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Just a heads-up about:

Trailer: Der Baader-Meinhof

I'm very excited about the prospect of this film, which is from the same team that produced Downfall (Bruno Ganz also features in this film, and once again the casting looks superb). It's currently in post-production, but due out soon. I have high hopes, although my friend Mark has been working with the son of Gudrun Ensslin and apparently he's not that happy about it.

If you haven't seen it already, check out the BBC's In Love With Terror. It gives a good background to the context of the Baader-Meinhof, coming out of Kommune1 and the German student movement. With music from Can and Amon Düül II.

That looks pretty fascinating, which is in line with the subject matter. There's a tricky balance to be struck on this between the motivation of the group, the real brutality of the state before, after and during their activity; and the pretty horrific nature of a lot of what they did. There is a danger of glamourising the group: pretty boys and girls, guns, chic clothes, explosions, flash car chases and alleged state liquidations. Certainly, there is an element of the European hard left that appears to do just that.

When I was last here, I was startled to see these posters just round the corner from me:





I was also startled when someone from the Boston Review contacted me to use one of the photographs for this article, which gives a decent overview. Elsewhere, I've read a dubious but imaginative argument that the violence of the Red Army Faction can be traced to Germany's collective psychological suppression of the Nazi era in the first few decades after the war. The argument is dubious (to me) as it suggests some kind of natural German tendency towards revolution through violent terror.

When I get time, I'll check out that BBC programme. This dovetails with something I want to write a lot later.

Thanks for the links, Cranius.

Elsewhere, I've read a dubious but imaginative argument that the violence of the Red Army Faction can be traced to Germany's collective psychological suppression of the Nazi era in the first few decades after the war. The argument is dubious (to me) as it suggests some kind of natural German tendency towards revolution through violent terror.

Yeah, but it's interesting though that the two single most radical and violent hard-left factions in Europe came to rise in precisely the two countries (Spain and Greece notwithstanding) that defined the major fascist axis twenty-five years before.

Good pictures, Mark.

sunlore wrote:

Elsewhere, I've read a dubious but imaginative argument that the violence of the Red Army Faction can be traced to Germany's collective psychological suppression of the Nazi era in the first few decades after the war. The argument is dubious (to me) as it suggests some kind of natural German tendency towards revolution through violent terror.

Yeah, but it's interesting though that the two single most radical and violent hard-left factions in Europe came to rise in precisely the two countries (Spain and Greece notwithstanding) that defined the major fascist axis twenty-five years before.

Yeah, that's the rub, isn't it?

There might be a connection; I just refute the implication (possibly only imposed by my reading) that it is something inherent in some general "German identity". Then again, maybe I'm wrong!

As a personal digression, I was struck by the tacit agreement that I sensed between the authorities and the protesters when I arrived here on May 1st. There was a little bit of violence against the riot cops, but not too much; there was a little bit of disorder, but not too much. And the next morning, the streets of Kreuzberg were pristine. This struck me as an agreed performance: we will have this performance of protest on this night, and we shall have an allotted amount of chaos; and then it shall pass. And everything will be back to normal the next day. Bizarre, I thought.

Perhaps there is something strange here in this mix of violence and order... But I am falling too far into the realm of the speculative here.

MrFood wrote:This looks interesting and all, but the trailer contains what is surely becoming the most clichéd shot in current cinema:

Namely - camera tracking out a shot from front on of heroes/protagonists walking briskly or nonchalantly away from a building which they have just asploded, without looking round to see where the big fucking bangs are coming from.

Yeah, nice spot. I have to admit that I still get some kind of horrible popcorn high from this shot still, though.

Gerhard Richter's Baader-Meinhof paintings are pretty extraordinary.

Here.

im the first one to notice the can soundtrack at the end of the trailer?

Can anyone recommend a book about the Baader-Meinhof gang that isn't Hitler's Children? I don't doubt it's historical accuracy but I found it sensationalist and, well, annoying. It seems to subscribe to the idea of the 'collective psychological suppression of the Nazi era' as well. I don't know if I agree with this either. I'm trying to think of Western European countries that didn't have some form of extreme leftist groups in that period. Holland? Hell, even Denmark had one, and that case hasn't been completely resolved.

houseboat wrote:Gerhard Richter's Baader-Meinhof paintings are pretty extraordinary.

I think all his paintings are extraordinary. Iguess the subject matter makes them even more interesting.

MrFood wrote:This looks interesting and all, but the trailer contains what is surely becoming the most clichéd shot in current cinema:

Namely - camera tracking out a shot from front on of heroes/protagonists walking briskly or nonchalantly away from a building which they have just asploded, without looking round to see where the big fucking bangs are coming from.

I agree on this. Stefan Aust's book is a interesting read but I don't know if making a movie out of it is a good idea. the trailer looks bad.

while watching some RAF related videos on youtube I came across this Ton Steine Scherben song.

Looks like it will be an interesting movie although I worry about it upholding the whole idea that the RAF was somehow a fashionable enterprise. A very good movie about the subject was Volker Schlondorff's "The Legend of Rita," which gladly dispensed with any idea that these terrorists were at all "cool."
Still, it's a fascinating part of German history and I'll still see it.

sunlore wrote:...it's interesting though that the two single most radical and violent hard-left factions in Europe came to rise in precisely the two countries (Spain and Greece notwithstanding) that defined the major fascist axis twenty-five years before.

You're talking about the Red Brigades?

I read somewhere a few years back that Italian organized crime investigators consider the Red Brigade to be still in operation, and that it played a major role in the WTO riots several years back.