A film by Paul Thomas Anderson. In eng­lish with ger­man subtitles.

Fashion desi­gner Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) is the total packa­ge. He has the same per­fec­tion­ism when he works on his crea­ti­ons, goes to the bath­room, and has his break­fast. Watching Reynolds Woodcack have his break­fast means being wit­ness to a long­stan­ding, fine­ly cali­bra­ted rou­ti­ne that is ful­ly­o­ri­en­ted towards the needs of the sen­si­ti­ve geni­us. Every dis­cordant note, every tri­via­li­ty, could break off his crea­ti­ve flow.

PHANTOM THREAD is set in 1950s England, which is more of an aes­the­tic idea for Paul Thomas Anderson than any­thing else. The direc­tor of PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE and THE MASTER shows a hau­te cou­ture king­dom with opu­lent images which Reynolds is in char­ge of. Everything here is exqui­si­te: the colors, the tex­tures, the mate­ri­als, the tapestry, the dou­ble doors, the lap­sang souchong that is ser­ved at break­fast. The tail­ors who enter the feu­dal House of Woodcock through the ser­vent ent­rance every mor­ning are the loy­al lie­ges, and Reynold‘s sis­ter Cyril (Leslie Manville) is the high com­man­der. The master‘s lovers play a sub­or­di­na­te role and are repla­ced when they start bothe­ring him. This chan­ges when Reynolds meets Alma (Vicky Krieps), a young eas­tern European immi­grant. She beco­mes his model and his lover, and unli­ke her pre­de­ces­sors, she mana­ges to car­ve an indis­pensable place in the master‘s world.

Anderson tells a com­plex, fetis­hi­stic love sto­ry whe­re secret obses­si­ons are woven in like hid­den mes­sa­ges in the hem of a dress. Alma and Reynolds are in a love tri­ang­le from the start – Reynolds crea­ti­ons are the third per­son. Instead of a first sex sce­ne there‘s a fit­ting, a ritua­li­stic mea­su­ring whe­re both know what it means. Being dres­sed and having someone dress you beco­mes an ero­tic act. Alma says“I can stand for hours“ and “I‘m beau­tiful in his dres­ses,“ and Reynolds wat­ches her cat­walk with the eyes of a lover. This idyll does show rup­tures when it beco­mes clear that Alma is her own per­son and she dis­rupts the iron rules of the House of Woodcock. Instead of respec­ting the holy sere­ni­ty of the break­fast ritu­al, she joyful­ly makes noi­se and pours the tea from too high up, which makes a dis­rup­ti­ve sound. When Reynolds runs off insul­ted, she says some blas­phe­mous words to Cyril: “I think he‘s too sensitive!“

THE PHANTOM THREAD is a mul­ti­face­ted, ira­de­s­cent film. A hym­nal-hedo­ni­stic cele­bra­ti­on of color, form, and style. An iro­ni­cal­ly amusing por­trait of nar­cis­si­stic mas­cu­li­n­i­tiy. The con­s­truc­tion and decon­s­truc­tion of a geni­us. But most of all, THE PHANTOM THREAD is a gothic romance, an exu­berant love sto­ry with mor­bid aspects fil­led with psy­cho­lo­gi­cal chasms. These chasms are what make the dis­si­mi­lar cou­ple find a kind of balan­ce. The fan­ta­sy of psy­cho­lo­gi­cal­ly sound model part­ners that always com­mu­ni­ca­te respectful­ly with “I feel“ mes­sa­ges is coun­te­red here with a cou­ple in love who seem to fol­low their own, pos­si­bi­li­ty per­ver­se-see­ming rules and mana­ge to make it work, held tog­e­ther by a thread invi­si­ble to ever­yo­ne else, the PHANTOM THREAD.

Hendrike Bake, Translation: Elinor Lewy

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A Film by Sean Baker. In eng­lish with ger­man subtitles.

Colourful sou­ve­nir shops and shab­by motels with pro­mi­sing names line a sub­urb of the per­haps hap­piest place in the world: Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida. At the „Magic Castle Inn”, is whe­re Mooney lives. The smart six-year-old girl and her fri­ends Scootey and Jancey hang around the neigh­bour­hood all day begging for ice cream and get­ting mixed up in all kinds of mischief. Little does she under­stand the worries of her mother Halley, who recent­ly lost her job as a strip­per and has no way of pay­ing the 35-dol­lar-a-week rent. If worst comes to the worst, their last hope lies in the gene­ro­si­ty of the stern yet equal­ly kind-hear­ted motel owner Bobby… Director Sean Baker once again cap­tures the American sub­cul­tu­re with sen­si­ti­vi­ty and incre­di­ble viva­ci­ty. One of the most cele­bra­ted films of the year.
 

 
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A film by Makoto Shinkai. In japan­ses with ger­man subtitles.

Taki and Mitsuha, one day find that their sleep brings their body swap and the two start com­mu­ni­ca­ting by memo. As they awk­ward­ly over­co­me one chall­enge after ano­ther, a bond deve­lo­ps bet­ween the two- one that evol­ves into some­thing more romantic.

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A film by Charles Burnett. In eng­lish with ger­man subtitles.

Stan lives with his wife and daugh­ter in the Watts dis­trict of Los Angeles. He is a sen­si­ti­ve drea­mer who seeks refu­ge from harsh rea­li­ty in his fami­ly life. His tor­men­ting job at a slaugh­ter­house, whe­re he dis­em­bo­wels dead sheep, visi­bly takes it toll on him, and he iso­la­tes hims­elf from the community.

Charles Burnett’s the­sis film at UCLA, shot on weekends in 1977 for pocket chan­ge, is one of the unseen mas­ter­works of American film histo­ry. It has been com­pared to Italian Neo-rea­lism becau­se of its rough, empa­the­tic docu­men­ta­ry qua­li­ty; others see the influence of Cassavetes’s „Shadows”, while Burnett hims­elf names Jean Renoir as his role model. In 1981 the Forum intro­du­ced the film to an inter­na­tio­nal audi­ence; in 1990 it was named one of the 50 titles in the „National Film Registry” at the Library of Congress. To date, howe­ver, unsett­led issues rela­ted to music rights have kept the film out of dis­tri­bu­ti­on. Restored in 35mm by the UCLA Film and Television Archive, Killer of Sheep can now be seen on the screen again, three deca­des after its crea­ti­on. The film remains inspi­ring – every grai­ny black-and-white shot con­ta­ins so much affec­tion, so much authen­ti­ci­ty, so much poet­ry and dedication.
Christoph Terhechte 

Forumsflyer

Forumsblatt
 
Credits:
USA 1977, 83 Min., engl. OmU, schwarzweiss
Buch, Kamera, Schnitt, Produktion: Charles Burnett
Darsteller: Henry Gayle Sanders, Kaycee Moore, Charles Bracy, Angela Burnett, Eugene Cherry, Jack Drummond
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A film by Karin Jurschick.

Why is the life of a fire-figh­ter who died a hero in the Twin Towers on September 11 worth on avera­ge a mil­li­on dol­lars less than that of a stock­bro­ker who lost his life in the same dis­as­ter? How much money should oil giant BP pay the count­less fisher­men on the Gulf of Mexico who are fight­ing for their liveli­hoods in the wake of the lar­gest oil spill in histo­ry? How can hundreds of ailing Vietnam vets be com­pen­sa­ted for their suf­fe­ring, which stems from expo­sure to Agent Orange? How can hundred thou­sands of reti­rees who depend on a small pen­si­on be com­pen­sa­ted if the pen­si­on fund they trus­ted in fai­led due to mis­ma­nage­ment? These are ques­ti­ons that almost appear cyni­cal, but not for America’s most famous com­pen­sa­ti­on spe­cia­list: Ken Feinberg.

Shortly after the ter­ror attacks on September 11, 2001, the US Congress crea­ted a fund to com­pen­sa­te all vic­tims who agreed not to go to court. ONE man was appoin­ted to have sole respon­si­bi­li­ty for deci­ding how much com­pen­sa­ti­on was to be recei­ved by peo­p­le accor­ding to their indi­vi­du­al cir­cum­s­tances: Ken Feinberg. He offe­red to meet all vic­tims or their fami­lies per­so­nal­ly. However, his cal­cu­la­ti­on model cau­sed uproar among many of them who felt that the value of their lost loved ones could never be com­pen­sa­ted with money.

In 1984 the Agent Orange case made Feinberg a house­hold name over­night: 250,000 Vietnam veterans who spray­ed the toxic defo­li­ant over the jungle and who later suf­fe­r­ed from seve­re dise­a­ses sued the che­mi­cal com­pa­nies that had pro­du­ced this sub­s­tance. Feinberg mana­ged to nego­tia­te an out-of-court settlement.

However, it was the ⁹⁄₁₁ com­pen­sa­ti­on fund that tru­ly made him a star. Since then, hard­ly a natio­nal tra­ge­dy has befal­len the USA wit­hout Feinberg being cal­led upon to play his part. We will focus on a sel­ec­tion of his major cases: Agent Orange, ⁹⁄₁₁, the Wall Street crash, the BP oil cata­stro­phe and a new one: the immi­nent cuts in the Central States Pension Fund.

All of them are not only tur­ning points in US histo­ry, but also ask troubling ques­ti­ons for all of us, worldwide.

PLAYING GOD is more than just the sto­ry of a con­tro­ver­si­al man who at times seems vir­tual­ly omni­po­tent: What hap­pens within our Western sys­tem of values when eco­no­mic inte­rests and people’s lives beco­me intert­wi­ned through tragedy?

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A film by Jan Speckenbach.  In German.

A mother goes away, lea­ving her hus­band and their two child­ren in lim­bo. She is dri­ven by a force she can­not igno­re: free­dom. In Vienna, Nora wan­ders through a muse­um, suc­cumbs to a flir­ta­ti­on and then thumbs a lift to Bratislava. Nora con­ce­als her ori­gin behind small lies, chan­ges her appearance, finds work as a cham­ber­maid and makes fri­ends with the young Slovak woman Etela, a strip­per, and her hus­band Tamás, a cook. Meanwhile in Berlin, Philip tri­es to keep his fami­ly and job as well as his affair with Monika going. Against his own con­vic­tions, he, a lawy­er, defends a xeno­pho­bic youngs­ter, strug­gles with the role of sin­gle parent. Philip finds an – albeit uncon­scious – ear for his worries in the figu­re of a coma pati­ent… The free­dom Nora is lon­ging for beco­mes Philip’s chains.

 
Credits:
Deutschland, Slowakei 2017, 100 Min.
Buch, Regie, Schnitt: Jan Speckenbach
Kamera: Tilo Hauke
Mit: Johanna Wokalek, Hans-Jochen Wagner, Inga Birkenfeld, Andrea Szabová, Ondrej Koval
 
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A film by Hélène Angel. In french with ger­man subtitles.

This is a viva­cious and emo­tio­nal­ly grip­ping sto­ry of a tea­cher caught bet­ween pas­si­on for her stu­dents and love for her child. Devoted pri­ma­ry school-tea­cher Florence (Sara Forestier) is a sin­gle mother who pours her heart and soul into her stu­dents each and every day. When she encoun­ters the dis­rup­ti­ve stu­dent Sacha and finds he has been aban­do­ned by his mother, Florence devo­tes hers­elf to hel­ping him. But Sacha’s plight com­bi­ned with her impen­ding work assess­ment put unthinkable strain on Florence, pushing her to a brea­king point whe­re she will put ever­y­thing on the line, inclu­ding her voca­ti­on and even her rela­ti­onship with her own son. While direc­tor Hélène Angel super­b­ly con­trasts the enter­tai­ning ener­gy and colour of the class­room with the lonely and con­fu­sed world of Sacha, Forestier deli­vers a magni­fi­cent per­for­mance as a woman unwil­ling to com­pro­mi­se her morals, resul­ting in a remar­kab­ly honest, opti­mi­stic and engros­sing por­tra­y­al of school life.

Credits:
Primaire, Frankreich 2016, 105 Min., franz. OmU
Regie: Hélène Angel 
Drehbuch: Hélène Angel, Yann Coridian 
Kamera: Yves Angelo 
Schnitt: Christophe Pinel
mit: Albert Cousi, Ghillas Bendjoudi, Sara Forestier, Vincent Elbaz Produktion: Hélène Cases

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A film by Lav Diaz. In phil­ip­pi­ne with ger­man subtitles.

Winner of the Golden Lion at the 2016 Venice Film Festival, Filipino film­ma­ker Lav Diaz’s epic sto­ry of reven­ge defer­red func­tions as a tale of urban thea­ter and class war­fa­re. After 30 years in pri­son, a woman dis­co­vers that her fri­end and fel­low inma­te com­mit­ted the mur­der of which she was accu­sed. This leads to her release and sub­se­quent dis­co­very of the man who framed her. Inspired by Tolstoy, The Woman Who Left is a sen­si­ti­ve expres­si­on of fami­ly and forgiveness.

 
Ang Babaeng Humayo, Philippinen 2016, 228 min, phil­ip. OmU,
Regie, Kamera & Schnitt: Lav Diaz
Buch: Lav Diaz, nach der Erzählung von Leo Tolstoi („Gott sieht die Wahrheit, aber sagt sie nicht sogleich“)
mit: Charo Santos-Concio, John Lloyd Cruz, Michael De Mesa, Nonie Buencamino. 
 
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A film by Eliza Hittman. In eng­lish with ger­man subtitles.

Frankie, an aim­less teen­ager living on the outer edges of Brooklyn, is having a trou­ble­so­me sum­mer. With his father dying and his mother wan­ting him to find a girl­fri­end, he tri­es to escape the ble­ak­ne­ss of his home life by caus­ing trou­ble with his delin­quent fri­ends and flir­ting with older men online. When his chat­ting and web­camming inten­si­fy, he final­ly starts hoo­king up with guys at a near­by crui­sing beach while simul­ta­neous­ly ente­ring into a cau­tious rela­ti­onship with a young woman. As Frankie strug­gles to recon­ci­le his com­pe­ting desi­res, his decis­i­ons lea­ve him hurt­ling toward irrepa­ra­ble consequences.

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