Week 7

This week’s class featured one of Germany’s greatest film contributors, guest speaker Wolfgang Kohlhasse. Unfortunately I do not know much of Mr. Kohlhasse’s work other than A Berliner Romance which was screened previously in class. I searched Kohlhasse in the IMDB database and came across a large resume of his previous works. Mr. Kohlhasse’s class session was a unique opportunity to have private time with a German film legend. Kohlhasse introduced himself and we began and question and answer session. I really enjoyed the thoughtful and story-like character to his answers of what seemed like some abstract and pretentious questions. Mr. Kohlhasse seemed to get past some ostentatious questioning and bring the subject matter back down to a level that was relatable to anyone in the class. He definitely put across a “down to earth” persona. I am really excited to see more of his films, especially after the experience of meeting him in person.

The movie this week was entitled “Die Maur.” Die Maur for the non German speaker translates to “The Wall.” The title is obviously referring to the wall that separated East and West Germany, but the movie focuses on the sometimes not so obvious effects that the wall and its destruction brought to Germany. The film is shot with a documentary style that incorporates artistic elements with a general narrative of how the wall will become a unique piece of history in Germany. The film starts with birds flying freely over the wall. The next main focus of the film is the slow process of tearing down the wall. The first steps to the wall’s destruction starts with the two simple tools of a hammer and a chisel. As the movie progresses, so does the overall evolution of tearing down the wall. More and more people start to chisel the wall for pieces of memorabilia, then in what is perhaps the most striking point in this movie, the wall is extorted for capitalistic means. The film maker finds two young boys who are selling chunks of the wall for profit and holds the camera on these two for a long segment. The younger generation is already benefiting from the wall being torn down, but they may not see the bigger scope. The wall being torn down does not only bring financial prosperity, but it brings freedom.

Perhaps the most intriguing part of this film was when there a movie projector was screening old clips of Germany’s history onto a remaining section of the wall. The wall no longer exists in theory, although many pieces are still remaining. The wall is another layer of dark history that has inflicted the German people. This new layer of history is the backdrop for displaying the many past layers of harsh history that has plagued the German people.

The wall goes starts out as a graveyard of cinderblocks in the beginning of the movie and in the end of the movie there is a long scene of a display of the wall. This ending display shows the wall as almost an art gallery. The unique evolution of the wall from beginning to end in this movie is what makes “Die Maur” one of my favorite movies we have screened in class.

Our movie is also coming along very well and I will update more on it next week because we have set a couple of dates to film.