The dusitD2 baraquda pattaya — in collaboration with the Goethe-Institute and the Embassy of Germany is currently hosting the “Pattaya Rooftop Film Fest 2012” in honour of the 150th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Thailand and Germany.
The month long festival gets continues this Friday, February 10, with a showing of the 2002 release “Elefantenherz” with subsequent movies to be shown each Friday until March 2, 2012. Next Friday’s movie will be “Ein Freund von mir” (A Friend of Mine). A brief synopsis of both movies can be found on this page.
There is no admission fee for The Pattaya Rooftop Film Festival; guests can simply enjoy a selection of drink packages available on each night.
For more information or reservations please contact Tel. 038 769 999 or Email: [email protected].
Elefantenherz (2002), Director: Züli Aladag, colour, 100 minutes, English subtitles
Duisberg lad Marko works a tedious day job and still lives at home, where everyone tiptoes around the alcoholic outbursts of unemployed dad. Marko’s only joy comes from training at the local gym, where amateurs dream of hitting the big time. To Marko’s surprise, somewhat shady promoter Gerd offers to add him to his pro stable. But promising as he is, Marko tends to lose discipline and simply run on rage in the ring, getting trounced in his first real match. As a consequence he’s forced into playing enforcer for his mentor’s protection rackets, just as things go from bad to worse at home.
Ein Freund von mir – A Friend of Mine (2006), Director: Sebastian Schipper, colour, 83 minutes
Karl and Hans are like fire and water – or a Sunday driver and street racer. At any rate, the two men could not be more different.
Karl (Daniel Brühl) is a young, introverted mathematician. He works as a junior manager at an insurance company and is on the fast track to a dazzling career. He has been showered with success, earns good money and has a spacious apartment in a prime location. But Karl is completely indifferent to his various professional accomplishments and his life is marked by profound boredom.
His boss would like to arouse more passion in this promising young man – or at least more resistance. So one day, out of the blue, he sends Karl on a challenging punitive expedition. He is charged with appraising insurance risks in the highly competitive car rental branch. Karl takes a job as a driver at a car rental company so he can secretly monitor the interworkings of the business. It is there that he meets dynamo and go-getter Hans (Jürgen Vogel). Karl becomes immersed in Hans’ world of fast cars, fun and friends – a world which includes Stella (Sabine Timoteo), Hans’ Cleopatra, the woman he loves and intends to marry.
The images used to create the on-screen world seem to focus completely on Karl. The world around him is at first a hazy, indistinct backdrop of patterns and lights. They are lent contours only gradually, as if to mirror how the young man is slowly stirred from his waking coma.
Director Sebastian Schipper and cameraman Oliver Bokelmann depict this personal transformation process subtly and unobtrusively.
Reviews:
“Schipper has patched this together from American independent cinema, using the road movie genre and the snappy dialogues of “slacker” films; he fills the gap between comedy and drama with melancholic energy in the manner of an American maverick filmmaker.” – Berliner Zeitung
