OK: It's probably the
only double-bill in town just now. But, damn -- it's a
good one! Imagine: A classy, fast-moving vampire flick with lesbian/feminist tendencies and a smart socio-political thriller in the guise of a high school genre movie. Either film is worth seeing -- and paying for -- on its own. But at Brooklyn's best-kept secret,
reRun/Gastropub, you get 'em both -- first-run, too -- for the price of a single ticket. What the films have in common is their director/co-writer, German semi-wunderkind
Dennis Gansel, shown above, who is building up a resume of hip, smart movies that boast content, style, and high entertainment value.
In 2004, Gansel's
Before the Fall (
Napola) burst across Europe (it didn't open here until 2006). An interesting film featuring strong performances, it laid out how very seductive the Nazi stance and mentality must have been to the Austrians and Germans of that period. If the movie didn't quite convince me
in toto, it was impressive enough to have remained with me over the past half-decade. Now, with his 2008 work
THE WAVE, we're able to see further evidence of both Gansel's talent and his lingering interest in how fascism gains entrance into the mindset of a population -- particularly its youth.
Based on a novel by
Todd Strasser, which, in turn, was based upon an
"experiment" that took place at Cubberly High School in Palto Alto, California, in 1967, during which a teacher demonstrated via his students how even would-be democratic societies are not immune to the appeal of fascism. (The teacher is played here -- and very well -- by
Jürgen Vogel, above.)
Gansel's film also demonstrates the seductive ease of fascism, providing it has a good enabler. In it we see a particular class of gung-ho students in present-day Germany, within a single week, infect its peers, parents and even, perhaps, its teacher, too, into capitulating to the joys of power and conformity.
This 107-minute movie is by necessity a little too schematic (a four-, six- or eight-hour miniseries might have made the story less so). Yet within its tight framework, Gansel is able to conflate everything from school, home, sports, drugs, drama club, love life, exercise and parents into his quite believable social canvas.
If you think our own USA-grown high school kids can be scary, wait till you get a taste of the German version organizing itself into a proto-fascist group. "Jens is totally
transformed," notes one delighted parent, with pride. Run for the hills. Interestingly enough, it's the negative characteristics -- sexual jealousy, lack of parenting and sense of community -- that makes these kids fertile ground for the seeds of fascism, even in a society that is beginning to be multi-colored and multi-cultural.
Frightening, crazy, and perhaps a tad unduly telescoped (could all this take place within a single week?),
The Wave is still enormously entertaining. Beautifully acted by the whole ensemble, especially the award-wining
Frederick Lau (two photos above) as the most susceptible student, and
Max Riemelt (above) and
Jennifer Ulrich (below, left) as the wavering (he more than she) "good kids" in the group.
One one level
The Wave (in German, with English subtitles) probably scared the hell out of its home-state audiences (come
on: it couldn't happen here
again?!). In the USA, it will probably just stimulate conversation and entertain -- because we, of course, are so much wiser and multi-cultural. Don't bet on it, boys and girls.
*********
The beautiful Ms Ulrich and Mr. Riemelt both appear also in Gansel's other film on display,
WE ARE THE NIGHT. Though made a mere two years after
The Wave, the actors seem to have aged a decade and grown even more alluring, particularly Ulrich (below). That she's playing a vampire -- those creatures caught forever at the age at which they are "turned" -- of course helps matters. Unlike the junk-food, Tiddlywinking
Twilight series, these vampires are the real thing: nasty, brutish and... gorgeous.
They're all ladies, too: No male vamps to be seen. When you learn the reason for this, you'll be chuckling mightily, as these vampires are both lesbian (shades of
Daughters of Darkness, but this new one's a lot more frisky, frightening fun) and feminist -- the latter in these girls' own blood-sucking manner, of course.
In the stellar German cast is
Nina Hoss (on poster, top, and above, left, in fang-mode) as the top-tier vamp. Ms Hoss -- who has shone in films as diverse as
Yella,
Jerichow and
A Woman in Berlin -- is clearly slumming here. And enjoying it a lot, as any good actress should. How often do classy stars get the chance to vamp 'n camp like this?
Especially charming (for a vampire) is
Anna Fischer (above), who comes across like a just-past-her-teen-years
Jennifer Tilley. She's the youngest of this killing crew, and her despair at realizing, upon awakening, that she has both fucked and then finished off the young doorman who's had a crush on her, is a moment very nicely done.
The romantic leads are played by
Karoline Herfurth and Mr. Riemelt (above, right), and Herfurth -- as the young woman who's been recruited by Ms Hoss but who does not
quite fit into things -- proves a fine protagonist who goes from scary/scrappy (two photos up) to glamorous (below) in no time. (And wasn't this dinosaur/ferris-wheel theme park, above, just used in the recent
Hanna?)
Gansel has given his first real genre movie a plentitude of class (the movie looks
very good), incident (note the terrific pre-credit opening on an airplane), pace (it rarely slackens) and power (he draws from the myth's major themes but makes them his own). Turns out there's plenty of life left in the bloodsucker genre, after all.
The Wave and
We Are the Night (the latter is dubbed into English, by the way; too bad, but fortunately, this does not ruin the movie), part of
IFC Films' popular
Midnight series, open this Friday, as a double bill, at the
reRun/Gastropub. Click
here (or on the link previous)
for screening times and whatever else you might need. This is a special engagement of sorts. Further theatrical screenings will begin in June, and the films hit
VOD, as usual with IFC, around the same time.
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