Where can I watch these?
Are other movies available?
1. You can watch these movies in the LRC.
2. Check your course's CTools sites for additional movies you can watch online for Language Learning Journals etc.
3. Check out the excellent collection of German films available at the Askwith Media Library. These are available for students to check out and watch at home. To see what's available:
- go to MIRLYN
- choose "Advanced Search"
- write "German" in the "Word(s) anywhere" box
- choose "German" from the "Language" pull-down menu
- choose "Visual Materials (all)" from the "Format" pull-down menu
- choose "Askwith Media Library" from the "Location" pull-down menu
- click "Search"!
4. The
Language Resource Center has an impressive catalogue of German titles, but they can't all be on reserve. You can look at the catalogue in 2009 MLB or
check it out online (Type "German" in the "Language" box and leave the rest blank to get
a complete listing of German movies, or type in a specific search item).
If you see a film you're interested in, ask your instructor to have it put on reserve
so you can watch it in the LRC.
Why
should I watch these?
For fun, for a "language learning
journal," on a date.... These movies are an entertaining
way to practice listening, to learn about German culture, and to see a movie world beyond Hollywood.
Is
there extra credit?
Possibly:
Talk to your instructor about the possibility of writing about one of
these movies to compensate for late or missing homework assignments.
Can
I understand these movies?
They all
have subtitles except as noted.
Instructional
Videos/CD-ROMs on Reserve All Term
(1/5/09-4/21/09)
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Alles
Gute Tapes A through F (Langenscheidt, 1989). A
total of 26 lessons designed for elementary instruction.
Challenges of German Pronunciation 30 minute video
Deutsch
Direkt Series Tapes A through E. Series of 20 25-minute
lessons designed to help students through standard situations
encountered in everyday conversation. Based on documentary
footage shot by the BBC in Germany and Austria. The
films, combined with graphics and music, give a feel
for the language, culture and locations visited.
DiscoDeutsch:
An Interactive German Language and Culture Program
DiscoDeutsch was designed to be used as a supplement
to regular classroom instruction at the intermediate
level of German. Its principal focus is listening comprehension
and culture. The students can observe as native speakers
of German interact with each other in numerous authentic
situations. The program offers a variety of features
to assist the student in understanding the dialogue.
German culture is learned primarily through exposure
to the context in which the situations occur, e.g. a
market place, a hotel, a restaurant, a train station,
etc. ***Instructions, documentation, and computer software
available.
Redaktion
D
Tapes 1 and 2. This is the video we are showing in German
101 and 102. Each 20-minute episode consists of a "Spielfilm"
[=movie], in which Paul and Laura solve a mysteryand
Paul annoys Laura by trying to flirt with her, followed
by a grammar lesson ("Deutsch mit Professor Leicht"),
and finally a subtitled "Reportage" [=report]
that provides some cultural information and footage
related in some way to the "Spielfilm." There
are 12 episodes altogether on the two tapes. If you've
watched this in German 101/102, come watch it in the
LRC for additional practice!
Talk
German (Recommended for German 101 Language Learning
Journals) Instructional video series produced by the
BBC, consisting of 6 15-minute DVDs. This series is
intended to be an introduction to the basics of German
language and culture, and focuses on Bayern (Bavaria)
and specifically München (Munich). You will hear
a fair amount of authentic German, with an emphasis
on some basic expressions needed for everyday interactions
(no grammar instruction), and get some interesting cultural
information. Since this series is really very basic,
it is not recommended for students beyond the 101/beginning
103 level. If you're in 101, worksheets on the videos
in this series are included in your coursepack; if you're
not and would like a copy of the worksheets, you can
click here to download them.
Treffpunkt
Österreich Tapes A through E (BBC, 1988). Designed
for second and third year students. Features Austrian
teenagers and adults in a variety of everyday situations.
Unterwegs
This is the videotape accompanying our 101/102 textbook
Vorsprung. We are using a different
video in class, but you may want to work with this video
and the accompanying exercises in your
Vorsprung Arbeitsbuch for additional practice.
Was ist los in Hauptsraße 117? Of the choices listed here, this is probably the best, and would work well as an accompaniment to or review of German 101. It's aimed at beginners, and starts slowly. You hear a lot of useful, basic vocabulary and expressions, see authentic situations and images (though there are outdated elements like rotary phones and German Marks instead of Euros), and follow a reality based "soap opera"-style plot. The video is accompanied by a website, where you can download the complete transcript of the video, and do various accompanying exercises. Note: the video as a whole is structured very confusingly, and the acting looks rather corny. The video is divided into a "Start" episode, followed by 10 "Lektionen" [lessons] alternating with 10 "Episoden." The "Lektionen" are a confusing mix of excerpts from upcoming and previous "Episoden," language samples, brief clips of the actors describing who they really are, scenes with an older man, Mike, who is play-acting in various ways, and out-takes which are not identified as out-takes. If you use the printed dialogue to help you follow what's being said and treat the Lektionen as a series of language samples rather than trying to figure out their logic, you can get a lot out of them. The "Episoden" are easier to follow, and follow a logical sequence, though the plot is somewhat sparse.
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Videos/DVDs of English-Language Movies/Shows Dubbed in German--on Reserve All Term
(1/5/09-4/21/09)
The list below includes: Star Wars IV, V & VI, the three Monty Python movies, Shrek, Terminator 1, The Big Lebowski, The Simpsons, Bugs Bunny, The Fugitive, Jurassic Park, A Few Good Men, and many others--take a look!
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Auf der Flucht [=The Fugitive] Classic Harrison Ford movie. VHS--no subtitles
Austin Powers: Goldständer [=Goldmember] Yeah Baby: Austin Powers auf Deutsch. VHS--no subtitles
Austin Powers: Spion in geheimer Missionarsstellung [=The Spy Who Shagged Me] Kann Austin Powers sein Mojo finden? VHS--no subtitles
Batman und das Phantom [=Batman: Mask of the Phantasm] Dubbed cartoon feature film in the "dark deco" style. VHS--no subtitles
The Big Lebowski DVD with English subtitles available
Die Braut, die sich nicht traut [=Runaway Bride] Romance w. Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. VHS--no subtitles
Bugs Bunnys Meisterwerke DVD with English subtitles available
Bugsy Gangster movie with Warren Beatty, Annnette Benning, Ben Kinglsley. VHS--no subtitles
Chicken Run--Hennen rennen Cartoon. VHS--no subtitles
Detroit Pistons 2003-2004 NBA Championship DVD--English subtitles not available
Die fabelhaften Baker Boys Michelle Pfeiffer stars with Jeff and Beau Bridges in this movie about two piano players whose act is getting old and the trouble that arises when they try to spice it up by getting Michelle Pfeiffer to join them. VHS--no subtitles
Eine Frage der Ehre [=A Few Good Men] VHS--no subtitles
Die Firma [=The Firm] Tom Cruise thriller based on a John Grisham novel. VHS--no subtitles
Für eine handvoll Dollar [=A Fistful of Dollars] Classic Clint Eastwood Western. VHS--no subtitles
Gefährliche Liebschaften [=Dangerous Liaisons] Classic movie starring Glenn Close, John Malkovich and Michelle Pfeiffer; remade as the crappy teen movie Cruel Intentions. VHS--no subtitles
Indiana Jones: Jäger des verlorenen Schatzes [=Raiders of the Lost Ark] Cool archaeologist, evil Nazis, brilliant drinking scene, effective use of guns and whips. VHS--no subtitles
In the Line of Fire: Die zweite Chance Clint Eastwood thriller. VHS--no subtitles
Jurassic Park VHS--no subtitles
Lethal Weapon 2: Brennpunkt L.A. VHS--no subtitles
Lethal Weapon 3: Die Profis sind zurück VHS--no subtitles
Mars Attacks! Either you love this star-studded Tim Burton movie, or you really hate it. VHS--no subtitles
Matrix Experience "the One" auf Deutsch. VHS--no subtitles
Matrix Reloaded Experience the sequel auf Deutsch. VHS--no subtitles
Maverick Lighthearted Western about a $1 million poker tournament, starring Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster & James Garner. VHS--no subtitles
Monty Pythons Die Ritter der Kokosnuss [=Monty Python and the Holy Grail] DVD with English subtitles available
Monty Pythons Das Leben des Brian [=Life of Brian] DVD with English subtitles available
Monty Pythons Der Sinn des Lebens [=The Meaning of Life] DVD with English subtitles available
Mr. Jones Crappy romance with Richard Gere & Lena Olin. VHS--no subtitles
Ohne Ausweg [=Nowhere to Run] Action movie featuring the limited but energetic talents of Jean-Claude van Damme. VHS--no subtitles
Rambo III VHS--no subtitles
Scary Movie DVD--English subtitles not available
Das Schweigen der Lämmer [=The Silence of the Lambs] VHS--no subtitles
Shrek DVD with English subtitles available
Die Simpsons: Die komplette Season Three 2 DVD set with English subtitles available
Star Wars IV: Eine neue Hoffnung [=A New Hope] DVD with English subtitles available
Star Wars V: Das Imperium schlägt zurück [=The Empire Strikes Back] DVD with English subtitles available
Star Wars VI: Die Rückkehr der Jedi-Ritter [=Return of the Jedi] DVD with English subtitles available
Terminator 1 VHS--no subtitles
Viel Lärm um nichts [=Much Ado About Nothing] Shakespeare adaptation with Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson. VHS--no subtitles
Wolf Horror movie starring Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer. VHS--no subtitles
Zwei glorreiche Halunken [=The Good, the Bad and the Ugly] Classic Clint Eastwood Western. The German title means: "Two glorious scoundrels." VHS--no subtitles
Movies
on Reserve 1/5/09-1/30/09
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Abgeschminkt ("Makin'
Up"--the English title is sort of the opposite of the German title,
which is the adjective for "having removed one's make-up")
(Katja von Garnier, 1993) This MTV styled comedy (just 55 minutes long)
tells the story of a harried cartoonist who relies on her friend's love
life for inspiration for her work. A wry observation of the rituals
we all go through in the quest to connect with each other. Abgeschminkt
was von Garnier's final project for a film degree, and quite unexpectedly
launched her career. Also includes a short comedy, The Most Beautiful
Breasts in the World, a satirical look at what happens to a man
when he magically inherits a woman's breasts he has been admiring.
Aguirre:
The Wrath of God (Herzog, 1972) A drama set in the jungles of
16th century Peru, which converns a group of Europeans led astray in a
vain attempt to find El Dorado by a crazy conquistador from Pizarro's
1560 South American expedition. Starring Klaus Kinski as the mad Aguirre.
Anatomie (Ruzowitzky, 2000) "Horror-thriller" about medical students in an "anti-Hippocratic society" performing some gruesome cexperiments; starring Franka Potente (from Lola rennt) as a potential victim.
Angst
Essen Seele Auf (Fassbinder, 1974) Moving story of the relationship
between an older German woman and a Moroccan "Gastarbeiter." HIGHLY
RECOMMENDED--NO SUBTITLES but lots of clear German.
The
Blue Angel (von Sternberg, 1930) The movie that made Marlene
Dietrich famous. An aging, authoritarian, but also pathetically lovable
gymnasium professor follows his students to a night club in order to expose
them, but instead falls himself for Lola Lola (played by Dietrich).... HIGHLY
RECOMMENDED: a movie classic.
Das
Boot (Wolfgang Petersen, 1982) Multiple Oscar nominations; gripping
story of a German submarine in WW II. Petersen has since made Hollywood
movies like Air Force One, Outbreak, and In the Line
of Fire. The LRC has the original 150 minute version, not the recently released, even longer version.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Crazy
(Hans-Christian Schmid, 2000) Popular movie based on a successful novel
written by a 16 year old disabled boy (Benjamin Lebert) about his experiences
in school. A relatively typical coming of age story, except that this
one was written by someone who's actually still coming of age :) By the
director of Nach fünf im Urwald!
NO SUBTITLES but some clear German, and you can turn on the German subtitles on the DVD.
Fidelio
Performance of Beethoven's only opera recorded live at the Royal Opera
House, Covent Gardens, in 1990.
Fitzcarraldo
(Herzog, 1982) An eccentric and hardly rich Irish rubber baron hopes to
fulfill his dream of opening an opera house in the middle of the Peruvian
jungle. First, however, he must haul a massive steamship over a mountain
in order to create a shipping route. Stars Klaus Kinski and Claudia Cardinale.
Tatort:
The Campaign 1995 episode of the Tatort mystery series.
A child has been murdered, and the parents become suspects.
Der Untergang [=Downfall] (Hirschbiegel,
2004) Dramatization of Hitler's last days in his bunker, based on the diaries of his personal secretary, Traudl Junge.
Movies
on Reserve 1/31/09-2/27/09
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Baron
Münchhausen (von Baky, 1943) An older German movie based
on the adventures of the "lying baron"--compare it to the more recent
Terry Gilliam movie, or to the book you may have read for your free reading!
Münchhausen is called to court in St. Petersburg. He becomes a favorite
with the Tsarina, duels with the jealous Potemkin and receives the gift
of eternal youth from the diabolical Cagliostro. Includes the ride on
a cannonball into the camp of the Turkish army, the rescue of the beautiful
Isabella, blissful days in Venice, and finally a trip to the moon.
Burning
Life Two women randomly become Robin Hood-style bank-robbers--echoes
of Thelma and Louise. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for entertainment
value :)
Der Rosenkavalier
(1961) Production of the Strauss opera with the Vienna Philharmoic at
the 1961 Salzburg festival. ONLY ON RESERVE FEB 5-19.
Der
Schuh des Manitu (Michael "Bully" Herbig, 2001) This movie
was a surprise hit, and became the most commercially successful German-language
movie ever (in Germany; Lola rennt probably outdid it in overall
sales worldwide). Lots of slapstick and puns. Unfortunately, the movie
is primarily a parody of German "Westerns" based on the novels
of Karl May (which used to be very popular among German boys), and if
one doesn't know those movies and those novels, much of the humor will
be hard to understand, and might seem gratuitously offensive.
Every
Man for Himself and God Against All (Herzog, 1974) Worth seeing
just for the great title.... The incredible story, based on a historical
event, of Kaspar Hauser, a young man who suddenly appeared in a German
town in the 1820s, unable to speak, read or write. A non-actor, Bruno
S., with a personal history remarkably similar to Hauser, plays the title
role in this acclaimed movie. Some very clear German in this movie, and
lots to think about.
Rossini
(Helmut Dietl, 1997) An entertaining combination of romantic comedy and
murder mystery. One of Ulrike's favorite movies :) HIGHLY
RECOMMENDED for entertainment value :)
Sugarbaby
(Percy Adlon, 1985) By the director of Baghdad
Café (a fantastic movie you should all run to rent at your
video store starring Marianne Sägebrecht and Jack Palance, among
others, in which Sägebrecht plays a huge German woman stranded with
her husband's suitcase and a container of stunningly strong coffee in
the Nevada desert whose hostile relationship with the proprietor and her
family is transformed when she starts working as a waitress and learns
to perform magic tricks). Sägebrecht stars as an overweight woman
whose dull life as a mortician's assistant is transformed when she falls
in love with the voice of the subway driver. She systematically pursues
him and an off-beat romance ensues when his wife goes on a trip. There's
a more mainstream US TV movie remake of this movie called Babycakes,
starring Ricki Lake.
ONLY ON RESERVE FEB 5-19.
The
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1919) Classic expressionist
silent film; beautiful sets; forerunner of the horror movie genre. Click here to see the cubicle of Dr. Caligari. HIGHLY
RECOMMENDED: a movie classic.
Vienna
1900 A lecture in English by George Steiner on Vienna around 1900, the
site of an intellectual flowering in music, language, philosophy, politics,
economics, architecture and other arts. In this Vienna also, the seeds
of anti-Semitism were sown, which influenced Adolf Hitler and led to the
Holocaust. (47 minutes)
ONLY ON RESERVE FEB 5-19.
Wir können auch anders [=No more Mr. Nice Guy] (Detlev Buck, 1993) Deadpan comedy set shortly after reunification. Kipp leaves a mental institution and joins his brother Most in the old family Diesel on an expedition to the eastern part of Germany, where an inheritance awaits them. Along the way, a Russian deserter from the disbanding occupation forces (who speaks no German) hijacks their truck, and the three of them reach their various goals, accidentally killing a few people along the way. Delightful, lovable stupidity--but you need to pay attention to catch it all!
The
Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl Recent interviews
with the filmmaker in her 90s, interspersed with flashbacks and excerpts
from her films, in English and German with subtitles. Riefenstahl is notorious
and barely apologetic for her propaganda films for Hitler, such as Triumph
of the Will and her documentaries of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin
(in two parts: 1 and 2);
she was also a pioneering filmmaker who developed many cinematographic
techniques still in use today in documentaries and sports films.
Movies
on Reserve 2/28/09-3/25/09
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Aimée
und Jaguar (Max Färberböck, 1999) Here's the plot summmary
from the Internet Movie Database: Berlin 1943/44 ("The Battle of
Berlin"). Felice, an intelligent and courageous Jewish woman who
lives under a false name, belongs to an underground organization. Lilly,
a devoted mother of four, though an occasional unfaithful wife, is desperate
for love. An unusual and passionate love between them blossoms despite
the danger of persecution and nightly bombing raids. The Gestapo is on
Felice's trail. Her friends flee, she decides to sit out the war with
Lilly. One hot day in August 1944, the Gestapo is waiting in Lilly's flat...
Based on a successful novel.
Der
Hauptmann von Köpenick (Käutner, 1956) Comedy based
on a true story in which a turn-of-the-century cobbler impersonates an
army officer and takes hilarious advantage of the awe and respect uniforms
inspired in German society.
ONLY ON RESERVE MARCH 5-19.
Der
Untertan (Staudte, 1951) Famous satire on authoritarianism in
early 20th century Germany: the story of Diederich Hesseling, a lower
middle-class weakling who rises in the world by deferring to those above
him and tyrannizing those below.
Die
Ehe der Maria Braun (Fassbinder, 1978) Classic
of the New German Cinema. Parallels Germany's economic
miracle following WWII with the story of an upwardly
mobile woman who will do anything to gain wealth and
power, but does it all in the service of her true love
for her husband, with whom she had only a few hours
of marital bliss before the war and subsequent events
tear them apart. Mixes soap opera, sexual politics,
epic romance and political satire. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED:
a movie classic.
Gegen die Wand (Head On) (Fatih Akin, 2005)
Please note: this movie includes a great deal of graphic violence and some disturbing sexual scenes--but these are essential to the plot, and this is a very highly regarded movie and has won numerous prizes around the world. Cahit is a Turkish German in his 40s who drives his car into a wall ("gegen die Wand") in an attempt to kill himself. He is briefly institutionalized, and there he meets Sibel, a much younger woman who has repeatedly attempted to kill herself. She abruptly asks him to marry her, hoping this marriage of convenience can free her from her family's control. For a time, their relationship develops against all odds through an increasingly brutal series of events....
Good Bye Lenin! (Wolfgang Becker, 2003) Here's the plot summary from the IMDB for this internationally successful, thoughtful and entertaining movie: East Germany, the year 1989: A young man protests against the regime. His mother watches the police arresting him and suffers a heart attack and falls into a coma. Some months later, the Berlin Wall has fallen, the GDR does not exist anymore and the mother awakes. Since she has to avoid every excitement, the son tries to set up the GDR again for her in their flat. But the world has changed a lot...
Happy
Birthday Türke (Doris Dörrie, 1992) This movie was directed
by Doris Dörrie, whose movie Männer changed the German
film scene by demonstrating that one could make witty popular movies in
German. Here's the plot summmary from the Internet Movie Database: Kemal
Kayankaya, a private detective, was hired by a Turkish women, Ilter, to
search for his husband, Amend, who has been missing since the death of
her father, Vassif. Unknownst to him, he was about to unravel the secrets
of his client's family, as well as their various dealings with the underworld
and the police. Moreover, being a Turk raised in a German foster family,
he has also begun to understand and accept his own ethnicity.
Hasenjagd - Vor lauter Feigheit gibt es kein Erbarmen (Andreas Gruber, 1994) Please note: this movie, based on actual events, includes a great deal of violence (shootings) throughout but is a poignant and realistic portrayal of courage. It is the beginning of 1945 during WW2 in Austria. 500 Russian prisoners of war who have refused to fight on the side of the Germans against their country were brought to the concentration camp in Mauthausen awaiting certain execution. One winter night the Russian prisoners decide they have nothing to lose and make an escape. The German Nazis convince the inhabitants of the village to hunt the prisoners "like rabbits". One courageous family defies this decree, and repeated visits by the SS, by hiding several soldiers at their homestead.
Maybe,
Maybe Not (Der bewegte Mann) (Sönke Wortmann, 1994) Formerly the biggest
grossing German movie of all time. Attractive but dumb Axel, an open-minded
heterosexual, cheats on his girlfriend Doro one too many times and she
kicks him out. Axel ends up staying with Norbert, who is interested in
more than friendship, and as Axel fails to pick up on this and Doro reenters
the picture, a variety of comic complications ensues. Campy mainstream
adaptation of two popular gay comic books by Ralf König. HIGHLY
RECOMMENDED for entertainment value.
Men
(Männer) (Doris Dörrie, 1985) The first internationally
successful postwar German comedy, initiating a more light-hearted and
accessible trend in German cinema. Julius Armbrust, a successful young
executive, has been cheating on his wife for years, but his ego is nevertheless
shattered when he discovers on his birthday that his wife has a lover
of her own, the bohemian artist wannabe Stefan. Insanely jealous, he becomes
Stefan's roommate under false pretences and begins transforming his wife's
toy into a version of himself.
Vienna
1900 A lecture in English by George Steiner on Vienna around 1900, the
site of an intellectual flowering in music, language, philosophy, politics,
economics, architecture and other arts. In this Vienna also, the seeds
of anti-Semitism were sown, which influenced Adolf Hitler and led to the
Holocaust. (47 minutes)
Yasemin
(Hark Bohm, 1988) Here's the plot summmary from the
Internet Movie Database: 20 year old Casanova Jan falls
in love with the 3 years younger Turkish girl Yasemin,
who lives in Germany with her family. She's well protected
by her father, who believes in the Turkish traditions.
She has to struggle for every little freedom that's
natural for her German friends, but still respects and
loves her father and keeps the appearance of an honorable
Turkish girl. Her love to Jan however disturbs this
fine balance. So it's not hate or quarrel that interferes
with their love, but the differences of their cultures.
Movies
on Reserve 3/26/09-4/21/09
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Bandits
(Katja von Garnier, 1997) Sort of a German Thelma and
Louise: four tough women in a German penitentiary form
a band and make an impromptu escape when they get a
chance to play at a police ball. They become cult heroes
as they manage to give a series of concerts all over
Germany (and kidnap an American exchange student boy-toy
along the way), despite the efforts of the sadistic
and sexist police officer in charge of catching them.
Behind the fun are the sadder stories of how these women
ended up in prison in the first place.
Das
Experiment (Oliver Hirschbiegel, 2001) This movie is based on the notorious 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment,
in which a group of college students was randomly divided into guards
and inmates, and the guards very rapidly became stunningly sadistic and perverse
in their treatment of the inmates, encouraged by
the experimenters' efforts to create a situation that would simulate the anonymity and degradation in real prison settings. The experiment had to be abandoned after six days, but not before both the
prisoners and the guards were dehumanized by the suffering and humiliation they respectively suffered and inflicted, and the experimenters themselves had lost all sense of compassion for their subjects, let alone any kind of scientific objectivity. Philip Zimbardo,
the chief experimenter, was elected President of the American Psychological
Association in 2002. He complains bitterly that the movie exaggerates
what happened, and indeed it does, but if you compare the movie to Zimbardo's
own website, you'll find how much abuse really did occur, and you may be shocked at how little genuine regret Zimbardo expresses about what he did to his subjects (let alone what could have happened had his eventual wife not succeeded in persuading him to end the experiment). What must be said in Zimbardo's defence, however, is that his experiment has indeed provided an invaluable and shocking lesson about the power of situations to change human behavior, and furthermore, that Zimbardo himself, as well as others involved with the experiment, including one of the most traumatized "prisoners," have devoted a great deal of energy to fighting what has unfortunately been a losing battle for improved conditions in prisons (and also in mental health institutions, and a variety of other settings), and against a continuing trend to emphasize punishment over rehabilitation, and to save money on the hiring and training of prison guards. Zimbardo was frequently quoted in explanations of the atrocious prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, pointing out that, contrary to the official attributions of the problem to "a few bad apples," the problem was in fact "a bad barrel," in which even the guards were in a certain sense victims.
Lola
und Bilidikid (E. Kutlug Ataman, 1999) This is the ultimately tragic
story of Murat, a 17-year old boy realizing he is gay while his father
and older brother are doing everything they can to get him to lose his
virginity with a woman, and of Lola, a transvestite whose macho hustler
boyfriend "Bilidikid" wants her to get a sex change operation
so that they can have a "normal" heterosexual relationship.
The Magic
Flute 1978 performance of Mozart's opera by the Glyndebourne Chorus
and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
The
Nasty Girl (Das schreckliche Mädchen) (Michael Verhoeven, 1990)
Ironic/Sarcastic movie based on the true story of a girl who enters an
essay contest on the topic of "My Hometown During the Third Reich." Initial enthusiasm from the townspeople quickly turns into obstruction, harrassment and brutality. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
The
Princess and the Warrior (Der Krieger und die Kaiserin) (Tom Tykwer,
2000) A slower movie by the director of Lola rennt, also exploring
the themes of fate and true love, and starring Franka Potente (Lola from
Lola rennt). She plays a shy nurse in a mental institution who
is nearly killed in an accident caused by Bodo, an ex-soldier and drifter.
He saves her life in a gruesome scene at the scene of the accident, but
then runs off, and she becomes convinced that they are destined to love
each other....
Stadtgespräch
(Talk of the Town) (Rainer Kaufmann, 1995) Romantic Comedy about the host
of a radio call-in show despairing of her chances to find love as she
enters her thirties, who suddenly finds herself caught in some hilarious
romantic complications. Everyone involved keeps calling into her show,
and so the whole city becomes consumed by these affairs.
Das
Versprechen (The Promise) (Margarethe von Trotta, 1994) Melodrama
about a couple separated by the Berlin Wall: with their friends, they
plan a daring escape shortly after the Wall is built in 1961, but in what
turns out to be a characteristic gesture, he trips and falls and is forced
to stay behind. Despite many attempts, they don't manage to see each other
again until the Wall finally falls in 1989....
Wings
of Desire (Wim Wenders, 1987) Internationally acclaimed film about
angels in Berlin. They see the world in black and white, and cannot influence
the lives of the people they observe, except by hugging them, which occasionally
makes them feel a bit better. Their lives are spent observing interesting
details of people's behavior, until one day one of them falls in love
with a trapeze artist and wants to become human. Cool cameo by Peter Falk,
playing himself, but as a former angel. City
of Angels (with Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan) is a Hollywood remake
of this movie; it might be fun to compare the two. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
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