GERMAN FILMS

Unter den Brücken (1945)

As I was leafing through the pages of Felix Moeller’s ‘The Film Minister: Goebbels and the Cinema in the “Third Reich”‘, I stumbled upon a name I had hardly ever heard: Helmut Käutner. Typing his name in several search boxes and clicking numerous links, I soon found enough about him. Käutner started his directorial career in 1939, though his first film, KITTY UND DIE WELTKONFERENZ, was banned in Germany for its supposedly pro-British views. He continued to work throughout the war years, eight films in total. After the war, he directed some notable films such as DIE LETZE BRÜCKE (1954), …

JAPANESE FILMS

Three Aviation Propaganda Films

Hayao Miyazaki, whose THE WIND RISES (2013) gathered various praises and criticisms over last few months, made a particularly harsh remark about the coming Zero fighter movie, EI-EN NO ZERO (2013) due open this winter. Based on the bestseller novel of the same title by Naoki Hyakuta, the story is about the brother and sister who investigate their grandfather’s past as a Zero fighter Kamikaze pilot. Miyazaki criticized it is “packed with inaccuracies” and “filled with the same old sentiment”. To me, this morbid obsession with this particular type of warplane, – Zero fighter -, by both of these men …

'BOBTAIL' REVIEW / DOCUMENTARY FILMS / JAPANESE FILMS

Campaign (2007)

In THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN (1992), a con-man-turned-candidate-for-the-Congress (Eddie Murphy) runs the shameless election campaign on a low budget. He drives a car fitted with loudspeakers around the town, just to sell his ‘name’. “Jeff Johnson, the name you know”. He figures that most voters wouldn’t care and vote for him simply because the name sounds familiar (Jeff Johnson is the name of a dead Congressman). He cruises around the town in a van, advertising his name through the speakers in different accents to appeal to different ethnic groups. Well, THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN was a comedy. It was supposed to be …