Alles Auf Zucker or if you prefer the English Title Go For Zucker -- Directed by Dani Levy with screenplay by Dani Levy and Holger Franke. Starring, Henry Hübchen, Hannelore Elsner, Udo Samel, Golda Tencer and Steffen Groth. 2004 Germany. Not Rated Running time 95 minutes.

Description & Synopsis!

From the producers of Run Lola Run and Goodbye Lenin! comes the German box office smash, Go for Zucker, a film about a comically dysfunctional Jewish family. Mixing slapstick humor with a jaundiced eye for sharply drawn social satire, not to mention a disarming dose of political incorrectness, Go for Zucker stars Henry Hübchen and Udo Samel as the two estranged brothers -- one a hard-living former East German celebrity sportscaster (Hübchen) now very much down-on-his luck, and the other (Samel), his quasi-Orthodox brother from the West. The two are awkwardly reunited when they learn that in order to share their mother's inheritance they will need to reconcile before burying her according to Jewish custom in her native East Germany.

Said to be the first German-Jewish comedy made in Germany since World War II, Dani Levy's controversial and highly entertaining contemporary farce was one of the most talked-about films in Europe this year and the winner in July of Germany's top film prize. In March The New York Times asserted that Go for Zucker in depicting German Jews with take-off-the-gloves candor and a comedy style absent from the culture since the Holocaust, was proving to be "an unconventional form of therapy for the strained relations between Jews and gentiles in Germany." The president of the Central Committee of Jews in Germany, Paul Spiegel, even encouraged all Germans to see the film, saying "it helps bring Jews and non-Jews back on track to normality."

Official Site and Trailor!



http://www.firstrunfeatures.com/cs_goforzucker.html



Cinema Sundays continues it’s dashingly successful Winter series with the Baltimore premiere of Alles Auf Zucker or if you prefer Go For Zucker. This clever comedy has been receiving fabulous reviews from German audiences and some perplexed nods from those outside its native land. Is it possible to make a Jewish comedy inside Germany today? It sounds like perfect discussion material for CSC. Besides it won six Golden Lolas (that’s what they give Germans to feel good about themselves when they don’t win anything else).

Our speakers for this week are Eva Mengelkoch from Towson University and John Gingerich from Peabody. This thoroughly erudite husband and wife team should provide a fascinating German perspective on this controversial film. It’s a pleasure to welcome them to CSC.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Cinema Sundays at the Charles continues its 35th series on February 19, with The Baltimore Premiere of Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story. What! Again! More Tristram Shandy! Yes indeed ladies and gentlemen we are fortunate enough to have another crack at Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story. Last week's screening was cancelled due to the weather and especially due to a lack of bagels caused by weather. This week, however, Cinema Sundays is planning a plethora of bagels and a paucity of snow. Unfortunately, I, your fearless leader and host, made plans to seek out lots of snow in Banff where I plan to spend six days skiing. I am nevertheless leaving you in good hands with the fabulous Mike Giuliano as host and Richard Macksey has agreed to return as speaker.

And now let's continue with this fascinating Cinema Sundays missive.

Directed by Michael Winterbottom, screenplay by Frank Cotrell Boyce, based on the novel by Laurence Sterne. Starring Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon, Keeley Hawes, Shirley Hendersen, Jeremy Northam. 2005 UK. Rated R Running time 95 minutes.

Michael Winterbottom loves a challenge. This British director has jumped from genre to genre throughout his career; creating imaginative, idiosyncratic films with remarkable speed and ingenuity. However, an adaptation of Laurence Sterne's famously 'unfilmable' 18th century novel 'The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman' was surely even beyond his capabilities. This book - in which the title character attempts to tell his life story but, through a series of digressions and tangents never even gets around to describing his own birth - is an amorphous blend of bawdy humour and non-consecutive storytelling which seems the least promising material for a movie. Nevertheless, Winterbottom has taken a novel approach to tackling this material and the result is one of his most accomplished and entertaining films.

Here is the official site! It’s fiendishly clever!

http://www.tristramshandymovie.com/

Cinema Sundays continues it’s dashingly successful Winter series with the Baltimore premiere of Tristram Shandy. This clever comedy which has been receiving fabulous reviews seems like a cross between Extras and Barry Lyndon. A movie within a movie within a movie. It sounds perfect for CSC, I predict a fabulous discussion. I confess to you I’ve never read Tristram Shandy and I probably won’t have it finished by Sunday…but I’m gonna give it my best shot. Hope to see you Sunday for what promises to be a very clever adventure.

Our speaker for this week is Professor Richard Macksey from the Humanities Center of the Johns Hopkins University, who shamelessly regards Tristram Shandy as a guilty pleasure! It’s our pleasure to welcome him back to CSC.