BERLIN & BEYOND Mar. 2025

[Chris Knipp]

BERLIN & BEYOND March 27-31, 2025 San Francisco & Berkeley

GENERAL FORUM THREAD

LINKS
FROM HILDE, WITH LOVE/IN LIEBE, EURE HILDE (Andreas Dresen 2024)
JOHN CRANKO (Joachim A. Lang 2024)
THE MARIANA TRENCH/MARIANENGRABEN (Eileen Byrne 2024)
THE TRAITOR/LANDESVERRÄTER(Michael Krummenacher 2024)

[Chris Knipp]

JOHANNES HEGEMANN, LIV LISA FRIES

ANDREAS DRESEN: FROM HILDE, WITH LOVE/IN LIEBE, EURE HILDE (2024)

TRAILER

An unselconscious, double-layered portrait of Hilde Coppi, resistance fighter

From 2017 German actress Liv Lisa Fries (born 1990) gained an international following playing the female lead Charlotte Ritter in the German TV series "Babylon Berlin," which ran till 2025. In this feature film she returns in the role of Hilde Coppi, unintended martyr and saint of the Nazi resistnce network known collectively as the the "Rote Kapelle" or Red Orchestra, Communist and Russian sympathizing individuals from various backgrounds who engaged in acts of resistance, including distributing anti-Nazi materials, aiding Jews and dissidents, and transmitting intelligence to the Allies, ultimately leading to their arrests and executions by the Nazis. Hilde became involved because her boyfriend, then husband was.

Hilde took part in leaflet campaigns and helped with attempts to transmit Wehrmacht plans to the Soviet Union using a radio. In 1942, she and other members were arrested and eventually sentenced to death. Hilde gave birth to her son during her time in prison. Hans Coppi junior, now 81, later researched the "Red Orchestra" as a historian and we hear from him in person at ther end of this film. He played himself in another film, Stefan Roloff's Die Rote Kapelle ("The Red Orchestra) in 2003. But this material was unfamiliar to me and may be so to most American viewers.

Everyone acknowledges that the new film is notable for the quiet conviction and power of LIv Lisa Fries as Hilde Coppi, but Johannes Hegemann as Hans is also charismatic and sexy: this film is about a romance bound up with politics caught in the spokes of the Nazi war machine. The film constantly intercuts two stories: the one of Hilde's eventual arrest, trial, and execution, and the earlier one of the love of Hilde and Hans, and the surprisingly joyful activities of the Red Orchestra , posting signage, working with short wave radios, learning Morse Code.

The wit of the film is to make Hans' teaching Hilde Morse Code into a love dance. THe beauty of From HIlde, With Love is the simiplicity, freshness, and directness. You feel you are dropped into forties Germany with no self-consciousness or reservations. The heart of it is Hilde, who as Lee Marshall's Screen Daily review says is "both shy and strong, unsure of herself but dependable; often in a back seat but able to take charge when necessary." You feel confidence in her, knowing that even if she cannot win she will lose nobly and honorably. It's a quietly stunnning portrait, and one worth painting.

This is a surprisingly sensuous, passionate film. The grimness of the present moment when Hilde is a prisoner is sweetened with the intercut story of Hilde and Hans' love.
There's a kiss that first she rejects, and starts to leave. Then she turns back to Hans and kisses him. Ffirst they take their glasses off. Then they take their shirts off. Then they get excited. Eventually they're down on the floor making love. It's a new kind of sexiness, a forties German sexiness, that we never saw before. Andreas Dresen has breathed new life into history.

As grim as is the present moment, the more halcyon seem the blissful times the dissidents and the lovers lived. The film captures the excitement of the Red Orchestra group so freshly, it feels like something more modern, say the Brigate RoSse or Red Brigades of 1970's Italy. And the need to dissent and resist is as alive in our own times: more than one German review of From Hilde, with Love ends by sying it is a "playbook for today."

The final section of the film is Hilde's last time in prison, her session with the priest, her sentencing and her execution by guillotine, which we also see, with a large group of other women whom she bravely helps sustain, enobling her own final moments. Shortly before her death, the sun shines on Hilde Coppi once again. She stands with the dozen other women in the courtyard of the Berlin-Plötzensee prison and awaits her execution. We follow in real time as one after the other is called up until it is finally Hilde's turn. The scene exemplifies the calm and touching intensity with which In LIebe, Eure Hilde is told.

Central to the prison story is Hilde's pregnancy and childbirh, her struggle and success to breastfeed little Hans Jr., and the prison employees' surprising kindness. She is out of the cell and in a hospital ward for a considerable time. One guard makes out a testimonial in Hilde's defense, and asks why she doesn't try harder to be pardoned. This is another virtue of the film: that it avoids stereotiypes.

A German review by Bettina Peulecke, noting the "Phenomenal performance by Liv Lisa Fries, comments that "In Liebe, Eure Hild is a quiet film, without lurid espionage action, without depictions of violence, without dramatic exaggerations. With a leading actress who has already immersed herself in the world of Nazi-era Berlin several times through her role in “Babylon Berlin”, and who now embodies the taciturn Hilde Coppi phenomenally: Liv Lisa Fries."

Yes, Fries is the standout. But this is also in itself a film that has a fresh take on a period that has been depicted so many times, yet can still be seen in a new light. Fascinating, memorable film. It's surprising that though it was a nominee for the Golden Bear for best film at ehe 1014 Berlinale, it hasn't won any awards.

Catherine Bray points out in her Variety review that this film has a light "aesthetic" approach to the period, in doing so achiving more than usual relatability. The figures early on look period-right, but also are almost like us. The resisteance is very casual and loose, and the film shows that "Only one of the messages they risked everything to transmit to Moscow ever made it through.It simply said, "We wish our friends the very best." Another message they were overjoyed to receive was "Thank you, Berlin." Bray says: "Was it worth all those lives? The film reads as a memorial to the group’s courage rather than their achievements, suggesting that it’s possible for legacy to lie in the attempt, rather than the outcome." Perhaps a certain detachment in depicting their 'heroism' is owing to director Diesen's growning up in East Germany.

In Liebe, Eure Hilde/Freom Hilde, with Love 125 mins., debuted in the Berinale Feb. 17, 2024. Also shown at the Paris German film festival, Tailinn Black Nights, Camerimage, Palm Springs, Glasgow, and Kosmorama Trondheim. Screened for this review as part of Berlin & Beyond, San Francisco. Showtime:

Roxie, Mar. 27, 2025 at 8:45pm.

[Chris Knipp]

SAM RILEY IN JOHN CRANKO

JOACHIM A. LANG: JOHN CRANKO (2024)

A gifted gay choreographer exiled from London, triumphs in Stuttgart and earns world renown

TRAILER

John Cranko came from South AFrica, and apparently grew up speaking German (thIs is not mentioned). This film is interested in his career as the choreographer-artistic director of the Stuttgart Ballet, which put it and German ballet in general on the map in the 1960's. He had become famous in this role with the Sadler's Wells-Royal Ballet in London while still in his his twenties. But he was gay, hommosexuality was illegal, and he was a victim of police entrapment that led to his being abandoned by the Royal Family and "disgraced." His good luck was that Stuttgart hired him to do a ballet, and then liked him so much they kept him on to take over. And they were right. Except that he was a volatile artistic personality, had a taste for rough trade, and was unable to maintain a stable relationship. Cranko's depressions and loneliness, his moods, his alcoholism, and his chain smoking are constantly in evidence.

This film makes all that clear, but its accomplishment is to bring to life the Stuttgart Ballet of the time, with full cooperation of the present company and its magnificant facilities. And it has the remarkable and fully committed Sam Riley to play the role of John Cranko. He just happened to be around and fluent in German, having lived in Berlin for years with his Romanian-German wife. He speaks almost nothing but German in this film.

For those who love ballet and have a tolerance for artistic biopics John Cranko provides enjoyable, fullsome entertainment. At two hours and thirteen minutes it is a bit long. But it has a lot of beautiful, generously filmed dancing and newly recorded symphonic music by the Stuttgart State Opera Orchestra. An essential achievement of this film is to use dancers as actors and make it work.

What's outstanding, if you accept its poetic license, is the way this film shows Cranko visualizing choreography, with Riley demonstrating the man's passion right away in interpreting Shakespeare to the dancers. My favorite is the one where he tells a hot young Mercutio that he will make his final turn a "dance of death," and together they create this dance before our eyes. Sometimes this film's Cranko can be almost a cliché of the self-destructive "artistic" gay man, who wears his emotions on his sleeve. He dramatically fires the lead dancer after they clash when he demands emotion and not just technique and she tells him that is not her "style." And he has a string of unsuccessful, even disastrous, boyfriends, sometimes in front of the company (even though homosexuality was illegal in Germany too), though detailed scenes of private life are minimized in favor of Cranko's career with the company.

From Boston Ballet: "At the beginning of his time in Stuttgart, Cranko created short ballets and gathered together a group of dancers, among them Ray Barra, Egon Madsen, Richard Cragun, Birgit Keil and, most importantly, a young Brazilian dancer named Marcia Haydée who was to become his prime muse and inspiration. The breakthrough for Cranko came in December 1962 with the world premiere of Romeo and Juliet, which was highly praised by critics and audience alike. In Stuttgart, Cranko created many small choreographic jewels such as Jeu de cartes and Opus I, as well as his symphonic ballet Initials R.B.M.E., but it was with his dramatic story ballets such as Onegin, The Taming of the Shrew, Poéme de l’Extase and Traces that Cranko secured his place in the pantheon of great choreographers. In addition, he encouraged young dancers in his company – including Jiří Kylián and John Neumeier – to try their hand at choreography."

In outline, this remarkable career and its playing out in the company are conveyed by the film, which also shows us the important first tour in the States when the Stuttgart Ballet was invited to perform at the Met,and received a rave review from the influential Times critic Clive Barnes, who spoke of "the Stuttgart miracle" and Cranko's unique gifts, and with his words turned Stuttgart and Cranko into players on the world artistic stage.

Sam Riley is known for his remarkable performance as Joy Division's Ian Curtis in Anton Corbijn's 2007 Control. He was notable in Brighton Rock, as Sal Paradise/Jack Kerouac in Walter Salles' On the Road, in Neil Jordan's Bizantium, and in other films. But Control was an original work of art and while John Cranko is a big role, it's not on that level. Its staging and dancing are fine and Riley gives a fully dedicated performance. But as Dennis Harvey points out in his otherwise understandably very complimentary Variety review, Joachim Lang's film has several shortcomings.

Apart from flashbacks to childhood, there is no detail about Cranko's earlier life, including his London career. Why the loss of a certain boyfriend may have been tragic is a mystery since not enough information about the man is shown. Cranko complains, becomes desperate even, over negative reviews, but there is too little about what they may have said - or what media coverage of the career in Germany and abroad was like. There is no clarification that Cranko's death at 45 was accidental and not suicide, as was falsely rumored. It feels like the acting, above all the dancing, and the mise-en-scène are btter than the screenplay and the editing. But Riley has said in a Hollywood Reporter interiewthat the premiere showing of the filmn at the Stuttgart Opera was a magnificent occasion, with the young dancers and the older ones they are playing all present as well as all the fans, and he was "part of the Stufttgart story now." That is glorious, and the film can appeal to ballet fans anywhere,. But it probably won't translate as well Stateside as Control did.

Principal dancers of the Stuttgart Ballet who perform for the film include Elisa Badenes (as Cranko's muse Marcia Haydé), Friedemann Vogel, Rocio Aleman, Jason Reilly and Henrik Erikson.

John Cranko, 133 mins., debuted Sept. 20, 2024 at Stuttgart Opara, also showing in premieres at Essen and Berlin. Included at Palm Springs and American Film Market at Las Vegas. Screened for this review as part of Berlin & Beyond, San Francisco, where it was scheduled as the Opening Night Film.

Showtimes:
– Roxie, SF – March 27 at 5:30 PM
– Rialto Elmwood, Berkeley – March 31 at 7:45 PM

[Chris Knipp]

EDGAR SELGE, LUNA WEDLER

EILEEN BYRNE: THE MARIANA TRENCH/MARIANENGRABEN (2024)

A buddy trip that's a meditation on death and illness

Based on Jasmin Schreiber’s bestselling novel of the same name, The Mariana Trench follows the journey embarked upon by a pair of seemingly incompatible characters: Paula, played by young Swiss actress Luna Wedler (a Shooting Star of 2018) and Helmut, embodied by one of the most famous German character actors, Edgar Selge (who’s 76 years old and mostly known in Germany as Commissioner Tauber from the TV series "Polizeiruf 110").

The film’s insistence on the metaphor of water representing Paula’s emotional state – more than once we see her being dragged into the depths of the notorious, titular Mariana Trench in dreamlike sequences – might feel too obvious, and some of the plot twists too common to all those other films revolving around "a journey to scatter ashes", but the director’s intention is clearly and commendably to reach a wider audience.

The source is a debut novel whose first edition sold out before it was even published and which became a bestseller within a few weeks, Mariana Trench probably fitted the pandemic mood all too perfectly. Especially as Schreiber, who has a degree in biology, had worked as a death and grief counselor before starting her literary career and incorporated this into a widely read blog.

The film winds up being a meditation on death and illness, but more than that a slow moving buddy trip road movie. The pair adorably spar with each other and wind up being affectionate through thick and then. But don't look for profundity here, despite the constant references to the deepest point in the ocean.

(A Cineropa review by Camillo De Marco summarizes the plot in fuller detail.)

The Mariana Trench/Marianengraben, 87 mins., debuted at Hamburg Filmfest Oct. 4, 2024, showing also at San Diego and Biberacher Filmfestspiele. It was screened for this review as part of Berlin & Beyond 2025.

Showtime: Roxie, SF – March 29 at 11:30 AM

[Chris Knipp]

DIMITRI KREBS IN THE TRAITOR

MICHAEL KRUMMENACHER: THE TRAITOR/LANDESVERRÄTER(2024)

A tale of Ernst Schrämli, first Swiss executed for treason in WWII

Newcomer Dimitri Krebs plays Ernst Schrämli, a poor but talented young singer and non-conformist in St. Gallen, the Swiss border town, who regularly clashes with authority. He is in the Swiss army, which on leave is supposed to work in a factory. He refuses.

As the strikingly tall, red-headed Krebs plays Schrämli, he is a noble, sometimes violent and dangerous, yet slightly pathetic waif who climbs trees and hides wounded birds in his pockets, and initially seems to be starving because he has no money. One of the things we non-Swiss learn is that Switzerland wasn't terribly well off during the War, not the conglomerate of super-rich banks that it is now. Soon news comes that France has just fallen. The factory owner's worker-advocate daughter Gerti, "Madame Zanelli" (Luna Wedler), is speechifying for the Swiss to resist and Ernst jumps up and supports her with song.

This catches the attention of German consulate spy August Schmid (Fabian Hinrichs). There is a premonitory whiff of gayness as Schmid sweeps Ernst into the consul's posh limo and to his digs where he plays a record for him of a famous German singer and says he can become famous as a singer too. The singer, he says, is "Erwin Lorenz," perhaps a reference to Max Lorenz, the prominent Wagnerian tenor and favorite of Hitler. Ernst looks as if he's never seen a record player up close before. He's dazzled. He is not a hater of his country: he has just led the crowd in a patriotic song, showing off his nice voice. But is the voice nice enough to dream of being famous? (Newcomer Dmitri Krebs, we're told, was a drummer before taking on this first acting role.)

Before long Ernst is feeding what "secrets" he may have from his military service to his "admirer," hoping he'll get him a visa to Germany where he must go to achieve that musical fame. Mea;nwhle he's buying a suit and camel hair overcoat and hat with the proceeds and strutting at a nightclub with his orphanage pal Max (Jonathan Ferrari), giving away that he's suspiciously flush.

In time this behavior soon gets back to Swiss authorities. St. Gallen is a small world indeed. Before long, by film's end, Ernst will be sentenced to die for treason, shot, unwillingly, by fellow soldiers. He will be the first of 17 Swiss executed in the height of the war, soldiers. (900 Swiss citizens were sentenced on counts of espionage.)

The film seeks to bring out the complexity of this story. A negative view of the Swiss executions for treason is that those 17 were have-nots who were made an example of when much higher ups cooperated extensively with the Nazis, that in fact Switzerland was a covert Nazi collaborator whose docility led it to wealth through stashing war gelt in Swiss banks as a foundation for the country's importance as a post war finance center. At the same time when America enters the War the Swiss know they must assert their neuterality or be in a lot of trouble.

But the screenplay adds what seems unnecessary melodrama, as well as seeming to think it's a musical. Turbulent relations happen between Ernst and Gerti: he gets himself into big trouble simply with that. There's a strong hint of the old postwar movie Nazi in August, who turns out to be "Gustav" at home. His relationship with Ernst is actually maybe more lurid than the postwar movie Nazis were. Ultimately instead of depicting simply a naive, morally clueless boy, this film spins a lurid tale of complications, and then does the austere, tragic death row thing at the end, when Ernst has only alienated his father more and gotten his childhood buddy Max in trouble. As a Letterboxd comment says of this whole film, "it packs too much in."

One version of Schrämli's story is that he was an egregious case, a young man who had nothing but bad luck his whole life. Tostart with, he was the ohly one of eight children put in an orphanage. Till the end, the thing he wants most is to be able to go back to his father and be accepted by him, which never happens. The trouble is that while newcomer Krebs has plenty of presence and a freshness and eagerness of his own, his character is little more than a tall, unruly waif, full of needs but a sort of blank. The screenplay needed to provide more specific background on his life and personality. In a Variety interview with the filmmaker he says he gained access to not only court and legal documents but efen many of Schrämli’s personal letters, and that they offered "deep insights into his highly sensitive soul." Maybe those insights proved hard to convey in scenes in the film. Apparently the officer who was Ernst's sponsor composed a request for clemency for him and he refused to sign it. All he wanted was for his father to come and see him. Maybe his acts of treason were impulsive and foolish, but they seem too egregious to be forgiven, particularly in a soldier.

There was a 1976 film by Richard Dindo, The Shooting of the Traitor Ernst S., which some say is superior to this ambitious, but in some ways sketchy new film. Dindo, who was born in 1944, just died last month. He also made films about the Swiss who fought in the Spanish Civil War; about Genet at Chatila; and about Ernesto Che Guevara.

The Traitor/Landesverrätter, 116 min. debuted Oct. 5, 2024 at Zurich, where Dmitri Krebs shared the Best Actor Award with David Constantin for Tschugger - The Lätscht case. It was also shown at Solothurn and Locarno. Screened for this review as part of Berlin & Beyond 2025 in San Francisco.

Showtime: Roxie, SF – March 29 at 1:45 PM . (SWISS FILM & TALKS)