Thom-Peters
A rejoint le sept. 2005
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Note de Thom-Peters
It's the time to do things you are afraid to do, when you are younger, and too smart to do, when you are older. "So war das S. O.36" is about such a time. It's the early 1980s, the DIY-ethos of the stagnant Punk movement teamed up with an arrogant art attitude. Young musicians (kind of) used the stage of the SO23 (called Esso) in West Berlin to make lots of noise, scream, bellow, complain about stuff, repeat some words over and over again. So much anger & fury! They are having a ball. What a great time!
The Esso is still a legendary venue. It's Berlin's CBGB. Just as the "Dschungel" (Jungle) is Berlin's Studio 54, only without the excitement, the glamour, the sex and the famous people. Nonetheless, this "Jungle" is legendary: David Bowie even mentioned it in his 2013 single "Where Are We Now?". He also attended the opening of the original S. O.36, in 1978. At that time it was run by the artist Martin Kippenberger, who sold it a year later, while he was still 25 years old. Some people are still looking for the legendary "Berlin Wall", immortalised in Bowie's "Heroes". It died with 26. What becomes a legend most?
"So war das S. O.36" was released only 5 months after the Esso was closed by the building authorities in March 1983. It consists mainly of live footage capturing the performances of (very) young, experimenting, non-traditional rock musicians from West Berlin. People were not taking a lot of pictures in those days. Moving pictures, with sound? That was expensive and complicated. These are extremely rare documents, this is as good as it gets. Having said that: Picture and sound quality are poor. It was filmed with Super 8 cameras and the acoustic conditions of the Esso were legendary bad. Kindly enough the directors came up with quite a few humorous ideas to make their product more digestible. In a truly youthful manner they present their subject like something from a far away, legendary past. It must have been sheer luck that they've found some surviving contemporary witnesses. Too bad that most of their memories aren't very flattering. Terrible: The place, the bands, the whole Esso experience. This movie. Yup, sounds about right. Form and content match. Viewed from this perspective, "So war das S. O.36" is actually a perfect movie.
Most of the bands and performers featured here disappeared. Leaving nothing at all: Onkel Polle, Die 4 unsichtbaren 5, Die Toten Piloten, Hoch Tief, Rubberbeats, Tanzmusik, VEB Plexiglas.- With cassettes and/or one record: Die Gelbs, Die Ich's, Lorenz Lorenz, P1/E, Nina Schulz, System, Rucki Zucki Stimmungskapelle.- With 2 or 3 LPs: Beton Combo, Carambolage, TV War.- Die Tödliche Doris, Malaria! And Einstürzende Neubauten had more or less successful art music careers.- Two members of Soilent Grün became the core of the enormously profitable teenybopper "punk" band "Die Ärzte".
"So war das S. O.36" is a very inspirational movie. All the performers tapped into the zeitgeist, they dared, they created vivid and lasting memories - at least for themselves. If these guys with their silly stuff could do it, who can't? What becomes a legend most? On a personal level everything achieved in the decade from 16 to 25.
The Esso is still a legendary venue. It's Berlin's CBGB. Just as the "Dschungel" (Jungle) is Berlin's Studio 54, only without the excitement, the glamour, the sex and the famous people. Nonetheless, this "Jungle" is legendary: David Bowie even mentioned it in his 2013 single "Where Are We Now?". He also attended the opening of the original S. O.36, in 1978. At that time it was run by the artist Martin Kippenberger, who sold it a year later, while he was still 25 years old. Some people are still looking for the legendary "Berlin Wall", immortalised in Bowie's "Heroes". It died with 26. What becomes a legend most?
"So war das S. O.36" was released only 5 months after the Esso was closed by the building authorities in March 1983. It consists mainly of live footage capturing the performances of (very) young, experimenting, non-traditional rock musicians from West Berlin. People were not taking a lot of pictures in those days. Moving pictures, with sound? That was expensive and complicated. These are extremely rare documents, this is as good as it gets. Having said that: Picture and sound quality are poor. It was filmed with Super 8 cameras and the acoustic conditions of the Esso were legendary bad. Kindly enough the directors came up with quite a few humorous ideas to make their product more digestible. In a truly youthful manner they present their subject like something from a far away, legendary past. It must have been sheer luck that they've found some surviving contemporary witnesses. Too bad that most of their memories aren't very flattering. Terrible: The place, the bands, the whole Esso experience. This movie. Yup, sounds about right. Form and content match. Viewed from this perspective, "So war das S. O.36" is actually a perfect movie.
Most of the bands and performers featured here disappeared. Leaving nothing at all: Onkel Polle, Die 4 unsichtbaren 5, Die Toten Piloten, Hoch Tief, Rubberbeats, Tanzmusik, VEB Plexiglas.- With cassettes and/or one record: Die Gelbs, Die Ich's, Lorenz Lorenz, P1/E, Nina Schulz, System, Rucki Zucki Stimmungskapelle.- With 2 or 3 LPs: Beton Combo, Carambolage, TV War.- Die Tödliche Doris, Malaria! And Einstürzende Neubauten had more or less successful art music careers.- Two members of Soilent Grün became the core of the enormously profitable teenybopper "punk" band "Die Ärzte".
"So war das S. O.36" is a very inspirational movie. All the performers tapped into the zeitgeist, they dared, they created vivid and lasting memories - at least for themselves. If these guys with their silly stuff could do it, who can't? What becomes a legend most? On a personal level everything achieved in the decade from 16 to 25.
Sex & violence, impossible heists, an average man turning into a super spy, the saving of the world, a villain, who wants to destroy the world, AIDS, the Bhagwan movement, the NATO Double-Track Decision, grayest GDR (East German) bureaucrats in dreary GDR buildings. Showrunners Anna & Jörg Winger use the background of historic events and locations to tell a flamboyant, sensationalist story. While the art direction looks very convincing, the story-lines don't aim for realism at all. This is an amusement park ride through the year 1983 in Germany. It might be considered as jaunty fun or as childish humbug.
The protagonist Martin Rauch (Jonas Nay) is supposed to be so average looking that he can take the place of another person - an unexpected, hilarious scene stresses this feature - and still have enough charisma to woo the ladies, believably act as an action hero and carry this show. Jonas Nay does all of that. It's about the foreign intelligence branch of GDR's Ministry of State Security, the Stasi, and - particularly since the "The Lives of Others" (2006) - this organisation is infamous even in the USA, the epitome of a malicious state agency. A lot of great music was produced in 1983, some of it is used in the soundtrack. With the right mindset and expectations Deutschland 83 is good enough to be watched once. (6/10)
That's not true for the second season, Deutschland 86. There is no big story, just leftovers. They tried very hard to come up with ideas for another season. They failed miserably, turning the show from ridiculous fun into ludicrous nonsense. Some intel agencies want Martin dead, because he is supposed to have dangerous special knowledge that his superiors don't have. What? How? This is only claimed, there is no explanation. He did reconnoiter no such information in the first season. The Stasi thinks that they couldn't protect him in the GDR, so they sent him away to a save place - civil-war-ridden Angola. Give the genius, who came up with this ideas a medal! The first four episodes of "Deutschland 86" are set in Africa. In a second storyline, Martin is obsessed with the 3-year-old Max, whom he has never seen and who might or might not be his son. He will risk everything to kidnap him. Why? Who does that? (2/10)
The third season, Deutschland 89, is about a world in dissolution. Goofy agents, spies, terrorists and bureaucrats plan and scheme and fail. All the storylines are extremely strange and unappealing. It's the lame variant of pulp fiction. The only competent character in this season is the villain of season one: the cigarette smoking man, Stasi general Walter Schweppenstette (Sylvester Groth). He is the real hero of this season. Martin is more of a punching ball. (2/10)
As season 1 could be criticized for petit bourgeois escapism, someone felt the need to clarify the class point of view. A main message of seasons 2 and 3 is: Stasi people aren't real communists, they are just in it for the money, for the power, for the sadism. The collapse of the Warsaw Pact was not the result of flaws in the system, but the fault of unsuitable individuals. The series was obviously made by members of the hip "Our real kind of communism has never been tried!"-crowd. Their hindsight is far from 20/20, not only in this respect.
Summary: Only season one is worth watching. What's good in seasons 2 and 3 could have been shown in 3 episodes instead of 18. Too much drivel, nonsense, noise.
The protagonist Martin Rauch (Jonas Nay) is supposed to be so average looking that he can take the place of another person - an unexpected, hilarious scene stresses this feature - and still have enough charisma to woo the ladies, believably act as an action hero and carry this show. Jonas Nay does all of that. It's about the foreign intelligence branch of GDR's Ministry of State Security, the Stasi, and - particularly since the "The Lives of Others" (2006) - this organisation is infamous even in the USA, the epitome of a malicious state agency. A lot of great music was produced in 1983, some of it is used in the soundtrack. With the right mindset and expectations Deutschland 83 is good enough to be watched once. (6/10)
That's not true for the second season, Deutschland 86. There is no big story, just leftovers. They tried very hard to come up with ideas for another season. They failed miserably, turning the show from ridiculous fun into ludicrous nonsense. Some intel agencies want Martin dead, because he is supposed to have dangerous special knowledge that his superiors don't have. What? How? This is only claimed, there is no explanation. He did reconnoiter no such information in the first season. The Stasi thinks that they couldn't protect him in the GDR, so they sent him away to a save place - civil-war-ridden Angola. Give the genius, who came up with this ideas a medal! The first four episodes of "Deutschland 86" are set in Africa. In a second storyline, Martin is obsessed with the 3-year-old Max, whom he has never seen and who might or might not be his son. He will risk everything to kidnap him. Why? Who does that? (2/10)
The third season, Deutschland 89, is about a world in dissolution. Goofy agents, spies, terrorists and bureaucrats plan and scheme and fail. All the storylines are extremely strange and unappealing. It's the lame variant of pulp fiction. The only competent character in this season is the villain of season one: the cigarette smoking man, Stasi general Walter Schweppenstette (Sylvester Groth). He is the real hero of this season. Martin is more of a punching ball. (2/10)
As season 1 could be criticized for petit bourgeois escapism, someone felt the need to clarify the class point of view. A main message of seasons 2 and 3 is: Stasi people aren't real communists, they are just in it for the money, for the power, for the sadism. The collapse of the Warsaw Pact was not the result of flaws in the system, but the fault of unsuitable individuals. The series was obviously made by members of the hip "Our real kind of communism has never been tried!"-crowd. Their hindsight is far from 20/20, not only in this respect.
Summary: Only season one is worth watching. What's good in seasons 2 and 3 could have been shown in 3 episodes instead of 18. Too much drivel, nonsense, noise.
Old movies can tell you something about bygone times and vanished places. This "Mauer" movie doesn't do that. It doesn't show you anything about the reality in West or East Berlin, it is not about real people.
Arnulf Kabe (Marius Müller-Westernhagen) spent most of his adult life in Eastern jails, because he repeatedly tried to get to the West. As soon as he finally arrives in West Berlin, he hates it. Turns out, he's just a guy with severe psychological problems. He has no idea, what it is that he wants. It's not a "The grass is always greener on the other side" kind of thing, he doesn't even look for greener pastures. It's more like: Fence sitting is the only way to live.
If you know nothing about the real world, invent your own. The author, Peter Schneider, presumably tried to tell a highly poetic and deeply philosophical story. "Mauer" is none of that. It's a completely irrelevant, useless movie, with bland, irritating characters, a story that goes nowhere and a big fake Berlin wall that certainly took a fortune to be built. Peter Schneider and director Reinhard Hauff make it very clear that they don't take sides. They are neither for the West nor for the East, neither for the Wall nor against it. Activists in West Berlin who rally againt the Wall are the butt of their jokes. They practice what they preach: fence-sitting. "Because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spit you out of my mouth." (Revelation 3:16)
Arnulf Kabe loves a different part of the Bible. In his imagination this crazy stylite ("pillar dweller"), dwelling on a wall, sees himself as Moses, as a leader of men. In West Berlin he is doing an amateur radio show, calling for an united communist Germany - and peace on earth. So much is so very wrong with this movie, and there isn't the slightest hint that it is supposed to be a satire. Au contraire, Kabe is doubtlessly supposed to be a strong-willed hero. "Don't know what I want, but I know how to get it!" (Anarchy In The UK, '76) - Nah, this guy knows nothing.
Why did Arnulf Kabe try so hard to get to the West? Why was this movie made? Who cares. ("Bad German Movies"-Review No. 28)
Arnulf Kabe (Marius Müller-Westernhagen) spent most of his adult life in Eastern jails, because he repeatedly tried to get to the West. As soon as he finally arrives in West Berlin, he hates it. Turns out, he's just a guy with severe psychological problems. He has no idea, what it is that he wants. It's not a "The grass is always greener on the other side" kind of thing, he doesn't even look for greener pastures. It's more like: Fence sitting is the only way to live.
If you know nothing about the real world, invent your own. The author, Peter Schneider, presumably tried to tell a highly poetic and deeply philosophical story. "Mauer" is none of that. It's a completely irrelevant, useless movie, with bland, irritating characters, a story that goes nowhere and a big fake Berlin wall that certainly took a fortune to be built. Peter Schneider and director Reinhard Hauff make it very clear that they don't take sides. They are neither for the West nor for the East, neither for the Wall nor against it. Activists in West Berlin who rally againt the Wall are the butt of their jokes. They practice what they preach: fence-sitting. "Because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spit you out of my mouth." (Revelation 3:16)
Arnulf Kabe loves a different part of the Bible. In his imagination this crazy stylite ("pillar dweller"), dwelling on a wall, sees himself as Moses, as a leader of men. In West Berlin he is doing an amateur radio show, calling for an united communist Germany - and peace on earth. So much is so very wrong with this movie, and there isn't the slightest hint that it is supposed to be a satire. Au contraire, Kabe is doubtlessly supposed to be a strong-willed hero. "Don't know what I want, but I know how to get it!" (Anarchy In The UK, '76) - Nah, this guy knows nothing.
Why did Arnulf Kabe try so hard to get to the West? Why was this movie made? Who cares. ("Bad German Movies"-Review No. 28)