jürgen fauth’s muckworld

Some movies are harder to judge objectively than others. The title of this behind-the-scenes doc about the German soccer team during the 2006 World Cup translates as “Germany: A Summer’s Fairy Tale.” In case you didn’t follow it, nobody expected much from them, but expat coach Jürgen Klinsmann brought a sunny California attitude that somehow clicked and led the team on an extraordinary series of wins which sent the country into an ekstatischen Freudestaumel. From what I am told, Germany had not seen such wholesome national joy since–ever.

As you might imagine, a movie about a transformative event in the old country can infect an exile like me with a particularly nasty strain of homesickness, a complicated emotion that combines longing with cringing overfamiliarity. As much as I liked listening to the players’ unaffected German, did they really have to play “Marmor Stein und Eisen bricht” on the bus?  And who was that dismal no-flow rapper on the Fanmeile?

Poor musical choices and personal issues with the Vaterland aside, Deutschland: Ein Sommermärchen offers a privileged peek at the world of high-powered sports with their team psychologists, penalty shoot experts, and visits from Frau Bundeskanzler. There are even a couple of nekkid shower scenes, and Klinsmann’s rousing half-time speeches are something to behold. I was riveted by Deutschland: Ein Sommermärchen, but it’s difficult to know if I would have found it half as charming if it had been a movie about the Canadian curling team.

The Sommermärchen ended with the semi-finals against Italy, a match that carries its own set of bad memories for me. I watched some of the games at Zum Schneider, but for the semi-finals, I was at Astoria Beer Garden, and in the general madness after the second goal, my Moleskine disappeared. The team might have lost the Cup that day, but I lost my notebook, and I’m still not over it.

Deutschland: Ein Sommermärchen. Sönke Wortmann, 2006. ****

• The Guardian: German director scores with World Cup documentary
• Official Site
• Here’s the trailer:

[tags]film, deutschland, expats, german, 4 stars, trailer, youtube, fussball, astoria, jurgen, soccer, moleskine, astoria, beer garden, zum schneider, ilja richter, disco, drafi deutscher, sönke wortmann[/tags]

Not quite as bad as it’s made out to be, at least not at first: New Jersey rube in the late 70s enters the magic disco world of Mike Myers’ club 54, does coke and Salma Hayek, etc. Compelling enough to keep us watching, even if it falls apart about halfway through.

I was faced with a choice at a difficult age
Would I write a book? Or should I take to the stage?
But in the back of my head I heard distant feet
Che Guevara and Debussy to a disco beat

I’ve had the Pet Shop Boys in the Jukebox for a while now, and it can’t be denied: I perk up considerably every time they come on (read: vogues around the apartment.) For smart, slick synth pop, look nowhere else. Even the ancient hits I’d grown sick of by 1988 (”Being Boring”) now sound like priceless pop baubles.

AMG says:
Postmodern ironists cloaked behind a veil of buoyantly melodic and lushly romantic synth-pop confections, the Pet Shop Boys’ cheeky, smart and utterly danceable music established them among the most commercially and critically successful groups of their era. Always remaining one step ahead of their contemporaries, the British duo navigated the constantly shifting landscape of modern dance-pop with rare grace and intelligence, moving easily from disco to house to techno with their own distinctive image remaining completely intact; satiric and irreverent — yet somehow strangely affecting — the Pet Shop Boys transcended the seeming disposability of their craft, offering wry and thoughtful cultural commentary communicated by the Morse code of au courant synth washes and drum-machine rhythms.