die zehnte Woche

WEEK TEN

This week's film screening was Kutlucan's Ich Chef, du Turnschuh. My first impression of this film was that it was very entertaining but a little too busy; I felt that I had been exposed to too many incidences in too little time and thus saw the film as a bit of an overload. Nonetheless I did enjoy the range of characters and the strange comedic factor of the movie. After reading Göktürk's article relating the film to earlier Marx brothers films and the idea of anarchic comedy, I began to understand Kutlucan's intention of the exaggerated, crazy performances and the wide range of situations that Dudie and others encounter. To me, the article reflects on role-play in films such as Ich Chef, du Turnschuh, in which actors purposely exaggerate their characters to portray a certain message. In Kutlucan's film, I think that over-exaggeration in performance is used to falsify stereotypes of other races and attempt to relieve certain racial tensions that exist in modern German society. The performance of the characters is so rediculous and "stereotypical" that it turns the joke on the stereotypes themselves and perhaps those who abide by them. Our class discussion also broadened my views on the film. One of the main points about the film that I walked away with is that the film purposely pokes fun of "everyone", meaning the several racial groups of asylum seekers as well as white Germans. The film constantly switches from one race to another so that no one race is singled out. I found the film very critical of the white Germans, mainly Hermann and the other work foremen. As somewhat figures of authority, they by no means abide by or reflect Germany's policy of offering asylum to refugees. They treat the asylum seekers like slaves and refuse to pay Dudie and his newly established roommates. Ironically, the construction site is right in front of the damaged Reichstag, which is finally the seat of a democratic government in Germany. The best example of the film portraying Germans as selfish and corrupt is when Hermann accidentally kills his ex-wife because of his jealousy and anger. These portrayals of the Germans as well as the stereotypical portrayal of the various asylum seekers creates an equal level of criticism. I feel that this film is successful in attempting to abolish false stereotypes and promote cultural acceptance mainly because it uses comedy as a way to relieve racial tensions and avoids the ever-so-difficult task of trying to be politically correct and please everyone. I feel the necessity to compare this film to the 2004 film Crash, which also blatantly addressed the issue of racism in urban America. However, this film was completely serious and I feel was too much of a documentary and could almost be seen as fostering such racism and not attempting to alleviate it. I feel that comedy can actually be a useful tool when dealing with such serious matters.

As of this week we are mostly done with gather footage for our film. We spent most of last week getting footage and now we have begun the editing process. We have decided to devote two or more hours a night to editing. So far it has been going well. We have created two small sequences from various shots and are becoming more accustomed to the software. Christopher has been the manual operator at the computer and Kerry and I have been following him and collaborating ideas. I feel that my role in the entire film process as well as editing is a sort main support; I always add my input to a certain scene or idea and occassionaly come up with my own idea for a scene. I like to listen to other members' ideas and build on them. Last week I filmed quite a bit and it felt nice to be sort of in charge of the camera and take more initiative than I had before. I have some ideas as far as editing goes, and I know everyone else does, so these next couple of weeks will consist of constantly throwing ideas at each other and seeing what reults we get!