Furious on Film 11.26.09: German Imports
Posted by Arnold Furious on 11.26.2009
Taking a look at German directors in Hollywood. Plus Jackie Chan and blaxploitation!
Furious on Film 155: German Imports
Taking a look at German directors in Hollywood. Plus Jackie Chan and blaxploitation!
When The International came from my rental company this week it immediately triggered an idea for a column. You see the director of The International is acclaimed German director Tom Tykwer. He's been very popular in his native country and has made a bit of a splash with two films; Lola Rennt and Perfume. But when it came to hitting up Hollywood it hasn't worked out for him. Which reminded me in turn of fellow German director Oliver Hirschbiegel who recently discovered the horrors of Hollywood when he attempted to remake Invasion of the Body Snatchers. His movie; The Invasion was a total disaster. And yet this is the same man who shot Der Untergang. With that in mind I thought I'd take a look at eight German directors who are working today. Some in the Hollywood system and some not. To varying degrees of success. I wanted to know if there was some sort of curse upon newcomers to Hollywood. Was this unfriendly reception for two great German directors common? Would they just be blips on an otherwise strong record? Let's take a look at the directors then starting with the man who inspired this week's column.
Sidenote not all movies are listed, just the most notable.
TOM TYKWER
Pre-Hollywood movies;
Lola Rennt (1998). Aka Run Lola Run.
The Princess and the Warrior (2000)
Heaven (2002)
Paris je t'aime (2006)
Perfume (2006)
Hollywood movies;
The International (2009)
So after shooting to fame with the frankly excellent Run Lola Run Tykwer has had a few other gems on his record. Run Lola Run was the highest grossing German film of 1998 and made a star of it's lead player; Franka Potente who went on to star in the Bourne Identity. Heaven was financed by Miramax who, like everyone else, saw something in Tykwer and gave him the chance to shoot a Kristof Kieslowski script. The result was intriguing but not quite the hit movie that Miramax were hoping for. It took German produced film Perfume, which is genius at times, to bring him back into the attentions of Hollywood. That and an excellent chapter in Paris je t'aime. So it was off to Hollywood for Tom and The International beckoned. Starring Clive Owen and Naomi Watts it was met with mixed reviews. With a $50M budget and a name cast plus the promise of Bourne-esque action sequences in international locations the film should have been a hit but ended up taking a disappointing $25M gross at the US box office. Up next is Cloud Atlas based on the David Mitchell novel. It's going to be a beast; six stories ranging from 1850 to present day to the distant future. Good luck with that! At least the Wachowski Brothers are on board as producers, which usually helps box office (but not always thanks to Speed Racer being such a bomb).
Tykwer, like Hirschbiegel who preceded him, had his film re-shot but at least Tykwer was allowed to shoot the footage himself. Apparently the studio wanted more action, which is pretty typical. Do you think they saw the Godfather and said "less of this family business, more action"? Luckily if they did Francis Ford Coppola was there to tell them to "fuck off". Tykwer doesn't have that power. The studios delay on releasing The International made those within the industry wary and because of the delay the movie about corrupt banks got released in the middle of a banking scandal. So everyone was sick of the news and here was a movie about it, which now wasn't drawing the interest of the public. However while the reviews were mixed for The International I've always been of the opinion that I should check every film out that interests me. Sometimes the critics are right and sometimes, like with The International, they're not. The International is a taut and gripping thriller with one excellent action set piece in the Guggenheim and, perhaps most importantly, it's a smart film. Yes, the plot surrounding the man with the leg brace is a little far fetched and their investigation into the connections between the bank and the shady underworld are a reach but an entertaining one. Therefore I have no hesitation in recommending the film and wishing Tom Tykwer the best of luck in his Hollywood career.
OLIVER HIRSCHBIEGEL
Pre-Hollywood movies;
Das Experiment (2001)
Der Untergang (2004). Aka Downfall.
Hollywood movies;
The Invasion (2007)
Hirschbiegel got royally screwed when he arrived in Hollywood. The Invasion was produced by Joel Silver for Warners. The studio got a little worried with what they saw and essentially replaced Hirschbiegel with Australian hack James McTeigue (V for Vendetta). Whenever two directors visions mesh together to form a film it tends not to work out. But Hollywood knows best and decided that Hirschbiegel's film just wasn't good enough. I've heard this before about movies and then seen the original cut and it was far better than the crap that got released to the cinema (look at what happened to Matthieu Kassowitz and Babylon AD, which is another example of a foreign director being overpowered by a gutless studio). The studio wanted more action and the Wachowskis were hired to spruce things up on the script and after a year of the project being dead in the water eventually came up with a new script that required 17 days of re-shoots. The finished film got panned by the critics and failed at the box office. So, goes to show what Warner Brothers know eh? By the way; Downfall is one of the best films of the decade. I had a column planned at one point where I was planning on detailing the top movies of the millennium so far but got way bogged down in the concept during the writing stage. I had Downfall at number three. So the guy can direct! He's already started rebuilding his career in Europe but after the Invasion debacle I don't see him back in Hollywood anytime soon.
WOLFGANG PETERSEN
Pre-Hollywood movies;
Die Konsequenz (1977)
Das Boot (1981)
The Neverending Story (1984)
Hollywood movies;
Enemy Mine (1985)
In the Line of Fire (1993)
Outbreak (1995)
Air Force One (1997)
The Perfect Storm (2000)
Troy (2004)
Poseidon (2006)
So here's a director who's been in Hollywood a lot longer than the likes of Tykwer and Hirschbiegel but his first film (Neverending Story) was a kids movie. He started out small and was successful there before moving into bigger budget movies. I guess the problem with modern Hollywood is there's no longer any such thing as a small budget. Budgets seem to start at $30M just to cover the overblown salaries of those involved. But going back to The Neverending Story for a minute. It was shot in Germany and actually lost money not to mention the writer sued the filmmakers for taking liberties with his source material and had his name taken off the film. So when you go and analyse Petersen's beginnings in Hollywood he didn't do too great either. But then Neverending Story, while in English wasn't financed by Americans. So his first official American film would be Enemy Mine. Which was a small budget piece and wasn't a hit either. Then he was away from Hollywood until 1991 when he made Shattered and didn't have a Hollywood hit until 1993. So maybe there's hope for Hirschbiegel and Tykwer yet! After all Petersen had the same route into Hollywood. He hit it big with a sensational film, which is one of the best of the entire decade of the 1980s (Das Boot) but floundered in the bigger waters of California. In the Line of Fire was his first major success in America and from a $40M budget the film went on to gross $176M. I think we can call that a success. He's had a streak of them since although there are those who accuse him of selling out his artistic integrity to make Hollywood pictures. Maybe that came back to bite him on the ass with 2006's dreadful Poseidon. Quite why anyone would re-make that film anyway is anyone's guess.
UWE BOLL
Ah, Dr Boll. How I hate you. Let me count the ways. Uwe is a little different to the others on this list because he doesn't use studio money. So I don't have a list of pre-Hollywood and Hollywood movies for him. So he's kinda like George Lucas. Yanno, make a big successful film and then finance future projects off the profits right? Nope. All of Uwe Boll's movies are failures. However he seeks out backers in Germany where tax laws make him able to shoot films on a budget and then reclaim that budget from the German government as a taxation right-off if the film does poorly. It was a German ploy to make their film industry more competitive. But along comes Boll to exploit and use that system, designed to help budding filmmakers, to his own ends. True he does use the system correctly but surely after making a bunch of horrible, horrible failures someone in Germany should just tell him to make his movies somewhere else. Oh, you're not welcome in the UK btw. I like that Boll is so resoundingly stupid that when someone criticises his work his response is to challenge them to a fight. BOLL NO LIKE YOUR OPINION OF BOLL. BOLL SMASH! What's his doctorate in? Punching things?
But anyway; Boll isn't someone you can compare Tykwer with because his films aren't Hollywood no matter how much he wants them to be. When Michael Bay thinks you're a "fucking idiot" then you're pretty low down on the list of intelligent people in the movie business. I should probably stop there before he challenges me to a boxing match. Except to say that I hope his movie about Max Schmelling doesn't suck. If you take it home and you go to your roots you'd better come up good. Because if you don't make good movies in your own backyard you're never going to make a good film.
MARCUS NISPEL
Pre-Hollywood movies;
Nothing. Unless 1000 commercials count.
Hollywood movies;
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
Pathfinder (2007)
Friday the 13th (2009)
Again it's hard to compare Nispel to other European filmmakers because he didn't go the traditional route. Nispel came to America on a scholarship in 1984 and began directing commercials in 1989. He's also directed a load of music videos. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing! David Fincher and Spike Jonze started out in music videos. What would bother me about Nispel is that his movies are pretty retarded. Texas Chainsaw Massacre was never going to be Oscar material but it's easily outshined by the no budget original, which is 30 years old. Of course it grossed 10 times the budget and guaranteed Nispel a career that boasted more success in one film than Uwe Boll has in his whole career to date (Boll's films almost all lose money including Dungeon Siege, which lost nearly $50M). Nispel attempted something more original in 2007 too when he shot Pathfinder only to lose about $15M on that project. Back to good old reliable horror movies re-boots then for 2009 and he was back making money. Nispel is a tough guy to understand. He's taken a route that most people don't like (commercials are really not artistic nor are taking other peoples ideas and existing films and copying them) and has gained a reputation as a bad director based on that. Of course his next film is his dream project; rebooting Conan. Again there's no comparison with Tykwer except that Nispel's films have made money by following tried and tested movie establishments. Of course he's a hack but hey, he's doing ok.
Universal Soldier (1992)
Stargate (1994)
Independence Day (1996)
Godzilla (1998)
The Patriot (2000)
The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
10,000 BC (2008)
2012 (2009)
Roland Emmerich was a Star Wars kid. He saw Star Wars and thought "I want that". His obsession since has been making sci-fi movies. Since moving to the US he's taken that one step further and specialised in the destruction of the entire planet. Several of his films have been global disaster based. Emmerich is increasingly losing control over his editing decisions. He wants to leave everything in. 2012 managed to run to a whopping 158 minutes. Perhaps it's just that Hollywood's mainstream movies are becoming increasingly bloated. Since the success of Lord of the Rings and Dark Knight it's become apparent that audiences are willing to sit through longer films and make them successful. So in come the likes of Michael Bay and Roland Emmerich to stretch their usual Hollywood blockbuster fare over 2 ½ hours. Frankly I found the first Transformers movie to be tediously long and it needs one of these "long" films to fail badly before Hollywood puts someone in the editing room again. Emmerich has benefitted from Hollywood not being sure what will be successful. They know Emmerich is successful. He blows shit up! People come and see it. The studio then sits around counting their cash. Emmerich is unlike the newer German directors because he was an instant hit success in America. Well, Universal Soldier was a minor success but it still made money. Emmerich has basically been making money ever since. The big question mark is whether he's made any worthwhile films. Independence Day is unforgettable and launched a string of ridiculous blockbusters in a similar vein as audiences bought into the far-out plot. It also helped establish Will Smith as a household name. Otherwise Emmerich has essentially made well-attended crap.
MARC FORSTER
Pre Hollywood movies;
Loungers (1995)
Everything Put Together (2000)
Hollywood movies;
Monster's Ball (2001)
Finding Neverland (2004)
Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
The Kite Runner (2007)
Quantum of Solace (2008)
Marc is an unusual case study as well. Born in West Germany he grew up in Switzerland and moved to the US aged 20. Like Marcus Nispel he used the US as a base to become a Hollywood director. His early films allowed him the opportunity to make Monster's Ball, which was a critical and box office hit. Since then he's made an eclectic series of films, which have only one thing in common; they've all been really good. He's also churned films out at an extraordinary rate suggesting he has a stomach for the business and stamina to back that up. Of all the German directors working today Forster is the one that's most likely to leave a legacy of brilliance. I don't think he's taken his work to the level it can get to yet. If he has a personal picture in him (like Scorsese's films in New York, or Spielberg's interest in the Holocaust and World War II) he could make an astonishing film. The lesson for Tykwer here is that you can start small in Hollywood and get a lot of projects out of it. Monster's Ball was only a small film with a $4M budget. From that Forster has gone on to make a string of interesting pictures. A biography of Peter Pan writer JM Barrie, a quirky semi-serious Will Ferrell picture, a literary adaptation loaded with emotion and a Bond film!
WIM WENDERS
And to finish here's a German director who's hardly been active in the US at all but remains well known. Wim Wenders has achieved more than most of the German directors who went to Hollywood. He's made films on his own terms, by and large, and his one major American film; Paris, Texas is a classic. He's done well for himself when he has gotten involved with US money. Providing you ignore Million Dollar Hotel, which producer/star Mel Gibson called "as boring as a dog's ass". Wenders is also a writer and photographer who seems to be quite happy as the stereotypical European "artist" who can't be pigeonholed. Tykwer could have had this career if he'd been so inclined. But I think he wants more than that. He's more ambitious.
So to wrap up it seems that foreign directors are quite welcome into Hollywood and some of them can do quite well without selling out. Marc Forster has done well for himself. Wolfgang Petersen seems to have given up on his goal of making quality films while Roland Emmerich's aims in making movies are a little unclear. For Oliver Hirschbiegel I think it's unlikely he'll be back in Hollywood after such a poor opening film but Tom Tykwer has every chance of coming back. And I hope he does because he has every potential to be a top director. Time will tell.
Moving on
CHAN-TASTIC
The wife and I both enjoy the movies of Jackie Chan. I've seen a LOT of Chan movies over the years but I continue to be amazed at just how many there actually are. So I'll be trying to take a look at one Jackie Chan movie every week for you lucky people. This week's Jackie Chan movie is
FEARLESS HYENA (1979)
This film followed Jackie's breakout year in Hong Kong cinema where he starred in Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and Drunken Master. Fearless Hyena shows how inventive "Jacky" Chan could be. While both SitES and DM were showcases for Chan's natural kung fu ability Fearless Hyena showed that he had ideas that would put him at the creative top of his profession not just replace Bruce Lee. Several of the fight scenes are really innovative. The best of them features a chopstick/food fight that was copied recently by DreamWorks when they shot Kung Fu Panda. Fearless Hyena was Jackie's first film as a director but like many of the films from the period the foreign copies are horribly dubbed. Not only are the voice performances in the English version of Fearless Hyena laughably awful and bordering on parody, but comedy sound effects have been added that would be more at home on one of those home video blooper TV shows. Interesting to note that sequel Fearless Hyena 2 was made by Lo Wei from different takes from the first film as Jackie Chan had moved on to work for Golden Harvest and wouldn't take part in production. Lo Wei used stunt doubles to fill in the rest of the plot (no cardboard cutouts like that Bruce Lee debacle on Game of Death) and Jackie said it was so bad he tried to prevent it being released. Luckily Fearless Hyena was already in the can. To close it's interesting to note that Jackie chose to put a fight similar to those in his previous films in the opening credits. As if to say "been there, done that". As soon as the credits are done we'll be seeing something new.
Snowflake City
Waltz with Bashir ****1/2
The International ****
Carry on Up the Jungle **1/2
Foxy Brown **1/2
Waltz with Bashir is a tough watch. One of the hardest hitting animated films ever made, I'd wager. A rewarding experience though. If you take the top animated films piece I did last week you'd now find Waltz with Bashir in that top 5 somewhere. Where exactly only time will tell. My Carry On series link continues into it's third column. We're now into the 1970s Carry On's where the product started to go downhill. There are still some worthwhile flicks in that era so I'll be carrying on (pun intended) until the series finishes.
Is it just me or are most blaxploitation movies really overrated? Is it just because Quentin Tarantino said they were cool when he shot Jackie Brown? Examples;
SWEET SWEETBACK'S BAADASSSSS SONG (1971). A frankly terrible film regardless of it's "cutting edge". Hasn't held up at all well over the last 38 years. Probably didn't hold up well about 5 years after it was shot. It may have stuck the middle finger up to "the man" but it was inept filmmaking.
SUPER FLY (1972). Although it has one of the most ridiculous, and entertaining, foot chase scenes ever put on film Super Fly is so very lightweight. You'll notice I didn't include Shaft as an example because Shaft is actually good. Although it's not very well made.
BLACK MAMA, WHITE MAMA (1972). Pam Grier in an all female remake of The Defiant Ones in the Philippines. Famous for the titilating and pointless shower scenes along with the red paint splattered finale. I quite enjoyed it but I am a mark for Pam Grier. I still think her best film is Coffy, which is a superior remake of Foxy Brown.
BLACULA (1972). Not even campy enough to be funny. It's pretty bad. Oddly enough the sequel was much better.
There then followed about 100 films in the next 4 years before the genre just died on its ass. It was a fad, which quickly passed. I think certain people, like Tarantino, have an attachment to them because they were so different and remind them of their youth in the 70s. But on the whole blaxploitation movies weren't well made films. Often with weak cinematography and poor editing and plotting. On the upside they stuck it to the man. Word.
Until next time I'm Arnold Furious and you're not.
