#Matthias Habich

[dare-g]

Coup de Grace (1976)

[rwpohl]

das urteil, oliver hirschbiegel 1997

[deepredradio]

Duell - Enemy at the Gates

Story: Stalingrad, 1942: Während sich die deutschen und die russischen Truppen in Stalingrad gegenseitig grausame Verluste zufügen, sieht der Rest der Welt voll Furcht dem Ausgang dieser Schlacht entgegen. Doch der gefürchtete russische Präzisionsschütze Vassili Zaitsev kennt keine Angst und schießt einen seiner Gegner nach dem anderen nieder. Vassilis legendärer Ruf führt bald zu einem Duell mit…

[byneddiedingo]

Margarethe von Trotta in Coup de Grâce (Volker Schlöndorff, 1976) Cast:  Matthias Habich, Margarethe von Trotta, Rüdiger Kirschstein, Valeska Gert. Marc Eyraud, Hannes Kaetner, Franz Morak, Frederik von Zischy, Mathieu Carrière. Screenplay: Geneviève Dormann, Margarethe von Trotta, Jutta Brückner. based on a novel by Marguerite Yourcenar. Cinematography: Igor Luther. Film editing: Jane Seitz. Music: Stanley Myers. Coup de Grâce is a film as chilly as its setting: a castle in Latvia in the bleak winter of 1919-1920, as the Bolsheviks begin to overwhelm their opponents in the Baltic states, many of whom are Germans determined to defeat the communists. The castle belongs to Conrad de Reval (Rüdiger Kirschstein), who has gathered there some of the remnants of his forces, including his friend Erich von Lhomond (Matthias Habich). It becomes apparent very early, especially from the glances between Conrad and Erich, that they may be more than just friends. It's not so apparent to Conrad's sister, Sophie (Margarethe von Trotta), who is still living in the castle along with her aged aunt (Valeska Gert). Sophie makes a play for Conrad, but it's only partially successful. To spite and to tantalize him, she begins to have affairs with some of the other men staying at the castle. Meanwhile, the castle comes under attack from the Bolsheviks, some of whom are also Sophie's friends. Von Trotta gives a complex portrayal of Sophie, but is somewhat undermined by the intricacies of the relationships among the various characters and the difficulty of sorting out their several backstories. We don't know enough about her, or Erich or Conrad, to get a full sense of why any of them behave as they do, other than the moral fatigue of having fought the war for so long. In the end, the film becomes most memorable for the performance of Gert, whose grotesque and macabre Aunt Praskovia steals every scene in which she appears. In the 1920s, Gert had been a silent film actress and a cabaret performer -- she would have fit right in with the "divine decadence" of the Kit Kat Kub in Bob Fosse's Cabaret (1972). Although Coup de Grâce has a strong final scene, the slackness of the narrative thread in the film deprives it of some of its impact. Still, good performances, an effective recreation of the historical period,  and the impressive black and white cinematography by Igor Luther make it worth seeing.

[gedeonburkhard]

Passagier, Der - Welcome to Germany BRD 1988 Regie: Thomas Brasch Darsteller: Gedeon Burkhard, Matthias Habich Rollen: Janko, Koerner

[detournementsmineurs]

"Noir comme le Souvenir" de Jean-Pierre Mocky (1995) avec Jane Birkin, Sabine Azéma, Jean-François Stévenin, Matthias Habich, Benoît Régent, Jenny Alpha, Vanessa Larré, Alain Fourès, Jany Holt et la jeune Marina Rollman, juillet 2023.

[rapturousrot]

Coup de Grâce (1976) dir. Volker Schlöndorff    

[mrfahrenheit92]

[firstclassmovies]

COUP DE GRÂCE (1976). Volker Schlöndorff directs Margarethe von Trotta whose unrequited love for an officer leads to tragedy.

[petersonreviews]

Berlin Syndrome (2017)

“Trim off some of the fat and lean more heavily into Clare’s backstory than into Andi’s and maybe Berlin Syndrome’d be the tight, “most underrated of 2017”-list topper it’s so capable of being. But alas we’re left with a slightly blemished product that’s good but could be greater.”

http://bit.ly/2EpocYP

[maysshortmoviereviews]

Nowhere in Africa (2001) Nirgendwo in Afrika (original title)

A German Jewish refugee family moves to and adjusts to a farm life in 1930s Kenya.

This is one of the most touching and moving films I have watched recently. I thought about this story for a few days after I watched this film. It’s really beautifully made and acted. Do check it out, I highly recommend it.

[mymoviedump]

Berlin Syndrome

A passionate holiday romance leads to an obsessive relationship, when an Australian photojournalist wakes one morning in a Berlin apartment and is unable to leave.

[agentnico]

Berlin Syndrome (2017) Review

Wasn’t originally planning to see this film. Then me and my friend one day were very bored, so we went and saw it. Was pleasantly surprised.

Plot: A passionate holiday romance leads to an obsessive relationship, when an Australian photojournalist wakes one morning in a Berlin apartment and is unable to leave.

A tale of kidnapping, where a woman falls for this mysterious guy, follows him into his apartment, come together in the biblical manner and then suddenly find themselves being held captive by said guy in his locked apartment, and being treated as a pet. Fun times, eh? In all fairness this film comes out at a very good time, as with all these big scale summer blockbusters it’s nice to see a more smaller and confined film, that is pretty much based in one location, and where the story mainly focuses on only two characters, the captor and the victim. This is where this film shines. You really do feel kind of claustrophobic when watching certain scenes of the film, and certain moments of tension really make this to be a very interesting watch. What also helps is the very well done cinematography. The filming style really reminded me a lot of another indie flick this year ‘Personal Shopper’, where the shots really focuses on showing off the location, with ‘Personal Shopper’ being in Paris and ‘Berlin Syndrome’ being in, well, Berlin.

That being said, this is far from a perfect film. Throughout the movie there are quite a few plot holes, specifically with certain character motivations. The character of Clare (played by Teresa Palmer) never makes it quite clear exactly what she wants, and as she is held captive she sometimes sympathises with her captor Andi, then in another scene starts screaming and trying to attack him. And yes, I get that the film tries to reference Stockholm syndrome here, but I didn’t feel like the script made it clear enough and instead just created a character with multiple characteristics that didn’t work together. However, Teresa Palmer herself does a great job in this movie, possibly her strongest role to-date, and even in the very first opening scenes of the film she does a great job conveying an enthusiastic stranger in a stranger’s land. Max Riemelt plays her captor Andi, and talk about a guy who is creepy. As in he was uncomfortably creepy, not just with Clare, but with anyone he spoke with, that is with his father, his colleagues from work, and I just wondered how no one questioned his actions. He acts weird wherever he is, so someone was bound to have said something, but no, most of the characters simply let his whole creepy factor slide past and I did not buy that. But once again, the actual performance by Riemelt was good, this is more a problem with the writing and underwritten characters.

The film goes on for only just under 2 hours, and you feel it, as there were many parts where the film drags on. I’m someone who usually really liked slow paced films, however here there are certain scenes that have great moments of tension and character work, but then there are others where you just wish for the film to hurry up and get it’s destination. Talking about the destination, the ending is a bit disappointing, since with the build up and the whole thing with Stockholm syndrome being involved, I expected the ending to be more powerful, however it goes quite the banal way.

Though I did still really enjoy ‘Berlin Syndrome’, and I’d definitely recommend this film to go and see for anyone who is getting tired of all the big budget blockbuster flicks and watch something smaller and more simpler.

Overall score: 7/10

TOP MOVIE QUOTE: “Can’t you just be normal?”

[byneddiedingo]

Ulrich Matthes and Bruno Ganz in Downfall (Oliver Hirschbiegel, 2004)

Cast: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Laga, Corinna Harfouch, Ulrich Matthes, Juliane Köhler, Heino Ferch, Christian Berkel, Matthias Habich, Thomas Kretschmann, Michael Mendl, Ulrich Noethen. Screenplay: Bernd Eichinger, based on books by Joachim Fest and Traudl Junge and Melissa Müller. Cinematography: Rainer Klausmann. Production design: Bernd Lepel. Film editing: Hans Funck. Music: Stephan Zacharias.

Downfall may be best known today for memes: the video parodies that take parts of the film, particularly the ranting of Bruno Ganz's Hitler, and supply new subtitles that spoof everything from contemporary politics to the efforts of the producers to suppress the parodies on YouTube because of copyright concerns. The producers were misguided: The parodies probably led more people to watch the actual film than would have without their notoriety. It's a well-made film, particularly because it manages to deal with an inherent problem: Would a dramatization of the last days of Hitler and his coterie tend to glamorize their futile struggle to survive, turning it into something like heroism? Ganz's superb performance helps the film sidestep that danger: His Hitler is humanized, to be sure, even to the point of once shedding a tear, but ultimately it's a portrait of repellent fanaticism and megalomania. He's a twitchy old man, one hand held behind his back in a palsied claw, but it's easy to see how the rather beleaguered men and women who surround him could be filled with a terrified awe of the man. I'm not particularly happy with the framing of Downfall, however. I think the decision to see much of the story through the eyes of Hitler's pretty secretary, Traudl Junge (Alexandra Maria Laga), shifts the focus away from the desperate horror of the final days, using a somewhat glossy survival story to keep the audience entertained. The footage of the real Traudl Junge that begins and ends the film doesn't much help illuminate why the "ordinary" German could be hoodwinked by Nazism, and her insistence that she didn't know of the true horrors of the Reich feels a little specious. There are, however, some moments of genuine drama in the film that emphasize how foul a spell Hitler cast over his followers, particularly the hysterical collapse of the otherwise icy Magda Goebbels (Corinna Harfouch) at Hitler's feet when she realize the end is at hand. She pulls herself together and then proceeds to systematically murder her five children. I also liked the depiction of the cynicism of the Nazis who, when someone reminds them of the plight of the German people, sneeringly retort that it was their fault for bringing them to power in the first place. There's a lesson in the film somewhere for contemporary Americans, but I don't want to be the one to spell it out. Kudos to Stephan Zacharias for avoiding Wagnerian clichés in his score, although I thought the quotation from Purcell's aria "When I Am Laid in Earth" might have been a touch too sentimental.

[thebechdeltests]

BERLIN SYNDROME | 2017

The Original Bechdel:

Are there at least two named female characters? - Yes. Claire,  and Franka.

Do these characters ever have a conversation? - No, Claire speaks to Franka in the end. Franka does not respond.

Do they speak about something other than a man?

The Racial Bechdel:

Are there at least two named characters of color? - No.

Do these characters ever have a conversation?

Do they speak about something other than a white person?

The LGBTQIA+ Bechdel

Are there at least two LGBTQIA+ identifying characters? - No.

Do these characters ever have a conversation?

Do they speak about something other than a cisgender, heterosexual person?

CONSENSUS: 1/9

[detournementsmineurs]

Matthias Habich et Jane Birkin dans "Noir comme le Souvenir" de Jean-Pierre Mocky (1995), juillet 2023.