In our Monthly Film Series, we will show a variety of GERMAN or GERMAN language films from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. On the 2nd Wednesday of each month, audiences will now have a chance to see these films on a regular basis at the CLINTON STREET THEATER. (Children movies will be playing on Sunday afternoons – please check our website.) All films are with English subtitles.

ME AND KAMINSKI (Ich und Kaminski)

WED. May 8, 2019 – 7:00 PM

Germany, 2015, 120 min.

Director: Wolfgang Becker,

Cast: Daniel Brühl, Jesper Christensen, Amira Casar, Denis Lavant, Jördis Triebel, Geraldine Chaplin, Jan Decleir

In methodological terms, the exposition recalls Woody Allen’s ZELIG, with its stage-managed images smuggled into documentary archive material. Supposedly, the art world mourned painter Manuel Kaminski, the last representative of classical modernism, a pupil of Matisse and friend of Picasso. Claes Oldenburg, Andy Warhol, Woody Allen and Jack Lemmon were alleged witnesses to Kaminski’s life and work, which even influenced Hitchcock and The Beatles.

Sebastian Zöllner finally wants to get his career as an art critic on track. He plans a tell-all book about Kaminski and knows that the painter, a legend of classical modernism who is probably only well-known thanks to a misunderstanding, has retreated to a Swiss chalet. Zöllner’s aggressively arrogant nature is already evident from his train journey to Switzerland. He finds the painter’s house in the mountains, enters it presumptuously and brashly, shows off in front of Kaminski’s daughter, Miriam, mingles rudely and uninvited among the guests at a house concert, and invites himself to dinner – until he is firmly shown the door. Back in his guesthouse, he discovers from a phone call that his girlfriend Elke has thrown him out of their apartment. A pair of composers inform him that Kaminski once had a great love, Therese, who, as his muse, “saved his work, in terms of its content”. He never got over the split, so, to alleviate his sorrow, someone lied to him, telling him his beloved died. Zöllner finds out that the woman now lives in Belgium. Once again, the journalist breaks into the painter’s house and finds unsigned, bleak self-portraits of Kaminski. He steals two of them, and convinces the painter to travel with him to Belgium to visit Therese. A peculiar road movie then begins, the two men constantly monitoring one another furtively and lying. Kaminski’s luxury car is stolen together with the pilfered pictures, and the painter causes trouble by summoning a prostitute to his hotel room.

Zöllner and Kaminski stay in Elke’s apartment. Zöllner takes him to a vernissage. The guests pretend to know who Kaminski is, but he’s been listening: “Nobody knew any of my pictures!” Zöllner worries about the ailing painter: “I don’t want him to die!” That would endanger his book project. Kaminski, supposedly blind, with his face averted, draws a sketch, then guides Zöllner’s hand with the pencil. The result is a surprisingly intense portrait of the author.

The two men drive to Therese with Elke’s car. She lives with an amiable Belgian. Upon arrival, Kaminski declares, “Art means nothing to me!” Is this plausible? Or a momentary whim? The reunion with his great love leads to deep disappointment. She doesn’t even remember Kaminski’s first names, and seems to be suffering from dementia. Disillusioned, the two visitors leave the house and escape Miriam, who has suddenly appeared. Finally, they sit down on a beach. Kaminski explains that long ago someone else worked on a book about him. Zöllner throws his files into the sea, but keeps his phone with the photos. The painter gives him one of the stolen pictures, signing it for the tax collector. Kaminski sits on the beach, and slowly the setting transforms into a painting. It’s the proper end for a story whose heroes move through the film in an irritating fashion without their own real history.

ME AND KAMINSKI, like the novel of the same name, is a risky undertaking, because it offers no positive hero. Both Zöllner and Kaminski are, thanks to their vanity and constant lying, hard to bear. Nevertheless, the director and two actors succeed in the impossible: the viewer is interested in their journey, and, by the end, despite all obstacles, develops a certain sympathy for them. The film should definitely not be interpreted as a mere satire of the art business. “ME AND KAMINSKI is a film about blindness in multiple senses, about ambition and art, about lies, truth and media, and about the eternal duel between age and youth” (Daniel Kehlmann). The key may be the story Kaminski tells about Bodhidharma: a student followed the wise monk, tracking him for years until he asked him, “Master! I have nothing!” His answer?” Throw it away!” This perfectly suits the finale. Even if Zöllner asks, “If I have nothing, what shall I throw away?”, at the end he will at least have an intuition.

Biography

Wolfgang Becker was born in 1954 in Hemer (Westphalia). He studied at the Free University of Berlin, and, from 1981, at the German Film and Television Academy in Berlin (DFFB). He won the “Student Oscar” with his graduate film, SCHMETTERLINGE (BUTTERFLIES) (1988, based on a story by Ian McEwan). In 1994, he was one of the founders of XFilm Creative Pool. In 2002, GOOD BYE, LENIN was the most successful German film of the year, and was nominated for a Golden Globe. Becker held a professorship at the Cologne School of Art for the Media in the Directing Department, and several teaching posts at the DFFB as well as the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg.

Selected Flimography

1988 SCHMETTERLINGE (BUTTERFLIES)
1991 BLUTWURSTWALZER (BLOOD SAUSAGE WALTZ)
1992 CHILD’S PLAY
1997 LIFE IS ALL YOUR GET
2003 GOOD BYE, LENIN
2005 BALLERO (Kurzfilm)
2009 DEUTSCHLAND ’09 – Episode: KRANKES HAUS (GERMANY ‚09 – Episode: SICK HOUSE)
2015 ME AND KAMINSKI

H.G. Pflaum, 24.02.2017