An established German documentarian, Andreas Veiel comes to the much filmed Baader-Meinhof story by way of Bernward Vesper, son of a German poet with Nazi sympathies, and Gudrun Ensslin, daughter of a Protestant pastor who served in the Wehrmacht during the second world war. Both were brilliant students when they met at Tübingen in 1962, reacting in different ways to their fathers' past. As Veiel tells it, their relationship turned into an intellectual folie à deux that, given the troubled Germany of the time, led almost inexorably to their role in creating the Red Army Faction. It's an intelligent, complex, persuasive film, shorter, less agitated and comprehensive than Uli Edel's The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008), but not so deeply felt or affecting as The German Sisters (1981), Margarethe von Trotta's fictionalised portrait of Gudrun Ensslin.
DramaPhilip French
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
DramaPhilip French
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
- 3/4/2012
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
The Josef Fritzl affair and similar cases of horrendous incarceration revealed in its wake have now produced a sizable body of documentaries, feature films and fiction too, of which Michael is a minor, rather puzzling addition. The 40-year-old Austrian film-maker Markus Schleinzer, whose first feature film this is, has worked as a casting director on over 60 films, among them Michael Haneke's The Piano Teacher, Time of the Wolf and, most significantly, The White Ribbon, on which he coached the child actors.
The eponymous Michael (Michael Fuith) is a 35-year-old minor official with an Austrian insurance company, who keeps the 10-year-old Wolfgang (David Rauchenberger) a prisoner in the soundproofed basement of his suburban home. Michael is a bespectacled, nondescript loner with a brother and sister both married with children. He largely keeps to himself, rejecting the advances of a female colleague, whom he physically throws out of his house when she intrudes.
The eponymous Michael (Michael Fuith) is a 35-year-old minor official with an Austrian insurance company, who keeps the 10-year-old Wolfgang (David Rauchenberger) a prisoner in the soundproofed basement of his suburban home. Michael is a bespectacled, nondescript loner with a brother and sister both married with children. He largely keeps to himself, rejecting the advances of a female colleague, whom he physically throws out of his house when she intrudes.
- 3/4/2012
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Michael (18)
(Markus Schleinzer) Michael Fuith, David Rauchenberger, Gisella Salcher. 96 mins
The daily routine of an Austrian paedophile who keeps a young boy locked in his cellar was hardly something anyone was queuing up to see, but this challenges us, and itself, to take a look. At the same time, it thankfully averts its gaze from scenes of actual abuse. There are keen observations on parenting, privacy, power relations and more, but the flat, factual approach verges on dull, and the absence of empathy ultimately just leaves you feeling grubby. So get in line for the grimmest movie of the year!
This Means War (12A)
(McG, 2012, Us) Chris Pine, Tom Hardy, Reese Witherspoon. 98 mins
Two suspiciously close CIA buddies fall out when they discover they're dating the same woman – cue the misuse of government equipment and their own combat skills for one-upmanship. The romcom high concept is novel for a good reason: it's completely ridiculous.
(Markus Schleinzer) Michael Fuith, David Rauchenberger, Gisella Salcher. 96 mins
The daily routine of an Austrian paedophile who keeps a young boy locked in his cellar was hardly something anyone was queuing up to see, but this challenges us, and itself, to take a look. At the same time, it thankfully averts its gaze from scenes of actual abuse. There are keen observations on parenting, privacy, power relations and more, but the flat, factual approach verges on dull, and the absence of empathy ultimately just leaves you feeling grubby. So get in line for the grimmest movie of the year!
This Means War (12A)
(McG, 2012, Us) Chris Pine, Tom Hardy, Reese Witherspoon. 98 mins
Two suspiciously close CIA buddies fall out when they discover they're dating the same woman – cue the misuse of government equipment and their own combat skills for one-upmanship. The romcom high concept is novel for a good reason: it's completely ridiculous.
- 3/3/2012
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
There's not much insight into the figures behind Germany's Red Army Faction from this flavourless movie
This is a severe, opaque, episodic movie from writer-director Andres Veiel about key players in Germany's terrorist group, the Red Army Faction, from the early 60s to its flame-out in the 70s; the film has the same slightly flavourless character as Uli Edel's 2008 film The Baader Meinhof Complex. The 29-year-old actor Lena Lauzemis brings her distinctively mannish, androgynous presence to the role of Gudrun Ennslin, the student-teacher-turned-radical who became the lover of Andreas Baader and was imprisoned for her role in fire-bomb attacks. August Diehl plays Bernward Vesper, the radical publisher who like the rest of his generation was grappling with rage and guilt about his forebears. (Vesper's father, the poet and author Will Vesper, was a Hitler loyalist, and in a scene from Bernward's childhood, we see Vesper Sr explain how cats...
This is a severe, opaque, episodic movie from writer-director Andres Veiel about key players in Germany's terrorist group, the Red Army Faction, from the early 60s to its flame-out in the 70s; the film has the same slightly flavourless character as Uli Edel's 2008 film The Baader Meinhof Complex. The 29-year-old actor Lena Lauzemis brings her distinctively mannish, androgynous presence to the role of Gudrun Ennslin, the student-teacher-turned-radical who became the lover of Andreas Baader and was imprisoned for her role in fire-bomb attacks. August Diehl plays Bernward Vesper, the radical publisher who like the rest of his generation was grappling with rage and guilt about his forebears. (Vesper's father, the poet and author Will Vesper, was a Hitler loyalist, and in a scene from Bernward's childhood, we see Vesper Sr explain how cats...
- 3/2/2012
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
A fictional take on the story of Gudrun Ensslin and Bernward Vesper in the run-up to the formation of the Baader Meinhof gang.
In the wake of 2008's The Baader Meinhof Complex comes another, very different film examining this troubled period in German history and some of its key players. Unlike its predecessor, its focus is not so much on the activities of the famous gang but, rather, on the personal and intellectual developments that led up to it.
Taking its title from the popular activist slogan which it later takes...
In the wake of 2008's The Baader Meinhof Complex comes another, very different film examining this troubled period in German history and some of its key players. Unlike its predecessor, its focus is not so much on the activities of the famous gang but, rather, on the personal and intellectual developments that led up to it.
Taking its title from the popular activist slogan which it later takes...
- 2/8/2012
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
"Ralf Huettner's sleeper hit Vincent Wants to Sea was the surprise best picture winner at the 61st German Film Awards, Germany's version of the Oscars." Scott Roxborough from Berlin for the Hollywood Reporter: "Florian David Fitz, who's better known as a TV performer here, won best actor for his starring performance in Vincent as a Tourette's sufferer who, once in his life, wants to see the ocean."
The Lolas, as these awards are called, have three categories for Best Film: Gold, which has gone to Vincent; Silver, which goes this year to Yasemin Samdereli's immigration comedy Almanya, also picking up the screenplay award (which Samdereli shares with her sister, Nesrin); and Bronze, presented to If Not Us, Who?, Andres Veiel's retelling of the love story between Gudrun Ensslin and Bernward Vesper and their breakup when Ensslin enters into her fateful relationship with Andreas Baader.
Tom Tykwer wins Best Director for Three,...
The Lolas, as these awards are called, have three categories for Best Film: Gold, which has gone to Vincent; Silver, which goes this year to Yasemin Samdereli's immigration comedy Almanya, also picking up the screenplay award (which Samdereli shares with her sister, Nesrin); and Bronze, presented to If Not Us, Who?, Andres Veiel's retelling of the love story between Gudrun Ensslin and Bernward Vesper and their breakup when Ensslin enters into her fateful relationship with Andreas Baader.
Tom Tykwer wins Best Director for Three,...
- 4/9/2011
- MUBI
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