Why do Germans love slow-paced movies so much?

For a change, I agree with you. Germany is very slow. We don't even have one major metropolitan city, and even in Berlin, Life is pretty relaxed compared to NYC or Tokyo.

and I can see why *you* like that.

What about Run Lola Run? I thought that was one of the fastest paced movies I've seen. Definitely different in that sense from Der Krieger und Die Kaiserin. Although, there was a ton of repetition in Lola, which kind of cancels out the fast pace after a while.

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I don't think it's that German films are slow, but more that Hollywood films are too f-ing fast. And for some reason, those are the default - which is sad, because the average american blockbuster is really kind of shallow or doesn't leave any room for the audience to think afterwards. They aren't very cerebral at all.

I didn't find this movie too slow.



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"movie quote." "ha ha, another movie quote!"

Well, it bothers me and I am German. I love character-driven films; I love watching a story unfold. I can't stand German cinema. Sure there's the occasional good movie but it's mostly unbearably heavy, slow goo (or stupid hubbub).

I think pitching German movies against stupid Hollywood action flicks or romcoms is apples and oranges really (I know you didn't do that but I'm already in full rant mode). There are many intelligent, well-paced indie movies with interesting characters and deep plots that come out of Hollywood which don't bring so much heavy baggage with them. Germans could learn a lot from Hollywood if they only stopped telling themselves that American movies are only the stupid stuff, so us culturally advanced Europeans can feel superior. I think Emmerich proved with 2012 impressively that being German didn't hinder him from making one of the dumbest expensive piles of crap ever to be found on 35mm.

I think the sad truth is that Germans aren't even capable of producing a decent action or other genre flick because we lack the talent and the filmmaking knowledge. We try to cover up this lack of ability with heavy morality and artistic ambition. We're like painters who want to revolutionise postpostpostwhatevermodernism without even getting a damn line straight. But lets keep bragging about our ambition, maybe nobody will notice at the vernissage.