Movie: Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo

De Niro may have coined the term "method acting". But his achievement seem to be dwarfed in light of Werner Herzog's endeavour - or torture - when doing Fitzcarraldo, the story of a Western rubber Baron in 19th century Peru, who's childlike dream is to produce an entire Opera in the Amazonian jungle.

This vision includes a 50 ton steamboat that has to be lifted over a mountain in order to access a far-flung arm of the river - and here comes Herzog's heroic accomplishment: all the props are real, so is the (at times) life-threatening river as well as the indians, and they lift that monster of a ship over that mountain for real - think method shooting! No studio, no stuntmen, no frills. Instead, real danger, tropical weather, malaria mosquitos - and above all - the world-famous tantrums of notorious Klaus Kinski, who threatened to kill Herzog in another iconoclatic movie: Aguirre - Wrath of God. Before embarking on the 5 movie lasting partnership with Herzog (Grizzly) Kinski role modeled as THE German Villain in noir movies of the sixties.

Granted, the story is simple, but you should see this movie - in my opinion one of the top 10 most important movies ever - for the sheer fascination of Kinskis outburst which are surely for real and often didn't stop after the cut, and of course you have to see it to believe it: everything is really real, no fake, it all really happened that way, back in that year in the 70s.

Film History!

On 10, 16, 22 and 30 June at the ICA

Movie: Wal Mart - The high cost of low price

When I studied international marketing at business school, Wal Mart was invading the German Market in a "make em or break em" style. Deep inside, we all knew that this strategy was going to fail, but back then nobody was listening to us new economy kids in Cologne. So, we write the year 2006 and the behemoth has surrendered and is marching home - and we were right, he he.

That prompted me to finally see that movie about what's wrong with the Wal Mart business model. A lot! But the bigger picture is that of the corporation. Don't complain about fat cats, immorale values (e.g. to subsidise a profit machine like this with tax payer's money to only name one) and killing the little guy (independent local traders), unless you want to un-corporate Corporate America. The flaw is in the law.

Speaking of the devil, the movie "The Corporation" had the potential to make history, but unfortunately only the first 45 minutes are conceptually revolution calling followed by almost two hours of cineastic how-to-do-it enangelising.

However, the Wal Mart movie delivers what it promises and should become compulsary curriculum for all business and economy students. Definetively eye-opening and a milestone in critical documentary.

For those who are interested, the website www.truecosteconomics.org has an interesting call to action: to change the economic paradigm itself rather than fire-fighting the effects of the pre-vailing and harzarduous neo-liberal one. Or go back to the last remaining corner shop in your neighbourhood instead of Tesco Local.

Movie: Syriana at the Electric Cinema

If you check the review comparison on the guardian online you can see that most of Britain’s newspapers are giving it an 8/10, and with the Sun, FT, Daily Telegraph and the Express these pundits are from the conservative spectrum. On the other hand, The Guardian and The Independent give rather weak marks, which is surprising for this demanding and brave political project.

To say it straight away: I think it’s a great polit-thriller and cannot wait until it’s released on DVD. What makes it refreshingly different from the recent name-and-shame yet valid celluloid attacks from the left-wing a la 9/11 Fahrenheit and The Corporation is it’s lack of accusing Bush and his cronies, or neo-cons in general. The cast is top-notch with many familiar faces to make following the plot at least possible.

What makes it so compelling in my view, is that Clooney & Co. try to make patterns transparent, but they don’t really succeed - and that is exactly the winning momentum. Because the global system dynamics of oil, money, politics, corruption and consumption is too complex even for well-informed people to be fully understood and digested - and that’s why it’s lack a dominating character, but makes a realistic assessment of rather structural leadership and systematic corruption.

After 2.5 hours in the comfy leather sofa of my favorite London Cinema in affluent Notting Hill, an eerie feeling is creeping up my mind: as long as you, I and we all together, drive cars, use plastic bags and all other things made of oil, there will be corruption (official and unofficial) and terrorist attacks (by islamist groups as well as intelligence agencies).

While watching the credits, I compared the movie’s quintessence (delivered by the career-hungry attorney) to that of the principal-agent model of modern corporations: In Syriana, we the consumers are the principals, and we mandate the politicians, the boards, the middlemen and everybody else involved to be the agents that act on our behalf, and that is to provide us with abundant supply. And that is often high-risk, politically and economically as well as personally. So the characters want the respective reward according to another grand model called Risk equals reward. And how do the participants try and cut out their slice of the pie? Correct, through corruption! And why? Unless we revoke our vote, it will not change because the incentive is too low. The corrupt analyst made 80 millions...and got away with it!

And that is a striking point, but it seems to be too disillusioning for some liberal critics. Of course I want those people being put to jail, but it’s the way this unbundled globalized economy works - until we change it...through a new mandate.