The Legend

This time, a proposal which came from Jörg. It's of course one of the finest shots of maybe the greatest Japanese directors of all times: Kurosawa.
I asked Jörg to write a short description to the film, here is what he sent me:

Japan in 16. Jahrhundert: Der greise Fürst Hidetora, einst ein mächtiger und grausamer Feldherr, überträgt sein Reich dem ältesten seiner drei Söhne. Blind gegenüber der aufrichtigen Liebe seines jüngsten Sohnes und unfähig, die Verschlagenheit der beiden anderen zu sehen, kommt seine Einsicht zu spät: Ausgestoßen und geistig umnachtet wandert er ziellos umher und muss erleben, wie die Söhne Reich und Erbe ins Chaos und Verderben apokalyptischer Schlachten stürzen.
Akira Kurosawas Werk ist inspiriert von William Shakespeares Tragödie "King Lear", von den aktuellen Traditionen Japans und von aktuellen Endzeitvisionen.
(it's German, so for those of you who don't understand it, be convinced it's definitely worth coming by!)

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When: Tuesday, 22nd of November, 19:00
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Where: GSN Seminar Room, Ground floor, Biocenter
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Ran

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Year: 1985

2!

After the last couple of pretty heavy wight movies that we screened, it's time to return to something more edible. And this doesn't imply by any means a 2nd hand movie.

This one is actually a pretty neat film, with the right amount between dark humor and adventure, packed into a not that common environment: a train.
After a family scandal which almost tore the family apart, one of the three brothers decides to reunite the siblings and thus he organizes a round trip though India. A small mafia subplot accompanied by very brief love affairs help to create a perfect frame towards destroying this mystical plan. To get an understanding of the type of ridiculous geniality which soars though this story, at some point, the train gets lost. Yes!

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When: Tuesday, 15th of November, 19:00
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Where: GSN Seminar Room, ground floor, Biocenter
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The Darjeeling Limited

Year: 2007

Director: Wes Anderson

Wander. Quietly.

A place full of dangers. Unexpected events, mysterious shortcuts and strange vibes. And at the other end, there is the long awaited reward, a holy grail of a very real feel - the only thing one would in the first instance adventure into this realm.

It is a very rich movie, one of the few that require almost mathematical attention to details. But once you'll leave the "zona" many things will bear a completely different light.

Tarkovsky, one of most intense directors that the 20th century was able to breed, was criticized as well as praised for this masterpiece. It relentlessly inspired generation after generation and after more than 30 years it is probably more actual than ever.

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When: Thursday, 3rd of November, 19:00
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Where: GSN Seminar room, ground floor, Biocenter
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Stalker

Director: Andrei Tarkovsky

Year: 1979

Beauty

The next film is yet another classic, Desire - Wings of.
Because it's my favorite band and because I happen to think that these lyrics are a museful interpretation of the plot, I will paste them here and postpone any other discussion until the closing scene of this masterpiece.

You see half the moon, its crescent, and one of the planets,
maybe Saturn, maybe Jupiter, in the early night sky over Berlin,
through the windows of a taxicab, near Potsdamer Platz

You think: Beauty!
No, this is not beauty, maybe not, maybe, this is the rest of it,
maybe not, maybe, the rest of beauty,
maybe not, maybe, what remains of beauty, maybe not,
maybe, what is visible, certainly, uncertain.
Your arms would not be able to stretch as far as necessary to form an
adequate gesture for beauty
(You know that, don't you?)

So, beauty remains in the impossibilities of the body.


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When: Tuesday, 25th of October, 19:00
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Where: Biocenter, GSN Seminar Room, ground floor
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Der Himmel über Berlin

Year: 1987

Director: Wim Wenders

IMDB: here

The crisis.

For the start of the new semester I propose a very special cine, both hilarious and tragic - a perfect combination of first class acting and detailed directing. Shot in the midst of the cold war, it manages to capture in a most schematic but nonetheless vivid form the ridiculous tensions present throughout the political landscape of that era. Yet, turning on any TV-set and waiting for the news, the same absurdities seem live on disguised as important facts people should be concerned about.

Kubrick, one of my favorite directors, is the master-mind behind this cinematographic landmark, and because he succeeds to artfully decorate every frame I hope we'll have plenty of things to discuss afterwards.

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When: Wed, 19th of October, 19:00

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Where: Biocenter, GSN Seminar room, ground floor

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Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Year: 1964

Excursions to the jungle

And now to something completely different... Next week we will watch two documentaries, both somewhat related to the work on weakly-electric fish:

As a teaser we will see "Spying on an Invisible Sense", the movie the AG Benda created for the movie competition called for at this year's BCCN meeting. An exclusive preview, so to say!

The main movie of the day will then be “Wings of Hope (Julianes Sturz in den Dschungel)”, a documentary Werner Herzog made about Juliane Koepke who survived a plane accident in Peru in 1971. As the only survivor she wandered around the jungle for 10 days, while at the same time, Herzog was working in Peru on his movie "Aguirre". He had actually in the first place been scheduled to take the same flight, but by a lucky coincident didn't end up taking it. In 1998 together with Koepke he went back to the place of the accident and made this movie. The connection to the electric fish: Koepke leads a biological station in Panagua, where Jörg went for field work this year.

We hope that both movies draw interest not only in the AG Benda and look forward to seeing you next Wednesday (Sept. 21st)!

Daddy don't ever die on friday!

S'Been some time since the last film club....but horray...exams are over for now, and we can return to life's little pleasures.

So, tomorrow an absolute must! Hilarious, tragic and probably the best of all: fantastic music. In Zappa's words:

Information is not knowledge
Knowledge is not wisdom
Wisdom is not truth
Truth is not beauty
Beauty is not love
Love is not music
Music is THE BEST...


It's about a love and hate relationship, which is so typical of the Balkan (almost forgotten in the lawful "west"), and which extends far beyond the plot of the movie. Two keywords: Bregovic and Kusturica. Legendary compositor and controversial film-maker. The perfect couple...which as in every real world, is doomed to break apart. Various reasons.


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When: Tomorrow 17th of August, 19:00
Where: Biocenter, GSN Seminar Room, Ground floor
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Black Cat, White Cat

Director: Emir Kusturica

Music: Goran Bregovic

Year: 1998