Bruno Ganz Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Cinematical is proud to premiere the brand spankin' new poster and green band trailer for The Baader Meinhof Complex, nominated this year for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category. Directed by Uli Edel, the film features a cast of European all-stars, and looks to be a thriller that has a good shot at transcending potential linguistic barriers -- starting with the title! (Click image below to view full version of the poster, which was created by Shepard Fairey's Studio Number One)

From the official synopsis: "Germany in the 1970s: Murderous bomb attacks, the threat of terrorism and the fear of the enemy inside are rocking the very foundations of the still fragile German democracy. The radicalised children of the Nazi generation led by Andreas Baader (Moritz Bleibtreu), Ulrike Meinhof (Martina Gedeck) and Gudrun Ensslin (Johanna Wokalek) are fighting a violent war against what they perceive as the new face of fascism: American imperialism supported by the German establishment, many of whom have a Nazi past ... The man who understands them is also their hunter: the head of the German police force Horst Herold (Bruno Ganz)."

As I noted when it was acquired for distribution by Vitagraph Films, The Baader Meinhof Complex received a mixed critical reception when it opened in the UK last fall. Still, the reviews that were positive were extremely positive, the trailer looks crazy good, and, with its references to Germany's Nazi past, even ties in (albeit indirectly) to Quentin Tarantino's upcoming Inglourious Basterds.

Watch the Green Band Trailer Premiere of The Baader Meinhof Complex after the jump!

All hail the now-defunct Dallas institute of weird and wooly media, Forbidden Books and Video. It was in a scuzzy neighborhood down by the fair grounds, which was perfect for a place where bored high school kids could rent Romper Stomper, Nekromantik, El Topo, or similarly mind-warping movies. They sold obscure CDs from England, serial killers T-shirts, and really effed-up books back before Hot Topic or Amazon or any of those joints.

In college, a friend introduced me to Nick Cave, specifically The Birthday Party but also his Bad Seeds stuff. I didn't get it. It was over my head. First he's screaming, now he's moaning, now he's releasing bats. What the hell? I wanted to get it, but I just didn't... yet.

And then one summer when I was back home, I hit up Forbidden Video and came home with Wings of Desire. It was hard to stick with the German poetry and the thoughts of strangers in the library and the street, but soon it all clicked. Oh, Columbo and his cup of coffee and cigarettes. Bruno Ganz as the angel Damiel watching his object of desire Marion swing on her trapeze, alone in her trailer. And the very best parts, my favorite parts, when the solemn black and white film flashes to color -- when Damiel sees what it would be like, or could be like, to be human. Two of these scenes are when he follows Marion to a club where Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are playing. She thinks she's alone in the crowd, but she's not. (An interesting sidenote -- fellow Aussies and Bad Seed compatriots Crime and the City Solution also played in the movie. Mick Harvey and Rowland S. Howard were in both bands.)

A lot rides on Youth Without Youth, Francis Ford Coppola's twentieth feature film and his first after a ten-year absence from the director's chair. His last film was The Rainmaker (1997), an above average John Grisham thriller iced with good performances, although it was an unremarkable film for a man who once earned comparisons with a wunderkind like Orson Welles. I wish I could report that Youth Without Youth is a "comeback" of immense proportions and that Coppola had restored himself as a kind of genius auteur, but the film is far more difficult than that. In some ways, it's as unremarkable as The Rainmaker, but in other ways, it's far too astonishing and complex to be easily dismissed.

Coppola has always caused trouble for auteur critics. Obviously he made two of the greatest films of all time with The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974), and though I'm alone in this, I love The Godfather Part III (1990) equally. Also, we could easily add The Conversation (1974) and Apocalypse Now (1979) to the list of all-time greats. After that, it appears he took a fall, but continued to make interesting films. With a little coaxing, his canon can be divided up into a few neat categories. The masterworks have a kind of reckless intelligence, an uncanny mix of chaos and control. It could be argued that Rumble Fish (1983) and The Cotton Club (1984) belong in this category as well.

I've tried to get into chess, and I'll probably try again. However, it's a bit challenging for those of us who like fast-paced games free of long lulls of silent thought, or who fire up Chessmaster just to get beat by 6-year-old beginner competitors. (I'm convinced that the makers of that game made the easy players kids to mock those of us who get into it late in the game.) Anyhow, you chess fans out there are about to get sexy, foreign chess on the big screen courtesy of writer Caroline Bottaro (C'est la vie).

Variety reports that she's going to make her directorial debut with a film called Joueuse, otherwise known as The Chess Player. Sandrine Bonnaire (Vagabond) who also starred in C'est la vie, and Bruno Ganz (Youth Without Youth) will star in the French-German co-production, which is about "a hotel chambermaid who develops an obsession for chess." Oh, the possibilities! This could be a racy tale of chess and hotels, since Ganz's role isn't mentioned. Instead of some bad guys, chases, and intrigue, they could bond over the smooth finish of the pawn before taking the queen, or king, so to speak. It could be about a crazy lady who leaves chess pieces throughout the hotel. Or, maybe something more Twin Peaksish.

The production got a nice bit of money, $700,000, from the German-French Film Funding Commission, but this is the only film that's received help. The same amount is going to Gaspar Noe's Enter the Void, and some money is also going to Ludi Boeken's Among Peasants.

Have you recovered from your holiday eating binge? Are you ready for some pie? Reviewing Waitress at Sundance earlier this year, Cinematical's James Rocchi described it as "a light, breezy romantic comedy with a crackerjack cast and a certain degree of faux-Southern charm that never descends to cornpone mawkishness, and also has a whip-smart comedic sensibility in every scene." The late Adrienne Shelly wrote, directed, and co-stars with Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion and Andy Griffith. The DVD includes several featurettes and an audio commentary with Russell and producer Michael Roiff.

The Namesake very much impressed our own Kim Voynar, who called it "a deeply felt look at the ties of family and birthplace, the loneliness of living far from your home, and the connections that hold everything together, sometimes in ways we don't appreciate until much later." Mira Nair directed; the film stars Irfan Khan, Tabu, Kal Penn and Sahira Nair. The DVD features an audio commentary by director Nair and several featurettes, plus deleted scenes.

Critics gave high marks (83% positive, per Rotten Tomatoes) to documentary Manufactured Landscapes. It's said to be an "investigation of photographer Edward Burtynsky's legacy, with its aesthetic studies of industrial landscapes. ... It uses the topic of Burtynsky as a springboard." Jennifer Baichwal directed. The DVD includes additional scenes, a stills gallery and a discussion with Baichwal and Burtynsky.

We can never get too many rebellious child prodigy dramas, can we? Vitus fairly well divided critics: 34 positive and 21 negative, according to Rotten Tomatoes. The veteran and versatile Bruno Ganz is the most recognizable name in the cast. The DVD features an interview with Ganz, a "making of" feature and an audio commentary by director Fredi M. Murer.

You may or may not be aware of it, but Francis Ford Coppola has been quietly at work for several months on Youth Without Youth (the official site, including a short diary from Coppola, is here), his first film in eight years. Filming began in Romania last fall and, if Variety is to be believed, it was wrapped up just recently (as, logically enough, was principle photography on the planned making-of documentary), and Coppola has already begun editing the footage.

The movie, which was written by Coppola and is budgeted at only $5 million, is based on a book by Romanian author Mircea Eliade and revolves around "Professor Stancislescu, an academic forced to become a fugitive" in 1930s Bucharest. The wonderful German actor Bruno Ganz (who recently received universal acclaim for his performance as Adolf Hitler in The Downfall) stars as Stancislescu, and he's joined in multi-national cast by Brit Tim Roth and Romanians Alexandra Maria Lara and Marcel Iures. It's hoped that the movie will be theaters some time next year, but a more specific date has yet to be pinned down.

The London Film Critics' Circle handed out its annual awards last night and, shock of shocks, they gave best picture to Brokeback Mountain, and best director to - guess who - Ang Lee. The award for best screenplay, though, went to Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco for Crash, giving the film yet another boost heading into the Oscar ceremony.

Refreshingly, however, several of the Circle's other awards were given to people who have been largely ignored by American critical organizations. Though no one has yet seen fit to name King Kong best actor, his costar Naomi Watts took home the best actress award, while the consistently astounding German actor Bruno Ganz was recognized for his performance as Adolf Hitler in Downfall, which was also named best foreign film. Meanwhile, in the Brits Only! acting categories, The Constant Gardener costars Ralph Fiennes and Oscar nominee and Golden Globe-winner Rachel Weisz took home the trophies.