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Lola - An Openly Flamboyant Look From Beginning to End


There is nothing striking about this film's theme. Man is alone in his quest for domination and first in the administration of mass suffering.

The examination of pain minutiae, for instance, caused by the German citizenry in their Nazi war stance that lost its own inspired gusto when its basis, (military support,) evaporated is interesting, by itself, in its own "matter of fact" attitude. But this would be true of most films using war as its centerpiece.

The violence of man and the depravity that was evidenced by the ugly scars left on the face of the world as it is here revealed will unnerve the most brave and the most fearless amongst us.

But for me what steals the show and makes the film worthy of at least two viewings is the cinematography, its voluptuous color and astonishing look. Truly a moving picture. An art piece that flows and makes our time more glad is a triumph. In this film both director P.W. Anderson and his actor, Daniel Day Lewis have set a new standard to be admired and attempted in subsequent efforts. The bar has been set at a new height which just might remain the most unattainable for quite some time.

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I thought Paul W. S. Anderson was the one who did Alien Vs. Predator. Sounds like you were talking about a different movie, though. Actually, AVP is quite like that movie I suspect you were talking about: both are ambitious attempted epics analyzing single-minded violence and the pursuit of possessions; both suffer somewhat from the cartoonishness of their lead characters (or, rather, the lead characterizations). But why carp?

In conclusion, tuna sandwiches taste much like tuna sandwiches.

'Tis a coward I am - but I will hold your coat.

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Wow! I think I just caught ADHD after reading these last two messages. There Will Be Blood, Alien vs Predator, & Fassbinder's Lola and what's the connection again? I am lost! I think he meant Paul Thomas Anderson. But still where is the transition?

And then the cinematography in Jason vs Freddy along with outstanding performances by Jason and Freddy make me really appreciate this film on twenty different levels. I am also willing to get past the fact that it is in German nor can I read subtitles nor do I like tuna unless I am licking it off a thin white cracker with lots of mayo dripping off.

That's it!! the world has no hope!

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This thread has laid dead for several years (and deservedly so - MY GOODNESS, but didn't the original point got lost IN A HURRY!!), but if one can be allowed to return to the original point, which was THE CINEMATOGRAPHY: WOWEEE!!! STRONG whiffs of the Arthur Freed era at MGM in the fifties, AND THEN SOME!! It's like John Q. Technicolor had a bad case of stomach flu while in the presence of the master print. SO, to hark back to Larry Ball's initial thought...LOLA - An Openly Flamboyant Look From Beginning to End. AMEN TO THAT!!

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What an astoundingly on point post.


He stole my Barbie.

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There is nothing striking about this film's theme

I would not completely discredit Lola's theme. Of course the theme is not original, however it was well-written and portrayed by the actors.

"I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not".

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Man is alone in his quest for domination and first in the administration of mass suffering.
That's not the main theme. The film opens with the following lines:
He who has no house
Shall not build one
He who is alone
Shall long remain so -


Schukert did not build houses. He erected buildings for gain that would not survive in the long-term. He didn't know how to build because he was himself homeless - amoral.
I give my respect to those who have earned it; to everyone else, I'm civil.

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The combination of Fassbinder, Daniel-Day Lewis, Alien and Predator was an unforgettable onscreen experience. It's enough to make Lola flamboyant from beginning to end, start to finish.

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aren't you the moral crusader!

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The BRD Trilogy can be more accurately be considered an examination of postwar Germany, specifically the Wirtschaftswunder. And as such, it's arguably appropriate that they reflect that collective amnesia and denial.

Fassbinder understood that as a German in the seventies, one had to do real historical work: to recreate not just the images but the mental framework of the past, to not merely acknowledge historical amnesia, but make an effort to understand how and why it manifested itself. “When I see the fuss being made over Holocaust,” Fassbinder once said of the traumatized German reaction to the American TV miniseries, “I wonder why they have to make such a fuss; have they really repressed and forgotten all of that? They can’t have forgotten it; they must have had it on their minds when they were creating their new state. If a thing of so much significance could be forgotten or repressed, then something must be pretty wrong with this democracy and this ‘German model.’” He knew that all roads led back to the gray, amoral confusion of the fifties and the years of the Wirtschaftswunder—Germany’s postwar economic miracle.
- Kent Jones, "Heartbreak House: Fassbinder's BRD ^Trilogy"


Also, if you've seen the BRD Trilogy, there is the elderly couple in Veronika Voss to consider.

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