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Rating:  -
Filmmaker Steven Soderbergh is not to be dismissed, but I am disappointed with how misbegotten this stylized 2006 melodrama is given the potential of the material and the pedigree of the cast. The idea is intriguing enough - recreate a WWII-era, black-and-white Warner Brothers movie replete with back projection shots, a period-authentic score (composed with appropriately grand orchestration by Thomas Newman), and plot elements borrowed from Casablanca and The Third Man. What Soderbergh does is apply current sensibilities about the characters that would have been heavily censored by the Hayes Office at the time. The result just doesn't resonate, and the chief culprit seems to be Paul Attanasio's dull, often incoherent screenplay. He eschews the romanticism necessary to make Soderbergh's ruse work, and the characters' motivations come across with little conviction, at least anything that would make sense to a discerning viewer.
The convoluted story follows war correspondent Jake Geismar back to Berlin where he ran the AP bureau before the war began. He finds a city in ruins not only in terms of the buildings but in the people who remained for the war's duration. Geismar is covering the Potsdam Conference for the New Republic, but he also wants to find his former lover, Lena Brandt. Assigned to drive him around the city is an American soldier named Tully, whose chipper exterior masks an angry, amoral center deep into the local black market. The fates of these characters clash unexpectedly around Lena's mathematician husband, whom she claims is dead, even though he is still pursued by a number of unsavory characters including a corrupt U.S. Congressman. As Geismar, George Clooney is smart enough not to mimic Bogie, but he also doesn't slip into his role very easily since his ironic élan is at odds with the character's obsessive, misguided nature.
You would think the superbly talented Cate Blanchett would have a field day playing a Dietrich-like femme fatale, especially with her convincing Teutonic accent and camera-ready cheekbones, but Lena is presented so cryptically that we become indifferent to her tenuous situation. Soderbergh also spends precious little time developing the romantic aspect of their relationship, which should have been the driving force to their often irrational actions. Tobey McGuire's boyish demeanor as Tully becomes unctuous almost immediately, and the role's darker dimensions escape his grasp. The production's technical aspects provide curiosity value, although the result can be less than enthralling, for example, Soderbergh's camerawork is far too crisp to compare reasonably with the gauzy treatments of old studio craftsmen like Arthur Edeson (Casablanca) or Robert Krasker (The Third Man). I imagine disappointing box office returns must be the reason there are no extras offered with the 2007 DVD release.
Rating:  -
I had high expectations for this film, considering the great cast. However, I was disappointed in their melodramatic acting and in the trite, dull and clichéd script itself.
If you're writing a script that's a homage to the 1940s, shouldn't the scriptwriter stick to that particular style? The use of F words and nudity (not a needed scene) was not the best idea, and actually called for disappointment already.
What saved the movie was:
- that it was shot in black and white, with no microphones,
- its colorful score,
- and its storyline (albeit weakly developed and confusing at times).
Captain Jake Geismar (George Clooney) is in Berlin to cover the Potsdam Conference in post-World War II Germany, but he is dragged into a murder investigation involving his former mistress Lena (Cate Blanchett) and his driver (Tobey Maguire).
The last scene was a clone of Casablanca's last scene - was it intentional? It is a very *slow* film noir, and political thriller, and certainly not a film that everyone will enjoy.
Rating:  -
I don't think anyone, not even those who dislike him, can deny that Soderbergh is a knowledgeable film-maker. I would add that he might be the most intelligent one working in Hollywood now. Not that it in itself guarantees that he would create art that would possibly change our lives, but it does mean that we get the chance to submerge to experiments that tell us, always hungry for knowledge, this and that about the nature of cinema. Not only about techniques, but some really abstract stuff, too. For an example, if the pretty Ocean films aren't really your game, you can still appreciate them for their philosophy on editing and creating a rhythm both inside a scene, and a continuous one that lasts throughout the whole film. And after all, I would much rather see him do an Ocean for his commercial endeavours rather than a Solaris or an Erin Brockovich, two films that I really can't stand. And those are the only ones. Otherwise any new Soderbergh film gets my attention.
But this film is one of his experimental, smaller stuff, and not by the looks of at all a blend between the two, like Ocean, and what Solaris apparently tried to be. Instead, we get a rather thorough look at film-noir and what it stands for, and an uncompromising film at that.
The Oxford American dictionary defines film noir as "a style or genre of cinematographic film marked by a mood of pessimism, fatalism, and menace." So very true, and historically an apt definition. Much is included: the post-war darkness, the bleakness in the world view, but what is missing is the helplessness in narrative terms. The plot was always a story of murder and truth, played against a political backdrop.
This helplessness is embodied in a main character, often a detective or journalist, searching for truth in a corrupt environment. Of course as the plot develops, our man is being crushed under the political backdrop fo scheming. Then there is a mysterious woman, a center of his desires. Often she's a beautiful redhead. In general terms, film noir has to do with a whole mechanism of film cosmology working like cosmos, trapping a Kafkaesque man, often an introspective character like a writer, inside. It's about being trapped inside a world, not being in control; it's about being led by the wind, the cosmic fate.
Thus, film-noir demands a caricature of a leading man, someone who acts as a scapegoat to the audience. Nowadays no one would do this better than George Clooney; he is our man of noir, having basically done this kind of stuff since the late 1990s, after his first ventures with Soderbergh in Out of Sight. From that he has advanced to a bunch of Coen Brothers films, most notably O Brother, Where Art Thou?, has directed two films, each of these films using him as the kind of a noir guy. It's telling that Robert Altman, according to IMDb Trivia, considered Clooney to be the first choice to play Guy Noir in A Prairie Home Companion, a part that ultimately went to Kevin Kline. Syriana is another great example, by the way. So we could assume that he himself consciously endorses this. He has become a sort of icon for a man who's completely lost in the cosmos, the wheels of bureaucracy, and has added, thanks to his clever film decisions, a notch of irony to the mix. Robert Downey Jr. adds introspection to the mix, so he obviously doesn't make a good leading man for a film that seemingly abides the noir rules. But we do get an introspective character, unique in 1950s noir, we do get a femme fatale, someone who's both inside and outside the system, someone who knows more than we do (or in this case, Clooney's character). In such a case Soderbergh uses Cate Blanchett, and I guess it's the least polemic thing to say that she's perhaps the most amazing actress working today, with Kate Winslett and Julianne Moore. So Blanchett is the one who, in the abstract realm, switches between different films, as she does switch between the layers of knowledge in the story; now she seems to know nothing, again a new bend of our perspective and yet again she is the key to an unlocked secret.
So how do we label a film like this? It's not an important issue, but fun to ponder. This is basically film noir done extremely consciously, because it imitates noir technically, with the striking contrasts and low camera angles, but adds modern methods to places that amplify the introspection. Thus we get something like post-noir, if Sin City would be like neo-noir, overtly stylish. Yet this is a quiet film, and a recommendation for all fans of mystery, despite the word of mouth. Lots of references to the classics ensue. And fans of Soderbergh should know that they're in for a treat.
With best regards,
AK
Rating: -
Apparently, I admired this film more than many others; I'm glad I don't listen to the "buzz". Certainly there are shortcomings, like the patchy editing of archival footage with the film moments. With today's technology, the tansition could've been a bit less obtrusive...but then it wouldn't be Soderbergh, would it? He's a natural. Aside from the obvious tribute to Michael Curtiz, I noticed small tributes to Hitchcock & Rene Clair, among others (unintentional?). The acting is fine; I especially liked the minimal appearance of Christian Oliver as the object of everyone's obsession. The full-screen version I saw was a little more true to the noir idea, but I much prefer widescreen. The B&W photography by Mr. Soderbergh himself is rife with shadowy close-ups and dark intrigue. Many won't like it because it's not a shoot 'em up action flick; rather, a fine and intense mystery worth the attention of those who remember those fine films from the 40's.
Rating: -
An American Army journalist (George Clooney) has arrived in Berlin to cover the Potsdam Conference and soons finds himself embroiled in murder and intrigue.
"The Good German" is director Steven Soderbergh's homage to the Film Noir genre.
All the usual Noir elements are there - a convoluted plot, a femme fatale, romance, mystery, and a hero who is continually being beaten up.
There are strong echoes of Carol Reed's "The Third Man" in the post WWII setting (in this case Berlin) and also Michael Curtiz's "Casablanca" in the relationship between Blanchett and Clooney's characters.
Soderbergh employs a number of devices to evoke the Noir look of the film: firstly it is shot in black and white, secondly there are "wipes" between scenes, thirdly an over-ripe musical score by Thomas Newman typical of the period, fourthly it (deliberately) looks like it was shot in a studio replete with obvious rear-screen projection when characters are driving around.
Overall the film works quite well. The acting is excellent especially Blanchett at the tortured Lena Brandt. Only Tobey Maguire as a brutal, scheming Army driver fails to convince.
One only hopes that Soderbergh and Clooney continue to make interesting films like this while the "Ocean" films continue to pay the bills.
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