, sent over the top, find themselves in a deserted German trench, which they determine to defend, but things soon begin to go drastically and malevolently wrong. Iain.Stott

Read More

The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008)

Cautiously Recommended

Germany/France/Czech Republic/Morocco

Feature Film

Original Title: Der Baader Meinhof Komplex

Director: Uli Edel

Writers: Stefan Aust, Uli Edel, Bernd Eichinger

Cinematographer: Rainer Klausmann

Composer: Peter Hinderthür, Florian Tessloff

Cast: Martina Gedeck, Moritz Bleibtreu, Johanna Wokalek, Nadja Uhl, Stipe Erceg, Niels-Bruno Schmidt, Vinzenz Kiefer

Ethical concerns aside (should real killings be recreated in a thriller format?), this epic, fact-based story – relating the events that led to the downfall of the founder members of the West German far-left terrorist group the Red Army Faction, during the 1970s – proves to be a tad too slick for its own good, with more attention reserved for the events than for the people themselves; but it is generally well made and acted, non the less, and holds the attention. Iain.Stott

Read More

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920)

Cautiously Recommended

Germany

Feature Film

Original Title: Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari

Director: Robert Wiene

Writers: Hans Janowitz, Carl Mayer

Cinematographer: Willy Hameister

Composer: Timothy Brock (1996)

Cast: Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Friedrich Fehér, Lil Dagover, Hans Heinrich von Twardowski, Rudolf Lettinger

This stylish but rather silly tale of somnambulism, murder, and madness contains one or two scenes of breathtaking film-making (Cesare’s abduction of the girl is particularly well done), but the film’s over reliance on intertitles to tell its story, the twist ending, and a general feeling of absurdness ensure that it is no more than mildly diverting. Iain.Stott

Read More

People on Sunday (1930)

Essential Viewing

Germany

Feature Film

Original Title: Menschen am Sonntag

Directors: Robert Siodmak, Edgar G. Ulmer

Writers: Billy Wilder, Curt Siodmak

Cinematographer: Eugen Schüfftan

Composer: Elena Kats-Chernin (2000)

Cast: Erwin Splettstößer, Brigitte Borchert, Wolfgang von Waltershausen, Christl Ehlers, Annie Schreyer

Under the direction of Robert Siodmak and Edgar G. Ulmer, with a screenplay by Billy Wilder from an idea by Curt Siodmak, with assistance from Fred Zinnemann, this barely scripted little feature with documentary inserts has rather dazzling credentials, and whilst they may bring to mind cooks and broth, nothing could be further from the truth, with the final result being a delightfully light, sexy, and beautiful depiction of the joys of Sundays, summer, and youthful inconsequence. Iain.Stott

Read More

Goodbye Lenin! (2003)

Recommended

Germany

Feature Film

Original Title: Good Bye Lenin!

Director: Wolfgang Becker

Writers: Bernd Lichtenberg, Wolfgang Becker

Cinematographer: Martin Kukula

Composer: Yann Tiersen

Cast: Daniel Brühl, Kathrin Sass, Chulpan Khamatova, Maria Simon, Florian Lukas, Alexander Beyer, Burghart Klaußner

With beautiful (if familiar) music from Tiersen, and very touching performances from Brühl and Sass, Becker’s bitter-sweet tale – following a son’s attempts to keep the fall of communism from his fragile mother, who has just woken from an eight month coma, in order to shield her from the shock – transcends its sit-com-like farce plot, proving to be gently funny, quietly thoughtful, and really quite moving. Iain.Stott

Read More

Asphalt (1929)

Highly Recommended

Germany
Feature Film
Director: Joe May
Writers: Rolf E. Vanloo, Joe May, Hans Székely
Cinematographer: Günther Rittau
Composer: Karl-Ernst Sasse (1995)
Cast: Gustav Fröhlich, Betty Amann, Albert Steinrück, Else Heller, Hans Adalbert Schlettow, Hans Albers

A good natured young policeman catches a sexy vamp stealing a valuable diamond from a jewellery store, and although the injured party doesn’t wish to take the matter any further, he determines to bring her to justice, but unfortunately for him he doesn’t bargain for her feminine wiles and his own baser instincts, in this seductive, beautifully shot film, which boasts some excellent performances – the contrast between the melodramatic Amann and the more naturalistic Fröhlich is particularly striking – and a surprisingly moving finale (it should really have been rather cheesy, silly, and sentimental, but miraculously it isn’t). Iain.Stott

Read More

Paradise Now (2005)

Cautiously Recommended

The Netherlands/Israel/Germany/France

Feature Film

Original Title: الجنّة الآن

Director: Hany Abu-Assad

Writers: Hany Abu-Assad, Bero Beyer

Cinematographer: Antoine Héberlé

Composer: Jina Sumedi

Cast: Kais Nashif, Ali Suliman, Lubna Azabal, Amer Hlehel, Hiam Abbass

Although its scope visuals may be a little slick, flashy even, for the subject at hand, this fascinating exploration of difficult subject matter – depicting the lives of two working-class Palestinian friends, who have been chosen to become martyrs, detailing (what is to be) their last night and day on Earth – manages, in an even handed manner, despite a few didactic moments, to be both respectful and unhistrionic. Iain.Stott

Read More

Composition in Blue (1935)

Highly Recommended

Germany

Animated Short Film

Original Title: Komposition in Blau

Animator/Director: Oskar Fischinger

A series of coloured geometric forms move through a blue landscape to Nicolai’s The Merry Women of Windsor, in Fischinger’s delightful animated short film. Iain.Stott

Read More

Triumph of the Will (1935)

Not Recommended

Germany

Feature Documentary

Original Title: Triumph des Willens

Director: Leni Riefenstahl

Writers: Leni Riefenstahl, Walter Ruttmann

Cinematographer: Sepp Allgeier

Although technically dazzling and historically fascinating, Riefenstahl’s propaganda film – documenting the Reich Party Congress of 1934, with its multiple scenes of uniformed drones marching and saluting and lapping up the hate-filled messages of patriotism and obedience spouted at them – leaves something of an acidulous taste. Iain.Stott

Read More

Time of the Wolf (2003)

Highly Recommended

France/Austria/Germany

Feature Film

Original Title: Le temps du loup

Writer/Director: Michael Haneke

Cinematographer: Jürgen Jürges

Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Anaïs Demoustier, Lucas Biscombe, Hakim Taleb, Olivier Gourmet, Patrice Chéreau, Béatrice Dalle

Following some unspecified event (or series of events) which has led to a breakdown of social order, a young family travel to their weekend home in the countryside, where they are confronted with violence, corruption, and a bleak, daily struggle for survival, in Haneke’s masterful, grimly realistic, and painfully pessimistic post-apocalyptic drama. Iain.Stott

Read More