MartSander

This film is very well done according to every standard of film-making. The narrative runs smoothly, the cinematography is years ahead of the period and special effects run amok with imagination and quality. The DVD released by the Danish Film Institute is one of the very best copies of a pre-WW I film one can see nowadays. To be brief, its amazing, astonishing, mind blowing. The Danes began storing and archiving their films very early, so you get a clean second generation copy where most of US films of the period went to the glue or comb factory. It's a long film and tends to get a bit tedious; also the shipwreck scenes (done very well indeed) are rather brief and once they are over, the film turns back to mainstream melodrama. What makes this film rather hard on eyes, is the leading lady. I know it's an unkind thing to say, but the lady is really not beautiful. She is supposed to be a dancer, but her dance scene is atrocious and embarrassing. It's inconceivable why a handsome leading man should ever fall for that kind of middle aged hippie. All in all, a good pic, but to be viewed by intelligent spectators who can delve into history without expecting too much. There are some nice extras, even including an alternative ending, made for the Russian market!

All four films made by Asta Nielsen in Denmark (in 1910, 1911 and 1919) , before she became an international superstar, have been released by the Danish Film Institute, which was created a hundred years ago and has taken care of Danish films ever since. Thus we usually get very good, clean and sharp copies of films almost 100 years old. The series is truly amazing, and the Asta Nielsen disk is one of the best. The four features (on one disk) are: Livets storme, Afrgrunden, Den sorte drøm, and Mod Lyset. I had only seen Asta Nielsen's later films, such as Hamlet, before, therefore I was astounded to see that she was a rather beautiful actress in her youth, with a figure of a Barbie doll which she isn't afraid to show. The films are remarkably good as well. In Afgrunden, we see Miss Nielsen as a shy piano teacher who abandons her fiancée in order to elope with a circus artist, who turns her into a harlot and a murderess; in Livets storme she is a dancer whose beauty brings along the ruin of her and of men; in Den sorte drom she is a circus star who does everything for the man she loves, and in Mod Lyset a reckless countess who has to destroy the lives of several men as well as her own before she learns the true values of life. The last tale is a bit moralizing for modern tastes, but the first three (from 1910-1911) are true gems. These films are naturalistic, strong portraits of life before the WW I. Miss Nielsen is a very good actress indeed, as well as a gorgeous clothes horse, wearing the trendiest models of the day around her nonexistent waist. The prints are very sharp, even though the first film shows some decomposition. They should have been released colour tinted and with somewhat more interesting musical accompaniment than the constantly meditating piano, but who cares? These films still were eye openers. When you thought the film wasn't a true art form back in 1910, think again: moving camera, panning camera, closeups, parallel editing, fluent narrative – it's all there, and years before these techniques became accepted in UK, US or Italy.

Sci-fi is a rapidly changing genre. It loses impact even more rapidly than horror. Therefore it's virtually impossible to see a sci-fi movie from the past (from the pre-space period, i.e. late 50s) that isn't laughable in some sense. First serious sci-fi epics appeared in the very early 50s, and bearing in mind the first space yarn was filmed by Melies in 1902, we get about 50 years of sci-fi without the very basic concepts of space travel. Where The Trip To The Moon can be dismissed as a funny experiment, The Trip To Mars cannot. This is a serious film. The makers didn't know about weightlessness or the absence of atmosphere in space, plus about a hundred more things we know today. That was the period, when everybody was raving about the channels on Mars, so they naturally assumed there was intelligent life on that planet. Melies shows frogmen and other strange creatures on the Moon; in 1924 there appears the still popular tinfoil dress for Martians in Russian film Aelita. So, in between, we get the Egypto-Greek fairy-tale world of this film: wise old priests being wise; and virgins prancing around, praising virtue in the world, where virtue obviously is as normal and unnoticeable as metabolism. Enter the Earthlings, introducing death and sin. Well, nothing spectacular follows: they soon are "cured" and learn the ways of the righteous. This film is a total orgy of enjoyment. The double feature released by the Danish Film Institute (together with a disaster film from 1916, The End Of The World) boosts their usual superior quality. The Danes began storing and archiving their films very early, so you get a very clean second generation copy from a period when most of US films withdrawn from circulation went to the glue or comb factory. It's a pity this film with so many different locations isn't color tinted. The rather uninspired piano accompaniment, another trade mark of the series from the DFI, tends to grow a bit tedious too. But nevertheless, a remarkable film and something you can show to your friends without being afraid that they'll think you're a weirdo.

This is one of the titles currently released on DVD by PTM Entertainment in a beautiful picture quality which is common to their series of Johannes Heesters movies - probably to celebrate his 100th (!) birthday, which will take place late in 2003. This film is one of the best, perhaps because of the good chemistry between Heesters and his leading lady Lizzy Waldmüller, who's fate it was to be killed soon after the film was finished during an air raid on Vienna. Definitely not an important film, but an acceptable parlour comedy with beautiful tunes by Peter Kreuder.

This film, released in the series of Johannes Heesters movies - probably to celebrate his 100th (!) birthday, which will take place late in 2003 - could have been so much better. God only knows what went wrong. Perhaps it's too ambitious - it really tries to look like an American big budget musical, where showstopper chases showstopper and big production numbers seem to have swallowed a lot of money. But the storyline is weak, and Dora Komar, who might have been pretty good on the big stage, is incredibly tiresome to watch. The film stumbles under its own weight, and you won't miss much if you fail to see it - save some really good songs. But there are better entries in the series.

This is one of the titles currently released on DVD by PTM Entertainment in a beautiful picture quality which is common to their series of Johannes Heesters movies - probably to celebrate his 100th (!) birthday, which will take place late in 2003. Not a bad film in itself, this one owes it's relative popularity more to the songs by Friedrich Schröder than to the story or direction. Heesters is in very good shape; Dora Komar, the leading lady, is much too grand for film and tends to give the viewer a head-ache with her XXL size gestures. Charming Jutta von Alpen, who disappeared after 1944, makes her film debut and makes one yearn for more.

This is one of the titles currently released on DVD by PTM Entertainment in a beautiful picture quality which is common to their series of Johannes Heesters movies - probably to celebrate his 100th (!) birthday, which will take place late in 2003. This particular mishmash, a comedy/triller about stolen jewels, is a pointless (and a songless) b-picture, which can not be redeemed even by glimpse of bare brests, owned by a very beautiful anonymous fan dancer. It fails to take off, and you shouldn't toy with it unless you are absolutely fluent in German - there are no subtitles.

This is the film that signaled WW II. Its opening night was on July 1, 1939, and you can see how it aims to be "international": the stars are from Holland (Heesters) and Hungary (Roekk), the action takes place in Paris. Der Fuehrer himself liked the film, and commented "Well acted". A few days before the war started, a secret cablegram reached the UFA studios: to provide a copy of "Hallo Janine" with Polish subtitles at once. German film prepared to march along with German soldiers into Europe. Nevertheless, this is a slice of purest escapism, as far from the designed reality as it can get. And a pretty good one at that.

Leander came to the knowledge of the German speaking audience with this film - and stayed. Strangely enough this first film is much better than the others that followed: it's a witty comedy/thriller about a murder during an opening night at a revue theatre, and Leander's flirty, overtly sexy appearance suites her much better than the endless row of grand melodramas that were to follow instantly. If only the Viennese dance girls weren't so plump and Leander herself so stout and rigid in her big production numbers, this could easily be one of the best Austrian/German musicals from the thirties. The choreography is very good and copies Busby Berksley's Hollywood work quite openly.

An incredibly stupid film, this one should be avoided. Leander has done so much better work for the screen, and one shouldn't waste one's time on this miserable attempt to create the exotic, sensual southern atmosphere that would make the middle class German hausfrau's heart beat quicker. Leander herself is much better in less melodrama, and in this particular film she doesn't even have the best possible songs to sing. Go for something else instead.

This is one of the titles currently released on DVD by PTM Entertainment in a beautiful picture quality which is common to their series of Johannes Heesters movies - probably to celebrate his 100th (!) birthday, which will take place early in 2003. This is one of the very best entries, not a musical as one might expect, but a very touching and simple comedy. You'll absolutely forget that this film was released when Germany was already losing the war for good - and I belive this film helped the audience forget that too. There are some really warm and beautiful images, and the leading lady, Gabrielle Reismüller is not merely very pretty but also very talented in her simple and dreamy fashion. Unfortunately there are no subtitles in English, but nevertheless, this is a movie that warms one's heart.

This is one of the titles currently released on DVD by PTM Entertainment in beautiful picture quality which is common to their series of Johannes Heesters movies - probably to celebrate his 100th (!) birthday, which will take place early in 2003. This is one of the very best entries, a sparky musical / operetta, showcasing Marika Rökk, Europe's best tap-dancer/ballet dancer/acrobat/singer, who is about to celebrate her 90th birthday in 2003. It's by bits hilariously funny even by today's standards, well written, well directed and well acted. The musical numbers range from big production numbers to intimate outdoor renderings, and both Heesters and Rökk are top notch. There regrettably are no subtitles, but watching this fairy-tale about Gasparone, the anonymous and feared highwayman, is great fun, and if you can suppress your excitement during Marika Rökk's entrance number, you most probably are dead.