Basing his work on his own novel, Herkunft [Origin], Oskar Roehler shot an autobiographical film in which the destinies of three generations confront German history from the postwar era up until the 1980s. As an unloved child of bohemian intellectuals professing the political clichés of the 1960s, the filmmaker projects his disenchantment onto a sarcastic image of society, while introducing a surprisingly subtle romantic tone to the proceedings.Read More »
1980: 19 year old Robert, fed up with Hippy phoniness and bourgeoise narrow mindedness alike, flees the German provinces for West Berlin. A tour de force through the glorious dirt of West Berlin ensues. Full of sex, drugs, love and PUNK.Read More »
A cute, mysterious woman moves in across from Gene, a cop/novelist. He’s invited over in the evening, but finds her murdered and calls the cops. Next day, it’s as if it never happened. Is he going crazy?Read More »
Oskar Roehler was born in 1959, the son of writers Gisela Elsner and Klaus Roehler. He grew up in London, Rome and Nuremberg and made his first short film She LA in 1994. He had his feature debut in 1995 with Gentleman, which was shown at the Munich Filmfest the same year.
Frank Seltsam likes fast cars good looking girls and expensive drugs. but lately more and more doesn’t work out the way he wants anymore: his car was taken in by the police, in the shoping center there are no more wonderbras and germaine – the girl he fancies – comes with some other man to his party. his frustration turns into an orgie of blood champaign and heroin…Read More »
hypersquared wrote:
You know you’re in for a ride with this picture from the opening moments. Roehler drops us smack in the middle of a blowout argument between a young couple whose sex life is on the skids. The fight is at that fever pitch where the woman is crying almost convulsively, and where each of them is beginning to lose their grip on saying sensible things and are on the verge of cheap shots and unhelpful attempts at humor. The scene is tangible and familiar to anyone who’s ever grappled with a fraying relationship, and, with a shocking abruptness, we’re immediately in the reality of Robert and Marie.Read More »
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Agnes and his brothers have little in common, except an eccentric old father, relationship problems that are totally screwing up their lives, and the distinct possibility those two things are connected. Hans-Jörg conceals his sexual frustration behind his meek librarian appearance. Sex addict meetings don’t seem to be stopping his incessant masturbation and awkwardness with women. But his life changes drastically when he finds outlets for his anger and lusty libido. Werner is much more successful at political combat than family diplomacy. He’s caught up in an upperclass suburban nightmare and bickering is the only heat left in his marriage.Read More »
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Rise and fall of actor Ferdinand Marian, who takes the chance and stars in the anti-semitic movie Jud Süß.Read More »
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The life and the impact of iconic German New Wave director, Rainer Werner Fassbinder.Read More »
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If you are moved by the death of a parakeet at the beginning of The Elementary Particles (Elementarteilchen), you are in for a bumpy ride, as all of humanity as we know it will be wiped out by the film’s end in a brief written epilogue. Of course, those who have read the novel (Les particules élémentaires in its original French, Atomised in its UK version) saw this coming, but for those who are unfamiliar with Michel Houellebecq’s cult hit that explosively mixes sex, death and science to annihilate mankind – and blames the flower power generation for it in the process – this might come as something of a shock.Read More »