Germany Best Films

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Germany)

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

Buy this film by clicking on the Picture above!

Can you imagine a world 20 years after the fall of Hitler and the Nazis in which a former Nazi ended up in love with an Arab immigrant? Well you don’t have to, you just have to watch this film. You’ll experience racism, prejudice, and loneliness. The experience will hopefully be enough to help you feel the loneliness of life as an immigrant and to drop any prejudices you may have. The film is currently available to watch on YouTube (click on link).

Why Watch Ali: Fear Eats the Soul?

It will provoke a lot a debate! So much to talk about!
It is one of acclaimed German director, Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s masterpieces (it won awards at the prestigious Cannes film festival)
Experience racism and prejudice in Western Europe in the 1970s
See some excellent camerawork – partly discusses below

The Breakdown

Emmi, an old white German woman walks into a bar to get out of the pouring rain. The camera cuts 180 degrees to show a group of Arabs watching Emmi from the other end of the bar. Then the camera cuts back 180 degrees to show Emmi sit down at a seat closest to the door. The camera marks the distance between Emmi and the Arabs drinking at the other end of the bar. Will the distance between Emmi and the Arabs be broken?

One of the barmaids challenges Ali, one of the Arabs, to go and dance with the old woman. Not one to refuse a challenge, Ali crosses the race threshold and walks to the other end of the bar where Emmi is sitting. He asks her to dance, and she accepts! They both cross the threshold and walk past the other Arabs to a dance floor at the back of the bar. All of the bar’s clientele watch them in silence.

Through Emmi and Ali’s relationship we get to experience the horrible amount of racism and prejudice they face from shopkeepers, Emmi’s family, and the people she works and lives with. What stuck with me was the image of Emmi’s son-in-law (played by Fassbinder) sitting on the couch reading a newspaper. He is dressed shabbily, is skipping work, and threatens to hit his wife if she doesn’t go get him a beer. Whilst he is acting like a pig, he complains about all the Arab immigrants and refers to them as pigs. The best metaphor of hypocrisy.

Conlcusion and What to Watch Next

The camerawork and unlikely relationship make this film great. It will challenge your own prejudices. Amazingly there are still a load of remnants from the time of Hitler – Emmi even admits she was a Nazi just like everyone else living in Germany whilst he was in power. For an excellent film on race in Europe go watch this film!

For more films about immigration and the migrant experience check out:

Black Girl: Sembene’s classic about a Senegalese girl taken to France to work for a French family. It’s essential viewing and available on YouTube.
Sin Nombre (Amazon): A Central American thriller following one boy trying to flee the country to escape the notorious Mara gang
Paddington (Amazon): One Peruvian immigrant tries to fit in in the U.K.

Wings of Desire (Germany) – Live as an Angel in Cold War Berlin

Wings of Desire Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

Ever wonder what it’s like to be an Angel? In Wings of Desire you’re immortal, but confined to a half-reality. You can see and hear reality, but you cannot feel it. So all you can do is wander the world watching it change. Be an angel and watch Wings of Desire here (rent of buy on Amazon).

Image result for wings of desire

Why Watch Wings of Desire?

To see Berlin before the end of the Cold War, complete with Berlin Wall
Because every line is quotable – it’s a philosophical muser’s paradise
To live like an angel (although it’s not as heavenly as you might think)
Because Wim Wenders won Best Director for this film at Cannes and it has a beautiful soundtrack.

The Breakdown

An eye opens and cuts to a sweeping aerial shot of Berlin. The eye belongs to Damiel, a winged angel, and the aerial shot is his view of Berlin from the top of one of the cities highest monuments. The only people that see him perched at the top of the building are a few passing children who stare at him in awe.

Damiel and the other angels wander the city invisibly. They cannot talk to humans and they cannot be seen by humans, but they can hear all of their thoughts. Therefore, all they can do is wander the human world as observers.

The director (Wim Wenders) portrays their wandering with extreme melancholy. Firstly, he shows them trying to help people in vain, like a man who commits suicide. Secondly, he shows their lives in black and white whilst the Berliners they listen and watch are shown in vibrant colour. By creating their lives as a half life (without feeling, colour, and action) it makes us sympathize with their desire to be human.

Portrayal of Berlin

Wings of Desire was shot in the decade before the reunification of Germany. Therefore you will see the Berlin Wall and East Germany looming in the distance. The melancholic lives of the Angels are a reflection of the melancholy in Berlin, a city that still hasn’t recovered from the the Second World War.

There are reminders of the war placed throughout the film, from the actors dressed as Nazis and Jews on a nearby film set to the Berlin Wall. However, the most prominent example of the wars devastation on life in Berlin is the fate of Potsdamer Plaza.

A storytelling character aptly named Homer walks through the no-man’s land wasteland by the Berlin wall where Potsdamer Plaza used to be located. He reminisces about the Plaza when it was full of life. Before the war, it was full of friendly people and tradesmen. But later Nazi flags filled the square and the people became unfriendly. And now it’s just part of an empty wasteland that runs alongside the Berlin wall, with no life at all.

Conclusion

Wings of Desire is a beautifully melancholic film that meditates on the plight of humanity in the 20th century. In the political volatility today, this film is particularly relevant. It’s almost a warning of what could happen if we let love abandon us; we’d become Angels wandering the wastelands.

For another great German film of almost epic proportions I strongly recommend watching Fassbinder’s The Marriage of Maria Braun. It charts 20th century German history through the stoic Maria Braun, who is widowed as her husband fights in WW2.

If you love the melancholic philosophical musings I also recommend watching The Seventh Seal (rent or buy on Amazon), the story of a knight who is stalked by death.

Europa – Darkness in Post-War Germany

Europa Film Difficulty Ranking: 4

If you want to get an idea of how life was in Germany after the Second World War, Europa is your film. It recreates the inevitably nightmarish environment in a country shrouded by the horrors it has committed. It’s inventive, creative, and amazingly dark.

From: Germany, Europe
Watch: Trailer, Buy on Amazon
Next: Wings of Desire, Children of Men, Persona

Toni Erdmann

Toni Erdmann Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

“Don’t lose your humour”

The message of Mr. Erdmann is one we should all live by. Never lose your humour and do not take life too seriously. This film is for anyone who wants to have a laugh (granted there haven’t been many comedies featured on this site). Luckily for you, Toni Erdmann, will keep you laughing until after the film has finished. You’ll understand once you’ve seen it – no one saw that coming! It’s also up for an Oscar at the 2017 Academy Awards!

Why Watch Toni Erdmann?

It’s hilarious (suitable for Monty Python fans, Airplane fans, Napoleon Dynamite fans, Some Like it Hot fans, and more)
Like the best comedies, this one is also explores other issues, most notably where we look for happiness
You thought your dad was embarrassing? Mr. Erdmann is the next level!
See a little bit of Romanian society, and a Bulgarian Kukeri suit

The Breakdown

Toni Erdmann starts with a postman delivering a package to Mr. Erdmann. He rings the doorbell, and seconds later Mr. Erdmann answers and confusedly asks the postman who the package is for. It is addressed to Toni Erdmann. Mr. Erdmann then says that his brother must have ordered it – he’s fresh out of jail for using mail bombs. He disappears into the house whilst the postman stands there worrying about if the package is another mail bomb. Mr. Erdmann reappears, this time dressed in glasses and goofy teeth, posing as his ‘brother.’

Mr. Erdmann sees his daughter a few scenes later at his wife’s house but she is always on the phone setting up meetings and working. She is only in Germany for a few days, having taken a few days off from her job in Romania. To surprise her, Mr. Erdmann decides to fly to Romania. He obviously hoped to find a happy daughter because of her very successful career, but we can tell that this is not the case. We know she has not found happiness by the sad frown on her face (she never smiles), the dying plants in her apartment, and her fatigue (from her awful sleeping pattern).

Her life is full of superficiality. She is too focused on her career to be happy, she does things she doesn’t want to do, like take her clients’ wife shopping, and loses herself at fancy parties. Mr. Erdmann tries to awaken her through his strange humour. He dons a wig, glasses, and fake teeth and pretends to be her CEO’s ‘Life Coach’. Of course, she doesn’t see the funny side of his antics. However, he hilariously keeps making fun of himself and her fake life to try and help her out of her sombre life.

Conclusion

In a world where there is a glut of unfunny American comedies that all seem the same, Toni Erdmann is a breath of fresh air. Through the laughs which rise to a crescendo in the last 20 minutes, there is also a message: never lose your sense of humour. Mr. Erdmann certainly hasn’t and spends a month trying to make sure his daughter has not lost hers.

The Marriage of Maria Braun (Germany)

The Marriage of Maria Braun Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

Do you want to see a great German film that resembles a Hollywood great? Here’s Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s most accessible film. It’s the story of Maria Braun, the German ‘American dream’. She lives the rags to riches story, but in typical Fassbinder fashion, she carries a lot of baggage. For a introduction to Fassbinder, this one is perfect. Then, follow it up with Ali: Fear Eats the Soul.

Why Watch The Marriage of Maria Braun?

For a German film that appeals to anyone used to watching Hollywood dramas
It’s a perfect gateway into Rainer Werner Fassbinder films (he’s one of the most renowned German directors)
To experience post-war Germany through Maria Braun (she’s an allegory for the countries ups and downs)
Or, you just want to watch a long, immersive, classic drama

The Breakdown

“Do you, Hermann Braun take this woman for this lawfully wedded wife”

As Maria and Hermann get married, a bomb drops on their ceremony, shattering the glass of all the windows and leaving a gaping hole in the ceiling. Their wedding papers fly out the window. Before the vicar can run for safety, the couple grab him and they all fall to the ground on the marriage document. As more bombs drop and the buildings around them start falling down, they sign their marriage with the scared vicar as witness.

The manic introduction continues throughout the film. It is a tremendous roller coaster ride! Maria is the crazy woman who takes centre stage for the film. At times she is the ‘American dream’ as she makes her own opportunities and success. However, she is also an allegory for the plight of post-war Germany so make sure you pay attention! For example, she is supported by America and later finds success with a united Europe whilst her husband is lost in Russia (East Germany).

In addition to the allegories, listen out for some scenes which use sound to eke out even more emotion. One example of this is obvious when Maria goes to the train station for the last time wearing her ‘Have you seen Hermann Braun’ sign. In this scene, the background noise of the crowds of people fade and the sound of the steam train gets louder. All you hear is the steady spurting of the steam: on, off, on, off. At this time, Maria looks at the fence covered in posters of missing soldiers and hopelessly at the train. The sound enhances her despair as she realises she will never see her husband again.

Conclusion

The Marriage of Maria Braun is an incredible portrait of a strong woman who makes her own success against the odds. She is Germany’s melancholic heroine, at times an epitome of the American dream. However, whilst this film is Fassbinder’s most Hollywood film, it mirrors the fate of post-war Germany. Go watch some Fassbinder!

For more Fassbinder, we highly recommend Ali: Fear Eats the Soul. For another great