Best German Films of The 00 Decade

By: Lukas Foerster

“Playing both ends against the middlebrow” Manny Farber style is clearly not an option when dealing with contemporary German Cinema. Not that German middlebrow cinema (Dresen, Akim, Roehler etc) isn’t as boring as it gets. But on one of Farbers “both ends” there is literally nothing of any value available on these shores. If there is something interesting to find in contemporary German Mainstream Cinema, I haven’t found it yet, its soulless comedies are maybe even more embarassing than the dishonest historical films, German Cinema has been famous for over the last ten years. And even Klaus Lemke, who may have been – under other circumstances – a genuine termite artist of lowbrow culture, works on the very fringes of the system, avantgarde-style.

It seems to be more useful, to look at German Cinema in another way: there still are interesting films being made, but they are dispersed over different shelters, all far away from the center but not necessarily in contact with each other.

In my opinion, there are three main shelters. The first and most important being essay and documentary filmmaking. Taken alltogether, the work of essay filmmakers like Farocki and Bitomsky may be (West) Germany’s most important contribution to post war cinema. The second consists of the films of the so-called Berlin School (although I don’t like everything that goes around under this flag) and the third of some lone wolfs, who roam around freely and on their own terms. Most of the guys in the third shelter come from older generations: Klaus Lemke, Rudolf Thome, Dominik Graf.

-The following films of my list are not on MUBI (so Aufschub is supposed to be number 4 and Der schöne Tag is supposed to be number 8):
3. Finale (Klaus Lemke)
5. Eine Stadt wird erpresst (Dominik Graf)
6. Land der Vernichtung (Romuald Karmakar)
7. Material (Thomas Heise)
9. Malerei heute (Stefan Hayn / Anja-Christin Remmert)
10. Jazzclub (Helge Schneider)

Some additional notes:

-It goes without saying, that this list is limited because of the fact, that I haven’t seen everything. Especially when it comes to experimental cinema.

-I included only one film per director. However, only one other film would be on this list without this rule: Dancing With Devils (Klaus Lemke).

-Number 2 on my list is a film made by an Austrian director. But it is the most powerful film about West Germany I know. I don’t want to take this film away from the Austrians. If I’d comprise a list of my favourite Austrain films of the last decade, I would put it on, too – as number 1. I didn’t include James Benning’s Ruhr, though – it somehow didn’t feel right to do so, although I do love this film.

-Other German films I enjoyed include (without order): Madonnen (Maria Speth), Kein Science Fiction (Franz Müller), Die Quereinsteigerinnen (Rainer Knepperges / Christian Mrasek), Halfmoon Files (Philip Scheffner), Jerichow (Christian Petzold), Rodakis (Olaf Nicolai), Schindlers Häuser (Heinz Emigholz), Pink (Rudolf Thome), Falscher Bekenner (Christoph Hochhäusler), Klassenfahrt (Henner Winkler), Montag kommen die Fenster (Ulrich Köhler), Mitte 30 (Stefan Krohmer), November (Hito Steyerl)