Actualités

Netflix’s “Murder Mindfully” (Original title: Achtsam Morden) is a German comedy crime miniseries based on Karsten Dusse’s eponymous bestseller book. It follows a lawyer who accidentally becomes a murderer after looking for ways to find a work-life balance through a mindfulness class. Tom Schilling stars in the central role of Björn Diemel, alongside Emily Cox, Murathan Muslu, Britta Hammelstein, Peter Jordan, Pamuk Pilavci, Johannes Allmayer, Sascha Geršak, Marc Hosemann, and Luca Maric. This offbeat crime thriller with deadpan humor consists of eight episodes and is now streaming on Netflix.

Spoilers ahead

Murder Mindfully ‘Netflix’ Miniseries Recap:

“Murder Mindfully” on Netflix revolves around a lawyer who suddenly finds himself caught in a web of crime after entering a mindfulness class to help give more time to his family. It uses the ‘You might be wondering how I got here’ approach to storytelling by initially showing the absurd point in...

"Mindfulness can break noses." Netflix has revealed the official trailer for an interesting new German dark comedy series called Murder Mindfully, originally called Achtsam Morden in German. In 8 episodes, the story of a lawyer struggling with burn-out unfolds in a light-hearted way and with a great sense of absurdity as he turns his life completely upside down, soon allowing neither his mafia clients nor anything to upset him. Tom Schilling stars as Björn, a high-powered mafia lawyer, whoseeks peace in a mindfulness class to ease his stressful life. But as he explores the art of relaxation, he stumbles upon a darker method of finding inner peace — one that involves murder. The series main cast also includes Emily Cox, Murathan Muslu, Britta Hammelstein, Peter Jordan, Pamuk Pilavci, Johannes Allmayer, Sascha Geršak, Marc Hosemann, and Luca Maric. Yet another new series about how murder is cathartic (also see: Sweetpea). This series looks clever and kooky and funny.

Matthias Glasner’s Dying was the winner of the top prize at this year’s German Film Awards, clinching the Golden Lola in the best film category along with a cash prize of €500,000 for the producers to invest in a future project.

The production by Port au Prince Film & Kultur Produktion, Schwarzweiß Filmproduktion and Senator Film Produktion, which had its world premiere in competition at this year’s Berlinale where it won the best screenplay Silver Bear, also garnered another three statuettes: Corinna Harfouch (best lead actress), Hans-Uwe Bauer (best supporting actor), and Lorenz Dangel (best film score).

Glasner’s family drama,...

Matthias Glasner’s epic dysfunctional family drama Dying has won the top prize for best film at the 2024 German Film Awards, the Lolas.

Dying was one of the critical favorites at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, where Glasner won the Silver Bear for best screenplay. The film stars Lars Eidinger as a classical conductor with an extremely dysfunctional family.

In addition to the top prize, Corinna Harfoch won the best actress Lola for her role in Dying, where she plays Eidinger’s sharp-tonged and cold-hearted mother. Her Dying co-star Hans-Uwe Bauer took best supporting actor, and the film also took the Lola for best film music for composer Lorenz Dangel.

Ayşe Polat took best director and best screenplay for In the Blind Spot, her twisty documentary-style conspiracy thriller set in modern-day Turkey. The film, which premiered in Berlin’s Encounters section last year, won the top prize at the Oldenburg Film Festival,...

The German Film Academy has announced the movies in competition this year for the German Film Awards, the local equivalent of the Oscars.

Matthias Glasner’s epic family drama Dying, Timm Kröger’s experimental sci-fi feature The Universal Theory, and In the Blind Spot, Ayşe Polat’s documentary-style conspiracy thriller set in modern-day Turkey, are among the favorites for this year’s awards, called the Lolas.

Dying, which stars Lars Eidinger as a classical conductor with an extremely dysfunctional family, picked up nominations in every major category, including best film, best director and best screenplay nominations for Glasner, a best actor nom for Eidinger and a best actress nomination for Corinna Harfoch, who plays Eidinger’s mother. In total, the film is up for nine Lolas.

The Universal Theory, a black-and-white drama about the multiverse, is also in the running for the best film Lola, and Kröger is up for best director.

WarnerMedia Germany has confirmed that Ricky Gervais is among the cast of its comedy series Greenlight – German Genius, which is now shooting in Berlin.

The eight-part TV satire stars Kida Khodr Ramadan (4 Blocks) as himself. It recounts a dramatized version of events after Ramadan’s real-life Twitter exchange with Gervais in 2018, in which the British comedian praised Ramadan’s performance in 4 Blocks.

In Greenlight, Ramadan convinces Gervais to give him the rights for a German adaptation of Extras. However, as he attempts to progress the show to production, he comes up against the fact that the Germans aren’t particularly known for their humor, and that there are not many international stars in the country.

Also in the cast are a host of known German actors, musicians, and comedians, including: Detlev Buck, Frederick Lau, Tom Schilling, Veysel Gelin, Olli Schulz, Heike Makatsch, Maria Furtwängler, Sascha Geršak, Katrin Bauerfeind, Britta Hammelstein,...

Ricky Gervais has boarded “Greenlight – German Genius” a new series from WarnerMedia Germany inspired by one of his tweets from 2019.

The 8-episode series, which has started shooting in Berlin, satirises the German television industry.

Two years ago the “After Life” writer and actor sent a public message via Twitter to German actor Kida Ramadan praising his portrayal of character Toni Hamady in series “4 Blocks.”

“Congratulations,” wrote Gervais. “Another masterpiece.”

In a case of art imitating life, Ramadan and Gervais will now appear as fictional versions of themselves in “Greenlight – German Genius,” in which Ramadan convincing Gervais to let him make a German adaptation of his hit series “Extras” after the comedian sends Ramadan a tweet praising his performance in “4 Blocks.”

However, Ramadan hits a stumbling block when he realizes there aren’t any international celebrities in Germany to cameo in the adaptation all while trying to navigate the...

The Golden Glove (Der goldene Handschuh)

Germany’s Fatih Akin turns to horror for his tenth feature, The Golden Glove, which relays the true story of a 1970s serial killer who hunted prostitutes in Hamburg’s red light district. Produced by Akin and Nurhan Sekerci-Porst through his company bombero international, the film is also a co-production with Pathe and Warner Bros. Films Productions Germany. Utilizing his regular Dp Rainer Klausmann, the cast includes Jonas Dassler, Margarethe Tiesel, Uwe Rohde, Victoria Trauttmansdorff, Marc Hosemann, Hark Bohm, Heinz Strunk and Tristan Göbel. Akin competed in Locarno with his 1998 debut Short Sharp Shock but came to prominence in 2004 when his title Head-On won the Golden Bear in Berlin.…...

Just in time for Christmas comes the heartwarming story of “Perfume,” which follows a half-dozen friends so obsessed with the possibilities of smell that the death of one of them dredges up some extremely unpleasant things about their pasts.

The new series is based on the 1985 Patrick Süskind novel “Perfume,” which was previously adapted into the 2006 Tom Tykwer film “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer,” starring a pre-Bond Ben Whishaw, Alan Rickman, and Dustin Hoffman. This new TV venture brings the original story into a modern context, rather than the 18th-century French environs of the novel.

In updating the historical story, this six-part season also gets a detective show twist, with a group of investigators looking into the death of a singer. What they find is a group of one-time school friends, at least one of whom stumbled into the practice of using human scents as the basis for making a one-of-a-kind fragrance.

This sui generis docu-portrait offers a behind the scenes look at the art world, as novelist Chloe Aridjis curates a retrospective of the surrealist

A new term may need to be coined to describe this deeply idiosyncratic and ramshackle docufiction hybrid from Josh Appignanesi. A zero-budget experiment in cine-portraiture, it combines footage of the novelist Chloe Aridjis curating a retrospective of the surrealist painter and writer Leonora Carrington at Tate Liverpool with a tale of sexual obsession also starring Aridjis, written by Appignanesi after interviewing her. The point, I think, is to dredge the unconscious, to represent inner life on screen – though I may be missing the point.

In the documentary bit, Appignanesi films Aridjis with an old VHS camera as she works on the exhibition and socialises with liberal intelligentsia chums. Aridjis has said that she is playing a character, a more socially awkward, anxious version of herself. In one of the fictional scenes,...

Perfume, the new German thriller series from Netflix and Germany's Constantin Film, will have its world premiere at this year's Munich Film Festival, debuting in Munich's TV series sidebar.

The series, inspired by Patrick Suskind's best-seller Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, and the 2006 film of the same name, follows a group of ambitious students who experiment with the power of scent to bend people to their will, with deadly results. Perfume features a who's who of young German talent, including August Diehl, Friederike Becht, Wotan Wilke Mohring, Ken Duken, Trystan Putter, Marc Hosemann and Juergen Maurer....

Two vibrant cities that love making movies, Berlin and Los Angeles will celebrate their 50th anniversary as sister cities by screening the highly anticipated Tom Tykwer series Babylon Berlin (Isa: Beta) in Downtown Los Angeles on October 6th at The Theatre at Ace Hotel. The two cities have a number of other exciting events planned for the anniversary as well.

The City of Berlin and the City of Los Angeles, two of the most exciting places in the world, connected through their inspiring and trend setting art scene, their social freedom, openness and their integration of different cultures and religions will join each other to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of their Sister Partnership with events throughout September and October in Los Angeles, culminating with the International Premiere of Babylon Berlin.

Babylon Berlin, the much talked about new TV series, co-written and co-directed by BAFTA and Golden Globe Nominated Tom Tykwer,...

A Coffee In Berlin Music Box Films Home Entertainment Reviewed for Shockya by Harvey Karten. Data-based on Rotten Tomatoes Grade: B+ Director: Jan Ole Gerster Screenplay: Jan Ole Gerster Cast: Tom Schilling, Friederike Kempter, Marc Hosemann, Katharina Schuttler, Justus Von Dohnanyi Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 8/16/14 Opens: DVD on October 7, 2014 When you think of Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, its humor does not come necessarily to mind. German humor? An oxymoron. Now forward to the 21st Century and you will discover German movies that are funny to the locals and whose humor travels well across the Atlantic. The New Wave style “A Coffee in Berlin,” formerly [ Read More ]

The post A Coffee in Berlin Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Exclusive: Veteran UK producer Patrick Cassavetti has boarded Marat Alykulov’s black comedy Lenin?!.

Cassavetti, producer on Terry Gilliam’s Brazil and Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas - agreed to become executive producer on the Kyrgyzstani project following talks in Cannes last month.

Speaking exclusively to ScreenDaily at this year’s Moscow Business Square (Mbs), producer Joanna Bence of Curb Denizen Productions said that Cassavetti will also offer new ‘perks’ to the ‘Help Bury Lenin?!’ crowdfunding campaign by giving burgeoning filmmakers the chance to receive personal feedback on their past or upcoming productions.

Bence also revealed that German-born, London-based DoP Stephan Bookas - who has worked on Maleficent and the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy - is confirmed as cinematographer for the project, which was pitched at the Mbs’s co-production forum last year after having been presented at Busan’s Asian Project Market and Connecting Cottbus in autumn 2012.

Together with Curb Denizen producer partner [link=nm...

Throughout A Coffee in Berlin, the drifting slacker protagonist tries to find a good cup of coffee, while curious events keep getting in the way of collecting the caffeine. Sometimes, the coffee is too pricey. At other times, the place is short supplied. It is a good metaphor to represent the life of a man who could surely use a jolt of caffeine to spur things back into action. However, one can say the same thing for Jan Ole Gerster’s film, both deadpan and depressing, as it searches for the tone and spirit of other classic movie featuring the aimless youth wandering around a big European city. Though it has its moments, A Coffee in Berlin needs a shot of warmth and energy to wake it up.

Shot on-location and in crisp black-and-white, the film follows Niko Fischer (Generation War’s Tom Schilling), a law school dropout getting over...

The Wolf Of Wall Street | Crystal Fairy & The Magical Cactus | Devil's Due | Tim's Vermeer | Oh Boy | The Night Of The Hunter

The Wolf Of Wall Street (18)

(Martin Scorsese, 2013, Us) Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Kyle Chandler, John Bernthal, Matthew McConaughey. 180 mins

Perhaps Scorsese has more of a right than anyone to make a banking epic in the mould of a crime epic – and sure enough, this is Gordon Gekko, GoodFellas-style: a sprawling, seriocomic, voiceover-tracked rise-and-fall with a morally dubious hero. Excess is the name of the game here, to the point there's actually an excess of excess; endless choreographed tableaux of cash, drugs, cars, naked women, shouting men and celebrity cameos. These regular shots of energy keep the story buzzing, even as they bloat the running time, but Scorsese is aiming for greatness here, and there's no reining him in.

Crystal Fairy & The Magical Cactus (18)

(Sebastián Silva, 2013, Chi) Michael Cera,...

The European Film Academy will hold the 26th European Film Awards in Berlin on December 7th, 2013. To make fans part of the celebration every year the audience gets to choose the winner of the Efa People's Choice Award. This  year one lucky fan will also have the chance to attend the awards ceremony and be part of a fantastic event that brings together Europe's greatest film stars, directors, actors and actresses.

Audiences in the past have  awarded the honor to Jean-Pierre Jeunet's beloved Amelie, Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark, and incredibly 3 times to Spanish master Pedro Almodovar (All About My Mother, Talk to Her, Volver).

To vote and for a chance to win a trip to the 26th European Film Awards click Here

The Nominees Are:

Anna Karenina

UK, 124 min

Directed By: Joe Wright 

Written By: Tom Stoppard 

With: Keira Knightley, Aaron Johnson, Jude Law, Matthew Macfadyen, Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander

The Best Offer (La Migliore Offerta)

Italy, 130 min

Written & Directed by: Giuseppe Tornatore 

With: Geoffrey Rush, Jim Sturgess, Sylvia Hoeks, Donald Sutherland

The Broken Circle Breakdown

Belgium, 100 min

Directed by: Felix van Groeningen 

Written by: Carl Joos & Felix van Groeningen 

With: Veerle Baetens, Johan Heldenbergh, Nell Cattrysse, Geert van Rampelberg, Nils de Caster

The Deep (Djúpið)

Iceland/Norway, 92 min

Directed by: Baltasar Kormákur 

Written by: Jón Atli Jónasson & Baltasar Kormákur 

With: Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Jóhann G. Jóhannsson, Stefán Hallur Stefánsson, Björn Thors, Thorbjorg H. Thorgilsdótir

The Gilded Cage (La Cage Dorée)

Portugal/France, 90 min

Directed by: Ruben Alves 

Written by: Ruben Alves, Jean-André Yerlès, Hugo Gélin

With: Rita Blanco, Joaquim de Almeida, Roland Giraud, Chantal Lauby, Barbara Cabrita, Lannick Gautry

I'm So Excited (Los Amantes Pasajeros)

Spain, 90 min

Written & Directed by: Pedro Almodóvar

With: Javier Cámara, Carlos Areces, Raúl Arévalo, Lola Dueñas, Cecilia Roth

The Impossible (Lo Imposible)

Spain, 114 min

Directed by: J.A. Bayona

Written by: Sergio G. Sánchez & María Belón

With: Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, Tom Holland, Samuel Joslin, Oaklee Pendergast

Kon-Tiki

Norway, Denmark, UK, Germany, Sweden, 113 min 

Directed by: Joachim Rønning & Espen Sandberg

Written by: Petter Skavlan

With: Pål Sverre Hagen, Anders Bassmo Christiansen, Tobias Santelmann, Gustaf Skarsgaard, Odd-Magnus Williamson, Jakob Oftebro, Agnes Kittelsen

Love Is All You Need (Den skaldede frisør)

Denmark, 111 min 

Directed By: Susanne Bier

Written By: Anders Thomas Jensen & Susanne Bier

With: Pierce Brosnan, Trine Dyrholm, Paprika Steen, Kim Bodnia

Oh Boy

Germany, 83 min

Written & Directed by: Jan Ole Gerster 

With: Tom Schilling, Marc Hosemann, Friederike Kempter, Michael Gwisdek

Searching for Sugar Man

UK/Sweden, 83 min

Directed by: Malik Bendjelloul...

A black and white film set in the German capital of Berlin, Oh Boy spends a day in the life of Nico Fischer (Tom Shilling), a 27-year-old chancer who is still living the life of a student despite having abandoned his studies almost two years previously. Dumped by his girlfriend before he can even get out of bed, Nico must then skip breakfast in order to attend a mandatory appointment with his appointed psychiatrist.

However, things continue to go downhill even after he is found to be unfit to drive; his father terminates his allowance, he encounters a bitter ex-classmate (Friederike Kempter) in a bar, and is then dragged along to the set of an unpromising World War II film by his friend, an aspiring actor (Marc Hosemann).

Although described in the festival’s programme as a black comedy, Oh Boy isn’t so much funny as wonderfully ironic. The character of Nico is detached,...

Slacker Days: Gerster’s Debut Proves that Growing Up is Hardly Black and White

For his directorial debut, German director Jan-Ole Gerster serves up Oh Boy, a black and white black comedy centered on a slacker in his early twenties, wandering the streets of Berlin, full of angst and longing as he yearns to discover some type of motivation. Peppered with instances of homage to other cinema classics, Gerster proves an adept hand at assembling a fine looking film, though, despite some artistic flourishes, gives us a protagonist, a narrative, and a scenario that brings nothing new to a subject that’s been severely exhausted. The cinema is filled with great and small examples of angsty young men struggling to find their way in life and Gerster doesn’t bring anything innately new to the table.

Niko Fischer (Tom Schilling) has been coasting for the past two years on his father’s money,...

Reviewed by Christy Karras

(from the 2011 Seattle International Film Festival)

Directed by: Krystof Zlatnik

Written by: Benjamin Karalic and Krystof Zlatnik

Starring: Hanna Schwamborn, Horst-Günter Marx, Marc Hosemann, Catherine Bode and Eckehard Hoffmann

Discussing “Lys” at its Seattle International Film Festival premiere, writer-director Krystof Zlatnik explained that the movie started off as his film-school final project. When he fleshed it out into a feature, though, he discovered that no German festivals wanted it. Not artsy enough, they said.

So Zlatnik wisely shopped “Lys” around on the U.S. festival circuit, where science fiction is not only accepted but celebrated.

The film opens as something strange is threatening mankind, or at least German-kind. It seems that a teenage girl named Lys (Hanna Schwamborn) has somehow thrown a monkey wrench into a giant power plant’s energy production. Not a literal wrench, mind you; she actually just got close enough to the...

Reviewed by Christy Karras

(from the 2011 Seattle International Film Festival)

Directed by: Krystof Zlatnik

Written by: Benjamin Karalic and Krystof Zlatnik

Starring: Hanna Schwamborn, Horst-Günter Marx, Marc Hosemann, Catherine Bode and Eckehard Hoffmann

Discussing “Lys” at its Seattle International Film Festival premiere, writer-director Krystof Zlatnik explained that the movie started off as his film-school final project. When he fleshed it out into a feature, though, he discovered that no German festivals wanted it. Not artsy enough, they said.

So Zlatnik wisely shopped “Lys” around on the U.S. festival circuit, where science fiction is not only accepted but celebrated.

The film opens as something strange is threatening mankind, or at least German-kind. It seems that a teenage girl named Lys (Hanna Schwamborn) has somehow thrown a monkey wrench into a giant power plant’s energy production. Not a literal wrench, mind you; she actually just got close enough to the...

The Lys Movie Trailer has premiered. Krystof Zlatnik‘s Lys (2010) stars Hanna Schwamborn, Horst-Gunter Marx, Marc Hosemann, Pierre Kiwitt, and Marc Hosemann. Lys‘ plot synopsis: “it’s the story of a young woman named Lys (Hanna Schwamborn) who is found inside the core of the Terra-Power Plant shortly after a massive blackout. The scientists let Lys return home but Karl Bardel (Horst-Gunter Marx), the chief architect behind the reactor, is convinced that the young woman might have a connection to the blackout.” This looks good, intriguing even. How did the girl get into the power plant? What is her power derived from? What is its implications? These are the questions that this movie trailer establishes. I see some Firestarter elements here as well. Watch the Lys movie trailer below and leave your thoughts on it. Lys has no Us theater release date yet.

Lys Movie Trailer (no English sub-titles)

Lys...