german Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It's hard to say which event in midtown Manhattan on Thursday night was cooler: New German Cinema legend Werner Herzog in conversation with director Jonathan Demme at the Times Center, or the two crazed climbers who attempted to scale the New York Times building right next door just a few hours earlier. In some ways, the two occurrences worked together: It was later announced that one of the climbers did it in order to raise awareness about global warming, a relevant issue for anyone interested in Herzog's latest film, the remarkable Antarctica odyssey Encounters at the End of the World. Like most of Herzog's documentary work, it's a brilliant amalgam of gorgeous imagery and Herzog's personal philosophies. Not a scientist himself, he spends time in their company down south, seeking to understand their behavior ("Is this a big moment?" he asks when they nonchalantly announce the discovery of a new bacterium).

Demme, admitting that he and Herzog had just met earlier in the evening, opened the conversation by reading an effusive letter to Herzog written by Roger Ebert after the critic discovered that the director dedicated Encounters to him. Herzog seemed displeased that Ebert printed the letter ("Those things should stay between two men") but had only praise for his friend. "I salute him, a good soldier of cinema," he said. "We have very few left."

There's a reason we keep writing so many stories about horror flicks in general and Eli Roth in particular: They're among our most visited pages! So obviously a whole lot of you have some serious interest in seeing what Hostel: Part ii is going to look like -- and now there's a full-bore theatrical trailer to sink your bloody teeth into! Continuing with the "German is creepy" vibe that was doled out in the teaser trailer, the new clip explains just a little more about the plot of the sequel. Apparently we're not just going to visit with three ill-fated American girls; we're also going to get a peek behind the curtain to meet and greet the killers clients who line up to commit murder.

The trailer is available only at the rather unwieldy MTV website, but I was able to track it down and watch the thing just fine. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to see what Madman Roth has cooked up this time. The flick doesn't open until June 8, but we don't usually get a lot of hardcore horror movies during the summer, so it should make for quite the gore-soaked treat. The sequel stars Heather Matarazzo, Lauren German and Bijou Phillips (as the chicks in danger), as well as Richard Burgi as one of the "normal Joes" who decide to temporarily take up manslaughter for a vacation trip. Icky. Expect lots of stern finger-wagging from the horror-haters once this sequel starts getting a little closer.

If there's one thing Lionsgate is known for, it's gotta be the outfit's expertise in the field of marketing, promoting and selling its horror flicks. Whether it's that freaky-weird poster for The Descent or the blood-based one-sheet and plasma drives for Saw 3, it's pretty obvious that Tim Palen's marketing team works overtime while coming up with their new gimmicks. Oh, and here's a new one:

The brand-new trailer for Hostel 2, which will premiere tonight on MTV before landing a home in front of all the Saw 3 prints, will be entirely in German. Yes, a Prague-shot film that stars mostly Americans will have its trailer debut in the German language -- for no other reason than that German is "more guttural and harsh," says Palen. Weird.

Eli Roth's Hostel 2 hits theaters next January, and I'll be sure to post a trailer link in this spot (trailer link) after its MTV debut has passed and the trailer gets comfy in Quicktime. But what's your take on this rather strange little move? I mean, LG had trouble selling the French-speaking High Tension to the American masses, so why go the foreign language route when you don't have to?

Ah well, it's not like Hostel 2 is being sold on its dialogue, right?