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The Captain – A new film by Robert Schwentke on the true story of the Executioner of Emsland

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THE CAPTAIN, a new German biopic, is based on the true story of the Executioner of Emsland in the final days of WWII . It opens in Los Angeles on August 10th at the Nuart Theatre with a Q&A session with director Robert Schwentke to follow.

About The Movie:

Based on the arresting true story of the Executioner of Emsland, THE CAPTAIN follows a German army deserter, Willi Herold (Max Hubacher), after he finds an abandoned Nazi captain’s uniform in the final weeks of World War II. Emboldened by the authority the uniform grants him, he amasses a band of stragglers who cede to his command despite the suspicions of some. Citing direct orders from the Fuhrer himself, he soon takes command of a camp holding German soldiers accused of desertion and begins to dispense harsh justice. Increasingly intoxicated by the unquestioned authority, this enigmatic imposter soon discovers that many people will blindly follow the leader, whomever that happens to be.
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Simultaneously a historical docudrama and sociological examination with undertones of the absurd, THE CAPTAIN presents fascism as something of a game to be played by those most gullible and unscrupulous.
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Director: 
Robert Schwentke (Red, Insurgent, Tattoo)
Main Cast includes : Max Hubacher as Willi Herold (Night Train to Lisbon), Milan Peschel as Freytag (The Manny/Der Nanny),  Frederick Lau as Kipinski (Victoria),  Alexander Fehling as Junker (Inglorious Basterds)
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Watch The Movie for FREE !

Claim one pair of tickets from us that invites you and a friend to see the movie at the Nuart Theatre starting August 13th. (More information is printed on the ticket)

Send an email to californiagermans(AT)gmail.com with “Let me watch The Captain for Free” in the subject line. We will select one winner at random from the first 10 people who email us.

Credits: Images and Video by Music Box Films
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FRANTZ – Movie Release in Los Angeles – March 24

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FRANTZ, the latest film from renowned filmmaker Francois Ozon, will be released in Los Angeles on March 24 at the Landmark’s Nuart Theatre.

CaliforniaGermans has 2 pairs of movie tickets to give away for March 24 in Los Angeles! If you would like to receive a FREE pair of movie tickets, send us an email here with your full name and mention the movie “FRANTZ”. We will choose and contact 2 lucky movie goers among the first 10 emails we receive.

-FRANTZ –

A haunting tale of love and reconciliation through the eyes of the First World War’s lost generation.

Set in Germany and France in the immediate aftermath of the First World War, (1914-1918), Frantz recalls the mourning period that follows great national tragedies as seen through the eyes of the war’s “lost generation”: Anna (21 year-old Paula Beer in a breakthrough performance), a bereft young German woman whose fiancé, Frantz, was killed during trench warfare, and Adrien (Pierre Niney, Yves Saint Laurent), a French veteran of the war who shows up mysteriously in her town, placing flowers on Frantz’s grave. Adrien’s presence is met with resistance by the small community still reeling from Germany’s defeat, yet Anna gradually gets closer to the handsome and melancholy young man, as she learns of his deep friendship with Frantz, conjured up in evocative flashbacks.

What follows is a surprising exploration of how Ozon’s characters’ wrestle with their conflicting feelings – survivor’s guilt, anger at one’s losses, the overriding desire for happiness despite everything that has come before, and the longing for sexual, romantic and familial attachments.

Inspired by Ernst Lubitsch’s 1932 film Broken Lullaby, FRANTZ is an elegant and dramatic love story—both between two individuals and between two nations at the core of the imperiled European Union experiment.

Early Praise for FRANTZ

“Exquisite and haunting…one of the talented director Francois Ozon’s very best films.” -Paper

“A richly imagined and superbly assembled period piece.” -The Hollywood Reporter

“Astonishingly beautiful and inquisitive. It’s impossible to deny the sheer narrative sophistication.” -Indiewire

Run time: 113 minutes, Rating: PG-13, Language: French and German with English subtitles

Credits: MusicBoxFilms

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Newport Beach Film Festival – German Spotlight Event

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IMG_1312NBFF 2016 – German Spotlight Event

Warning: We’re being watched!  With over 350 independent and international films, as well as nightly gala events and industry seminars, this year’s Newport Beach Film Festival offered a rich variety of events in which art, entertainment, and cultural fans could partake in.

I personally had the honor to attend this year’s German Spotlight, which took place on Tuesday, April 26.  This spotlight is especially dear to my heart since I was an event coordinator for it last year when the German film got finally re-introduced to the Newport Beach Film Festival after seven years of absence.  This year, I was curious to see how it feels like to “only” attend as a guest.  I was very much looking forward to sitting back, relaxing, and witnessing some great German filmmaking.  The evening did not disappoint.

This year’s spotlight movie One Breath literally took my breath away.  The film plot is concerned with two women of complete opposite backgrounds whose lives cross paths.  One is wealthy Tessa, who seems to have it all: a great career, a good-looking husband, and one-and-a-half-year old daughter Lotte.  Elena, on the other hand, escapes from Greek, where she had no perspective, leaving her boyfriend behind to move to Frankfurt for a better life, where she finds out that she is pregnant.  She starts working for Tessa as a nanny, but quickly realizes that the seemingly perfect life and the nice apartment Tessa and her family live in is really only pretense.  Tessa appears to be very controlling, and Elena also gets to witness that Tessa’s marriage and life is far from perfect. One fateful afternoon, both Elena’s and Tessa’s lives change dramatically when Lotte disappears while Elena was taking care of her.  Overwhelmed with the situation, Elena flees back to Greece.  Tessa, who is convinced that Elena took the child, travels to Athens, trying to find her and hopefully Lotte.  Unfortunately in this movie, there is only a happy ending for one of the women!  

One Breath definitely deserved to be selected as the German Spotlight film.  It delivers very strong performances by its actors, especially Jördis Triebel as Tessa and Chara Mata Giannatou as Elena convince in their roles.  The movie really pulled viewers deep into its tragic story, and once the final movie credits were being displayed on the big screen, I had a hard time transitioning to party mode for the after-gala.  I was still sucked into the movie plot, trying to understand why one character deserved a better ending than the other.  

IMG_1314Once I arrived at the German Spotlight after-gala, which was held at SoCo and hosted by Design Within Reach, my mood finally changed.  Loud music was popping out of the design store which got perfectly transformed into an amazing party venue with a DJ, live performances, amazing food from Orange County’s premier restaurants and drinks provided by festival sponsors.  I was most amazed by this year’s ice sculpture which was displayed right at the front and had all four spotlight countries engraved.  Of course, I had to take a couple of fun pictures with it.  The food was really amazing as well; I indulged in beef tacos, tomato soup, and mini cake bites.  

All in all, I was more than impressed about what this year’s Newport Beach Film Festival had put together for the European Showcase Spotlight night.  It is great to know that the German movie has made it back to the event for the second year in a row, and I am personally looking forward to more great European filmmaking being celebrated in Orange County.

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Images & video footage: ©Anne-Kathrin Schulte
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Anne-KathrinAnne-Kathrin Schulte, is a contributor for CaliforniaGermans.com. She writes on her personal experience of the American Dream as well as on working as an au pair in CA. She was born and grew up in Düsseldorf, Germany, where she completed her degree as a state-approved Kindergarten teacher. After her au pair engagement in the US and a quick return to Germany she decided to attend university in California and moved back to the United States. She lives in Southern California since 2011.

If you would like to contact Anne-Kathrin, please send an email to californiagermans(at)gmail.com and place her name in the subject line.

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It’s Movie Time at Occidental College

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Hannah Arendt German filmOccidental College Shows ‘Hannah Arendt’ at German Movie Night

It’s time again for another German movie night at the Occidental College ! On Wednesday April 2nd, ‘Hannah Arendt’ a movie by director Margarethe von Trotta will show at Choi Auditorium from 8pm – 9:30pm. The event is free.

‘Hannah Arendt’, explores the life of one of the most influential political philosophers of the twentieth century. Born October 14th 1906 into a German-Jewish family in Hannover, she grew up in Königsberg ( today’s Kaliningrad) and Berlin. She studied philosophy in Marburg with Martin Heidegger, before she had to flee Germany in 1933 to escape the Nazi regime. While living in Paris for the following eight years she helped Jewish refugees. In 1941 she managed to emigrated to the United States, where she became very active in the Jewish-German community in New York. In the years to follow she lectured as a visiting scholar at major universities, including Berkeley, Stanford and Princeton, and covered the war crimes trial of Nazi Adolf Eichmann as a reporter for ‘The New Yorker’ in Jerusalem. She died in New York City in 1975.

The Hannah Arendt Prize is named in her honor.

WHAT: German Movie ‘Hannah Arendt’ by director Margarethe von Trotta

WHERE: Occidental College , 1600 Campus Rd, Los Angeles, CA 90041

WHEN: Wednesday, April 2nd at 8pm

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