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American Women's Club of Hamburg  Film Reviews -- June 2007Reviews by members of the AWC Film Group of films slated to open in Hamburg in June 2007.
(Becky T) Opening June 7, 2007 In this German-Spanish film three diverse groups of people go to great lengths to watch Germany play Brazil in the 2002 World Soccer final game on television. The Mongolian nomads, carrying their hunting falcons, ride from pasture to pasture on their sturdy little ponies. The Tuaregs on camelback meet Arabs travelling by truck across the desert. Finally, primitive Indians in the Amazon hunt for monkeys. Each group has a television set and the same challenge: to connect it to antenna and electricity for the duration of the game. The Mongols must offer hospitality to Russian officers for the privilege of watching in the comfort of their warm tents. They cheer for the Germans. The Arabs must depend on one person’s talent at repairing the TV and then suffer the arrogance of another’s illusions of grandeur who demands that they cheer for the Brazilians. The Indians ditch their useless TV and go off to the American mission, where the man in charge refuses to watch anything but baseball. They travel further and watch together with the men who run the saw mill, i.e., who are cutting down their jungle when they aren’t watching soccer. Director Gerardo Olivares shows that one sport can unify diverse tribes around the world, and at the same time he reveals common traits among all people: pettiness, willingness to compromise, ingenuity, differences between the sexes, and most of all: humor. We are basically all one family. Olivares has made this as a docudrama – partly fiction, with much truth in it. He draws from a background making documentary films in the field of anthropology and nature since 1991. The scenery, Ténéré Desert in Niger, Altai mountains in Mongolia, and Amazon jungle in Brazil, is beautiful. This soccer film stands up well against other soccer films from Shao Lin Monks to Iranian girl soccer players, to Germans winning in Bern and Jürgen Klingsmann in 2006. It could be compared to One Day in Europe where different groups work through their little problems with soccer on everyone’s mind. Highly recommended even if you hate soccer. (Thelma F) Opening June 14, 2007 Irina Palm is a movie that goes back and forth between two totally different worlds. One world portrays family, responsibility and good values, and the other the sordid, self-contained atmosphere of a sex bar where people are detached and impersonal. Maggie's (Marianne Faithfull) young grandson is dying of cancer and the last shimmer of hope is a treatment available only in Australia. Because of the long illness money is scarce. Maggie no longer owns her house and the bank turns her down for a loan. She is humiliated at an employment agency where she is declared too old and unskilled to apply for a job. Naively, Maggie inquires about a "hostess wanted" sign in a London sex club. It turns out that the job description is very much different than the coffee making that Maggie had imagined. Club owner Mikky (Miki Manojlovic) promises an incredible salary though, and out of desperation Maggie agrees. Very soon her smooth hands make her famous and men are standing in line to be Irina Palm's (alias Maggie) customers. Not even an attack of "penis elbow" deters her. (For more details, see the film!). Adapting to her circumstances, Maggie eventually even finds rapport with Mikky. This is very much a film women will identify with – the portrayal of an emotional mother/grandmother who is willing to make great sacrifices for the sake of her family. When the source of her money is discovered, and Maggie is treated with such indignity by her son and the local villagers, she is forced to question whether it is necessary to remain on the same path one has always followed or whether new situations which were previously unacceptable could actually become acceptable. Marianne Faithfull is a wonderful actress. Hearing her voice in the film reminds you of the good songs this former pop singer has recorded. Also dominant is an interesting guitar score. At one point when Maggie was walking home alone with her confused thoughts and the guitar was throbbing, I was reminded of music in an old western and a cowboy walking slowly toward a shoot out. (Becky T) Opening June 28, 2007 In this fourth Die Hard film, Bruce Willis returns as New York police detective John McClane. He goes on a routine job to pick up hacker Matt Farrell (Justin Long, very good) for interrogation by the FBI. Naturally, there is nothing routine about it, and soon Farrell’s apartment has exploded and both are on the run from terrorists who wish to destroy the infrastructure of the U.S. (Amtrak, Office of Homeland Security, satellites, all public transport, Wall Street) and take control of the country on – you guessed it: the Fourth of July. Farrell becomes McClane’s unwilling side kick, always complaining that he needs a lunch break and “can’t stand that someone always wants to kill me.” “You get used to it,” replies McClane. The film is entertaining and intense from beginning to end, with fight scenes (including one with beautiful Chinese Maggie Q), exploding cars and helicopters, machine-gun fire. Willis spends much time crawling or falling through shafts, from pipes, down stairs; he always pops up again, the worse for wear, but determined. Kevin Smith, aka Silent Bob and the director of the Clerks films, has a cameo role as Warlock. Believe it or not, this was my first Die Hard film, and I remedied that situation by checking out and watching the three previous ones from 1988, 1990 and 1994. This newest version will not disappoint. Some differences are: no one smokes; McClane swears very rarely; his daughter Lucy has grown into a pretty young woman whom he wishes to protect, first from a non-acceptable boyfriend and then from the gangsters; he no longer has a wife; airport security has changed since 1990; and everyone has mobile phones. Bruce Willis has aged gracefully over the last 20 years. I can’t imagine any other actor having the ability and charisma to hold this film together. Perhaps that’s comparable to no one imagining any other James Bond besides Sean Connery. The idea here of a terrorist computer attack took me back to my first computer hacker film, WarGames with Matthew Broderick in 1983. And here we are again, still trying to get into other systems; naturally, in a much more sophisticated way. At a press conference with Willis during the 2006 Cannes film festival a fan screamed, “Save the world, Bruce.” You bet.
(Becky T) Opening June 28, 2007 Germans Marcus Vetter and Stefan Tolz present an interesting look at eBay, the world’s largest flea market with 150 million customers. An elderly post lady in rural Scotland delivers and mails packages from eBay customers. Their computer is practically their sole communication with the rest of the world, isolated as they are in their stone houses among their herds of sheep. The post lady is their friend and eBay makes them happy. One man would offer his hand-painted pictures of ships for sale, but after consultation with a friend (coin collector and avid eBay customer), he decides that no one can meet his price. The friend says, “It’s evolution; you either go with it or stay behind. I’m not a dinosaur; I’ll go with it.” In Mexico American Larry Deming drives to Mata Ortiz, a small village in Mexico where he buys extremely beautiful pottery handmade by Juan Quezada and 400 potters. He sells it on eBay for a profit. (See www.tularosatrader.com). Soon some Mexican computer and website specialists visit Quezada to convince him of the advantage of cutting out the middle man (Deming) and selling straight to the market. A German family of four – father, mother, and two grown sons – all on the dole in Leipzig, attempt to augment its meagre earnings by selling fashions (a Mrs. Santa Claus dress) and gift packages of Saxon sausage and beer. They would be hilarious if their good intentions hadn’t failed so terribly. Vetter and Tolz interview Chinese businessmen from Alibaba.com/TaoBao.com who prevented eBay from getting a grip on China. They attend an eBay “Power of All of Us” revival in California. The emotional success stories, cheerleaders, and encouragement reminded me of a quack travelling salesman in the old West. My colleague Oliver Kube said, “It’s more like Scientology if you ask me.” Pierre Omidyar founded eBay in 1995. This excellent, entertaining film tells about its expansion for better or for worse. My neighbor just sold his shoes (“I only wore them twice”) for six euros. Where else could I have bought a box of ribbons for my old-fashioned typewriter?
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The Great Match (Das Grösste Spiel der Welt, La gran final) 
Irina Palm 
Live Free or Die Hard (Stirb langsam 4.0) 
Traders' Dreams - Eine Reise in die ebay-Welt 
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