pt.3 - Head On, Downfall, Edukators

Piece of Evidence No. 3:

3 German films currently in the cinemas in Britain. That hasn't been seen for a while. Perhaps Goodbye, Lenin!'s success opened the way.

- Fatih Akin’s Head On, a powerful drama about Turkish Germans (and winner of the Golden Bear at the 2004 Berlinale).

- Hans Weingartner’s Cannes entry The Edukators, a quirky story about idealist activists who rearrange the furniture of their capitalist targets. Loved by The Independent and, believe it or not, The Daily Telegraph.

- Downfall, where the Swiss actor Bruno Ganz (scarily for him) becomes Hitler, in his final days. The German controversy (that Hitler and some of the high ranking SS are portrayed as humans, not as monster) is absent here. Partly with good reason: it's true that Hitler isn't portrayed sympathatically. SS medics are however.
William Boyd is full of praise in an eye-opening essay. His major quibble is that Hitler's quack doctor Morrell, a Rasputin-like influence, is absent from the film. It seems Hitler may have been a smack head too:

Morell was also a morphine addict. He regularly injected Hitler (in private) and Hitler's behaviour, particularly in the bunker, with his sudden mood swings, his moments of intense dynamism, followed by somnolence and inertia, exhibit all the signs of morphine dependency. No one knew with what exactly Morell injected Hitler - and he did not confide the details to the rival doctors who attended on him - but as far as Hitler was concerned it worked: if he did not have a morphine addiction, he was certainly addicted to Morell. Hitler confided to one of his secretaries, Christine Schroeder: "These stupid doctors have not been able to help me ... If I didn't have Morell I would be lost." Hitler himself stated that only Morell was capable of finding a vein in his arm.

Cool Teutonnia? pt.2 - Don Carlos

carrying on the previous posting's theme:

Piece of Evidence No. 2:
Schiller's Don Carlos takes the West End by storm. Michael Grandage's powerful production becomes the surprise hit play this spring. A lot of credit for the success also goes to Mike Poulton's translation. The Guardian's Michael Billington also points to Schiller's understanding of realpolitik, and in a rich article on Schiller's belated success in the UK, says:

"Not all Schiller's plays are masterpieces; there is no doubt that he sometimes lapses into melodrama. But what the British theatre has finally discovered is that his plays have resonance for us today. When Philip II of Spain, working in concert with the intractable fundamentalism of the Inquisition, announces in Mike Poulton's current version of Don Carlos that "the instrument God places in my hand is terror", you don't need to be a genius to work out the contemporary parallels. After much humming and hawing and ritual Teuton-bashing, it would seem as if Schiller, 200 years after his death, has at last been accepted by insular Britain."

German Poets in Fame Shocker!

Wonders will never cease. Will this be the year of Cool Teutonnia in the UK?

1st Piece of Evidence: The literary magazine Full Moon Empty Sports Bag opened with a quote from Goethe's Faust and became a major news story in the UK.

Well, yes, that the quote is in a painting Pete Doherty created with his own blood, might have something to do with it:

"Doherty signs the image of a figure wearing a hat with a quote from Goethe - "any scrap of paper's good, for signature a drop of blood" - where Mephistopheles proposes the bargain that leads to the sale of Faust's soul to the devil.

The singer created the piece since making his own pact with fame, enduring turbulent weeks dating the model Kate Moss and being pursued by the tabloids. . ."

Kate Moss hasn't started quoting Goethe yet. Forward looking gal that she is, she prefers to read Ulrike Draesner.