4 Best Movies to Watch From X Filme Creative Pool

Staff & contributors

An offbeat film with a more than decent amount of suspense. To that it adds really good music and unexpected animation, to make for a very audacious, interesting and mostly fun film. It uses all this to show how life can change in a twist and how it can be influenced by weird connections of otherwise unrelated events.

Genre: Action, Drama, Mystery, Thriller

Actor: Armin Rohde, Beate Finckh, Franka Potente, Hans Paetsch, Heino Ferch, Herbert Knaup, Joachim Krol, Julia Lindig, Lars Rudolph, Ludger Pistor, Marc Bischoff, Monica Bleibtreu, Moritz Bleibtreu, Nina Petri, Peter Pauli, Sebastian Schipper, Suzanne von Borsody, Ute Lubosch, Utz Krause, Volkhart Buff

Director: Tom Tykwer

Rating: R

, 2016

It’s always fun to watch something that makes you second guess each move, that shifts seamlessly from one thing to another. Frantz is that kind of film, and as the deceptively simple premise unfolds—a widow befriends her late husband’s friend—you’re never really sure if what you’re watching is a romance, a mystery, or a sly combination of both. 

It helps that Frantz is also more than just a period piece, packed as it is with tiny but thoughtful details. When it is filled with color, for example, it does so in the muted palette of 1900s portraits, making each shot look like a picture come to life. When it talks about love, it goes beyond heterosexual norms and hints at something more potent and, at times, political. And when it takes a swing at melodrama, its actors ground the moment with enough restraint and reserve so that it never teeters on excess. All this results in a well-executed, gripping, and overall lovely film to watch.

 

Genre: Drama, History, Romance, War

Actor: Alice de Lencquesaing, Anton von Lucke, Axel Wandtke, Camille Grandville, Claire Martin, Cyrielle Clair, Eliott Margueron, Elizabeth Mazev, Ernst Stötzner, Étienne Ménard, Jean-Claude Bolle-Reddat, Jean-Paul Dubois, Jean-Pol Brissart, Jeanne Ferron, Johann von Bülow, Johannes Silberschneider, Laurent Borel, Louis-Charles Sirjacq, Lutz Blochberger, Marie Gruber, Merlin Rose, Michael Witte, Nicolas Bonnefoy, Paula Beer, Pierre Niney, Rainer Egger, Ralf Dittrich, Torsten Michaelis, Zimsky

Director: François Ozon

Rating: PG-13

An intriguing, funny and rather bizarre movie which serves as a fantastic introduction to 'new-wave' German cinema. Featuring a cast of young talented actors and excellent direction, this movie takes place around the time the Berlin wall fell and East and West Berlin were still united. Christiane, a devout socialist activist in East Berlin suffers an accident which leaves her in a coma, during which time the Berlin wall comes down and Western capitalism encroaches on her beloved East Berlin. Fearing that she may relapse into a coma after waking up, her doctors warn that she must remain calm and not endure any shocks. Despite the somewhat contrived premise, the film really takes off from this point as her son Alex and his friend aim to hide this fact from her, by faking news reports on the television, coming up with excuses for a giant Coca Cola banner and a whole host of other amusing exploits to prevent her from knowing. While categorised as a comedy, it is also a moving portrayal of a loving family enduring great, historic change.

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Actor: Alexander Beyer, Armin Dillenberger, Arndt Schwering-Sohnrey, Burghart Klaussner, Christine Schorn, Chulpan Khamatova, Daniel Brühl, Eberhard Kirchberg, Ernst-Georg Schwill, Florian Lukas, Fritz Roth, Hanna Schwamborn, Hans-Uwe Bauer, Jochen Stern, Jürgen Holtz, Jürgen Vogel, Katrin Saß, Marc Bischoff, Maria Simon, Martin Brambach, Mennan Yapo, Michael Gerber, Michael Gwisdek, Peter Kurth, Stefan Walz, Svea Timander

Director: Wolfgang Becker

Rating: R

This 2009 Palme d'Or winner is filmed beautifully in black and white by Michael Haneke. In equal parts mysterious and disturbing, it is set in a northern German village in between 1913 and 1914 where strange events start to happen seemingly on their own. The people of the village, who feel as if they were punished, try to investigate it as the events start affecting them one by one. As they speculate on who is behind the acts that never stop, the film unfolds its slow but captivating plot. A brilliant and unique movie.

Genre: Drama, Mystery

Actor: Aaron Denkel, Anne-Kathrin Gummich, Arndt Schwering-Sohnrey, Birgit Minichmayr, Branko Samarovski, Burghart Klaußner, Burghart Klaussner, Carmen-Maja Antoni, Christian Friedel, Detlev Buck, Enno Trebs, Ernst Jacobi, Fion Mutert, Gabriela Maria Schmeide, Hanuš Polak jr., Janina Fautz, Jonas Jennerjahn, Josef Bierbichler, Kai-Peter Malina, Klaus Manchen, Krzysztof Zarzecki, Leonard Boes, Leonard Proxauf, Leonie Benesch, Levin Henning, Lilli Fichtner, Luzie Ahrens, Malin Steffen, Marcin Tyrol, Maria Dragus, Maria-Victoria Dragus, Marisa Growaldt, Mercedes Jadea Diaz, Michael Kranz, Michael Schenk, Miljan Chatelain, Paraschiva Dragus, Paula Kalinski, Rainer Bock, Roxane Duran, Sebastian Badurek, Sebastian Hülk, Sebastian Łach, Sebastian Pawlak, Simon Pawlowsky, Steffi Kuhnert, Stephanie Amarell, Susanne Lothar, Theo Trebs, Thibault Sérié, Ulrich Tukur, Ursina Lardi, Vincent Krüger

Director: Michael Haneke

Rating: R