Re: The Stratosphere Girl
One could start arguing (splendidly!) about how ‘German’ a film about a Belgian teenager who travels to Japan really is, where not one German word is spoken (as far as I can remember) and no German cast member is featured.
Just my 2 cents :)
Well, definitely all Christian Petzold films after The State I’m In have to be on the list.
Queda (2005, Oliver Hirschbiegel)
all of Christian Petzold
-“The White Ribbon” and "The Counterfeiters " are actually both Austrian films.-
With The White Ribbon it depends on how you slice it. It’s a Austrian-German-French-Italian co-production set and shot in Germany and directed by a German-born man who was raised in Austria.
LEAVES
Anyone can assign a label to anyone they want. I can give Herzog the Berlin School label if I want. It’s completely meaningless, and I"m sure wherever you saw it was a source far less credible and informed than me – quite a feat, I may add. That the label is so easily manipulated to encompass completely unrelated filmmakers would make me think that the label itself is completely meaningless, not all the filmmakers listed underneath it are terrible, but that’s just ‘common sense’ talking.
I would wonder how you could have such confidence in the ’movement’s approach toward realism’ when you have seen so few films from the movement – and this is ignoring the fact that there is no movement. Since there is no movement and the label is merely an attempt to label commonalities – how would you know what those commonalities are without even seeing all of the films that are commonly grouped? Imagine saying that you knew all about the New German Cinema because you had seen two late films by Wenders and one late film by Schlondorff. Absurd.
Many people say Ozu is unimaginative – no camera movements? – so, you know.
I happen to think Schanelec’s Marseille is one of the most dense, brilliant, and economically brilliant films that I have seen (of the decade, of course, but period ). When someone makes a motif of meaningful ellipses you know they’re pretty amazing. Rewatching Persona tonight sort of reminded me of how the film can be seen as highly deconstructive of the prevailing realist modes of cinematic language these days while simultaneously incorporating those same methods as the foundation. Yes, it’s structural, but it’s also deconstructing at the same time. Immensely interesting, to me.
But, of course, she’s in the Berlin School (in fact, she is one of the original three to be labeled as such and there is actually a substantive link between the three of them – but have you seen a single film from any of the three?), so you can dismiss her entirely.