Tips from a film critic: Seven films that will last

What's going on in Barbieland, where the eternally smiling residents float out of wallless houses into their convertibles parked outside the door? Where every day at the beach is as perfect as the next. And where Ken only feels like he exists when Barbie catches his eye? Suddenly, Barbie's high heels sink to the ground. And: She's thinking about death.

New York director Greta Gerwig took on the world's most popular and controversial doll in "Barbie" (2023). Until then, Gerwig was known for films featuring independent women ("Lady Bird," "Little Women"). And now she breathed life into Barbie (Margot Robbie), a feminist hate figure whose impossible body measurements drive women into dieting obsessions.

In "Barbie," the question arose: Who's using whom? Was Gerwig producing a feature-length commercial with blockbuster potential for Mattel, the world's second-largest toy manufacturer (after Lego)? Or was the director liberating the world's most perfect doll from its pink nursery hell?

Ultimately, "Barbie" was empowerment for the female sex. Rarely have the characters of a popcorn movie pondered what it means to be a woman so extensively, so quickly, and so humorously. Or a man. It doesn't matter. In the end, it's those discarded from Mattel's production line due to defects who step up to save the Barbie world. Stunning lines are uttered: "I'm a man without power. Does that make me a woman?"

Parcel delivery driver Ricky is always under pressure: scene from "Sorry We Missed You".

Source: Distributor

A small group of journalists was waiting for Ken Loach at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. The British director arrived on time, as he always is, out of respect for his fellow human beings. He was holding a bar of chocolate. And now he was in a pickle.

His sense of justice demanded that the chocolate be shared. How do you share a bar with eight people? Loach passed the chocolate around in a circle. When it returned to him, there was only a meager piece left in the wrapper. Loach acknowledged this with a friendly smile. That's what solidarity is all about.

This is often the subject of his films – including the one he presented at Cannes: "Sorry We Missed You" translates to something like: "Unfortunately, we didn't find you," a standard phrase used by parcel carriers. Recipients are often annoyed by this, believing the courier is too lazy to deliver the package properly.

In Loach's film, we see the situation from the perspective of a bogus self-employed courier. Family man Ricky is rushed through the streets by GPS. He doesn't even have enough time to pee on the way. If he's late, the stressed-out Ricky faces sanctions. At home, the family's cohesion has long been at stake.

Ricky is a slave to the digitalized world of work. A director who so unconditionally sides with the weak is more important today than ever.

It's time to say goodbye: a scene from "Love".

Source: imago images/Mary Evans

Love is arguably the most over-the-top cinematic theme, twisted and turned, rolled and wrung out again and again. A director needs a special approach to touch the audience. Michael Haneke achieved this brilliantly with "Love" (2012).

At the same time, this is a film about saying goodbye. The Austrian director shows how two people who still love each other endure this bitter finale. How Georges and Anne fight to maintain their dignity when one of them can only drink from a sippy cup and has to be washed and changed. How, despite everything, there are still bonding, touching moments – even those that the two rescue from memory into the present.

One would hardly have expected such a film from the cynical analyst Haneke ("Funny Games"). The apparent sobriety of "Love" conceals a great deal of tenderness. Haneke tested the resilience of lifelong love.

This story was made even more impressive by the two leading actors, who celebrated their screen comeback at a very advanced age—both over 80—and took on a difficult yet lifelike role. Emmanuelle Riva once played the seductive woman in Alain Resnais's "Hiroshima, my Love" (1959), and Jean-Louis Trintignant was one of the most sought-after actors in films such as "Woman's Desire" (1956). Both have since passed away.

Whisperer: Scene from "Parasite".

Source: Koch Films

Capitalism can also be overcome by acting in accordance with the system: A desperately poor family cleverly infiltrates the rich. Director Bong Joon-ho won both the Palme d'Or at Cannes and an Oscar for "Parasite" (2019).

There are a few things you can learn about rich and poor in this film, for example: Poor people have a specific smell—at least when they live in a basement like the Kim family of four. What you can learn about rich people is that it's easy for them to be kind and generous, precisely because they're rich. Any trouble can be smoothed out with money, like with an iron.

The Kims then deliberately get themselves hired in the Parks' stylish house—as tutors, art therapists, chauffeurs, and housekeepers. All that's left to keep the human parasites alive—if one wants to use that expression from the film's title—is their host. And that's the Parks.

Here, the audience is confronted with the contrast between those at the top and those at the bottom in almost every scene. Rarely has class struggle from below transformed into such darkly humorous escapades.

Ticking time bomb: Benni (Helena Zengel) before the next outburst of anger.

This film had an impact beyond the screen. It sparked a debate about the youth welfare system: Nora Fingscheidt's "Systemsprenger" (2019) tells the story of Benni, a system breaker. This term refers to children with behavioral problems who can no longer be supported by psychologists and educators.

But this isn't a documentary. Here, the screen is allowed to glow pink whenever Benni has her next attack—for example, when someone makes the mistake of touching her face. She can't stand it.

The girl is ticking like a time bomb. One moment, Benni is a fun-loving child, the next she's slamming her head against a car window. She spits in people's faces, punches and kicks, and threatens helpers with a kitchen knife. When things get really bad, she's sedated with medication in a psychiatric hospital.

"System Crasher" is a film as tough as it is sensitive, telling not only the story of Benni, but also the helplessness of the helpers. For the then ten-year-old lead actress Helena Zengel, "System Crasher" marked a phenomenal career launch. It led her to Hollywood, working alongside Tom Hanks ("News of the World").

Subversive chauffeur: Jafar Panahi in "Taxi Tehran".

Source: imago images/Everett Collection

It was one of the most touching moments of the 2015 Berlinale—and one of the most depressing: A girl, tears in her eyes, proudly raised the Golden Bear. The ten-year-old's name was Hana Saeidi, and she accepted the trophy on behalf of her uncle, Jafar Panahi, who was imprisoned in Iran. The harassed director was unable to collect the award for "Taxi Tehran" (2015) in person.

But his film made it to the Berlinale: A pivoting camera was installed on the dashboard of a taxi. This is how Panahi tricked Iranian security guards on the street.

While the traffic outside pulsates, inside, people are talking about everything under the sun. Two passengers are heatedly debating the death penalty and Sharia law. A blood-soaked accident victim recites his will on Panahi's smartphone so that his wailing wife, and not just his brothers, can also receive some of his inheritance. A dealer is selling illegal DVD pirates from the West (including Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris").

When a lawyer takes the passenger seat, the car transforms into a resistance cell. The human rights activist recounts how dissidents in Iran are cornered: First, they are accused of working for the Mossad or the CIA, then they are accused of moral transgressions, and finally, the family is pressured to turn away. Nasrin Sotoudeh plays the wife, who actually represents members of the opposition and spent many years in prison.

At the end, the screen in "Taxi" goes black: thieves have stolen the camera—searching for the chip. But the camera is empty; cinema by courageous Iranian directors isn't that easily thwarted. Panahi has since left prison and a hunger strike behind him. To this day, he maintains his artistic freedom in Iran. In May, he won the Palme d'Or at Cannes for "A Simple Accident"—and he was there.

Cigar after work: Concentration camp commandant Höß (Christian Friedel) in “The Zone of Interest”.

Source: LEONINE Studios

The main character in "The Zone of Interest" (2024) is a concerned family man. His name is Rudolf Höß (Christian Friedel). Occupation: Commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp. The garden of the Höß villa borders directly on the concentration camp wall: "We'll plant vines there," says his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller) in the disturbing cinematic drama "The Zone of Interest" from the first to the last minute.

At the beginning, the screen remains black for minutes. We listen to a barely identifiable cacophony. Is this what Auschwitz sounds like? Later, we can better assess the noise from beyond the wall. Roars, cries of terror, whip lashes, gunshots. The daily torment in the camp. We never see the people in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

No one has ever spoken about the Holocaust quite like the British Jonathan Glazer. After 1945, there was an attempt to establish a ban on images of the Holocaust. According to the Frenchman Claude Lanzmann, any imagery amounts to a "trivialization of the events." For his nine-hour film essay "Shoah," he traveled to Treblinka, Sobibor, Auschwitz, and other camps between 1974 and 1985. He refrained from using archival images or photographs of corpses.

In doing so, he set himself apart from later conventional dramas: The fictional television series "Holocaust" (1979) was filmed in the gas chambers of Mauthausen. The British director Glazer rejects such filming in "Zone of Interest." He separated apparent idyll from barbarism only with a wall.