TheGoodGerman Tagged Articles at Cinematical

After starting her career only a handful of years ago, German actress Diane Kruger has made a recognizable career out of her face. She's starred as Helen of Troy in the pretty crappy Troy, the mysterious other woman in Wicker Park and the sexy estrogen in National Treasure. In promotion of her new film, Copying Beethoven, Kruger spoke with The Sydney Morning Herald and had some interesting things to say. The most notable: she should have been cast in Cate Blanchett's role in The Good German. It seems that the actress just can't get over the fact that she wasn't given a chance.

According to the actress, she tried for over a year to convince the producers of the film that she "was the only woman who could play the part." She continues: "I mean, it's the good German, right? Cate Blanchett is definitely my favourite actress, but it's frustrating to not even get the opportunity." According to the article, this statement was followed by "an exasperated 'Aaaggghhh'." Sure, there is a point buried in there -- I can understand the argument for using the right ethnic background for a role. It saves us from the dreaded accent slips (Kruger has been slighted herself for that), makes things more authentic and allows some great talent to get wider recognition.

But really, she's putting her foot in her mouth. Her career is based on her French and English roles, not German ones. Essentially, she's put herself above every notable German actress, and has chastised the process that has made her career. Topping all that off, her career really isn't something that she can hold up to Blanchett's. She should take her own advice: "I keep bringing that up in interviews, which I probably shouldn't." She's got the choice to make. Does she want to hone her craft and follow in the footsteps of Blanchett, or take the route J-Lo did with that infamous Movieline article?

The World War II movie Days of Glory opens today on 3 screens. That's not to be confused with another movie called Days of Glory, from 1944, or the other one from 1945. Nor is it to be confused with Hope and Glory, Paths of Glory, What Price Glory, Bound for Glory, Days of Heaven, Days of Thunder, or just plain Glory.

In the past, war movies used to be about something. By the titles alone, you could go to a movie expecting to see Attacks, Battles, Bridges, Boats, The Big Red One, Bullets, Dawn Patrols, Dirty Dozens, Fighting Sullivans, Fixed Bayonets, Flying Leathernecks, Great Escapes, Guns of Navarone, Merrill's Marauders, and even Full Metal Jackets. Titles like these make you want to roar and holler and tear around the woods, ripping right through enemy cover with thunder and trumpets driving you on.

It's official. Berlinale has announced the six contenders in their film competition. Those in the running include some Berlin favorites as well as American repeats. Here is the list of nominees:

• The Good German -- which has received mixed reviews in America -- is directed by Steven Soderbergh and stars George Clooney (a Berlinale regular), Cate Blanchett, and Tobey Maguire. The film takes place in a post war Berlin where an investigative reporter finds himself in the center of a murder mystery. The controversy continues when unexpected people from his past become inconveniently intertwined.

• The Good Shepherd is an interesting pick to say the least. Robert DeNiro both stars in and directs a film that has yet to receive any noteworthy appreciation. Matt Damon (not my favorite) and Angelina Jolie (strangely miscast) play a couple who is ultimately torn apart by Damon's occupation with the CIA. It also takes place in the 1930s; maybe Berlinale is dwelling in this era a bit this year?

• German director Christian Petzold will be showing his second Berlinale nominated film Yella. The storyline profiles a woman who wishes to escape a life that refuses to stop following her no matter where she relocates.

• Irina Palm starring Marianne Faithful is the second film made by Belgian director Sam Garbarski. Faithful plays a struggling widow who takes a sex position in order to survive.

• Goodbye Bafana is an intriguing true-life story about the prison guard who protected Nelson Mandela during his internment. Billie August directs as Joseph Fiennes plays James Gregory, the prison guard.

• Last but not least is a film from South Korean director Chan-wook Park. I Am A Cyborg But That's Ok tells the story of a woman living in a psychiatric hospital who believes she is a cyborg (this may be about me soon due to my recent obsession with Battlestar Gallactica). During her stay she falls in love with a man suffering from mental ailments of his own.

From the outset -- slanting credits in white over grainy, shuddering stock-footage -- The Good German declares itself a product of a bygone age. And we're seeing an age gone by; Berlin, June, 1945, as broken people walk broken streets and an uneasy peace is built while fighting in the Pacific goes on. Army journalist Capt. Jake Geismer (George Clooney) is here to report on the Potsdam conference, as Stalin, Truman and Churchill meet to partition Germany. Before the war, Jake was in Berlin; it's a different city now, rubble run by guys like his motor pool driver, Tully (Tobey Maguire). Tully's having fun and making money, playing everyone in the city for a patsy aided by the air of chaos and doom: "The whole city spread its legs for you -- that whole eat, drink and be merry bullshit, seize the day -- It didn't make anyone smarter. ..."

Tully doesn't think of himself as such a bad guy; he's more than willing to help the girl he pimps get out of the country. Maguire's work -- coupled with Paul Attanasio's screen adaptation of Joseph Kanon's novel -- make it clear that Tully is one of those men who finds in war a chance to be someone -- or something -- that peace would not afford him. And, as fate would have it, Tully's new girlfriend is Lena Brandt (Cate Blanchett, eyes dark and voice husky), a German who used to work for Jake when he was in Berlin. Jake and Lena were also lovers; now, they're just two people who used to know each other.

Directed by Steven Soderbergh, The Good German isn't a badly-made film; just the opposite. The problem is that it's so well-made -- camera work, vocal recording techniques, process shots and film stock are all carefully manipulated to make The Good German look as if it was made around the time it's set -- that every time I felt The Good German's story and characters pull me in, some incredibly movie-conscious movie moment would be so strongly crafted and cut that it would make me acutely aware I was watching a movie; it's hard to be enmeshed in a character's emotional journey when your brain is screaming out what a great, retro-styled insert Soderbergh (who also served as his own director of photography) just put into the scene.

I have to admit that I'm a pretty big fan of the original Stargate film. Sure, there are one or two cringe-worthy moments -- particularly the one where the "mentally challenged" guy tries to run to safety in glorious slo-mo during a firefight but instead, gets blown up. I'm sorry, but that sequence made me chuckle instead of cry. It was just so much unexpected cheese --- almost as if it came from another movie. I know, cynical and jaded, right? Yeah, that's me. Other than that, and one or two minor issues, the film was a solid piece of Sci-Fi / Action filmmaking that I've watched several more times and continue to enjoy.

I found it a little strange that no sequel to the film was ever produced. Maybe it was too hard to get Kurt Russell and James Spader in the same room? For whatever reason, the producers of the film decided that the interests of the story and the fans would better be served on television -- and thus, Stargate SG-1 the TV series was born. After its debut, the series became a monster hit lasting eight seasons so far and spawning a spin-off of its own called Stargate: Atlantis. And that pretty much brings us up to date on the world of Stargate. That is, until actor Beau Bridges recently let slip some details concerning developments in the Stargate world.

According to our buddies over at Coming Soon, Bridges, while at the premiere of Steven Soderberg's The Good German, was asked what's in the future for the long-running Stargate SG-1 series. His answer: movies. According to Bridges: "They're talking about doing a couple of movies. I haven't actually signed on the dotted line, but there is talk about it." As you may know, Bridges plays Major General Hank Landry on Stargate SG-1, so it makes sense that he would probably know at least some details concerning any future theatrical plans for the current series. According to Bridges, he hasn't actually seen a script yet but when asked if the scripts were finished, he said: "Yes, I think they must be. Yes." So Stargate fans, if you've been waiting for the franchise's glorious return to the silver screen, you just may get you wish.

It's a little strange to hear one of the pioneers of independent film long for the old days of the studio system. In a recent New York Times article, Stephen Soderbergh talks about how and why he recreated the golden age of film making with his new pic The Good German.

Soderbergh decided to run his production using techniques of classic Hollywood film making. The attention to detail included dialog recorded with boom mics rather than modern body microphones, using period lenses, less camera movement and fuller frames. It all added up to a film that has gone way beyond homage and has transformed into a full-fledged reproduction. Soderbergh's inspiration for the film was Casablanca director Michael Curtiz, "I often think I would have been so happy to be Michael Curtiz, making a couple of movies a year of all different kinds, working with the best technicians. I would have been in heaven, just going in to work every day."

The classic studio system was a mix of art and mass production -- they didn't call it the Dream Factory for nothing. It did, however, give filmmakers the chance to make all kinds of films. Well, Soderbergh might not have the safety net of the old system, but he seems to be doing all right in finding a variety of projects for himself. Coming up for Soderbergh is Guerrilla, a biography of Che Guevara (2008) and, of course, the next installment in the Ocean's series, Ocean's Thirteen. The Good German opens December 15.

Well, The Queen made me do something I don't do a lot. It made me cry at the movies. And with one scene. It's near the end of the film, it features Helen Mirren, and it's a glowing, hard-won moment when a human being, knowing they have done wrong, is offered a brief, casual gesture of sympathy at a time they need it most. And, since I am not, in fact, a communist robot, I cried. It's not like I was expecting it; I'd spent a goodly portion of the first half of the film wondering if watching The Queen was, for Canadian audiences, a brief reminder of the days when there were $1 bills. And The Queen snuck up on me. Some of the dialogue is a bit too on-the-nosey, and Michael Sheen's Tony Blair feels a little broad in some moments, but the film still left me wishing that an American filmmaker would look at the more recent past with The Queen's fearlessness and humanity. As much as I love their work, it's interesting to note that with The Good German and The Fountain, two of our most interesting directors are looking back and ahead instead of the here-and-now. (And yes, I'm sure both will be loaded with allegorical meaning for our times, but, come on.) The Queen is also a bit of a time capsule -- a brief immersion in a different world than the one we have now, like the time I found a bunch of Pre-9/11 New Yorkers in a vacation rental, and was reminded that Rudy Giulani used to be a fussbudget adulterer who disliked complicated art, as opposed to America's Mayor ™. But The Queen works thanks to a real and beating heart: Right now, the Best Actress Oscar is Mirren's.

J.

When I watched The English Patient, I recall entering a languid dreamy state ... bored stiff by repressed people and their repression. I can tell you the five minutes it had me riveted for, though -- Willem Dafoe, unwrapping his bandages, explaining that he had found the man who took his thumbs and killed him ... and now he was going to kill the man who told the man who took his thumbs where to find him. I swear to god, during that scene I wanted to cry out: "Uh, could I watch that movie right now? The one with Dafoe and Prochnow running around post-war Africa trying to kill each other? Because I'm not digging the poetry readings and mopiness. ..."

Well, I'm never going to get that movie, but this week's best new trailer made me feel like I was going to get something close to it. I've been looking forward to The Good German for a while now, and now I cannot wait -- this baby looks good, to a degree that almost seems to guarantee some level of heartbreak. I'm hoping that isn't the case, and while I think the trailer's cribbing from The Third Man almost as much as the poster evokes Casablanca, I also think there are far worse movies to follow in the giant footsteps of.

What trailer's got you excited recently?

J.

On this edition of Movie Pics, we get our first look at the new Leonardo DiCaprio flick, The Blood Diamond, George Clooney returns to black and white in The Good German and Christina Ricci moans for a big, black snake:

• Though it's not much, here is the first image from Edward Zwick's African thriller, The Blood Diamond. In the pic, Leonardo DiCaprio and Djimon Hounsou star as two African-born men, with very different lives, who join together on a quest to recover a rare pink diamond. Release date: December 15
• Man, is there a film in which Christina Ricci doesn't look good? Sure, she's got a big forehead, but I feel it just adds to her personality. Here are some more pics from Black Snake Moan; director Craig Brewer's highly anticipated follow-up to Hustle and Flow. Film stars Samuel L. Jackson (what is it with him and these damn snakes?) as a blues musician who rescues a wild child (Ricci) upon finding her beaten and left for dead. Oh, and be sure to check out these nifty little posters over on AICN. Release date: February 16, 2007 [via JoBlo]
• Based on the novel by Joseph Kanon, The Good German tells of an American journalist is lured into a murder mystery while trying to find his former mistress in post-WWII Berlin. Steven Soderbergh jumps into the directors chair with a cast that includes George Clooney, Tobey Maguire, Cate Blanchett and Beau Bridges. Currently, there's only one pic available. Release date: December 8.

[Thanks to Alex from First Showing for the tips]

With only six months until the 2007 Academy Award nominees are officially announced, it is obviously time to get the Oscar race started already. Movie City News has begun its Pre-Oscar Preview early this year with its The Gurus of Gold feature. Typically the real Oscar watch doesn't begin until the really good movies (or the award-hungry movies, anyway) start showing in Toronto. But just because none of the Gurus (critics and writers from different outlets) have actually seen most of the expected contenders for Best Picture, that doesn't mean they can't make predictions based on film trailers, buzz, etc. So, each Guru picked 10 movies, which they rated from 1 to 10, that they think have the potential to be nominated (and which also serve as a premature top-ten of 2006 for each Guru).

Based on the picks, or votes, it looks like the probable five nominees will be Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers, Bill Condon's Dreamgirls, Steven Soderbergh's The Good German, Alejandro González Iñárritu's Babel (which screened at Cannes) and Oliver Stone's World Trade Center (which some critics have seen). Dark horses include United 93, The Departed, All the King's Men and The Queen (These may change as more Gurus come aboard).

You know the Oscars are getting to be a waste of time when it starts being this easy.