From the stage lights of Hilde to the dark unconscious of film
Among the new titles hitting German theatres this week, Hilde [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Kai Wessel (see interview) is certainly the centre of attention, just like its heroine, the fascinating actress and iconic singer Hildegard Knef, played by a charismatic Heike Makatsch.
Produced by Egoli Tossell and distributed by Warner, Hilde [+see also:
trailer
film profile] had its avant-première in the special screenings section at the Berlinale. The film retraces Knef’s remarkable life, which is intimately linked to the history of Berlin from WWII to the mid-1960s.
Thriller fans will be able to discover Esther Gronenborn’s Kaifeck Murder (released by Kinowelt), which draws its inspiration from the brutal and notoriously unsolved murder of six people, including two children, in Bavaria in 1922. The intriguing 24 Frames Film production centres on a photographer (Benno Fürmann) who embarks on a risky investigation (aided by Alexandra Maria Lara).
Meanwhile, Movienet is launching Matthias Kiefersauer’s Baching [+see also:
trailer
film profile], produced by Munich-based Tellux-Film. Three years after running over a little boy whilst drink driving, the film’s protagonist faces his guilt and the dead boy’s family.
The line-up also includes two comedies co-produced by Germany. These are Slovakian director Juraj Nvota’s Music [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (distributed by box! Film), where jazz music rings out in a police-controlled Czechoslovakia; and Tamara Staudt’s Where the Grass is Greener [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (distributed by Filmlichter), a love story set against the backdrop of Switzerland’s green pastures.
Other releases include Lenny Abrahamson’s multiple award-winning Irish film Garage [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ed Guiney
interview: Jean-François Deveau
interview: Lenny Abrahamson
film profile] (distributed by Fugu); and Sophie Fiennes’ brilliant Austrian/UK documentary The Pervert's Guide To Cinema. Here, the extraordinary Slovenian psychoanalyst Slavoj Zizek delves into the cinematic unconscious by exploring film history, from the dark cellars where Hitchcock hid the mother’s corpse to the voyeurs of Lynch and Coppola, and the fantasies and traumas of films that necessarily end up being inward-looking (distributed by Zweitausendeins).
(Translated from French)
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