PG Kino

Alexander Kluge: 4 Films

2012-01-26T20:27:00.005-05:00

Co-sponsored by Cornell Cinema, the Institute for German Cultural Studies, and PG Kino

Designated Tuesdays at 7:15 pm in the Schwartz Center Film Forum

Feb 7 Abschied von gestern (Yesterday Girl), 1966 (1 hour 30 Mins)
March 13 Artisten in der Zirkuskuppel, ratlos (Artists in the Ring, Perplexed), 1968 (1 hour 43 mins)
Apr 3 Die Macht der Gefühle (The Power of Emotion), 1983 (1 hour 55 mins)
Apr 24 Deutschland im Herbst (Germany in Autumn), 1978 (2 hours 3 mins)

Before Werner Herzog or Rainer Werner Fassbinder there was Alexander Kluge. One of the first auteurs of the New German Cinema, Kluge was a guiding light for a generation of filmmakers intent on challenging post-war Germany’s “Papa’s Cinema” in the name of rebellion, critique and confrontation with the nation’s traumatic past and tumultuous present. Kluge began his career as a novelist and lawyer, but following the advice of philosopher and critic Theodor Adorno soon started working in the film industry, acting as an assistant for Fritz Lang during the legendary director’s return to German filmmaking. Signing the landmark Oberhausen Manifesto in 1962, Kluge joined his filmmaking peers in support of short films and features capable of critically educating viewers in a politicized era marked by Cold War politics, student rebellion and intergenerational conflict. Starting in the mid-sixties Kluge would make a string of thoughtful masterpieces vitally linked to his times as well as to his parallel career as an author and philosopher, with groundbreaking works on the importance of art forms like cinema for producing new public spheres. Ever the engaged, timely critic, Kluge has most recently made two ambitious films exploring the global financial crisis. Looking back on his career and the greater achievements of New German Cinema, Kluge remarked, “We felt responsible for drawing society's attention to things. Precisely because we were not powerful we had to grasp everything.”

This winter Cornell Cinema is pleased to present four of Alexander Kluge’s greatest films. His first full-length feature, Yesterday Girl (1966), casts the director’s sister as a young East German crossing the Berlin Wall in search of career opportunities, drifting from job to job on the rough fringes of her new home. Hailed as a breakthrough in post-war German cinema, Kluge adapts the style and concerns of New Wave filmmakers like Jean-Luc Godard for a powerful and poetic critique of West German life. His next film, Artists in the Ring: Perplexed (1968), would win the Golden Bear at Venice in the heady year of 1968, sparking controversy and intense debate. A collage of its times, Artists follows a circus as it transforms from entertaining spectacle into revolutionary experiment, with Kluge exploring the possibility for popular culture to challenge audiences to think critically about their country’s past and future. Organized and overseen by Kluge, Germany in Autumn (1978) is a landmark project, a compendium of short works by the leading lights of New German Cinema, with segments directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Volker Schlöndorff. Examining the political terrorism of the Red Army Faction as it impacted West German politics, media and everyday life in the mid-seventies, Autumn uses a blend of documentary portraits and fictional tales to construct a searing portrait of a violent, fearful turning point in German history. One of Kluge’s most philosophically probing films, The Power of Emotions (1983) is a moving and evocative examination of the fleeting, immaterial emotions that seem to rise out of a hum-drum world of objects, things and commodities. A collage of stories, documentary footage and narrated film essays, Emotions is comprised of chapters detailing, among other intriguing topics, the justice system, the history of opera and the industrial revolution.

The series is cosponsored with PG Kino and the Institute for German Cultural Studies, and is being offered in conjunction with Professor Leslie Adelson’s German Studies graduate seminar on Kluge as a literary author. The screenings are offered for free and will be introduced by Brían Hanrahan, Faculty Fellow in the Dept. of Theatre, Film & Dance, who will also lead post-screening discussions.

(Cornell Cinema)

For more information please visit the Cornell Cinema website

Nov 22: Das weisse Band (The White Ribbon)

2011-11-21T13:50:00.005-05:00

Dir. Michael Haneke (Germany, 2009)
144 mins. German with English subtitles

Tuesday, November 22, 8pm

Seminar Room of Alice Cook House (West Campus)

Free and open to the public

Strange accidents occur in a small village in the north of Germany during the years just before World War I. Gradually the events seem to take on the character of ritual punishment. The abused and suppressed children of the villagers seem to be at the heart of this mystery.

Nov 15: Caché (Hidden)

2011-11-14T18:50:00.004-05:00

Dir. Michael Haneke (France 2005)
117 mins, French with English subtitles
Seminar Room of the Alice Cook House (West Campus)
Tuesday November 15, 8pm

George, host of a TV literary review, receives packages with videos of himself and his family shot secretly from the street, and obscure drawings. He has no idea who may be sending them. George feels a sense of menace, but since no direct threat has been made, the police refuse to help...

Oct 28: Das Schloss (The Castle)

2011-10-24T13:45:00.007-04:00

PG KINO presents:

Tuesday, October 25 at 8:00pm

Alice Cook House, Seminar Room

as part of the Michael Haneke series

Dir. Michael Haneke (1997). Running Time: 123 min. English subtitles. Free and open to the public.

“Haneke's screen adaptation is his weakest film to date. It feels rushed and hectic, a far cry from both his first film and the texture of Kafka's original novel. Ultimately, it adds little to our understanding of either Kafka or Haneke.” (A. J. Horton, Central European Review)

How cold does Michael Haneke have to be for a punitively faithful Kafka adaptation to qualify as one of his most humane works? (F. Croce, Slant Magazine)

April 27: Mauerhase

2011-04-26T09:25:00.005-04:00

Pandaemonium Germanicum presents the PG Kino Spring 2011 series, "Berlin Films II: Love, Life, and Murder”

MAUERHASE (Rabbit à la Berlin)

dirs. Bartek Konopka, Piotr Rosołowski
2009, 49 min. In German (no subtitles)

“The cold war has been examined from many different perspectives. Only now, though, are we getting the rabbit's point of view on the division of Europe in the postwar years. Bartek Konopka's Oscar-nominated documentary tells the largely ignored story of the thousands of wild rabbits who thrived in the so-called death zone of the Berlin Wall – the strip of no man's land on the eastern side of the wall.

Rabbit à la Berlin isn't exactly a natural history documentary. It is intended more as an allegorical study of a totalitarian system. The rabbits are used as a device to burrow into recent east European social history. Just as the rabbits were expelled from their makeshift Eden when the Berlin wall came down, many in the Soviet bloc had to adjust to the strange new post-communist world.”

-The Guardian

Preceded by an introduction and followed by an open discussion
Free and open to the public

(photo from http://cranesareflying1.blogspot.com/2011/03/rabbit-la-berlin.html)

April 13: Sommer vorm Balkon

2011-04-10T22:37:00.004-04:00

Pandaemonium Germanicum Presents:

The fifth film in the Spring 2011 PG Kino series, Berlin II: Love, Life, and Murder:

Sommer vorm Balkon
(Summer in Berlin)

Wednesday, April 13, 8PM
103 Rockefeller Hall

Germany 2005
D: Andreas Dresen
107 min., German with English subtitles

Hot summer.
Nike has a balcony, Katrin has a son, Ronald drives a truck, Tina's a waitress, Oskar and Helene are old and alone.
At the beginning, middle, or end of their lives--they all ask the same question:
Can love last through the seasons? Or, is it something affecting the brain that just comes and goes?

Free and open to the public.
Preceded by an introduction and followed by an open discussion.

March 30: Herr Lehmann

2011-03-28T20:22:00.009-04:00

Pandaemonium Germanicum presents:

Herr Lehmann

Germany, 2003
Dir. Leander Haußmann
105 min. • German with English subtitles

Wednesday, March 30. 8PM
103 Rockefeller Hall.

Fourth in the PG Kino Spring 2011 series, Berlin Films II: Love, Life, and Murder
Free and open to the public.
Preceded by an introduction and followed by an open discussion.

"In October 1989, the part of the West Berlin borough of Kreuzberg called SO 36, had been largely shut off by the Wall from the rest of the city for 28 years. A lethargic sub-culture of students, artists, bohemians and barflys had flourished among crumbling buildings. Part of that microcosm is barkeeper Frank, semi-formally called 'Herr Lehmann' by friends and patrons. He hangs out drinking, sports utter disregard for anything beyond SO 36 and lazily pursues an affair with cook Katrin. His lifestyle is gradually disturbed, when his parents show up for a visit, things go awry with Katrin and his best friend Karl starts to act strange. Meanwhile, political turmoil mounts on the other side of the Wall."

(Written by Armin Ortmann; from imdb.com)

March 9: Emil und die Detektive

2011-03-07T19:24:00.004-05:00

Pandaemonium Germanicum presents the next film in its Spring 2011 series, Berlin Films II: Love, Life, and Murder:

Emil und die Detektive
(Emil and the Detectives)

Director: Robert Stemmle
Screenwriter: Billy Wilder
1954 • 91 min.
German with English Subtitles

"Emil is sent from the country to Berlin to bring his grandmother 140 Marks that his mother has been saving. But on the train, he is tricked and poisoned by a thief who steals all his money. Once he arrives in Berlin, he follows the bad guy and makes friends with another young boy in Berlin, who calls together all the children in the neighborhood to join in. They work out a plan, observe the thief night and day and finally lead him straight into the arms of the police. It turns out that the thief is in fact a long sought after bank robber, who has a reward of 1000 Marks being offered for his capture, which Emil proudly takes home to his mother."

Wednesday, March 9, 8PM

Rockefeller Hall 103

Free and open to the public.

Preceded by an introduction and followed by an open discussion.

Image from www.mfa-film.de

Summary from www.german-films.de

February 23: M

2011-02-21T15:28:00.009-05:00

Pandaemonium Germanicum continues its Spring 2011 series, Berlin Films: Love, Life, and Murder.

Directed by Fritz Lang (1931)

Starring Peter Lorre

German with English subtitles

117 minutes

Wednesday, February 23, 8 PM

Rockefeller Hall 103

Free and open to the public.

Preceded by an introduction and followed by an open discussion.

From IMDB: A psychotic child murderer stalks a city, and despite an exhaustive investigation fueled by public hysteria and outcry, the police have been unable to find him. But the police crackdown does have one side effect: it makes it nearly impossible for the organized criminal underground to operate. So they decide that the only way to get the police off their backs is to catch the murderer themselves. Besides, he is giving them a bad name…

FEIERN - Film Screening

2011-02-12T12:55:00.005-05:00

Of interest for Berlinophiles:

Tuesday, February 15 8PM
Rockefeller Hall 132

"'Feiern' is a new feature-length documentary about the techno subculture in the city that never comes down: Berlin. Featuring interviews with DJ luminaries of the city's clubland, as well as partygoers and party victims, the film promises to show the highs and the lows of partying for seventy-two hours straight. "

FREE ADMISSION

Sponsored by the Cornell University German Department

facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=188618347827594

Related event: FEIERN - Dance Party

Friday, February 18 9PM
Willard Straight Hall, Memorial Room

"Come celebrate Germany's role in the international phenomenon known as techno clubbing. Special introduction at 9PM featuring a short history of German electronic music."

FREE ADMISSION

Sponsored by the Cornell University German Department

facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=200874009922632

February 9: Die Polizistin

2011-02-08T12:20:00.008-05:00

Pandaemonium Germanicum presents the first film in its PG Kino Spring 2011 series, "Berlin Films: Love, Life, and Murder."

Die Polizistin

(Policewoman)

Wednesday, February 9, 8PM

Rockefeller Hall 103

Dir. Andreas Dresen

Starring: Gabriela Maria Schmeide, Axel Prahl, Paul Grubba

2000・98 min.

German with English Subtitles

Rookie policewoman Anne is sent to work in the dreary eastern German suburb of Rostock, where she's paired with cynical veteran Mike. Feeling lost in the daily routine of handling petty crimes and offenses, Anne decides to take a personal interest in young Benny, the son of a criminal.

Free and open to the public

Preceded by a presentation and followed by an open discussion.

Summary from Film.com

Image from www.cinema.de

November 30: Der Himmel über Berlin

2010-11-28T00:49:00.007-05:00

PG Kino presents the final film in its Fall 2010 series, Berlin Films I: Streets and City Spaces:

Der Himmel über Berlin
(Wings of Desire)
Wim Wenders • Germany, 1987
127 minutes
German with English Subtitles

The sky over Wenders' war-scarred Berlin is full of gentle, trenchcoated angels who listen to the tortured thoughts of mortals and try to comfort them. One, Damiel, wishes to become mortal after falling in love with a beautiful trapeze artist, Marion. Peter Falk, as himself, assists in the transformation by explaining the simple joys of a human experience, such as the sublime combination of coffee and cigarettes.

Rainer Maria Rilke's poetry partially inspired the movie; Wenders claimed angels seemed to dwell in Rilke's poetry. The director also employed Peter Handke, who wrote much of the dialogue, the poetic
narrations, and the film's recurring poem "Song of Childhood."

(adapted from Wikipedia and www.wim-wenders.com)

Tuesday, Nov 30, 8 pm Kaufmann Auditorium
Preceded by an introduction and followed by an open discussion Free and open to the public

November 16: Berlin: Sinfonie der Großstadt

2010-11-14T22:59:00.003-05:00

Pandaemonium Germanicum Presents:

Berlin: Sinfonie der Großstadt (1927)
(Berlin: Symphony of a Great City)
Dir. Walter Ruttmann
65 min.

"Berlin [...] is the film's true protagonist, a vibrant, pulsating, yet organic totality whose every component—animate or inanimate—is mediated and defined by the periodicity of the whole. The film portrays a day in the life of the city, beginning with panoramic shots of the sleeping metropolis as dawn breaks and concluding with a late-night fireworks display. Compressed between these diurnal poles is a brilliantly edited optical phantasmagoria of life in Berlin." (B. Fulks)

Tuesday, November 16, 8PM
Lewis Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall

FREE and open to the public
Preceded by an introduction and followed by an open discussion

October 26: Kuhle Wampe

2010-10-25T01:32:00.007-04:00

The PG Kino Fall 2010 series, Berlin Films I: Streets and City Spaces, continues with Kuhle Wampe oder wem gehört die Welt? (Kuhle Wampe, or Who Owns the World?)

Tuesday, October 26, 8PM
Kaufmann Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall

Free and open to the public.
Preceded by a short introduction and followed by an open discussion.

Kuhle Wampe oder wem gehört die Welt? (Kuhle Wampe, or Who Owns the World?)

Dir. Slatan Dudow (Germany, 1932) 69 min. German with English Subtitles.

"This Weimar Germany film classic uses an avant-garde, fragmented narrative to tell the story of a working-class family in Berlin in 1931. Survival is difficult, with massive unemployment in the wake of the Great Depression. After Anni’s brother commits suicide in despair, her family finds itself forced to move to Kuhle Wampe, a lakeside camp on the outskirts of Berlin, now home to increasing numbers of unemployed. When Anni’s relationship with Franz ends, she moves back to Berlin and gets involved in the workers’ youth movement. Already censored in March 1932, the film was then banned by the Nazis in 1933 for having “communist tendencies.”
Director Slatan Dudow brought together an exceptionally renowned set of artists, including co-author Bertolt Brecht, cameraman Günther Krampf (Nosferatu), composer Hanns Eisler, noted workers’ movement balladeer Ernst Busch and the actress Hertha Thiele (Girls in Uniform)." -Synopsis from the DEFA Film Library Catalog, www.defafilmlibrary.com

"One of the best films of the century." – Village Voice

"Nowhere in the cinema has Brecht’s aesthetic and political theory been so well dramatized and illuminated." – Harvard Film Archive

Cornell Cinema: DDR/DDR

2010-10-12T20:07:00.003-04:00

Cornell Cinema presents
Ithaca Premiere!
DDR/DDR
Wednesday, October 13 at 7pm
Willard Straight Theatre
with filmmaker Amie Siegel
Admission: $7 general/$5.50 seniors/$4 students
more here and at cinema.cornell.edu

Cosponsored with the Institute for German Cultural Studies and the Rose Goldsen Lecture Series

Directed by Amie Siegel
A multi-layered and disarmingly beautiful film essay on the German Democratic Republic and its dissolution, which left many of its former citizens adrift in their newfound freedom. Featured at the 2008 Whitney Biennial, the film collects unsettlingly mundane Stasi surveillance footage, interviews with psychoanalysts, East German "Indian hobbyists," and lolling shots of derelict state radio stations into an extended and self-conscious assemblage that weaves together meditations on history, memory, and the shared technologies of state control and art. Subtitled. Digital Projection.
More at amiesiegel.net
2008 > Germany/USA > 2 hrs 15 min

AMIE SIEGEL BIO
Born in 1974 in Chicago, Siegel studied at Bard College and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has lived and worked in New York and Berlin. Siegel works variously in 16 and 35 mm Þlm, video, sound, and writing. Screenings and exhibitions include the 2008 Whitney Biennial; KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin; Austrian Film Museum; Berlin International Film Festival; PaciÞc Film Archive; Museum of Fine Arts Boston; Frankfurt Film Museum; and Film Forum in New York. Her Þrst book of poetry, The Waking Life (North Atlantic Books), was published in 1999, followed by numerous essays on art and poetics. Siegel has been an artist-in-residence of the DAAD Berliner-Künstlerprogramm and is a recent recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. Siegel uses the cinematic image as material means to a conceptual end. Her work mines the voyeuristic gaze, direct address, and interview, investigating how these repetitions form cultural memory. Her multichannel video and Þlm installations reformulate cinematic enterprises - the establishing shot, the remake and the tracking shot - as uncanny reþections on absence, historical disorientation and nostalgia. Longer single-channel videos and films (The Sleepers, Empathy, DDR/DDR) move between scripted and spontaneous spaces, truth and Þction, shifting performance from identiÞcation to parody and estrangement. Siegel is also an Assistant Professor of Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard University.

October 5: Die Legende von Paul und Paula

2010-10-02T22:11:00.004-04:00

Continuing its Fall 2010 series, Berlin Films I: Streets and City Spaces, PG Kino presents Die Legende von Paul und Paula

Tuesday, October 5, 8PM
Goldwin Smith Hall 142 (PLEASE NOTE THE LOCATION)

Free and open to the public
Preceded by an introduction and followed by an open discussion

Die Legende von Paul und Paula

Dir. Heiner Carow · GDR · 1973 · 105 Min. · German with English subtitles

Paula, a single mother, works long hours at a supermarket and is generally dissatisfied with her life. Approached by an older tire salesman, Herr Saft, she gravitates toward him but their relationship lacks the overriding passion she desires. Paula drifts into a bar one night and meets a most unlikely match, Paul, a respectable but slightly dull, married man. After they fall in love to a wonderful soundtrack of '70s German pop music, Paul must choose between his terminally annoying wife and Paula. Unable to break with his past, Paul wavers and Paula withdraws. Only feats of legend will allow Paul to win back Paula. (adapted from allmovie.com)

September 21: Prinzessinnenbad

2010-09-18T13:18:00.005-04:00

Pandaemonium Germanicum presents the second film in its Fall 2010 PG Kino series, "Berlin Films I: Streets and City Spaces," with "Prinzessinnenbad"

Prinzessinnenbad
dir. Bettina Blümner (Germany, 2007)
92 min
German with German Subtitles

Klara, Mina and Tanutscha are fifteen and the main characters featured in this documentary. Raised by their mothers in Berlin Kreuzberg, they have been inseparable since kindergarden. However, on the verge of adulthood the three girls start to look for their own place in life: Klara quits school, Mina wants to be with her boyfriend, and Tanutscha demands more freedom from her mother.

Tuesday, September 21
8PM-10:30PM
Kaufmann Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall

Preceded by an introduction and followed by an open discussion.
FREE and open to the public.

Image source: Reverse Angle Productions (www.reverse-angle.com)

September 7: Menschen am Sonntag

2010-09-05T12:58:00.003-04:00

Pandaemonium Germanicum Presents:

Menschen am Sonntag (People on Sunday)
dir. Kurt Siodmak, Robert Siodmak, Edgar G. Ulmer, Fred Zinnemann (1930)
73 min.
German with English Subtitles

“A tale of five young Berliners – a taxi driver, a travelling wine dealer, a record shop saleswoman, a film extra and a model – spending a typical Sunday. In this vivid snapshot of Berlin life, a trip to the countryside reveals the flirtations, rivalries, jealousies, and petty irritations common to any group outing. All too soon it is the end of the day, and the prospect of Monday looms, and the return to weekday routine.

Considered one of the most important works of the German film Avant-Garde of the 1920s, and a huge influence on the French New Wave and Italian Neorealist movements, People on Sunday also marked the start of the film careers of six cinéastes who would go on to great international success.”
~ British Film Institute

Tuesday, September 7, 8PM
Kaufmann Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall
FREE and open to the public
Preceded by an introduction and followed by an open discussion

April 28: Sag niemals nie -- Räumung Mainzer Straße

2010-04-26T07:47:00.011-04:00

PG Kino presents: Documentaries

Sag niemals nie -- Räumung Mainzer Straße

German and English, no subtitles
90 min.

Wednesday, April 28 2010
7:30PM, Lewis Auditorium (Goldwin Smith Hall)

The eviction of Mainzer Street in Friedrichshain in Berlin on 14 November 1990 was a street battle over twelve occupied houses and is considered one of the most massive police operations of postwar Berlin.

The film Sag niemals Nie - Räumung Mainzer Straße (Never Say Never – the Eviction of Mainzer Street) documents the life of the squatters and their struggle against fascism and the state’s measures to evict them from a block on this street.

After reunification, many autonomists from Kreuzberg’s squatting scene were drawn to the east of the city. On the 29th of April 1990 twelve houses on Mainzer Straße were occupied. On the morning of the 12th of November, three newly occupied houses were evicted by the police, which prompted a midday demonstration on Frankfurter Allee by the residents of Mainzer Straße. On the basis of the barricades erected and trenches dug at the end of the road, the police fought with water cannons and APCs until about three in the morning and then withdrew. In the night of the 14th of November, the squatters’ barricades were raised higher. Towards six the following morning, about 4,000 policemen, with water cannons, helicopters, tear gas and guns, stormed the block, which was defended by about 500 autonomists with stones and Molotov cocktails. It was completely cleared within two hours. Altogether there were 300 arrests and many injured, some seriously. About 10,000 demonstrators gathered in the evening to protest against the eviction. (adapted from doku.cc)

This film, collectively produced by former residents of the squats on Mainzer Straße and others, brings together footage, interviews, recollections, and music in a document about an often overlooked moment of the uneasy transition from Wende to Wiedervereinigung.

Preceded by an introduction and followed by an open discussion.
Free and open to the public.

April 14: Der ewige Jude

2010-04-14T08:52:00.003-04:00

Pandaemonium Germanicum presents: “Documentaries”

PG Kino Screening: Wednesday April 14, 2010
7:30PM Lewis Auditorium (Goldwin Smith Hall)

Der ewige Jude (The Eternal Jew)
Dir. Fritz Hippler (Germany, 1940)
62 min.
In German with English subtitles

Arguably the most notorious propaganda film produced under the supervision of Joseph Goebbels and the Reich Propaganda Department of the Nazi regime, Der ewige Jude was released in 1940 with the subtitle, “A cinematic contribution to the problem of world Jewry.” While asserting itself as a documentary, the film makes use of fabricated statistics and photomontage techniques to achieve its devastating ends. Describing the effect of the film on an audience, Erwin Leiser wrote in 1968 that it was able to “turn honest citizens into indulgent mass murderers.”

In this series on the genre of Documentary, we will view this historically significant film considering the claims to factuality made in its narrative in relation to formal elements. Introductory remarks will center on the motif of Epidemic exploited in the film.

Preceded by an introduction and followed by an open discussion
Free and open to the public

March 31: We Feed the World-- Essen Global

2010-03-29T13:16:00.007-04:00

PG Kino presents:
We Feed the World
Director: Erich Wagenhofer
Austria, 2005, 95 min.
German/English/French/Portuguese with English subtitles.

"We Feed the World" is a documentary about food and globalization, fishermen and farmers, long-distance truck drivers and high-powered corporate executives, the flow of goods and cash flow-- a film about scarcity and plenty. With its unforgettable images, the film provides insight into the production of our food and answers the question what world hunger has to do with us.

Interviewed are not only fishermen, farmers, agronomists, biologists and the UN's Jean Ziegler, but also the director of production at Pioneer, the world's largest seed company, as well as Peter Brabeck, Chairman and CEO of Nestlé International, the largest food company in the world

(Adapted from we-feed-the-world.at)

Wednesday, March 31st, 7:30PM
Lewis Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall
Preceded by an introduction and followed by an open discussion.
Free and open to the public.

(image from www.kino.com)

March 18: Short Films by Alexander Kluge

2010-03-16T07:56:00.002-04:00

Please note the date and time of this screening, as it differs from our regular schedule: Thursday, March 18 at 8PM

PG Kino presents its Spring 2010 film series with the theme of Documentaries, continuing with a selection of short films by Alexander Kluge.

Films screened will include:

Brutalität in Stein (1961) 11 min.
Protokoll einer Revolution (1963) 12 min.
Porträt einer Bewährung (1964) 12 min.

Thursday, March 18, 2010
8PM
Lewis Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall

In German with English subtitles
Preceded by a short presentation and followed by an open discussion.
Free and open to the public.

Photo source: http://seul-le-cinema.blogspot.com/2009/05/alexander-kluge-early-shorts.html

March 3: Auf der Suche nach dem Gedächtnis (In Search of Memory)

2010-02-28T19:47:00.006-05:00

PG Kino continues its Spring 2010 film series, "Documentaries," with In Search of Memory (Auf der Suche nach dem Gedäctnis).

IN SEARCH OF MEMORY is a compelling blend of autobiography and history that recounts the life of one of the most important neuroscientists of the 20th century and illuminates scientific developments in our understanding of the brain's role in recording and preserving memory. In addition to archival footage and dramatic re-creations of Kandel's childhood experiences in Nazi-occupied Vienna and his formative years as an emigrant in New York, the film features discussions with Kandel, friends and family, as well as his public lectures in Vienna and New York, which explore both his professional and personal life, especially his emotional ties to Judaism.

Wednesday, March 3 at 7:30PM
Lewis Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall
Preceded by an introduction and followed by a discussion.
FREE and open to the public.

Summary from http://icarusfilms.com/new2009/mem.html
Image from http://www.nypress.com/blog-3327-memento-petra-seegers-in-search-of-memory-plays-at.html

February 17: Tierische Liebe (Animal Love)

2010-02-16T17:52:00.003-05:00

Directed by Ulrich Seidl
Austria, 1994
color, 114 min.
In German with English subtitles

PG Kino presents its Spring 2010 film series with the theme of Documentaries, starting with Ulrich Seidl's disturbing "Tierische Liebe" (Animal Love).

Werner Herzog declared after seeing this documentary, "Never have I looked so directly into hell." Seidl's work suggests that 'hell is us' - that we ourselves create and perpetuate our own misery. Nowhere is this felt more clearly than in this critically acclaimed, darkly humorous study of Austrian pet owners. More disquieting than perverse, the film observes those whose relationships with their four-legged friends replace, or displace, the intimacy and companionship of other human beings.

Summary from http://www.ica.org.uk
Still photo from http://www.ulrichseidl.com

Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Lewis Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall
Preceded by a short presentation and followed by an open discussion.
Free and open to the public.

December 2: Marianne und Juliane (Die Bleierne Zeit)

2009-11-30T02:55:00.003-05:00

Directed by Margarethe von Trotta
West Germany 1981, 35mm, color, 114 min.
With Jutta Lampe, Barbara Sukowa, Rüdiger Vogler

The final movie in PG Kino's New German Cinema series is Margarethe von Trotta's "Die Bleierne Zeit" (US release: Marianne and Juliane), which zooms in on the relationship of two sisters: a revolutionary (Marianne) and an editor of a feminist magazine (Juliane). Set during the "Baader-Meinhof era," the two characters are loosely based on the lives of the sisters Christiane and Gudrun Ensslin (a leader of the Red Army Faction). In this context and from various perspectives, the two sisters, Marianne and Juliane, look back on their childhood during the Third Reich.

Wednesday, December 2 2009 at 8PM
Kaufmann Auditorium: Goldwin Smith Hall
In German with English subtitles
Preceded by an introduction and followed by an open discussion.
Free and open to the public

Photo source: http://www.kultur-online.net

November 18: Die Patriotin

2009-11-16T23:43:00.006-05:00

PG Kino presents the 5th film in its Fall 2009 Series New German Cinema:
Die Patriotin (The Patriot)
Director: Alexander Kluge (1979)
118 min. In German with English Subtitles

“The story of Gabi Teichert (Hannelore Hoger) who had already begun to dig around in search of the roots of German history in [the 1978 film collage] “Germany in Autumn.” “If something can kill me, I want to know what it is.” The Fatherland of the history teacher is education. In daily school life, at the party convention of the Social Democrats (SPD), on the Day of Penance and during Advent: she remains stalwart on her quest for a republic, for which the trouble is worth it.”
~ Filmmuseum München

Wednesday, November 18 2009 at 8PM
Kaufmann Auditorium: Goldwin Smith Hall
Preceded by a short introduction and followed by a discussion
Free and open to the public

October 28: Woyzeck

2009-10-25T18:12:00.013-04:00

PG Kino presents the fourth film in its Fall 2009 series, New German Cinema, Werner Herzog's Woyzeck, starring Klaus Kinski and Eva Mattes

German with English subtitles

82 Minutes

"Weitgehend werkgetreue Verfilmung von Büchners Dramenfragment, Herzogs dritte Zusammenarbeit mit Klaus Kinski: In einer kleinen Garnisonsstadt, Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Füsilier Woyzeck, Bursche des Hauptmanns, bemüht sich, Marie und sein uneheliches Kind zu ernähren. Dafür lässt er sich sogar vom Doktor für medizinische Versuche missbrauchen. Als der Hauptmann und der Doktor ihm auf die Nase binden, dass Marie sich mit dem feinen Tambourmajor eingelassen hat, nimmt Woyzeck ein Messer und ersticht Marie. Dann geht er in den Teich und ertrinkt."

Summary from www.filmportal.de

Wednesday, October 28, 8PM

Kaufmann Auditorium (Goldwin Smith Hall)

Preceded by an introduction and followed by an open discussion.

FREE and open to the public

Watch the trailer:

October 14: Alice in den Städten

2009-10-07T17:47:00.009-04:00

PG Kino's third installment this semester is Wim Wender's acclaimed 1974 film Alice in den Städten (Alice in the Cities), considered the first of his "road" trilogy.

Accepted to be one of Wenders' most poignant films and often compared to Chaplin's The Kid, Alice in the Cities was the first of Wim Wenders' films to be shot in part in the United States and subsequently won the 1974 German Critics Prize. Phillip (Rüdiger Vogler) is a roving German reporter who, after a chance encounter with an elusive American woman, reluctantly accepts temporary custody of little Alice (Yella Rottländer). Their friendship grows while traveling through various European cities on a search for the girl's grandmother. Inventive and witty, Wenders reflects on the influences of American pop culture on postwar Europe. (Description from Wender's official website.)
Wednesday, October 14 @ 8 pm, in Kaufmann Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall.

Sept. 30, 2009: Nicht Versöhnt

2009-09-27T13:58:00.016-04:00

Come join us for PG Kino's second screening of our series "New German Cinema." We'll be watching "Nicht Versöhnt," the 1965 movie by Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, based on Heinrich Böll's novel of postwar Germany, "Billard um halb zehn." (B & W, 55 min.)

Wednesday, September 30 @ 8 pm, in Kaufmann Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall.

German synopsis of the film by filmportal.de:

Basierend auf Heinrich Bölls Roman "Billard um halbzehn" erzählt der Film in überaus komprimierter Form die Geschichte dreier Generationen einer Architektenfamilie zwischen den Jahren 1914 und 1954, deren Leben von Nationalsozialismus, Krieg, Kapitulation und Wiederaufbau geprägt wurde.

Im Rahmen der Feier zum 80. Geburtstages des Familienpatriarchen Heinrich Fähmel blendet der Film zurück und erzählt unter anderem die bewegte Geschichte seines Sohnes Robert, der 1934 als Jugendlicher wegen "Verschwörung" zunächst nach Holland flüchten musste. Während sein Freund und "Mittäter" Schrella auch 20 Jahre später noch auf der polizeilichen Fahndungsliste steht, kann Robert auf Grund der guten Kontakte seiner Eltern bereits nach zwei Jahren zurückkehren, muss aber als Soldat in den Krieg ziehen. Roberts Frau, die ihm zwei Kinder schenkte, kommt während eines Bombenangriffs ums Leben. Während des Ersten Weltkriegs war auch Roberts Vater Soldat. Doch während ihn die Ereignisse des Krieges kaum berührten, hinterließen sie in der Psyche seiner Frau tiefe Wunden: Sie leidet auch Jahrzehnte später noch an aggressiven Schüben und Depressionen.

(http://www.filmportal.de/df/9e/Uebersicht,,,,,,,,CD5B30862DE6429FAED39AC8F872FA24,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,.html)

Sept. 9, 2009: Liebe ist kälter als der Tod

2009-08-28T10:31:00.008-04:00

The first movie of this semester's series (New German Cinema) is Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Liebe ist kälter als der Tod (1969), starring Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Ulli Lommel, Yaak Karsunke, and the incomparable Hanna Schygulla.

Unusual gangster story, in which a small-time pimp Franz (Rainer Werner Fassbinder), who is torn between his mistress and Bruno the gangster sent after him by the syndicate that he has refused to join. Things are turned on their head when Franz and Bruno (Ulli Lommel) become friends, to the point that they even share Franz's girlfriend Joanna (Hanna Schygulla). But Joanna soon becomes bored of Bruno, and when he plots a bank robbery, she reports it to the police before Bruno's scheme to kill her can succeed. Bruno is shot dead by the police, but the lovers manage to escape. (Description from the IMDB.)

September 9, 2009 at 8PM in the Kaufmann Auditorium in Goldwin Smith Hall, Cornell University. Preceded by an introduction to the film and followed by a discussion. Free and open to the public.

German Silents at FLEFF

2009-04-01T21:11:00.007-04:00

Here in Ithaca, the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival is currently underway. Two classics of German cinema will be a part of the weekend's screenings downtown.

On Friday, April 3, at 7pm, FLEFF screens the silent horror film Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau, Germany, 1922) with live music by Richard Feria, John Stetch, and Nicholas Walker.

Then, Sunday evening at 7, festival-goers will be treated to a screening of Ernst Lubitsch's Die Bergkatze (The Wildcat) (Ernst Lubitsch, Germany, 1921), again with live musical accompaniment, this time by Robby Aceto, Peter Dodge, and Chris White.

Summaries of both films are available here.

Both events will take place at the Cinemapolis theater on the commons.

More information regarding tickets and festival passes, as well as everything FLEFF-related, can be found at http://www.ithaca.edu/fleff

Hope to see you there!

3/31: Willi Tobler und der Untergang der 6. Flotte

2009-03-31T09:13:00.003-04:00

Tonight, PG Kino presents Alexander Kluge's 1972 TV film Willi Tobler und der Untergang der 6. Flotte (Willi Tobler and the Decline of the 6th Fleet).

"Willi Tobler and the Decline of the 6th Fleet takes place during the galactic civil war of 2040. In a world in which galactic encirclement battles rage, Willi tries to save himself by obtaining a position at the center of power. In doing so, he ultimately sides with the wrong party in the civil war." (Summary from the Goethe-Institut New York)

We hope you will join us at 7:30pm in Rockefeller 115

"Spielzeugland" wins Oscar for Best Live Action Short

2009-03-08T14:48:00.003-04:00

Two weeks ago, the 2007 German short film Spielzeugland won the Oscar in its category.

Oscar.com has a nice site for the winner, where you can read Jochen Alexander Freydank's acceptance speech and learn more about the film. You can find it here.

February 17: Der schweigende Stern

2009-02-12T13:19:00.002-05:00

On Tuesday, February 17 PG Kino will screen Der schweigende Stern (1962). The film was directed by Kurt Maetzig.
The film was the first science fiction film produced by DEFA, the East German film studio, and was based on Stanislaw Lem's novel Die Astronauten (The Astronauts).

7:30pm, Rockefeller 115
German w/English subtitles.

UFA to UFO: The German Science Fiction Film

2009-01-25T17:55:00.002-05:00

PG Kino is proud to announce the Spring 2009 series, "UFA to UFO: The German Science Fiction Film"

Our first screening will take place on Tuesday, January 27, at 7:30pm in Rockefeller 115.

Frau im Mond (1929) was directed by Fritz Lang. The film will be introduced by Comparative Literature student Paul Flaig and followed by a discussion. The film is German with English subtitles, and the screening is free.

I hope you will join us!

[Upcoming screenings TBA]

Screening 12/2/08: Der Untergang (Downfall)

2008-12-01T11:49:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow evening, December 2, PG Kino will present its final film of the Filming Fascism series. At 7:30pm in Rockefeller 132, we will screen Der Untergang (2004), which explores the final days of the Third Reich in Berlin.

"Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, "Downfall" shifts its gaze back and forth between the crumbling military situation on the ground in Berlin and the bizarre domestic situation in the bunker underneath it, combining high wartime drama with a sense of mundane detail that verges on the surreal." (New York Times)

A trailer is available here.

We hope you will join us.

11/11 Screening: To Be or Not to Be

2008-11-11T08:18:00.006-05:00

This evening, PG Kino will screen Ernst Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be (1942) as part of our series "Filming Fascism." With this screening we turn away from films made in Germany during the Third Reich and begin to look at other points of view on National Socialism.

Made in America by a German expatriate, To Be or Not to Be is a "black comedy about a Polish theater company -- led by Joseph and Maria Tura (Jack Benny and Carole Lombard) -- that turns to espionage after being shut down by the invading Nazis" (All Movie Guide).

I hope you will join us for the film, as well as an introduction by Comparative Literature student Paul Flaig, and a discussion.

Free & Open to the Public. Rockefeller 132, 7:30pm.

10/7 Screening: Jud Suess

2008-10-07T16:50:00.002-04:00

Tonight at 7:30pm PG Kino will screen Jud Suess in 132 Rockefeller hall.

More information at filmportal.de

9/23 Screening: Hitlerjunge Quex

2008-09-23T07:03:00.002-04:00

Tonight we will screen "Hitlerjunge Quex: Ein Film vom Opfergeist der deutschen Jugend" as part of this semester's PG Kino series "Filming Fascism." The film, made in 1933, stars Heinrich George as the Communist father of a young boy who defies the family's wishes and joins the Hitler Youth with grave consequences.

You can visit the film's IMDB page for more information.

I hope you will join us as we continue to explore the representation of National Socialism on film. As always, the screening will be introduced by a graduate student from the department and followed by a discussion. The screening will take place in Rockefeller Hall 132 at 7:30pm.

Fatih Akin's "Auf der anderen Seite" at Cinemapolis

2008-09-18T10:08:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow night (Sept. 19) at 7pm, Cinemapolis on the Ithaca Commons will screen Fatih Akin's newest film, Auf der anderen Seite. The event will include a panel discussion with Sabine Haenni, professor of Film and American Studies at Cornell, and Paula Ioanide, professor of Gender & Sexuality Studies at Ithaca College.

Fatih Akin, who is only 34, has achieved success with the films "Im
Juli" and "Gegen die Wand." His latest work again examines the lives of
German Turks and their struggle to reconcile their places in the two
cultures.

For more information, see the Cinemapolis website.

SCREENING: Tues, Sept. 2. "Der heilige Berg"

2008-09-01T14:38:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow, September 2, is the first screening of the semester! We begin our series, Filming Fascism, with a silent film from 1926, Der heilige Berg (The Holy Mountain).

A standout of the Bergfilm genre, Der heilige Berg tells the story of dancer Diotima (Leni Riefenstahl) and two men who fall in love with her and compete to climb an alpine mountain in an attempt to win her love.

Read more about the film at Riefenstahl.org and a the imdb page. If you speak German, filmportal has a great page about the film, with synopsis, credits, and photogalleries.

Hope to see you tomorrow as we begin a semester-long examination of National Socialism and the filmic medium.

PG Kino Fall 2008: Filming Fascism

2008-08-16T19:49:00.006-04:00

PG Kino's Fall 2008 series, Filming Fascism, will explore several films made in Germany during the Third Reich -- a mountain-climbing film, a piece of dramatic propaganda, a period melodrama and musical -- as well as outside views of National Socialism: a screwball comedy made in wartime America by a German expat and a controversial drama made in twenty-first century Germany.

Films will be shown on six Tuesdays throughout the semester at 7:30pm in 132 Rockefeller on Cornell's central campus. See the PG Kino Screening Schedule for up-to-date information on films.

As always, each film will be introduced by a graduate student and followed by a discussion.

Check back here in the week leading up to each screening for more in depth information on the upcoming film and its context within the series. Think you'll forget? Subscribe to new posts!

See you September 2!

Filmfest München

2008-06-26T16:17:00.004-04:00

The Munich Film Festival (Filmfest München) comes to a close Saturday in the Bavarian capital. The annual midsummer festival presents six series of films: Neue Deutsche Kinofilme (New German Films), Deutsche Fernsehfilme (German TV Movies), Nouveau Cinéma Français (New French Cinema), American Independents, Retrospektive (Retrospective), and Kinderfilmfest (Children's Film Festival). The films compete for eleven prizes.

I like this festival especially for it's support and showcase of new films coming out of Germany. It's not as glitzy an affair as Berlinale, but it's an event not to be missed, and one of few major festivals that take place in the summer.

I'll post the winners of the prizes after the close of the festival.

That's a wrap!

2008-06-05T13:42:00.002-04:00

Check back in August for the announcement of the Fall 2008 and Spring 2009 series!

See you in the fall!

Wim Wender's "Falsche Bewegung"

2008-04-17T17:06:00.004-04:00

PG Kino's final screening before the end of the Spring 2008 semester will be Wim Wender's 1975 film Falsche Bewegung (Wrong Move). The film is an adaptation of Goethe's Wilhem Meisters Lehrjahre.

Here is a link to the film's official site.

We hope you will join us on Tuesday, April 29, 2008 as we celebrate the end of our first film series and the beginning of many more!

7:30pm, Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium

German with English subtitles

Free!

TONIGHT: Das Schloss (1997)

2008-04-15T11:56:00.002-04:00

Join us tonight -- Tuesday, April 15 -- for a screening of Das Schloss (The Castle), a 1997 film by Michael Haneke, adapted from the novel by Franz Kafka.

Here's a summary of the novel.

Hope to see you at 7:30 in Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium!

Questions? Look around the site or email pgkino@gmail.com

"Potemkin" & "Symphonie": Special Screening

2008-04-07T20:57:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow, April 8, at 8pm, the folks who bring you PG Kino will be holding a double-feature screening in conjunction with a graduate course on montage and collage in Weimar Germany.

We will be showing Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin (1925) followed by Walter Ruttmann's Berlin: Die Symphonie der Großstadt (Symphony of the Metropolis) (1927), two landmarks of film montage.

Potemkin will begin at 8pm in Rockefeller Hall 132, with Symphonie beginning as near to 9:30 as possible.

We hope you'll join us for one or both of these films! As always, screenings are free!

"The Counterfeiters" at FLEFF

2008-04-01T09:40:00.007-04:00

For those in the Ithaca area, the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival will be screening The Counterfeiters four times this weekend. The film, which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film this year, will be shown at Fall Creek Pictures on

Friday, April 4 at 7pm
Saturday, April 5 at 2pm & 9:30pm
Sunday, April 6 at 9:30pm

matinees cost $6.50 and evening screenings $8.50. Additional information is available on the FLEFF website, linked above.

Though this blogger had a negative reaction to the film, it is absolutely worth seeing, and I'd be interested to hear what others think! Also, make sure to check out all the other films being shown at FLEFF this weekend. This festival focuses on community and each screening is followed by a reflection by a volunteer and a group discussion.

Hope to see you there!

"Katharina Blum" rescheduled // Summary

2008-03-25T19:23:00.005-04:00

The screening of Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum (The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum) has been rescheduled for Wednesday April 2, 2008 at 7:30pm in Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium.

Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum will be introduced by German Studies graduate student David Low, who is currently writing his Masters thesis on the work of Heinrich Böll, the author of the novel from which the film was adapted.

The Criterion Collection provides this synopsis of the film:

When Katharina Blum spends the night with an alleged terrorist, her quiet, ordered life falls into ruins. Suddenly a suspect, Katharina is subject to a vicious smear campaign by the police and a ruthless tabloid journalist, testing the limits of her dignity and her sanity. Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta’s powerful adaptation of Heinrich Böll’s novel is a stinging commentary on state power, individual freedom, and media manipulation––as relevant today as on the day of its release in 1975.

Thank you for bearing with us through this schedule change. We hope to see you at the screening of this powerful and important film.

-------------

Normal screening schedule (on Tuesdays) will resume on April 15 with Das Schloß.

E-mail pgkino@gmail.com with any questions

"Die Fälscher": Oscar, the Genre Question, and a Chance for Austria

2008-03-08T15:27:00.008-05:00

A few weeks ago, Austrian Film Die Fälscher (The Counterfeiters) won the award for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars. I hadn't seen any of the nominees, but was understandably happy to witness an extremely public triumph of German-language cinema (though I understand there was a bit of an uproar over the exclusion of the Romanian film 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, among others, from the nominees).

I jumped on the opportunity to see the film last week at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema in New York City, and was surprised by what I saw.

Sony Pictures Classics summarizes their film here.

SPC provides a detailed and accurate summary, yet it is one that nearly obviates viewing of the film. Stefan Ruzowitzky's film, though it brings Operation Bernhard to light for the viewing public, fails to offer anything new to the way the Holocaust is portrayed and thought about on film. The color scheme is blue and gray, washed out -- a technique many of my colleagues also found troublesome in Das Leben der Anderen. The youngest, sickest, most sympathetic inmate is shot by a guard for "being contagious" mere seconds before his medicines arrive (emphasis on the tragic irony). The Nazi superintendent who appears to be helping the inmates turns out to be not so nice and steals thousands of counterfeit dollars for his personal use (Never trust a Nazi). Sally, the main character, finds himself on the verge of a new life in Monte Carlo after the war, briefcase full of the money he himself falsified, and gambles it away on purpose out of guilt. I was not surprised or turned thoughtful by any of these or countless other moments.

The film opens and closes with the Monte Carlo scenes, removing any suspense we might have had during the touch-and-go Sachsenhausen scenes regarding Sally's future. The final moments especially contain what the New York Times acidly -- and accurately -- deems a "queasy touch of romanticism." The ironic one-liner as final line, which I thought worked well for Das Leben der Anderen, here left me with a bad taste in my mouth. "All that money!" gasps Sally's new love interest after he has thrown away thousands at roulette as casino guests read papers with the headline "La guerre est fin!"

"That's alright," Sally assures her. "We can always make more."

Much of my discomfort and disappointment comes, I suspect, from a personal ambivalence toward the development of what the New York Times review acknowledges as the "Holocaust genre." Indeed, one of the first colleagues I spoke with about the film responded to my negative review by saying perhaps we should just look at it as a genre, like we would at a Western. This seems inescapable with Die Fälscher, but it is only an inevitability, not an excuse or a solution. The teaching of the Holocaust to middle-, high-school, and college students as an independent and mythically large and tragic event risks perpetuating the idea that it could never happen again. It is a weighty responsibility to impart the importance and gravity of such an event without simplifying it, making it somehow singular. In the same way, the development of an entertainment genre around a historical genocide mythologizes the tragedy and makes it nothing more than a collection of tropes. Films about the Holocaust are bound to become less effective and and less useful, and audiences less understanding and less responsive.

Die Fälscher was well made as a film , but I grew impatient as it closed and left the theater wondering why it had won best foreign film. Surely in 2007 there was another film somewhere in the world that brought something new to an old subject, found a new subject, made audiences think critically, made them change their minds, or pioneered some new technique. It is my hope that before this "genre" grows much larger, filmmakers working on the Holocaust will focus less on counterfeiting a genre film and more on breaking the press altogether.

-----
On a more positive note, the press the film has been getting is a big deal for Austrian cinema. Austria's chancellor is hoping that European politicians will start increasing support for European film. Ruzowitzky hopes that Austrians will become more interested in films from their own country. Read the AFP article here.

Austrian film wins Oscar

2008-02-24T22:49:00.002-05:00

The 2007 film Die Fälscher (The Counterfeiters), directed by Austrian director Stefan Ruzowitzky, has won the 2008 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.

check back for updates

PG Kino Premier Series: Spring 2008

2007-12-25T13:03:00.001-05:00

PG Kino's premiere season will begin on February 5, 2008 at 7:30pm in Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium!

On the program is Volker Schlöndorff's Der junge Törless (1966), an adaptation of Robert Musil's novel Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törless.

See the screening schedule (in the links menu to the right) for additional dates and stay tuned for more information as we solidify the program for the semester.

Bis bald!

The New Metropolis

2007-12-11T12:36:00.000-05:00

They are remaking Metropolis.

Let's hope the remake, from the producer of Alexander, won't star Angelina Jolie as Maria....

Here's the article from SciFi Wire.

Das andere Leben in Auschwitz

2007-12-11T10:10:00.001-05:00

An article from the Sueddeutsche Zeitung about Israelis' reactions to Robert Thalheim's film Am Ende kommen Touristen. The film about a civil service worker who makes friends with a Holocaust survivor will be shown at the Jewish Film Festival in Jerusalem.

(only available in German)
http://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/artikel/571/147227/

The Rise of the High Rise

2007-12-10T11:10:00.001-05:00

Deutsche Welle Online ran an article last week on the role of high rise apartment buildings in Wir sagen Du! Schatz, a new film by Marc Mayer. It's an interesting reflection on the "pre-fab landscape" in German cinema since 1989. The article is available here.

Willkommen!

2007-12-10T11:00:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the internet home of PG Kino, an effort by the graduate students of Cornell University's Department of German Studies to educate themseleves and others about important developments in German cinema, both past and present.

This blog will be a site to post articles and items of interest (new books on German film, events, etc.), as well as a place to publicize upcoming PG Kino screenings on campus.

We look forward to seeing you in 2008!