Anjan Dutt · 10. April 2023

I discovered Anjan Dutt at first as an actor and later as a filmmaker. At that time, I was totally unaware that he is as well a famous singer and songwriter and stage actor. More recently he created some web series, Murder in the Hills, Murder by the Sea, Danny Detective Inc. (based on his own detective stories) and finally his newest web series Seven (available at the streaming platform zee5). The opening of Seven looks really like a crime thriller. Two drug dealers are supposed to exchange...

Konkona Sensharma · 01. März 2023

The film deals with a repressed and dark chapter of Indian histroy in 1984, when the Prime Minister Indira Ghandi was killed by her Sikh-bodyguards. The incident provoked high politicians to use this for provoking a campaign against the Sikh minority in New Delhi that lead a terrible backlash. More than 5000 people were reported killed by the incited crowd. Their houses were burnt – even the houses of Hindus who wanted to protect their neighbors were not spared. In every image of Amu we feel...

12. Januar 2023

1-Armageddon Time, James Gray, USA: 2022 2-Köy, Serpil Turhan, Deutschland: 2021 3-Licorice Pizza, Paul Thomas Anderson, USA: 2021 4-Three Thousand Years of Longing, George Miller, Australien: 2022 5-Kind Hearts, Olivia Rochette, Gerard-Jan Claes, Belgien: 2022 6-Bettina, Lutz Pehnert, Deutschland: 2022 7-An CailinClùin, (The Quiet Girl) Colm Bariréad, Irland: 2022 8-Bimileui Eondeok (Hill of Secrets), Lee Ji-eun, Korea: 2022- 9-Nana, Kamila Andini, Indonesien: 2022 10-Last Film Show, Pan...

05. August 2022

Although for some people cinema means something superficial and glamorous, it is something else. I think it is the mirror of the world. (Jeanne Moreau) Two methods to approach a deeper understanding of film stayed with me for a long time. The first is represented well in a short TV feature by German film critic Helmut Färber called Three minutes from a film by Ozu. Färber focusses on one scene from Ozu´s Banshun (Late Spring, 1949), the bicycle scene. Färber made from every shot a still and...

31. Dezember 2021

on the top: Nomadland, Last Days at Sea , Herr Bachmann und seine Klasse.

Indian Cinema · 25. Februar 2021

von Aparna Sen, Indien: 2007-2010 (english version is here) zur Erinnerung an Kei Kumai (1930 - 2007) Durch eine eigenartige Vermarktungsstrategie seines Weltvertriebs konnte ich The Japanese Wife bereits wenige Wochen nach seiner Uraufführung auf einer DVD sehen. Es gibt Filme, die kann man nur mit sehr viel Glück auf einer großen Kinoleinwand sehen. Das wäre gerade bei Aparna Sens Filmen wie Mr. and Mrs. Iyer oder The Japanese Wife besonders wichtig, denn beide Filme scheinen mir geradezu...

Japanese Cinema · 22. Januar 2021

by Andrea Grunert When I first watched Sekigahara (Japan, 2017), I was intrigued by its great formal beauty, complex structure and the many outstanding performances. Harada Masato’s film brings to life a crucial moment in Japanese history; and its main protagonists become real human beings of flesh and blood. The battle that took place on 21 October 1600 near the village of Sekigahara on the western edge of Mino province (1) was the crucial event in a campaign that had started in July of that...

15. Dezember 2020

This was a year full of losses – to be quiet frank – one of the worst in my life. The most painful loss was the death of my second brother Detlev Triphan (1955-2020) who passed away last summer. He was the chronicler of my family and many of stories and details of my history and the history of my family are probably lost forever. For years I am thinking about a project about my home town Bochum, about places which were important for my life my story and the only person I could consult was...

Bettina Klix · 23. April 2020

Das Buch kann man über diesen Link bei BOD bestellen, oder über den Buchhandel oder Amazon.

Claude Forget · 27. Januar 2020

I dedicate the three following texts to my late friend Claude Forget (1949-2008). The September 30, 2019 would have been Claude´s 70th. birthday. He was a passionate activist for Independent cinema. Among other things he was for a long time the director of the distribution cooperative “Cinéma Libre” in Montréal. While watching some films I always catch myself wishing to talk with him about them. One of the three texts is about the third film by Richard Brouillette, Oncle Bernard – A...