"Komm mit mir in das Cinema - Die Gregors" is a really new German documentary movie that I was lucky enough to see the other day around noon or slightly before that even, so very early for a movie experience and I was even luckier because this was not only in the presence of the writer and director and a producer at the renowned and historical Delphi Filmpalast, but also because of the two people being present that this film is about. They showed up after the end and that is not a given especially if you look at their ages with almost 90 both of them and the man even becomes 90 this year, even if they both live in Berlin as well. Anyway, let us look at the basics first: The writer and director I already mentioned is Alice Agneskirchner who is in her 50s now and has been shooting documentaries for over 25 years already. Most of it was for television though, so this excursion to the big screen is a bit of an exception for sure for her, but also as much of a success because, as you can see from my rating, I genuinely enjoyed the watch and there were even moments when I thought this film deserves a perfect rating of 5 out of 5 or 10 out of 10. Whatever you prefer more rating-wise. In the end, it was not quite enough for that, but I still think it is a must-see for all movie buffs. I am not sure if it is a really a documentary that will turn you into a movie fanatic and maybe instead you will wonder why these two are this famous, but I think if you are one already, then there is no way you will not have a good time watching this really long documentary. It runs for over 2.5 hours, but that is very fine and accurate because there was surely a lot to talk about in here. And I would not have minded an additional half hour. I personally found Mr. Gregor more interesting and likable than his wife, but that is of course up to personal taste. I also wonder with how deep they are in (foreign) film if they (or Agneskirchner) will maybe read this review. Shoot me an email if you do.
In any case, also away from all the movie references I will talk about later on, it was also a very nice family film to see the two interact with each other. Like one situation when he gets the name of a female filmmaker wrong when they are talking about who directed a movie and she corrects him. Or how they talk about wedding anniversaries and that they agree those are not too important. Or when we see him identify a spelling mistake on a film reel and she quickly organizes a pen for him, so he can correct it right away. It's important to be precise for sure. Now I will elaborate on the countless film and filmmaker inclusions. Let's start with those that were not a part of this. They included a great deal of content linked to filmmakers with whom the Gregors have a special connection or that one way or the other stayed with them throughout the decades. Of course, it was a huge challenge to get your hands legally on all their materials, especially with those no longer alive. Somebody still alive was Wong Kar-Wai, but there they sadly came short. Somebody they did not even try with as we find out in the end was Fassbinder. We read his name and the titles of some of his films here and there, but there is no specific inclusion really in terms of scenes from his movies, apparently because the Fassbinder widow is really difficult to deal with then it comes to copyright issues linked to his material. But now let's rather look at the content that actually is included. Literally, with the exception of Werner Herzog and maybe also the recently-deceased Wolfgang Petersen (r.i.p.), you find brief interviews with the elite of the big-name German filmmakers from the last 40 years or even more. This especially includes Wim Wenders for sure, but also Oscar winner (okay, not officially because it was "only" the foreign language category) Volker Schlöndorff and the likes of Edgar Reitz and Alexander Kluge. Jim Jarmusch too from the international side.
Unfortunately, the interviewees on the women's side are not on the same level. Not even remotely close. Doris Dörrie has maybe two films I liked or even really enjoyed, but those were the exception and some of the stuff she made was also really poor and shallow and surely overrated. With how she mentions her own work in this interview was just as cringeworthy as when she started speaking English all of a sudden. With Wenders for example how he mentions the Gregors as an inspiration for his movies, it felt much more natural. Jutta Brückner, well, you can give her credit for being a German female filmmaker when there were really not many, but that is also the only thing I can give her credit for. Her filmography in terms of both quantity and quality is nothing that convinces me at all and it is surely below the level of Helma Sanders-Brahms', who was an actually more impressive filmmaker from that era who is sadly no longer with us anymore and we just see some brief interview segments with her. Or even one. I do not remember exactly. She was on the pretty side though. Which is not super important anyway. There are so many other inclusions here. If they put on a collection of "connections" on this film's imdb title page, it will be packed. It is not just those where we see extracts from, but also those that are mentioned during talk on numerous occasions. One of the more interesting inclusions was "Menschen am Sonntag" and the differing opinions from the two when it came to this film, but it fit in well because arguing about films and their quality is a key aspect in their relationship, at least professional, even if it is probably impossible to keep this apart from their personal relationship. I literally see the duo in front of my imaginary eye sitting there on the sofa in a really cozy manner together and watching a movie together. Maybe an Eastern European movie because this is where they had a great deal of expertise, but really it is all areas, also for example old French films. Or Asian movies. There is a brief inclusion in this documentary where we see how they included Asian films with martial arts, fantasy aspects etc. And how the Asian movie-goers really appreciated it after work and how they could suck in films that took them back to their roots and culture and origins. Cool.
I also liked that the Gregors really enjoy traveling to all those film festivals on maybe eight occasions per year. Karlovy Vary for example too, or Karlsbad as we say in Germany, so not just the really big names like Cannes. Okay, for insiders, Karlovy Vary is maybe also a big name. Another very brief mention I liked was how they said that sometimes you can also watch quality films on television, but only past 10 in the evening and that is so true. The stuff that is shown on television before that, okay there are exceptions like 3sat or Arte, is often really terrible and shockingly the worst is shown on those channels that German citizens are literally forced to pay for. And not just a few cents. A real tragedy and embarrassment if you look at all the money they make this way. Almost scam territory. But let's not get any further into that, one could actually write a whole paragraph there, just look at one 90-minute episode of "Frühling" starring Christine Neubauer and you know what I am talking about. Utter lack of quality. Even worse than pointless action films. Now, back to this one we have here, there is still a lot for sure I can elaborate on. For me, it had such a strong personal note too because the Gregors are so closely connected to the Arsenal movie theater and it is one of those that I really like going to. I understood it was located somewhere else before it attracted my attention, but that is totally okay. The looks and how the letters on the background with these lines are written for example still feel very similar. I think the Gregors themselves are not too happy about it anymore from what you could read between the lines as they say on one occasion I think that it is not really their cinema anymore, but still a few segments were recorded there for the documentary and I learnt that the pandemic made it easy because it was during a time when nobody could go there to see films, so they had the film theater pretty much for themselves and the crew filming it.
Other scenes were also recorded inside the Delphi Filmtheater where I watched the movie. Here and there, we also get some Berlinale talk because the Gregors also had a close connection there and when the film moves slightly away from the movies again, it is kinda sweet too when we see how the two got to know each other and how working together even was a big factor already early on when they were just getting to know one another, but they also collaborated there, even if eventually, for many decades, not too many saw the two as an item in the professional sense, which may have had to do with misogyny or just maybe he was really doing the bigger percentage of work. I cannot be a judge there really. Anyway, in the early years, the landlord's (or was it a lady?) reaction to having female visitors was also funny. There are nice anecdotes here. I do have to dig deep here to find something I did not like too much about this documentary. I think Agneskirchner did fine, but it was just maybe my bias with the subject of films that made me really appreciate the outcome and I probably would not have liked it less from most other filmmakers. Oh yeah, one minor inclusion that did nothing for me was when they were taking about the couple's youth how they included two actors on a motor scooter or something. That felt a bit off, but surely has to do with personal taste too. As I said, nothing sucked with this movie and I have to dig deep with negative criticisms. I think at this point, this one here is my favorite film from 2022 and it is a possibility that it can stay this way for quite some time, maybe forever? Then it would be a fairly weak year though. Still, a must-see here.
In any case, also away from all the movie references I will talk about later on, it was also a very nice family film to see the two interact with each other. Like one situation when he gets the name of a female filmmaker wrong when they are talking about who directed a movie and she corrects him. Or how they talk about wedding anniversaries and that they agree those are not too important. Or when we see him identify a spelling mistake on a film reel and she quickly organizes a pen for him, so he can correct it right away. It's important to be precise for sure. Now I will elaborate on the countless film and filmmaker inclusions. Let's start with those that were not a part of this. They included a great deal of content linked to filmmakers with whom the Gregors have a special connection or that one way or the other stayed with them throughout the decades. Of course, it was a huge challenge to get your hands legally on all their materials, especially with those no longer alive. Somebody still alive was Wong Kar-Wai, but there they sadly came short. Somebody they did not even try with as we find out in the end was Fassbinder. We read his name and the titles of some of his films here and there, but there is no specific inclusion really in terms of scenes from his movies, apparently because the Fassbinder widow is really difficult to deal with then it comes to copyright issues linked to his material. But now let's rather look at the content that actually is included. Literally, with the exception of Werner Herzog and maybe also the recently-deceased Wolfgang Petersen (r.i.p.), you find brief interviews with the elite of the big-name German filmmakers from the last 40 years or even more. This especially includes Wim Wenders for sure, but also Oscar winner (okay, not officially because it was "only" the foreign language category) Volker Schlöndorff and the likes of Edgar Reitz and Alexander Kluge. Jim Jarmusch too from the international side.
Unfortunately, the interviewees on the women's side are not on the same level. Not even remotely close. Doris Dörrie has maybe two films I liked or even really enjoyed, but those were the exception and some of the stuff she made was also really poor and shallow and surely overrated. With how she mentions her own work in this interview was just as cringeworthy as when she started speaking English all of a sudden. With Wenders for example how he mentions the Gregors as an inspiration for his movies, it felt much more natural. Jutta Brückner, well, you can give her credit for being a German female filmmaker when there were really not many, but that is also the only thing I can give her credit for. Her filmography in terms of both quantity and quality is nothing that convinces me at all and it is surely below the level of Helma Sanders-Brahms', who was an actually more impressive filmmaker from that era who is sadly no longer with us anymore and we just see some brief interview segments with her. Or even one. I do not remember exactly. She was on the pretty side though. Which is not super important anyway. There are so many other inclusions here. If they put on a collection of "connections" on this film's imdb title page, it will be packed. It is not just those where we see extracts from, but also those that are mentioned during talk on numerous occasions. One of the more interesting inclusions was "Menschen am Sonntag" and the differing opinions from the two when it came to this film, but it fit in well because arguing about films and their quality is a key aspect in their relationship, at least professional, even if it is probably impossible to keep this apart from their personal relationship. I literally see the duo in front of my imaginary eye sitting there on the sofa in a really cozy manner together and watching a movie together. Maybe an Eastern European movie because this is where they had a great deal of expertise, but really it is all areas, also for example old French films. Or Asian movies. There is a brief inclusion in this documentary where we see how they included Asian films with martial arts, fantasy aspects etc. And how the Asian movie-goers really appreciated it after work and how they could suck in films that took them back to their roots and culture and origins. Cool.
I also liked that the Gregors really enjoy traveling to all those film festivals on maybe eight occasions per year. Karlovy Vary for example too, or Karlsbad as we say in Germany, so not just the really big names like Cannes. Okay, for insiders, Karlovy Vary is maybe also a big name. Another very brief mention I liked was how they said that sometimes you can also watch quality films on television, but only past 10 in the evening and that is so true. The stuff that is shown on television before that, okay there are exceptions like 3sat or Arte, is often really terrible and shockingly the worst is shown on those channels that German citizens are literally forced to pay for. And not just a few cents. A real tragedy and embarrassment if you look at all the money they make this way. Almost scam territory. But let's not get any further into that, one could actually write a whole paragraph there, just look at one 90-minute episode of "Frühling" starring Christine Neubauer and you know what I am talking about. Utter lack of quality. Even worse than pointless action films. Now, back to this one we have here, there is still a lot for sure I can elaborate on. For me, it had such a strong personal note too because the Gregors are so closely connected to the Arsenal movie theater and it is one of those that I really like going to. I understood it was located somewhere else before it attracted my attention, but that is totally okay. The looks and how the letters on the background with these lines are written for example still feel very similar. I think the Gregors themselves are not too happy about it anymore from what you could read between the lines as they say on one occasion I think that it is not really their cinema anymore, but still a few segments were recorded there for the documentary and I learnt that the pandemic made it easy because it was during a time when nobody could go there to see films, so they had the film theater pretty much for themselves and the crew filming it.
Other scenes were also recorded inside the Delphi Filmtheater where I watched the movie. Here and there, we also get some Berlinale talk because the Gregors also had a close connection there and when the film moves slightly away from the movies again, it is kinda sweet too when we see how the two got to know each other and how working together even was a big factor already early on when they were just getting to know one another, but they also collaborated there, even if eventually, for many decades, not too many saw the two as an item in the professional sense, which may have had to do with misogyny or just maybe he was really doing the bigger percentage of work. I cannot be a judge there really. Anyway, in the early years, the landlord's (or was it a lady?) reaction to having female visitors was also funny. There are nice anecdotes here. I do have to dig deep here to find something I did not like too much about this documentary. I think Agneskirchner did fine, but it was just maybe my bias with the subject of films that made me really appreciate the outcome and I probably would not have liked it less from most other filmmakers. Oh yeah, one minor inclusion that did nothing for me was when they were taking about the couple's youth how they included two actors on a motor scooter or something. That felt a bit off, but surely has to do with personal taste too. As I said, nothing sucked with this movie and I have to dig deep with negative criticisms. I think at this point, this one here is my favorite film from 2022 and it is a possibility that it can stay this way for quite some time, maybe forever? Then it would be a fairly weak year though. Still, a must-see here.
