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Menschen am Sonntag [People on Sunday, a Film Without Actors] (Robert Siodmak, Edgar G. Ulmer, Rochus Gliese, Curt Siodmak + Fred Zinnemann, 1929)
Jul
31
Someone goes to work*
“Du, Wolf, nächsten Sonntag — ?”
– title card
Berliners rest on Sunday, we still do. People lounge in the many parks, and on the shores of the city's many lakes. And then, it's Monday.
Released in 1929, according to Atlas Film, who restored this important Weimar classic long before Criterion put their grubby hands on it.
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Bildnis einer Trinkerin – Aller jamais retour [Portrait of a Female Drunkard. Ticket of No Return] (Ulrike Ottinger, 1979)
Jul
15
Sie, German for “She”, hungover in her fabulous yellow nappa leather outfit (via). DP: Ulrike Ottinger.
Someone is hungover*
“Ein Psychogramm zweier ungewöhnlicher, aber auch extrem unterschiedlicher Frauen. Die eine, reich, exzentrisch, ihre Gefühle maskenhaft verbergend, trinkt sich bewusst zu Tode. Sie ist der Fall, der in der Statistik nicht erscheint, weil entweder zu Hause unter Valium gehalten oder unter Verschluss in einer Privatklinik. Die andere ist arm und trinkt sich unbewusst zu Tode. Sie erscheint in der normalen Statistik als Typ der haltlosen Trinkerin”
– U.O., via
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Die endlose Nacht [The Endless Night] (Will Tremper, 1963)
Jul
6
The bold and the beautiful stuck at Tempelhof. And yes, one could smoke there. DP: Hans Jura.
(People at) an airport*
It's foggy at Flughafen Berlin-Tempelhof, the Allies' airbridge to the West, and all the planes into and out of West Berlin are grounded. In any other metropolis this could mean taking a train, enjoy the city's nightlife or maybe just a bed for the night. In post-Wall bureaucracy-happy West Berlin, this means endless waits with strangers. And so, with nowhere to go, a Polish jazz band mingles with British spouses, a lonely South African farmer, a model and her beau.
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Ich bin meine eigene Frau [I Am My Own Woman] (Rosa von Praunheim, 1992)
May
16
Honor Our LGBT Elders Day
Ichgola Androgyn, Jens Taschner, and Charlotte von Mahlsdorf as Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. DP: Lorenz Haarmann.
“Ich bin meine eigene Frau” (“I am my own woman/wife”)
– Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, in response to her mother's request to settle and get married
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Kuhle Wampe oder: Wem gehört die Welt? [Kuhle Wampe or Who Owns the World?] (Slatan Dudow, 1932)
Feb
28
unemployment
The unemployed at Kuhle Wampe, with Hertha Thiele's Anni front and center. People's states vary between still clinging on to better times up to destitute. DP: Günther Krampf.
“[Kuhle Wampe] gives witness to the true face of a struggling, suffering nation. Made by four thousand unemployed people, it never aims to be a work of art but simply aims to portray […] workers whose youthful energy is going to waste.”
– Marcel Carné, via
Kuhle Wampe, Berlin slang that means something like “empty stomach”, is the name of a real-world, improvised encampment for the unemployed at the Müggelsee. Here we find a family who lost everything after the death of one of them.
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KIPHO [Du musst zur KIPHO] (Julius Pinschewer, 1925)
Sep
25
1925
A very modern dressed woman with a small film camera. Superimposed but suggested she's filming it, a large teddybear – a bear is #Berlin's official mascot – to remind viewers that the Kino und Photoausstellung [“Film and Photo Fair”) takes place in the German capital. DP: Guido Seeber.
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Nasser Asphalt [Wet Asphalt] (Frank Wisbar, 1958)
Dec
20
National Greg Day
“Sie können sich einen anderen Beruf aussuchen. Sie sind ein toter Mann.”
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Tätowierung [Tattoo / The Delinquent] (Johannes Schaaf, 1967)
Nov
18
National Adoption Day
Benno (Christof Wackernagel), a pensive young man with dark hair and dark eyes. DPs: Petrus R. Schlömp & Wolf Wirth.
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Stroszek (Werner Herzog, 1977)
Sep
9
German Language Day
A warm Railroad Flats, Wis. “Willcomen” [sic] for (LtR) Scheitz, Eva, and Bruno, with Mr Scheitz's nephew (Clayton Szalpinski) squeezed between his “Onkellein” and Eva. DP: Thomas Mauch.
Bruno Stroszek (Bruno S.), his friends Eva (Eva Mattes) and Scheitz (Clemens Scheitz, responsible for the fairy-tale music you hear in this film) decide to leave dreary #Berlin behind and move to #Wisconsin where the latter's nephew lives. A new life, with dreams of music and animal magnetism, awaits them there.
“Was ist loos? Der Hund is loose.”
– Clayton
As so oft with #Herzog, the story behind Stroszek is as engrossing as the resulting film. Documentary maker Errol Morris and Herzog were fascinated by Wisconsin's own Ed Gein and wondered if Gein had dug up his own mother, as was rumoured at the time. As they would, they decided to open the poor woman's grave. Morris never showed up, and neither did Herzog but only because his car broke down en route to Plainfield, Wisconsin. Trying to get the vehicle fixed, Herzog entered the workshop of a Clayton Szalpinski.
A character in his own right, and a non-actor to boot, Clayton ended up in Stroszek as Scheitz's nephew; a MacGuffin odder than a dancing chicken.
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Nicht der Homosexuelle ist pervers, sondern die Situation, in der er lebt [It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives] (Rosa von Praunheim, 1971)
Jul
6
National Daniel Day
A gay couple kissing on the street in front of a black-tiled Berlin bar. A third gay man nearby looks away. DP: Robert van Ackeren.
“Werdet stolz auf eure Homosexualität! Raus aus den Toiletten, rein in die Strassen! Freiheit für die Schwulen!”
Von Praunheim's Nicht der Homosexuelle ist pervers is a plea for rebellion and visibility. For revolt and love. A wakeup call for gays and straights alike. Such a stir this film pamphlet made it became the blueprint for West-Germany's gay liberation movement.