A scene from the German TV historical series “Babylon Berlin” Season 2. Courtesy of MHz Choice
As promised in last month’s review of the German historical thriller “Babylon Berlin: Season One” (https://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2024/04/babylon-berlin-season-one-review/), May bestows upon us the bounty of Seasons Two and Three, in which Germany’s political and economic upheavals deepen. These two seasons remain in 1929, bringing us up to the global you-know-what that led to the Great Depression. The train with its mysterious, hazardous contents remains in play among several factions with assorted motives.
Both seasons are longer – 10 and 12 episodes, respectively – which may not have been a plus. The pace seems slower than before, with less overt action per hour. The suspense and looming aura of menace, however, are ramped up and broadened, with more characters bringing more subplots and social issues into the picture. Rath is still our beleaguered hero; Charlotte’s role is significantly increased as she works her way into the police force despite overwhelming sexism within and beyond the department. She may be the smartest person in most rooms but none of the guys other than Rath can even recognize that, much less appreciate it. One downside is that the Mata Hari-esque “Countess” (Severija Janusauskaite), who lit up the screen with her vamping villainess in Season One has very little face-time in these rounds. More steak; less sizzle.
Political maneuvering and corruption are emphasized much more, which would be fascinating in a totally fictional setting, but feel more disturbing since we all know which way the historical winds are about to blow. References to Hitler and “The Party” increase, and the repugnant tactics of those dark forces seem likely similar to the reality. Gottfried Wendt (Benno Furmann) smugly exudes Machiavellian evil as Rath’s new boss. The deranged son of a wealthy industrialist, Alfred Nyssen (Lars Eidinger), tries to earn his nasty mother’s respect with his foresight about the 1929 stockmarket crash to come, but nobody’s listening, since he’s never contributed anything useful up to that point.
Helga (Hannah Herzsprung), the widow of Rath’s brother and his secret inamorata, who was barely involved before, becomes a major figure in these seasons, not only complicating Rath’s life, but winding up in the middle of other plot-lines. A string of murders impeding production on a movie financed by a couple of gangsters is central to all the proceedings, with political, social and financial implications swelling the ranks of the suspect pool.
Production values and performances remain first-rate all around. Season Three ends with plenty of unfinished business but Season Four is slated to stream here next month. As a caveat, I’m not sure how far into the 1930s the series will run. But as it progresses, the current rise of right-wing parties around the globe might make this less entertaining and more alarming than it would have seemed a decade ago. Adjust your viewing decisions accordingly.
“Babylon Berlin: Seasons 2 & 3,” mostly in German with subtitles, stream on MHzChoice starting May 28.
Much like the earlier reviewed ALL OF US STRANGERS, here’s another “indie” film that’s now getting a “wide rollout” after end-of-the-year screenings on the coasts. And yes, it could have been out everywhere in the last couple of months, but it seems that it’s more pertinent now than ever, since the presidential election cycle began with the Iowas caucus just days ago. No, it’s not about someone running for office, but its subject is a major discussion of any political discourse, going back to the beginnings of the US. And that subject is race. Now this new film doesn’t focus on one particular historical event, much like the filmmaker Ava DuVernay did with SELMA, now ten years ago. This delves much deeper into it, as she travels the globe, and explores different eras, all in adapting a lauded scholar’s investigation into racism’s ORIGIN.
The film begins with a flashback to a tragic racially motivated killing over a dozen years ago (you’ll recognize it after a few brief sequences). Then the story jumps ahead a bit as historian/author Isabel Wilkerson (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) finishes up a lecture. Afterward, she is approached by literary associates about writing an investigative book about that incident. But life calls her away as she moves her aging mother into assisted living and preps the old family house for resale. During this time she meets the son of a neighbor, Brett Hamilton (Jon Bernthal), beginning a romance that leads to marriage. But when he’s taken, Isabel recalls his last words which urged her to take on the discussed tome. She’s further nudged by her BFF cousin Marion (Niecy Nash), though Isabel decides to tackle the story and radically expand the work. Yes, the killing would be part of it, but Isabel wants to place it into an examination of racism itself, not just in the USA, but around the globe and through the centuries. She then starts “racking up” the frequent flyer miles, by traveling to Germany to learn of two American students caught up in the rise of Nazism, and of a forbidden love between a “pure Aryian” and a Jewish woman. Back in the States, Isabel looks into a research investigation that compared the experiences of two young married couples, one white, and one black, back in the pre-civil rights South. Then it’s off to India to explore the still-in-use “caste” system which divides society into different social, economic, and working classes as Isabel gets a tour by the country’s first “untouchable” collegian.
After impressing audiences as the Williams matriarch in KING RICHARD a couple of years ago, Ms. Ellis-Taylor is superb as the compassionate caring scholar who is the heart of this world-spanning historical essay. Her intelligence is established early on and gradually we see Isabel as a loving daughter and wife before her role as a truth-seeker. Ellis-Taylor shows us her inquisitive nature while never masking Isabel’s sense of wonder at the world tempered with her shock over the actions of its people through the years. She’s a terrific screen partner, whether we see her begin to fall for the charismatic Bernthal, who easily switches from his usual “working class hero/villain” roles, or trading affectionate barbs with cousin Marion, played with a fun-loving spunk by the energetic Nash. Ellis-Taylor is also effective as she discusses, and often disagrees with, a German historian, given passion and logic by Connie Nielsen. Another standout is real-life scholar Gaurav J. Pathania as Isabel’s guide (and the film’s third act narrator/teacher) who calmly recounts the mind-boggling class divisions in India with some truly heartbreaking degradations that still occur. And I should single out an “extended cameo” by the great Nick Hofferman as a plumber whose hard demeanor hides a warm soul and Audra McDonald whose character tells of how sexism enters the “big conflict”.
As mentioned earlier, director DuVernay takes a big swing at an even bigger target and connects for much of the time in her adaptation of Wilkerson’s “Caste: The Origins of our Discontents”. It’s a daunting endeavor that could’ve been a series of “talking head” dissections. But DuVarney puts us inside the pivotal events without tossing away the humanity. With Isobel’s travels the film could be called a cerebral investigative spin on EAT PRAY LOVE, but that would be dismissing the ideas and discourse that linger on well after the closing credits. DuVernay conveys the heartbreak of 30’s Germany and 50’s segregation, which have been in many previous films, but her deep dive into India makes for several sequences that will burn into your brain (involving public sanitation). And though you may not agree with many of the notions (the “shared genocide” debate will no doubt continue), everyone can agree that Ms. DuVernay has crafted an intellectual and emotional epic that will enthrall and educate in ORIGIN.
Just a few weeks after the release of the armed forces “dramedy” DOG, Hollywood calls upon another of its “hunkiest” action stars/leading men to don the “camo” and “gear up”. Now there’s no specially trained canines to chase after in this film, but like Channing Tatum’s Briggs, this movie’s focus wants desperately to get “back in” and rejoin his “band of brothers” in the current “hot spot”. If only he was given a road trip/mission like Briggs. That’s the main reason his “title” changes. He’s not “the soldier”, but rather THE CONTRACTOR.
That “warrior” is named James (Chris Pine), who is still considered “wounded”. We first see him in his early morning routine in order to get his body back into fighting shape after taking a bullet to his right knee in his last tour of duty. But the jogging and the weightlifting “reps’ at his cabin “sanctuary” deep in the woods aren’t enough, prompting a few “injection enhancements. Unfortunately, the “docs” at the local military camp are able to detect his “juicing” and Jim is officially discharged from Special Forces. So how will he be able to keep the home he shares with nursing student/wife Brianne (Gillian Jacobs) and their pre-teen son Jack (Sander Thomas)? As the “past due” notices pile up and debt collectors fill their answering machine, James is enticed by a visit with his old “grunt buddy” Mike (Ben Foster). Seems that Mike has been earning loads of cash by offering his “special skills” as a military contractor, who “slips in under the radar”. He puts James in contact with the director of the contracting company, another vet named Rusty (Keifer Sutherland), who offers a nice “gig”. Despite Brianne’s pleading, James gets his gear in working order and joins Mike in an undercover assignment in Berlin. They’ve got to ‘scoop up” a radical scientist that’s creating biological weapons. And though the plan is simple, several things go “sideways’ as James is separated from the team and becomes a “loose end” to be “severed”, As his wound acts up can James keep himself alive and somehow make it back to the states?
Taking a break from the twin “tentpole” franchises that are WONDER WOMAN and STAR TREK, Pine proves that he can get “down and dirty” as a “working Joe”/action hero carrying (he may be in every scene) this grim “grabbed from the headline” dramatic thriller. James is no “super-soldier” as he winces in pain pushing his battered body in the opening “getting back in shape” sequence. But that’s merely a prelude to the agony to come. First up is humiliation and frustration as his military “home” pushes him aside adding extra tension to his actual home as Pine shows us the worry closing in on James as forces “pick him clean”, making him to grasp at any lifeline, no matter how shady. And when the “payday” goes awry PIne shows us how James tries to ignore his old and new wounds while holding on to his moral code which further complicates his survival. As usual Foster is solid as the old cohort Mike who may not be completely open about their new “C.O.” and recruiters. Sutherland slathers on the “fatherly charm” and “gung ho” encouragement as he binds James with a promise of quick moola with little risk. Jacobs is a welcome addition to the story, but her Brianne is later regulated to the cliched “spouse on the phone” when the story shifts into “chase and elude mode”. Though introduced close to the big finale, Eddie Marsan is a welcome supporting player as the mysterious Virgil who comes to the aid of the battered James.
The script from J.P. Davis switches gears from domestic drama to globetrotting thriller, a detour carefully executed by director Tarik Saleh, who knows when to concentrate on character and when to “amp up” the tension and plunge us, alongside James, into the “danger zone”. He makes excellent use of the overseas locales as James and Mike stalk their “target”, then slowly lets us in on the “truth”. The “hand-to-hand” throwdowns are staged and shot effectively, while the “fire fights’ are filled with moments of chaos and calamity. Unfortunately, the real villains and motivations fall “into place” too cleanly and the last act denouncements and showdowns seem too rushed, letting the story seem too familiar to any number of military action “potboilers”. The first-rate cast can’t quite elevate the “plot beats” making THE CONTRACTOR an intermittingly engaging but quickly forgettable modern-day “shoot em up”.
2 Out of 4
THE CONTRACTOR opens in select theatres and is available as a video-on-demand beginning on Friday, April 1, 2022
Once again the years encompassing the Second World War prove to be a fertile ground for filmmakers, and a compelling subject for filmgoers. This new film focuses on the “lead up” to the US involvement, to give us a look at the dark clouds just beginning to form over Europe. And, as this film infers, the friendship of two young men may have made an impact on the upcoming conflict. One from England, the other in Germany, but both are determined to keep their respective homeland safe from destruction. And everything seems to come to a “boil” during an unexpected reunion in MUNICH: THE EDGE OFWAR.
We first meet these two “school chums” in a flashback prologue. Brit Hugh Legat (George MacKay) and German Paul von Hartman (Jannis Niewohner) are getting blissfully “pissed” at a party celebrating their 1932 Oxford graduation. Much to the chagrin of their mutual “gal pal” Lenya (Liv Lisa Fries), the talk turns to the new political movement in Paul’s home country. He’s thrilled that the new chancellor is restoring pride to his people. Hugh’s more than a bit skeptical…and leery. The story abruptly jumps to 1938 as Hugh makes his way through the crowded London streets, observing its citizens buying gas masks and filling sandbags, on the way to his high-pressure job as a translator for Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (Jeremy Irons). Concern over a possible invasion of Czechoslovakia is putting a strain on his marriage to wife Pamela (Jessica Brown Findlay), as he insists she take their young son to stay with relatives in the country. Meanwhile, in Germany, Paul also has a government job as a foreign “media monitor” for the chancellor, though he’s secretly soured on Herr Hitler. Paul’s also part of a secret group of insiders wanting to stop “the madmen”. When their plans to arrest Hitler are thwarted, Paul’s secretary/lover gives him a confidential transcript of a meeting outlining Hitler’s plans for conquest. But how to get this report public? Fate opens a door when a “peace conference” is quickly set by Mussolini and Chamberlain with reps for Britain, France, Italy, and Germany meeting in Munich. Hugh is stunned to be invited, then shocked to learn that operatives have gotten word from old buddy Paul (they’ve now estranged), that he wants to give this transcript to him. Can Paul make “the drop” without putting Hugh in jeopardy? And how will the BP respond to this “bombshell” file?
The film hinges on the relationship of the two Oxford alum, played by a dynamic acting duo. MacKay (the main “runner” of 1917) aptly conveys the mood of Great Britain at this time of tension and uncertainty. Hugh is a man being torn by all sides, duty to his country snd job constantly wrestling with his family yearnings. MacKay shows us the anxiety bubbling up in Hugh, as his eyes dart and his body twitches while his wife pleads with him to let her share his feelings. He has moments of peace with the PM, but soon his anxiety takes over as he’s plunged into the espionage arena. But Hugh doesn’t undergo a radical change like his “mate” Paul. In the flashbacks, Niewohner is a firebrand, radicalized into zealotry along with many of his brethren. We soon see that his eyes are open, as Paul is finally “sober” after being drunk on national “pride”. Niewohner shows us how Paul struggles to keep his “mask” in place in public before being able to breathe in his efforts to topple the “false god”. Like Hugh, he’s out of his element as an operative, seeing informers at every glance. Happily, the film grants another great role to a dependable screen vet. Irons helps restore dignity to the often disparaged historical figure, a man who values honor despite the scoundrels surrounding him. At times he’s a kindly mentor to Hugh, a warm “Dutch Uncle” as they exchange school stories. But he’s also a tough taskmaster, demanding the same dedication that he possesses, though we see that it wears him down. The BP is somewhat haunted by the horrors of that first world war and Irons shows us that fear and sadness breaking through his “stiff upper lip”. As for the forces “across the table”, August Diehl embodies the rampant Nazi brutality as a grade-school bully of Paul’s who has been given a bigger “club” to wield. And then there’s “Schicklgruber” himself, a cold megalomaniacal sociopath played with dead-eyed banality by Ulrich Matthes.
Director Christian Schwochow expertly changes the tone for the film, lulling us with a hazy nostalgia in the opening Oxford scenes, before capturing the hovering mood of impending doom for the dizzying dance through a London gearing up for the worst. He then puts us in the middle of Germany, a land seemingly giving into every barbaric impulse (we see berated Jewish citizens taunted and forced to scrub sidewalks). Though the rise of the Nazis has been the subject of many films, it’s given an intimacy here and somehow an immediacy. Recent events here have shown us how our neighbors can be swept up by lies told with vigor and zeal. Much like THE LAST DUEL, this historical tale has an urgency, thanks to the script by Ben Power taken from the novel by Robert Harris. It also makes us view Chamberlain in a new light, showing us that he wasn’t quite the naive incompetent that many have labeled him, though his successor proved to be the forceful leader needed to stare down the evil from the East. Chamberlain believed in honor, but he had a “backup plan”, even hoping that the “Yanks” would join in. The air of tension and paranoia is kept going through the story. And it’s greatly aided by the superb recreation of the period, from the furnishings and auto to the fashion styles and music. MUNICH: THE EDGE OF WAR is a compelling, taut, well-told tale of those risking everything to protect everyone.
3 Out of 4
MUNICH: THE EDGE OF WAR opens in select theatres and screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinemas on Thursday, January 20. 2022. It begins streaming on Netflix the following day.
Paula Beer as “Undine” in Christian Petzold’s UNDINE. An IFC Films Release. Courtesy of IFC Films.
A strange, suspenseful tale of love, betrayal and tragedy, UNDINE is a re-imagining of a fairy-tale myth, set in modern Berlin. Director/writer Christian Petzold (TRANSIT, PHOENIX, BARBARA) reunites the stars of his film TRANSIT, Paula Beers and Franz Rogowski, for this tale of mystery and romance, which allows UNDINE to capitalize on the remarkable chemistry between the two actors in that earlier film. UNDINE is a haunting tale with a mysterious aura and a touch of magical realism, beautifully constructed and shot, with gripping, heartbreaking performances.
Mystery, romance and myth mix in Christian Petzold’s UNDINE, inspired by the fairy-tale of the undine, or ondine. an always-female water spirit that lives forest lakes. Like many fairy tales, love and death are intertwined in the various tales of the undine, a supernatural creature who can gain a human soul if she marries a man, but if he leaves her, tragedy follows. The myth of the undine, with roots in Greek and German myths, has been the source of several mythic tales, including novels, operas, ballets and films, and was the inspiration for Hans Christian Anderson’s “Little Mermaid.” Petzold’s re-imagining is quite different from that one but he was inspired by his childhood memories of the dark fairy-tale story and Peter von Matt‘s non-fiction book “Romantic Treachery.”
This re-imagined story does not start with a mythic character in the water, although there is a lake later in the tale, but firmly grounded in the contemporary world. Undine (Paula Beers) is a historian who gives lectures on Berlin’s urban development and architectural history to touring groups and dignitaries, as a city historian in Berlin working for the Senate Administration for Urban Development. She gives her talks in front of a sprawling architectural model, and her lecture touch on politics (something common in Petzold’s films), but only obliquely, particularly on decisions made after the reunification of the city with the fall of East Germany.
The film opens, not with Undine’s work, but a break-up with her handsome boyfriend Johannes (Jacob Matschenz), which takes place at an outdoor cafe next to where she works. She is stunned that he is leaving her, apparently for someone else, and he delivers this blow with a casual, even callous manner, telling her she should have suspected it was coming. When she calmly says “If you leave, I’ll have to kill you. You know that,” he is not surprised, and even is irritated more than anything. The statement is shocking, but it is a reference to the myth and her name, and the way the scene is handled, our sympathy stays with her. When Undine repeats it, more as a statement of fact than a threat, he looks a bit more nervous. She has to go to work but insists he wait at the cafe until her break, so they can talk more.
Water finally enters the story when Undine returns to the cafe, and finds Johannes is nowhere in sight. As she searches for him, she approached by a man who was at her lecture, Christoph (Franz Rogowski), an industrial diver who is now desperate to talk to her. He follows Undine into the inside portion of the cafe as she looks for Johannes, where she pauses when a fish tank with a figure of a miniature diver suddenly catches her eye. An accidental bump topples the fish tank, soaking both her and Christoph when it crashes to the floor.
Christoph’s sudden appearance and the link to the figure in the fish tank, distract her Undine from heartbreak over Johannes. Trying to woo her, Christoph takes her to the lake to show her where he does dangerous diving work repairing and maintaining the turbines under the dam, and where she meets his diving partner Monika (Maryam Zaree). Later, Christoph and Undine go diving in the lake together, exploring the remains of the village that was flooded when the artificial lake was created, something which has a strange effect on Undine.
Director Petzold has a knack for re-imaging stories, something he successfully did with TRANSIT and PHOENIX, both of which transformed WWII historic tales. UNDINE may be Petzold’s most mysterious tale yet, but one that wraps up with a satisfying ending despite not answering all questions.
The scenes between Paula Beers and Franz Rogowski crackle with romantic tension but a sense of unease looms in the background. The underwater scenes are particularly magical, with mysterious, half-shaded ruins submerged by the creation of the dam and its lake. Cinematographer Hans Fromm works magic in these scenes but also adds mystery and romance in every carefully composed scenes. The feeling of myth floats in the background of several scenes, boosted perfectly by touches of magical realism, often suggested by the film’s subtle score. Inevitably, the romantic idyll is interrupted and the film turns darker and suspenseful, with twists and surprises.
UNDINE is a mysterious, magical, haunting film that could serve as a darker date movie but also offers a satisfying experience for anyone who loves fairy tales of the Grimm variety.
UNDINE, in German with English subtitles, opens Friday, June 4, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema.
From the rich historical archives of WWII comes another true tale of struggle and survival, when Hitler and his cronies enacted the”Final Solution”. So what makes this film special? Well, it was produced and filmed in Germany and mixes real footage with actual interviews of the people who lived the story. The biggest twist is that it doesn’t focus on families fleeing the country and blending in or going “underground” in those nearby foreign lands. This is about the Jews who would not leave their homeland, risking their lives to “hide in plain sight” (sometimes even venturing from the closets and attics to walk the streets). Another unique aspect of this film is that it’s almost an anthology, splitting the narrative amongst a quartet of youths barely past their teens. It is set in Berlin, so some of the principals often run into the same people, though the main four never meet. Aside from the city, they do share that common goal: anonymity. Because in order to “wait out the war”, they must become THE INVISIBLES.
It begins in early 1943 as the Reich is shipping out all the “undesirables”. The first of the four we meet is Cioma Schonhaus (Max Mauff) who uses his art skills to become an expert forger. While his parents board the trains for the camps in the East, he modifies his papers in order to be labeled an essential worker at the local munitions factory. Later he is recruited to be the Jewish underground as a “passport doctor”, saving the lives of hundreds while having to be constantly on the move. The next “invisible’ is fun-loving teenager Ruth Arndt (Ruby O. Fee), who spends much of her time dancing to banned American swing music in a cramped room (she can’t risk going to a dance hall). She tries to stay with her family, but as the days drag on, they are forced to separate. Eventually, she pairs up with cousin Ellen (Victoria Schulz), playing the part of “war widows” until they get jobs as housekeepers for a high-ranking German officer. Another young woman, Hanni Levy (Alice Dwyer) has no family but is deemed temporarily essential for her work sewing parachutes. Eventually, she must go on the run, flitting from one sympathetic apartment owner to the next. To blend in, Hanni has her hair dyed blonde and changes her name. Finally, there’s the journey of Eugen Friede (Aaron Altaras), who feels safe in his parents’ home (his stepfather is not Jewish, so they aren’t harassed), until the authorities come after him. He stays with an affluent Communist family, but they must send him off to another household where he must don the garb of a “Hitlerjugend”. In his last days on the run, Eugen stays with resistance fighter Hans Winkler and aids the efforts of the resistance group Community for Peace and Development alongside camp escapee Werner Scharff (Florian Lucas). As the Allied forces bomb Germany into submission, can the quartet make it safely out of the rubble that was their land and convince the incoming Russian troops of their innocence?
One could say that these are fairly familiar stories, but the taut direction and pacing by Claus Ralfe (who also worked on the screenplay with Alejandra Lopez) gives it an intimate contemporary feel. This is also accomplished via the remarkable black and white footage from the time period used to bridge sequences and establish locales. We see German citizens from the period, not dodging bombs, but strolling down the street, window-shopping just like city dwellers in New York, Chicago, or London. Plus Ralfe knows just when to drop in some of the remarkable interviews with the real “invisibles” shot over the last couple of decades. Their portrayers (or are they re-enactors) give solid, compelling performances. Mauff embodies the confidence and cluelessness of youth, as he goes forward in his plans not fully realizes that he’s in “way over his head”. On the flip side, Dwyer brings a haunted, lonely quality to directionless Hanni, as she somehow floats past danger as in a fog. As for those who intersect with the quartet. Lukas is full of righteous bravado as the aggressive Scharff. His opposite is the slinky Laila Maria Witt as Stella Goldschlag, a Jewish collaborator who nearly exposes Ruth and Ellen, but has an unexpected change of heart and spares Cioma. Her story, full of deceit and conflict, might make for an interesting film, too. Hopefully, it would have the same superb art direction, costuming, and hairstyles as this one, skillfully dropping us right into the mid-’40s. All those involved with this powerful drama make THE INVISIBLES well worth a look.
4 Out of 5
THE INVISIBLES opens everywhere and screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinemas
Tim Kalkhof as Thomas in director Ophir Raul Graizer’s THE CAKEMAKER. Photo courtesy of Strand Releasing.
Israeli writer/director Ophir Raul Graizer crafts a brilliant, moving drama that touches on identity, secrets, loneliness, sexuality and grief, in the Israeli-German drama THE CAKEMAKER. The drama is in English, German and Hebrew, with English subtitles.
Israeli businessman Oren (Roy Miller) is a man living a double life., traveling monthly between Israel and Germany for his work as a city planner for an Israeli-German company. He has a wife Anat (Sarah Adler) and young son in Jerusalem and a gay lover Thomas (Tim Kalkhof), a gifted young baker, in Berlin. The quiet German baker knows from the start that Oren is married, and accepts their secret status, but Oren’s wife Anat (Sarah Adler) does not know, and according to Oren, never will. For a year, Oren visits Thomas every month or so, always taking back a box of Thomas’ cinnamon cookies for his wife. One time, Oren leaves Berlin, forgetting his keys, but he never returns or even returns Thomas’ phone messages. Eventually, Thomas learns that Oren was killed in an accident in Jerusalem.
The next time we see Thomas, he is standing on a Jerusalem street, watching Oren’s widow Anat as she shops in a large open-air market. Still mourning her husband, Anat has just re-opened her kosher cafe. Thomas comes in, but says nothing about knowing Oren or who he is. Instead, he asks her for a job, and she eventually hires him as a dishwasher, unaware of his baking skills.
THE CAKEMAKER is so good, it is hard to believe it is Graizer’s directorial debut, yet it is. The story is basically a love triangle with the third person being the lost Oren, in which both Anat and Thomas try to hold on to their lost love.
The basic structure is melodrama and there are obvious ways this story could go, but Graizer takes none of those paths. The film is restrained, delicate and nuanced, with a striking feeling of reality. The unlikely bond that grows between Anat and Thomas revolves around Oren, like both each is using the other as a substitute for him. But it is not that simple nor that obvious, and Graizer has plenty of other things to say.
There are no villains or heroes in this story, all is shades of gray and nuance. The acting is excellent, particularly by Sarah Adler as the weary, struggling widow and Tim Kalkhof as the restrained baker, who only seems truly comfortable when he is baking. The whole film is shot in a lovely, lyrical style by cinematographer Omri Aloni, which is further enhanced by an elegant, graceful piano-based score by Dominique Charpentier.
Anat’s cafe is kosher, and the presence of a non-Jewish person in the kitchen creates some problems with the kosher certification of the cafe, newly awarded by the inspector Avram (Eliezer Lipa Shimon). Anat’s brother-in-law Moti (Zohar Strauss) is also upset to find someone non-Jewish in the cafe, and a German no less. Moti complains about him being an immigrant but clearly that he is German is especially distasteful.
Director Graizer uses Thomas’ shy demeanor to make him a bit of an enigma. His motives are opaque but his baking helps make Anat’s cafe a success. The director uses the baker’s German identity and his presence as a outsider to comment on Israeli society. Thomas does not speak Hebrew and communicates in English, while the Israelis around him switch back and forth between Hebrew and English, depending on whether they want him to hear. However, Anat is unfailingly kind to him, perhaps given her husband’s work in Germany, and even invites the lonely outsider to Shabbat dinner.
Thomas arrives for dinner at Anat’s with a Black Forest cake, one of Oren’s favorites. It had been raining, and Anat gives him some dry clothes – Oren’s. At dinner, Oren’s son Itai (Tomer Ben Yehuda) puts a yarmulke on Thomas’ head, and the German listens attentively as Itai says the prayer. When it comes time for dessert, the Black Forest cake, Itai volunteers that his uncle Moti told him not to eat any of Thomas’s food. Anat gentle chides her son, and helps herself to some of the delicious cake. Later that night, Anat devours another slice of cake with relish.
The film is sprinkled with delicately moving scenes. Back in his apartment, Thomas lays out Oren’s clothes on his bed, and then puts the yarmulke back on as he looks at them, in a haunting scene. In another scene, Thomas uses the keys Oren forget last time he was in Berlin to open a locker in a swim club. Thomas takes a swim in Oren’s swim suit, an act of intimacy, and then takes home the trunks and towel.
Something else Thomas finds in the locker suggests that he was not Oren’s first gay lover. Anat seems unaware of her husband’s sexual preference but there are hints that Oren’s mother Hanna (Sandra Sadeh) knows. Hanna is remarkably kind towards Thomas, even offering to show him Oren’s old bedroom. Even Moti seems to come around to accepting the gentle, passive baker, bringing him some food his mother fixed and inviting him to his apartment for the next Shabbat, so he isn’t alone.
Food and love have been linked in films before, and THE CAKEMAKER has several lush scenes of baking that convey that link. There is a lot of about food and love in this film. That both Thomas and Anat runs cafes is significant, as well as their complementary skills as cook and baker. Oren was a person who loved to eat, as Anat tells us, but didn’t cook. Both wife and lover filled that need for him.
The director skillfully guides us through a complex maze of issues and feelings. Thomas’ shy gentleness and hidden pain means he tugs at our hearts but who he is, where he is, and what he is doing unsettles us. Graizer shows a deft hand as he navigates the fraught issue of this German in Israel, raising issues of the growing economic ties between the two contemporary countries, as unspoken memories of the Holocaust haunt us. As a German immigrant in Israel, Thomas encounters mixed reactions, but the fact that Thomas is hiding his true nature and his relationship with Oren makes the audience uneasy on top of the uneasiness created by that.
THE CAKEMAKER, in English, German and Hebrew, with English subtitles, opens Friday, August 17, at the Plaza Frontenac Cinema.
In the realm of “docudramas”, the one war that seems to be a bottomless well of stories is that second World War (and usually the sequel comes up short). Film makers bring us tales often unknown by the general public. Last (and endured) week, we were given a new spin on II’s predecessor WW I in THE OTTOMAN LIEUTENANT (mind you a fiction story with a real historical backdrop). This week sees another little known story of the war in Europe. Less than a year ago, an assassination plot against a high-ranking Nazi stationed in Czechoslovakia was dramatized in ANTHROPOID (still sounds like a monster movie to me). And at last year’s Academy Awards the story of the Sonderkommandos, SON OF SAUL, took home the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. This week’s new release travels a bit north for a view of the war. Actually, it’s not the war, but rather post-war, with the ink still drying on the peace treaties. But things are still far from peaceful. Oh, and this film scored an Oscar nom, though THE SALESMAN took home the statuette last month. With the recent hit animated film, many may think of Denmark as the land of Lego, but for this new film it’s the LAND OF MINE.
It’s May of 1945, Germany has finally surrendered, but Danish Sgt. Carl Rasmussen (Roland Moller) is still in full combat mode. After venting his rage on a group of defeated enemy soldiers, he is given his post-war assignment. He will oversee a group of German prisoners-of-war as they find and disarm several hundred landmines buried in the beach on the West Coast of Denmark (the Axis believed that this would be the locale for the Allied invasion). Incredibly dangerous work, but the sergeant believes they should “clean up the mess they made”. Then when he meets his charges, the grizzled military man is stunned. The fourteen POWs look to be barely over 14, more boys than men. Nonetheless, he escorts them to their ocean front locale, a rundown shack that’s deserted save for a small cottage and farmhouse nearby occupied by a young single mother and her six year-old daughter. Carl and his trusty dog oversee the boys as the carefully poke the sand and clear the beach (luckily they have a crude map of the landmine placement). These boys must carry on this deadly mission while dealing with a lack of food (prisoners are low priority while the locals are hungry). As the days pass, the sergeant gets to know his crew, especially the twins Ernst and Werner (Emil and Oskar Belton), their high-ranking office, the twitchy Helmut (Joel Basman), and their real leader, the compassionate Sebastian (Louis Hofmann). Surprising himself, Carl begins to respect the lads, perhaps they have released his paternal instincts. He soon realizes that the military’s promise to send the boys home once the beach is cleared may not be kept. What can he do? And what will he do?
This largely unknown historical tidbit from over 70 years ago makes for an interesting story, but the talented ensemble are what makes it so compelling. Luckily the story’s main focus is expertly portrayed by the riveting Moller as a very tough but complex soldier. In the powerful opening scene he is truly a Sergeant fury, a “clenched fist” of a man nearly as explosive as any hidden landmine. Rasmussen insists that the age of his charges doesn’t matter, he only sees the uniform of the enemy. We’re not told of his background or family, but we wonder if he’s lost everything and everyone aside from his loyal pooch, the only recipient of his smile. Slowly we see his icy demeanor begin to melt, but not without enormous resistance. Finally he begins to question himself and his superiors, as the fallen foes become human beings in his eyes. One superior, Liuetenant Ebbe played by Mikkel Boe Folsgaard, never has such an epiphany, his humanity almost replaced by his cold dead-eyed stare. The POWs are composed of a group of superb actors, with Hofmann outstanding as the kind, older brother surrogate Sebastian to the group. Eventually he breaks through to the sergeant, even engaging in a sweet, almost father-son discussion of faith. Basman’s character is a bit more complex, as his Helmut is equal parts venal and pathetic, trying to appear tough, while taunting his brothers in arms. Speaking of brothers, The Belton twins as the Lessner sibs have perhaps the most heartbreaking subplot. When tragedy strikes, one of them becomes one of the walking dead, a haunted soul now completely lost. He reminds everyone of their possible gruesome fate.
Writer/director Martin Zanvilet has crafted a remarkable war drama devoid of gun-blazing battles, but just as spellbinding and suspenseful. While we squirm in our seats during the tense defusion sequences , he also gives us a moral quandary to consider. Yes, these soldiers were part of Hitler’s army, but with the war finished, how long must they pay the price for their homeland’s evil? Most look far too young to be part of the Axis forces. Perhaps in those last days any boy who could hold a rifle was scooped up, torn from their families, destined to be “cannon fodder”. As the sergeant says, “As they are dying, they cry for their mammas”. Certainly the Danes suffered, but many became “sore winners”, hoping that the “mine scrubbers” would be erased by their country’s own weapons. This gives an extra heft to the scenes in which the lads outline their unlikely future plans (“I will work in a factory” “I just want to EAT!”). It’s challenging fare for audiences used to just rooting for the “good guys” to triumph over the “bad guys”. LAND OF MINE is a bold statement on the rules of combat and morality that explodes our ideas about “peace time”.
4 out of 5
LAND OF MINE opens everywhere and screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinemas
Sandra Hüller as Ines, in TONI ERDMANN. Photo @ Komplizen Film, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
One of the nominees for this year’s Oscar for Best Foreign Language and a hit at Cannes, the German-language comedy TONI ERDMANN pits a very serious young businesswoman against her anything-but-serious father, who is desperate to reclaim their childhood closeness, no matter what. An ex-music teacher more accustomed to interacting with young children than adults, Dad is prone to wearing costumes, wigs and false buck teeth and impersonating various characters, which does not fit well with his single daughter’s high-powered career, especially as she is trying to negotiate a crucial international business deal. Boundaries – international and personal – are crossed with abandon, when the father turns up posing as Toni Erdmann, telling people he is either Ines’ CEO’s life coach or maybe an assistant to the German ambassador, depending – all in an effort to get his daughter’s attention.
As a child, Ines (Sandra Huller) was close to her eccentric, prankster dad Winfried (Peter Simonschek), but as an adult, she finds his corny jokes and irritating behavior wearing thin. Winfried is a unshaven, disheveled, slightly-overweight bear of a man shambling impulsively through the world, while Ines is polished, smartly dressed and slim, always organized and prepared. When dad’s chaos meets daughter’s rigid order, conflict is inevitable.
TONI ERDMANN is touching and warm-hearted, and writer/director Maren Ade has hit a chord here, at least for business-minded children of counter-culture boomer parents. Parents who cross boundaries are something familiar to many grown children, although few parents are as odd or relentless as Winfried, an ex-school music teacher who maybe spent too many years perfecting social skills for interactions with 7-year-olds, and is an overgrown kid himself.
When Dad shows up, uninvited, at Ines’ work place with a series of strange stories. Ines smoothly, calmly, handle each interruption, moving Dad out of the way.
She keeps thinking she has put her dad back in his box, only to have him escape and pop up once again. Once he appears as Toni Erdmann, deflecting him becomes much more difficult. It is not clear if her business colleagues believe Toni Erdmann and his tales, or are just being polite and confused.
However, Winfried has a goal beyond just getting his daughter’s attention – he’s trying to save her from an empty life. Ines is so driven, so focused, so globalized that she has no other real life than her career. Her father’s pranks disrupt her business dealings but also underscore what she is missing in life. Toni Erdmann forces her to connect with people on a human level.
Writer/director Ade inserts a dose of social commentary into the comedy, commentary on the costs of globalization and on business practices that dismiss the real impact on human lives. The German company for which Inez works uses its greater economic strength in making a deal in less economically-powerful Romania. Within her own company, her father’s intrusions also reveal the work place sexism Inez faces as well as the company’s toxically high performance standards. Actually, the film has a little fun with the word “performance,” as in “work performance evaluation” versus the improvised “performance art” of alter-ego Toni Erdmann.
This is the third film for Ade and she shows a firm hand is directing the nearly three-hour film. She is aided greatly by a pair of terrific acting performances by Simonschek and Huller as the father and daughter. The film perfectly captures the relationship between this daughter and father, a mix of affection and tolerance on her part and a longing to reconnect on his. Huller’s Ines is rarely surprised by her dad’s pranks, playing along like they are well-rehearsed routines. When he invades her business dealings, her reaction betrays some embarrassment but she remains calm until they are alone. Even then, it takes a lot to crack her emotional control. Huller does an outstanding job portraying Ines’ transformation, as critical insights sparked by her Dad’s unconventional actions lead to changes in her career and life. Simonschek comes across as sincere but whether his character’s corny joking and his boundary crossing charms or irritates might depend on the viewer.
TONI ERDMANN is a thought-provoking, touching film. Much of it is funny, but not all the comedy works. Sometimes the film seems to be trying too hard: some jokes go on too long or strive for whimsy or an absurdist humor, only to achieve the mere ridiculous (really now, how many of us would invite our boss to a nude birthday party?) Still, there is one particularly magical scene in this father-daughter comedy, in which Ines is forced by her father’s deceptions to sing in front of a houseful of strangers. Huller sings with a gripping abandon, even if her voice is not perfect, and the scene is one of the most memorable in the film.
How much TONI ERDMANN pleases individual viewers might depends on how much Simonschek’s overgrown imp amuses and the film’s chaos versus order theme appeals to him or her. Many have praised it as transformative while others have had a cooler response. Regardless, the film’s warm message of the importance of human relationships, family and cultural connections is universal.
Hollywood knows that one genre is almost certain to get the audience’s blood pumping and pulse racing: the sports story. CREED certainly proved that a few months ago (you’d think audiences were watching a real live boxing match, judging from the all the cheering at the multiplex). Couple that on-screen excitement with a dramatic true story, and you’ve hopefully got a critical and box office hit. And while professional sports may be tainted and tarnished thanks to bad behavior and big bucks, the amateur athletes still have a purity and nobility about them. There have been plenty of college (WE ARE MARSHALL), high school (HOOSIERS), and even grade school (THE BAD NEWS BEARS) team tales, but for individual triumphs, the four-year spectacle, the Olympics, abound in stories of glory and drama. Well 2016 just so happens to be an olympic year, so the studios are launching the first of several such true tales of courage today. Next week I’ll be back with a charming, funny film fable from the 1988 Winter games, and in March we’ll get a raunchy fictional comedy set in that competitive backdrop. But for now, we travel all the way back to 1936, eighty years,for a film whose title has a double meaning: RACE.
The focus of RACE is the incredible story of that track and field wonder, African-American icon Jesse Owens (Stephan James). We meet him as he prepares to enroll at Ohio State University. Jesse packs his suitcase, dresses in his best (and only) suit, and says his goodbye to his family in their crowded rundown apartment in the slums of Cleveland. Ohio. And he also bids adieu to his longtime gal, beautician Ruth (Shanice Banton) and their two-year old (out-of-wedlock) daughter Gloria. Arriving on campus, he heads to the office of track and field coach Larry Snyder (Jason Sudeikis) to become part of the college team. Despite their awkward first meeting, Snyder is impressed by Owens’s school records and helps him land a part-time job as he trains him for the upcoming Big Ten meet in Ann Arbor (all while dealing with the rampant racism in the sports department). When Jesse breaks three world records(within an hour), his dreams of Olympic gold begin. Meanwhile in New York City, the United States Olympic Committee is engaged in a heated debate about the upcoming Summer games in Berlin, Germany. Jeremiah Mahoney (William Hurt) is horrified at the actions of Chancellor Adolf Hitler and believes the US should boycott the games, while Avery Brundage (Jeremy Irons) believes that the Olympics should put politics aside. It is decided that Avery will travel to Berlin and check out the atmosphere there. Meanwhile Jesse begins a fling with a nightclub regular, Quincella (Chantel Riley), that threatens to end his relationship to Ruth and derail his sports career. Luckily he gets his priorities straight while German officials assure Avery that all will be in order (this after he observes their brutal treatment of the Jewish community), and is introduced to the film maker that will chronicle the games, Leni Riefenstahl (Carice van Houten) for the feature film OLYMPIA. But will the local organizers keep their promises of “fair play” when Jesse and the rest of the American team arrive in Berlin?
As Owens, Stephan James projects strength and determination helping us comprehend the real man’s incredible achievements. Through his eyes and body language we see how this gifted man had to temper himself while navigating through a society that embraced his accomplishments while denigrating him for his color. Even as he takes a walk on the wild side with his “jazz baby” temptress, James still goes us a hero that we can applaud (the dalliance makes him more human) despite his foibles. Sudeikis breaks free of his motor-mouthed, wise guy comic persona as Coach Snyder. He’s a man of deep regret (we learn during a terrific monologue) who vows to guide Owens to fulfill the promise that Snyder himself squandered. All the while he becomes a surrogate father to Owens, one who bristles and barks back at the ignorant while Owens must remain silent. Irons as Brundage is all businessman as the sight of Nazi brutality disgusts him. His admiration for the Olympic ideals too often blinds him to the injustices behind the scenes. Ultimately, he submits too easily. Hurt shines in a role that is basically a cameo (despite the billing in the ads), his Mahoney knows that Hitler only wishes to use the games to glorify and promote his own agenda. Ms. van Houten, like James, is determined not to let her hard work and talents be exploited. Though Goebbels and his goons try to thwart her, Leni wants to tell the whole story with no filters.
Director Stephens Hopkins does a good job at keeping the story coherent while maintaining a steady pace. Unfortunately the script from Anna Waterhouse and Joe Shrapnel attempts to tell too many tales at once, any of which could have been made into separate movies. There’s the whole debate within the committee, the wheeling and dealing between Germany and Brundage, and certainly the making of OLYMPIA could make for interesting films. The constant interruptions detract from the Owens story. It doesn’t help that we only meet him after his teenage years, which doesn’t tell us just how his running and jumping prowess began (plus there’s the whole romance with Ruth plus their then scandalous behavior) . And aside from a brief mid credit scene, we don’t see Owens’s life after the gold medals (we know he’s part of a great joke in BLAZING SADDLES, but …). The 1930’s are expertly recreated with vintage fashions and autos, while CGI convincingly places us next to Jesse inside that massive studium with thousands looking down. Plus those track performances (especially the long jump) are inspiring in their visual power. Fewer subplot negotiations and more athletics would have made RACE as light on its feet as the miraculous Mr. Owens himself.
