Germany, After the Wall: A Look at Communism and Its Aftermath

The Goethe Institute launched its important “East Germany Today” series Tuesday with Stefan Trampe’s “The Border Guard” (1994), a stunning allegory about a former East German warrant officer (Hermann Beyer) who feels compelled to go to work every day at an abandoned checkpoint. Trampe manages to evoke the classic Emil Jannings “Last Laugh” in the officer’s devastating predicament while deftly arriving at a highly symbolic finish.

Trampe’s economic, harrowing picture defines, in the most dramatic terms, the sense of loss of identity and authority surely experienced by all East Germans since reunification. It thus sets the tone for the entire series, which continues tonight at 7 at the Institute, 5750 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 100, with Barbara and Winfried Junge’s “I’ll Show You My Life--Marieluise, a Child of Golgow,” a 141-minute segment of one of the most remarkable documentaries in the history of film.

In 1961, just after the construction of the Berlin Wall, the Junges commenced filming the lives of several children of the village of Golgow. One of them was Marieluise Hubner, who was, like the others, filmed at irregular intervals in the ensuing years. In 1995, the Junges not only caught up with Marieluise and her family, but got her and her relatives to comment on earlier segments, speaking both with the perspective of time and, most significantly, with a candor not possible under the former Communist regime.

What emerges is the portrait of two attractive, reflective individuals of superior intelligence. Marieluise and her husband, Stefan, have endured life in a repressive regime and its collapse because of the strength of their individual characters and of their marriage. No less important are their professional training and careers in, respectively, science and the military, which gave them solidly transportable skills--although Marieluise did switch from her work as a chemical lab technician to become a dental assistant. Marieluise and her father, a dairy farmer outspoken long before the Berlin Wall fell, respect the socialist ideal but say that it failed from a lack of honesty and sense of individual responsibility.

The Junges have created a unique and timelessly significant account of everyday life in East Germany throughout the years between the construction of the Berlin Wall and its crumbling--and beyond. Theirs is also a universal story of how families can endure, and in this instance, how a family is affected by having been filmed so extensively, with each segment aired on television. (Stefan was forced by the military to avoid being filmed for the seven years up to the GDR’s crumbling. He also had to resist official pressure to cut off ties with his fiery father-in-law.) As filmmakers, the Junges have an easy, natural style and as interrogators are admirably direct. Marieluise and her family are tremendously appealing, and this totally absorbing chronicle of their lives invites endless speculation of its meanings on many levels. (323) 525-3388.

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LACMA’s eight-film “Writing With Light: The Cinematography of Vittorio Storaro” pays tribute to the achievements of one of the great modern cameramen, whose work always glows with flawless color and light, yet also shows remarkable control and intuition. With equal impact, Storaro has rendered the artificial worlds of Warren Beatty’s “Dick Tracy” and Francis Ford Coppola’s “One From the Heart” with as much conviction as his celebrated collaborations with Bernardo Bertolucci, with their inspired use of landscapes and authentic settings.

The 7:30 p.m. weekend series commences Friday with Bertolucci’s “The Conformist” and will be highlighted by rare 70-millimeter screenings of “One From the Heart” and “Apocalypse Now” on Jan. 22 and by a conversation with Storaro on Jan. 30, which will be coupled with a screening of Carlos Saura’s recent and exciting “Tango.”

Restored to its original length and rich color under Storaro’s supervision, “The Conformist” seems every bit the masterpiece it was when first released by Paramount in 1971. Bertolucci manages to combine the bravura style of Fellini, the acute sense of period of Visconti, the fervent political commitment of Elio Petri (“An Investigation of a Citizen Under Suspicion”)--and, better still, a total lack of self-indulgence.

Adapted by Bertolucci from an Alberto Moravia novel, “The Conformist” is at once a study of one man and an entire society. A traumatized product of a decayed aristocratic family, Jean-Louis Trintignant’s Marcello, whom we meet at 30 in 1937, is a respected professor of philosophy. He’s also a repressed homosexual so determined to maintain his respectability that he is ripe for recruitment by a fascist espionage organization. It sends Marcello on a deadly mission that he believes will atone for a terrifying youthful incident.

Bertolucci has told Moravia’s story so well, fusing Marcello’s destiny with that of Italy, that its culminating scene is devastatingly ironic even though it incorporates outrageous theatricality and bald coincidence. “The Conformist,” which memorably co-stars Dominique Sanda as a sexually ambiguous beauty, is not merely an indictment of fascism--with some swipes at ecclesiastical hypocrisy as well--but also a profound personal tragedy. The 4 1/2 minutes put back in the film are part of a party scene in which all the guests are blind except Marcello. (323) 857-6177.

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Morgan Higby’s “Matters of Consequence” is an edgy, deeply felt first feature centered on three young men who share a house and all work at the Opium Den in Hollywood. Higby wrote his film’s pivotal role for himself: Billy, a reflective, fatalistic druggie deejay. Morty Coyle plays Zack, an ambitious self-absorbed singer eager to get a record deal for himself and his band (the Impostors, who provide a highly affecting soundtrack), and Paul Francis is Drew, the bartender, who sees himself as a detached Mr. Cool.

Into the young men’s lives come three women who may--or may not--change their perspectives in varying degrees: Devon Odessa’s Blue, Zack’s lovely younger sister, attracted to Billy; Meredith Salenger’s Reiko, a classy call girl who would like to dent Drew’s armor; and Robin Antin’s Josie, a kinky club dancer who zeros in on Zack. Jason Wiles is Jake, Billy’s volatile drug supplier.

Sharply photographed by Thaddeus Wadleigh, “Matters of Consequence” has a great look and delves, amid easy humor, way beneath trendy surfaces to pose some of life’s bigger questions. Higby, a tall, thin blond, shows off his cast to advantage, most notably himself as the fast-living yet appealing Billy.

“Matters of Consequence” opens a Friday and Saturday midnight run at the Sunset 5 this weekend; hopefully, this booking will lead to deserved wider exposure for the film. (323) 848-3500.

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George Esguerra’s “Talk to Me” is a minor but imaginative romantic comedy in which a New York couple who met over a party line face the challenge of living up to each other’s expectations once they’ve indulged in weeks of great phone sex. This is a clever, provocative premise, a fresh way to explore the vulnerabilities of the contemporary dating game, but “Talk to Me” is also very much a first film that could use some more polish and development. However, Cheryl Clifford and Peter Welch are attractive and poised as the couple trying to make reality match fantasy. “Talk to Me” opens Friday at the Grande 4-Plex for a one-week run. (213) 617-3084.

Note: Michael Paxton’s “Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life” screens Tuesday at UCLA’s James Bridges Theater as part of the Academy/Contemporary Documentary series. (310) 206-8588.