|
|
     |
|
|
|
Moviola > Films > The Good German
The Good German (15) 105 mins"If war is hell then what comes after?"
The Good German, beautifully shot in atmospheric black and white, is Steven Soderbergh's homage to the great films of the 1940s - films like Casablanca and The Third Man. Journalist Jake Geismer (George Clooney) arrives in Berlin in July 1945 to cover the Potsdam conference, issued a captain's uniform for easier passage. He also wants to find Lena (Cate Blanchett), an old flame who is now a prostitute desperate to get out of Berlin. He discovers that the driver he's assigned, the sadistic Corporal Tully (Tobey Maguire), is Lena's keeper. When the body of a murdered man washes up in Potsdam (within the Russian sector), Jake may be the only person who wants to solve the crime: U.S. personnel are busy finding Nazis to bring to trial, the Russians and the Americans are looking for German rocket scientists, and Lena has her own secrets.
"The first scene of Steven Soderbergh's The Good German instantly calls to mind Roberto Rossellini's Germany Year Zero. The last scene is a dead ringer for Casablanca. Book-ended between the neo-realist beginning and the iconic ending is a film noir done in the classic style. Using vintage lenses, black-and-white film (high-contrast color stock with the color pulled out, but close enough), Hollywood back lots, rear-projection, expressionistic angles, an old-fashioned score, a morally compromised hero, an alluring femme fatale and a very bleak view of the world, Soderbergh has made a movie set in 1945 that looks as if it were made in 1945. " Los Angeles Times
"The Good German is a luminous love letter to the glory days of the picture house." BBC Movies
"The film is beautiful to look at, with stunning cinematography." Tiscali UK
Last modified: 20-Jun-2008 |
Send mail to info@moviola.org to comment on the website or find out more about Moviola. |
