timespace coordinates: 1943 Germany, Norway
Tag: Germany
0962 – Overlord (2018)
timespace coordinates: June, 1944 Nazi occupied France
Overlord is a 2018 American war horror / period Nazi zombie shoot-’em-up film directed by Julius Avery and written by Billy Ray and Mark L. Smith. It stars Jovan Adepo, Wyatt Russell, Mathilde Ollivier, John Magaro, Gianny Taufer, Pilou Asbæk, and Bokeem Woodbine. The film was produced by J. J. Abrams, through his Bad Robot Productions banner, and Lindsey Weber. The plot follows several American soldiers who are dropped behind enemy lines the day before D-Day and discover secret Nazi experiments. (wiki)
The title of the film is, no doubt, in reference to Operation Overlord, the codename for the Allied operation for the Battle of Normandy, which launched the successful invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe. This, alongside Operation Neptune, would become known as D-Day.
0958 – Suspiria (2018)
timespace coordinates: 1977, Berlin during the height of the German Autum
(!extreme violence!)
Suspiria (Latin pronunciation: [sʊsˈpɪria]) is a 2018 supernatural psychological horror film directed by Luca Guadagnino with a screenplay by David Kajganich, inspired by the 1977 Italian film of the same title directed by Dario Argento. Guadagnino’s film, which is set in 1977, stars Dakota Johnson as an American woman who enrolls at a prestigious dance academy in Berlin run by a coven of witches. Tilda Swinton co-stars in three roles, including as the company’s lead choreographer and as a male psychotherapist involved in the academy. Mia Goth and Chloë Grace Moretz appear in supporting roles as students, while Angela Winkler, Renée Soutendijk, Ingrid Caven, and Sylvie Testud portray some of the academy’s matrons. The star of the original film, Jessica Harper, has a cameo appearance.
An “homage” to the original rather than a straightforward remake, the movie explores themes of generational guilt in Germany during the Cold War. The film also focuses on themes of motherhood, evil, and the dynamics of matriarchies.
Unlike the original film, which used exaggerated colors, Guadagnino conceived Suspiria as visually “winterish” and bleak, absent of primary colors. The film incorporates stylized dance sequences choreographed by Damien Jalet, which form part of its representation of witchcraft. The musical score was composed by Radiohead singer Thom Yorke, who took inspiration from krautrock. (wiki)
Analysis and themes
0957 – Suspiria (1977)
timespace coordinates: 1970’s Freiburg, Germany
Movie Poster Design
Suspiria (Latin: [sʊsˈpɪria]) is a 1977 Italian supernatural horror film directed by Dario Argento, co-written by Argento and Daria Nicolodi, partially based on Thomas De Quincey‘s 1845 essay Suspiria de Profundis (Sighs from the Depths) and co-produced by Claudio and Salvatore Argento. The film stars Jessica Harper as an American ballet student who transfers to a prestigious dance academy in Germany but realizes, after a series of brutal murders, that the academy is a front for a supernatural conspiracy. It also features Stefania Casini, Flavio Bucci, Miguel Bosé, Alida Valli, Udo Kier and Joan Bennett, in her final film role.
The film is the first of the trilogy Argento refers to as The Three Mothers, which also comprises Inferno (1980) and The Mother of Tears (2007). Suspiria has become one of Argento’s most successful feature films, receiving critical acclaim for its visual and stylistic flair, use of vibrant colors and its score by the prog-rock band Goblin.
Suspiria has become a cult classic, and is recognised as an influential film in the horror genre. It served as the inspiration for a 2018 film of the same title, directed by Luca Guadagnino. (wiki)
0950 – The Captain / Der Hauptmann (2017)
timespace coordinates: 1945. Nazi Germany (the last moments of World War II)
The Captain (German: Der Hauptmann) is a 2017 German Art House & war drama film directed by Robert Schwentke.
The film tells the story of German war criminal Willi Herold, who assumed a stolen identity as a German officer and orchestrated the killing of deserters and other prisoners at one of the Emslandlager camps. (wiki)
Simultaneously a historical docudrama and sociological examination with undertones of the absurd, The Captain presents fascism as something of a game to be played by those most gullible and unscrupulous. (rt)
941
0935 – Das Boot (1981)
timespace coordinates: October – Christmas Eve 1941 harbour of La Rochelle, harbour of Vigo, Strait of Gibraltar
Das Boot (German pronunciation: [das ˈboːt], German: “The Boat”) is a 1981 German submarine film written and directed by Wolfgang Petersen, produced by Günter Rohrbach, and starring Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, and Klaus Wennemann. It has been exhibited both as a theatrical release and as a TV miniseries (1985), in several different home video versions of various running times, and in a director’s cut version supervised by Petersen in 1997.
An adaptation of Lothar-Günther Buchheim‘s 1973 German novel of the same name, the film is set during World War II and follows German U-boat U-96 and its crew, as they set out on a hazardous patrol in the Battle of the Atlantic. It depicts both the excitement of battle and the tedium of the fruitless hunt, and shows the men serving aboard U-boats as ordinary individuals with a desire to do their best for their comrades and their country.
During production, Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock, the captain of the real U-96 and one of Germany’s top U-boat “tonnage aces” during the war, and Hans-Joachim Krug, former first officer on U-219, served as consultants. One of Petersen’s goals was to guide the audience through “a journey to the edge of the mind” (the film’s German tagline Eine Reise ans Ende des Verstandes), showing “what war is all about”.
Today, the film is seen as one of the greatest of all German films. (wiki)
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