The first three installments of Major Cyrillus Mystical Trip to Mars are online at Es ist Mitternacht John, the blog of Commander Koenig a.k.a. my good friend Jochen Carbuhn. By way of introduction, here is his greeting: Ich bin höchst erfreut Ihnen die Wiedereröffnung des Mad Scientist Memorial Theaters verkünden zu dürfen, die Bühne des [...]
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"A fast, complex, exhilarating roadster ride through history and time.... Kino is an intoxicating Euro-brew, written with enormous skill and dedication." — Frederick Barthelme
"Jürgen Fauth's deft mashup of genre and historical period is both a full-throttle literary thriller of ideas and a contemplative examination of film and fascism. Kino is a debut of great intellectual force."– Teddy Wayne
"A surprising alternative history. Kino brings the golden age of German cinema to light with loving, sometimes gritty, detail and great precision." – Neal Pollack, author of Jewball.
"A delirious melange of conspiracy, magic, sex, history, bad behavior, and cinema, Kino is a stellar entertainment, and Jürgen Fauth is a writer of rare, sinister imagination." – Owen King, author of Reenactment
"A light-hearted romp that leads straight into darkness and back through the shadows on the wall."– Ben Loory, author of Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day
"Movie nuts arise! A happy and felicitous debut."– Terese Svoboda
All posts tagged german
Major Cyrillus
Posted by Jürgen on January 13, 2008
http://jurgenfauth.com/2008/01/13/major-cyrillus/
Goethe Gives Thanks
A friend sent this poem along apropos something entirely unrelated, but it suddenly makes sense to post it today. Haven’t been able to find an English translation yet; if anybody happens to have one handy, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment. Happy Thanksgiving all! Im Atemholen liegen zweierlei Gnaden Die Luft einholen, sich ihrer [...]
Posted by Jürgen on November 22, 2007
http://jurgenfauth.com/2007/11/22/goethe-gives-thanks/
Titanic (1943)
Neither the first nor the best film telling the story of the doomed ocean liner, the 1943 German version is nonetheless fascinating– mainly because of the ways the story and imagery compares to John Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster, and as a study in overt propaganda. There’s the obligatory love story, poor immigrants dance below deck, and [...]
Posted by Jürgen on October 1, 2007
http://jurgenfauth.com/2007/10/01/titanic-1943/
The Blue Light
It takes guts to make a black and white film and call it The Blue Light, but whatever else you might want to say about Leni Riefenstahl, she had guts. She started her career as a celebrated dancer, became an actress in Dr. Fanck’s mountain films (The White Hell of Pitz Palü), and in 1932, [...]
Posted by Jürgen on April 3, 2007
http://jurgenfauth.com/2007/04/03/the-blue-light/
Cobra Verde
It’s not difficult to argue that all Herzog/Kinski films are attempts at making and remaking the same movie — Aguirre, Fitzcarraldo, Nosferatu and Woyzek less so — but that’s the beginning of the discussion rather than its conclusion. After all, most romantic comedies are remakes of the same movie, too. This final collaboration is no [...]
Posted by Jürgen on March 25, 2007
http://jurgenfauth.com/2007/03/25/cobra-verde/
Into Great Silence
Philip Gröning lived in a monk’s cell in the French Alps for six months to make this — you guessed it — very quiet documentary about the hermits’ lives. According to the press notes, the Carthusians are among the world’s most ascetic orders. (They also make the sticky herb liqueur Chartreuse). But you wouldn’t know [...]
Posted by Jürgen on February 24, 2007
http://jurgenfauth.com/2007/02/24/into-great-silence/
Deutschland: Ein Sommermärchen
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 [...]
Posted by Jürgen on January 10, 2007
http://jurgenfauth.com/2007/01/10/deutschland-ein-sommermarchen/
Perfume
Tom Tykwer’s nose isn’t the problem here, his ears are: the tone of his Süskind adaptation is all wrong. It’s been a long time since I read the novel, but somehow Süskind managed to sell the outrageous tale of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, the strangely gifted 18th-century murderer. Perfume is a strange fable, a dark fairy tale, [...]
Posted by Jürgen on December 7, 2006
http://jurgenfauth.com/2006/12/07/perfume/
Tulpendiebe
