Ermanno Olmi, I Fidanzati (1962)

 

Ermanno Olmi, I Fidanzati(1962)

A masterly depicted and narrated study 

on the poetry of emptiness.

Il deserto vuoto.

Love, where are you hiding?

Ermanno Olmi, Il Posto (1961)

 

A true masterpiece by Ermanno Olmi,

a Robert Walser - Franz Kafka World

Filmed in a daring style,

une marriage étrange:

Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, 

Jacques Tati, Roberto Rossellini, 

Pierre Etaix.

.... how it meanders suprisingly tenderly

into minimalism finally.

Martin Heidegger - Über die Trinität

Martin Heidegger - Über die Trinität

Lloyd Kaufman - Terror Firmer (1999)

Now, this one really brought back my dear memories of real subversive, mean, poetic and cruel cinema. Oh, how much I loved Troma in my teenage years. A true gem of insanity, tastelessness and a deep understanding of independent cinema like the early John Waters' "Pink Flamingos" (1972), "Female Trouble"(1974) or "Polyester" (1981) - simply fantastic. Or simply "Dressed to kill" - the true version!

Watch it !

 

Macon Blair - The Toxic Avenger (2025)

What a horrible, terrible Muppet Trash, with the chief muppet Peter Dinklage! Yeah, very moving! Baby Yoda is back! How dare you ruin my dear Troma memories from the mid-eighties! Nothing more to say about this. 

They simply transformed the 1984 classic into an unbearibly disneyfied or marvelized, hyper-pathetic, hyper-polished melodrama. Is this family entertainment now! Even the violence is super cute! Why? Do not watch it if you love your life! 

And why does Dinklage believe that he is a fantastic actor? Ah, yes! How dare I forget, he was "Tired Canister" in Game of Drones.

My Reading Traces - Jacques Derrida - Avances

 

Jacques Derrida - Avances (1995)

My Reading Traces - Jacques Derrida - Avances

 

Jacques Derrida - Avances (1995)

Gerald Kargl - Angst (1983)

This is an intense, poetic and unfairly critizised experimental masterpiece on all levels. The images of a child going down a slide and of a surviving dachshund (Is he crying? For us?) are emblematic for the film as a whole. 

They are documents of the director's heartbreaking tenderness and his compassion for both the perpetrator and his victims. We (as the powerless audience) have to witness this nightmare of atrocities, delusions, the loneliness and desperation.

The weightless camera work (Zbigniew Rybczyński), the music by Klaus Schulze, the editing and the voice-over are flawless. Not to speak of the ultra nuanced acting by Erwin Leder. 

If you allow some comparisons to this uniqueness it would be: Robert Bresson's "L'argent" (1983), Gaspard Noé's "Seul contre tous"(1988) and maybe Krzysztof Kieslowski's "A Short Film About Killing"(1988).

It is at times hard to watch, but it is a deeply rewarding experience since it uses its medium on breathtakingly daring levels of virtuosity. Keep in mind that this is a first feature film.

Michael Chaves - The Conjuring. Last Rites (2025)

Now, this one is a really funny one. A really good mixture of senile Christian fundamentalism and good old horror slapstick that scares maybe demonic gold hamsters. The more appropriate title would have been rather: 

The Conjuring. Yikes, my mirror is possessed.

The good thing first: this film is only four hours long. Or at least it feels like this.  A good length for little a cinematic nap. Don't be afraid to miss something. This film was conceived for wooden posts. And have the handkerchiefs ready. The chief excorcists are retiring. But relax: there is a super cute couple ready to take over. The nearly stillborn daughter and now a supergirl medium and her Ex-cop husband are there to inherit mummy and daddy's business. Thanks heaven, that we still have the Holy christian family.

When will The Conjuring. The Revenge of the demonic Tomatoes be released. The Idea: maybe this time tomatos are possessed and they are about to infiltrate the Burger and French Fries Industry. Where is the Holy Mustard to save us?

And of course everything is based on true storys.

 

My Reading Traces - Jacques Derrida - Voyous

Mike Tyson talks ...

“I don’t believe in legacy. It’s just another word for ego. I’m just passing through. I’m gonna die, and it’s gonna be over. Who cares about legacy after that? We’re nothing. We’re just dead. We’re just dust. We’re absolutely nothing. Our legacy is nothing. Who the fuck cares about me when I’m gone?”

- Mike Tyson (2024)

in an admirably good mood.

Alex Garland, Ray Mendoza - Warfare (2025)

Do yourself a favour and leave out this film. And put it on your black list. It is a really despicable film.It is the all too transparent attempt to generate compassion for the agents of black ops. But at the same time it is a hymnic and tearful praise of toxic masculinity. Just watch the first three minutes and you knew in what misogynous world the films wants to force you in.

Next major flaw: There is not even an explanation given for the context of the Irak-War. There is only a pseudo-authentic background since one of the soldiers was co-author of the script. Hence the military slang you are forced to listen too. What was again the idea and the purpose of this mission? Close to zero informations in this film either. But enjoy your time with the civil hostages. 

The film erases its maybe sincere motives by using the trite formulas of action and or western cinema say of John Carpenter's "Assault on Precinct 13"(1976). The film also reproduces the simple military friend/enemy dualism and invests severly into the dehumanization of the foes.

The celebrated sound design is only the mean and brutal attempt to force the audience into a war like atmosphere. Oh, how cute!

My Reading Traces - Jacques Derrida - Voyous

 

My Reading Traces - Jacques Derrida - Voyous

 

Clive Barker - Hellraiser (1987)

 

No, it is not the newest Rubik's Cube! You must have recognized it already. Yes, it is - now after nearly 40 years - an uncut Hellraiser. This is already very funny, since all the knife cuts and all the other charming mutilations are still there. I remembered the main gadget as some kind of super silly Rubik's Cube, the BDSM Edition. 

But surprise surprise - it was not a cube but a box called "The Lament Configuration". A brilliant commentary in the bonus material reads the film as an essay about the desire of "unboxing".

That's more interesting than the film itself. Since Hellraiser remains one of the cornerstones of an ultra cruel cinema conceived by and for misogyne psychopaths. The motto of this kind of cinema that is still working (until "John Wick" down to "Dune 1 and 2"): "Go away woman, I have some killings to do". And there is (how wonder) a strictly male self destructive chain of box owners.

It is also the film with the silliest hairstyles. Pinhead, really? And a film with the most gifted short legged Charlotte Rampling impersonator. But also one with a poorly talented impersonator of Jennifer Connelly.

But it belongs also to the truth that it remains one of the most indigestible and deadly serious films of all times. If you want to make (no) friends show it at your next birthday party.

Pyrrhocoris apterus enjoying the sun

 

Pyrrhocoris apterus enjoying the sun.

(Foto: SKG, 3/2026)

My Reading Traces: Jacques Derrida - Spectres de Marx

 

My Reading Traces: Jacques Derrida, Donner la mort

 

My Reading Traces: James Joyce - Finnegans Wake

 

My Reading Traces: James Joyce - Finnegans Wake

 

My Reading Traces: Paul de Man - Allegories of Reading

 

Ti West: The Sacrament (2013)

 

In a way Eli Roth's "The Green Inferno" (2013) is the evil and even more apocalyptical twin to this film. If you are dreaming of a life in seclusion and harmony watch both films at once or after one another. Yes, ethnographical interests often end in death and destruction. Paradise lost. And Ti West's "The Sacrament"(2013) is a really good, deadly seriously and uncanny mockumentary about Jonestown. Back to nature and back to the spirit are equally self-destructive movements.

My Reading Traces: Paul de Man - Allegories of Reading

 

My Reading Traces: Paul de Man - Allegories of Reading

 

My Reading Traces: Paul de Man - Hypogram and Inscription

 

My Reading Traces: Paul de Man - The Resistance to Theory

 

My Reading Traces: Paul de Man - The Resistance to Theory