“Wim Wenders’ latest documentary Anselm offers a mesmerizing, cinematic catalogue of German painter-sculptor Anselm Kiefer’s deeply tactile, maximalist oeuvre.” Plus, it was shot in 3D and 6K-resolution. (The Guardian, 5/17/23; The Hollywood Reporter, 5/18/23)
“Even artistic geniuses or supposed artistic geniuses are not above the law”: Reports of intimidation and verbal aggression, centering around the bad behavior of star actor and director Til Schweiger, have initiated a cultural reckoning in the German film industry. (The Guardian, 5/7/23)
Edward Berger’s All Quiet on the Western Front won four Oscars, seven Baftas, and not much love from German critics. (The Guardian, 1/27/23; Slate, 2/1/23; The New Statesman, 2/22/23)
The British comedy sketch “Dinner for One,” Germany’s inexplicably beloved New Year Eve’s viewing ritual, is about to about get a multipart television prequel, set 51 years before the original. Five men will “vie for the attention of the unmarried and emancipated Sophie,” and the series will be called—what else—“Dinner for Five.” (The Guardian, 12/30/22)
1899, the new time-bending series by Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, brings viewers on a transatlantic steamship journey that “tips squarely into mindfuck territory.” (The Guardian, 11/17/22; The Daily Beast, 12/17/22)
Some of Walter Ruttmann’s short animated films have now “passed the century mark,” but they’re still as mesmerizing as ever. Feast your eyes on Der Sieger and Lichtspiel Opus 1. (Open Culture, 12/19/22)
“FANTASTIC FUTURISTIC FATALISTIC”: See how Fritz Lang’s Metropolis was marketed to audiences all over the world through this gallery of vintage movie posters. (Open Culture, 12/16/22)
Nosferatu is 100 years old. “Though the movie today reads more creepy than outright scary, Count Orlok is one of cinema’s great, unsettling sights, Schreck’s physical performance often gives the appearance of floating outside of normal reality.” (The Guardian, 10/31/22)
“There’s an understated elegance to Jonas Bak’s debut feature Wood and Water, a film that tracks the spiritual journey of a mother who begins her retirement and heads to Hong Kong in search of her son.” (Directors Notes, 1/26/22; Slant, 3/19/22)
In memoriam: Wolfgang Petersen (1941–2022). “He made it big in Hollywood, but he’s best remembered for a harrowing, Oscar-nominated German film set inside a U-boat in World War II.” (The New York Times, 8/16/22; The Guardian, 8/19/22)
The Habsburg empress Elisabeth is enjoying a 21st-century media moment—but this isn’t your grandma’s Sisi. (The Guardian, 7/8/22; The New York Times, 10/7/22)
Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire is newly restored and back in theaters, and it’s only gotten more poignant and lovely over time. (The Guardian, 6/22/22; British Film Institute, 7/4/22)
Not so banal after all: Hours of old tape recordings—once inaccessible to Israeli prosecutors, but now the basis of a new documentary—expose Adolf Eichmann’s “visceral, ideological antisemitism, his zeal for hunting down Jews and his role in the mechanics of mass murder.” (The New York Times, 7/4/22)
Life is (still) a cabaret: Bob Fosse’s brilliantly dark movie musical about late Weimar Berlin is now fifty years old. (The Boston Globe, 2/5/22; The Conversation, 2/10/22; The Guardian, 2/13/22)
In memoriam: Hardy Kruger (1928–2022), international film star. He “was the most visible German-born actor on American screens” for much of the 1960s and 70s. (The Guardian, 1/20/22; The New York Times, 1/20/22)