Top 10 Reasons to View Goethe's Video Library
Francis Rex Alger
Manila Times, October 17, 2003

Unlike Alliance Francaise de Manille and Instituto Cervantes, which screen its video collection weekly, the video library of Goethe Institute (a.k.a. German Cultural Center) remains sheltered and unknown to many. Now here are 10 reasons on why film buffs should dig in this video goldmine:

10. The Silent Classics from the 1920s. Aside from Sergei Eisenstein's landmark “Battleship Potemkin”, Goethe has also the Expressionist must-sees such as “Metropolis” and “Nosferatu”. Their silent collection also boasts of less-popular works of Fritz Lang such as “Die Nibelungen”, an epic masterpiece of German mythology (almost 4 hours long!), and “Dr. Mabuse”, a two-feature noir on an underworld kingpin that perhaps inspired the mobster genre in Hollywood during the 30s and 40s.

9. East German Cinema. Not much is known about films from the former German Democratic Republic. Goethe has some samples such as “The Legend of Paul and Paula” and “Solo Sunny”, both of which are subtle satire on the hard life in the East that the Iron Curtain covered up for decades. Furthermore, cineastes have the chance to see “Jacob the Liar”, a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominee 25 years ago. Robin Williams also remade it a few years ago.

8. Recently-acclaimed German films. Caroline Link's “Beyond Silence”, Joseph Vilsmaier's “Comedian Harmonists” and Ivan Fila's “Lea” have been cited in international award-giving bodies and film festivals. Goethe gives viewers the opportunity to relish these pictures that are raved by not a few.

7. German films you missed at film festivals. Last year's line-up of the German Film Week is good, which includes “Crazy” and “In July”. For those who failed to catch it at Shangri La, there's another chance to see them at the center.