The sum is lesser than its parts in this interesting but ultimately unconvincing Venice offering that deals with a group of anti-fascist youths who become increasingly violent in their moral fight against the rise of ultra-right ideologies in Germany.
Petzold’s strong command of his craft is evident here in this measured and nuanced Stasi anti-thriller featuring a wary female doctor in ‘80s East Germany who desires to defect.
It draws heavy inspiration from the 1962 indie horror ‘Carnival of Souls‘, but the storytelling and execution are unmistakably Petzold’s as he tackles failed dreams and false hopes in this slow-burning psychological biz thriller.
A teenage girl and her parents who are far-left terrorists on the run are the focus of this promising and largely riveting feature debut that combines coming-of-age tropes with crime and politics, while at the same time turning some of these conventions upside-down.
The eternal love triangle is given the Hitchcockian treatment in Petzold’s spare but tightly-executed melodrama about outsiders in society.
Wes Anderson’s quirky set-in-Japan dogs’ tale is breathtaking in its stop-motion animation detail, while accruing a rhythmic sense of movement and storytelling momentum from start to end.
Schanelec’s graduation feature sets her observant slow-cinema style in stone in this unconventional love triangle drama where the protagonist is torn between loving two women who are half-sisters.
The third film of Rossellini’s heartbreaking neorealist ‘War’ trilogy tackles postwar Germany through the eyes of a boy suffering from material and moral poverty.
An early below-average work from Murnau that is neither here nor there from a genre perspective, whether as a murder mystery or horror film.
Eternality Tan 