Reviews

What already worked out for the German 99euro-films 1 proves again an interesting concept with its European sequel. EUROPE-99EURO-FILMS 2 is a get-together of the shortfilms of 9 European cult-directors such as vampire-film-director Harry Kümel, actress Ellen ten Damme, London horror-director Richard Stanley and Andrej Zulawski's son Xavery. RP Kahl's connecting episode takes the viewer on a trip through Europe's capitals. A mysterious beauty makes us curious of the stories which might be hidden in cities like Paris, London, Warsaw and Berlin. And we are being rewarded: The directors take us into the mystical London underground, develop a simple road trip into a thriller or give us an insight into the world of dwarfs... The idea of independent film-making is again celebrated at its best in EUROPE-99EURO-FILMS 2!

LIE WITH ME is one of the few good erotic films I've seen. I don't believe that there is something like a typical "women's erotic film". But like many others - men included - I'm bored of stereotype characters and narration in most erotic films. LIE WITH ME is produced and directed with the same elaborateness one would expect from a "normal" independent feature film. This is what makes the explicit sex scenes work for me. And the actors: Lauren Lee Smith (who also starred in "The L-Word") and Eric Balfour (great minor role in "Six Feet Under") inspire the protagonists with their ideosyncratic characteristics and physical presence on the screen and make the story come to live. They are NOT equipped with big "perfect" breasts or big perfect six-packs. They are beautifully normal - which is why I can relate to them.

MÄDCHEN AM SONNTAG/Sunday GIRLS is a loving portrait of four lovely young actresses who work beyond the mainstream industry in Germany – might be only the big roles for them haven't yet been written. In this intimate film portrait by RP Kahl they are eventually put into limelight – a light which focuses on their personal highlights as well as their defeats, their troubles and the mechanisms of film business. It is high time that these young women, namely Laura Tonke, Nicolette Krebitz, Katharina Schüttler and Inga Birkenfeld are given a speaking tube! BecausE they are the German pendants to Chloe Sevigny or Juliette Lewis in the US, Charlotte Gainsbourg in France, and Asia Argento in Italy. Included on this DVD is a great extra that turns the table: now it is the actresses who interview their director. Very recommendable!

THE BROWN BUNNY by Vincent Gallo is one of the films which prove that independent film-making is so much more creative and effective than most big-budget-mainstream productions. With simple camera shots and dirty road-movie-aesthetics, few dialogue and non- linear editing and narration we are shown what cinema is capable of: we drift along with a not even truly sympathetic character. And we do not understand his intentions until the last revealing sequence of the film. But then our emotions explode in retrospective on the seemingly uneventful journey we've watched over the last 80 or so minutes. Suddenly the whole tragedy of the protagonist is revealed and his journey makes sense. To me, THE BROWN BUNNY manages what IRREVERSIBLE fails to show: the raw emotions and the mind's confusion of a mourning and conscious-stricken man.

Twelve young German film directors get 99 Euro to shoot a film: shoot in the smallest possible constellation. Returning to the original idea, film should be about stories and emotions rather than expensive effects and marketing strategies. This is how 99EURO-FILMS criticize current mainstream films, which have moved far away from that notion. The twelve episodes by directors like RP Kahl, Michael Klier, Matthias Glasner, Martin Walz, and Esther Gronenborn, together build an awesome, diversifying mosaic of current German film- making, which is loaded with ideas and interesting aesthetics, in this case mini-dv-aesthetics in contrast to high definition standards. The ideas are fresh, unconventional, open-minded and individual – as far as content is concerned as well as style. It is especially interesting to see the well-known actors Nicolette Krebitz and Peter Lohmeyer as first time directors with their own episodes. Every viewer will be rewarded in this compilation: some episodes are easy-going and comedic, others are more contemplative and artistic – all of them are very filmic.

ANGEL EXPRESS is the first feature film by RP Kahl, produced by himself with his company erdbeermundfilm – a guarantor for ambitious and enjoyable independent cinema. This debut takes a laconic and nonchalant perspective on the ambivalent lives of Berlin clubbers in the nineties – torn between (creative) self-fulfilment and (emotional) emptiness, between the hope for love and the fast kick. The film alludes to American cult novel "American Psycho" as well as to European auteur cinema à la Godard. This is exactly the reason why ANGEL EXPRESS is both, a dark society portrait and a humorous self-reflection.

The five protagonists somnambulate through Berlin's nightlife. Their personal stories are episodically interwoven, there is no linearity, it's only the music's beat which determines their rhythm. And in spite of all the people's loneliness there emerges a humour, which smiles ironically at these lives, but never gives them away. Because all these people are hungry for life. This is why ANGEL EXPRESS at first glance appears quite cool and aloof but in the end is a loving homage to the pulsating Berlin-Mitte life in the 1990s.