SAN DIEGO — two films which were part of the first San Diego German Film Festival on October 22 and 23 at the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park.
were absorbing, entertaining, and certainly worth my recommendation for you to pursue.
The first film was titled Alamanya, Welcome to Germany. It was written and directed by Yasemin Samdereli, who was born in Germany, but came from Turkish roots. It depicted three generations of a family’s life in Germany, starting as migrant workers from Turkey in the 1960’s to the present. It started with the young Huseyin, leaving his family in Turkey, where work opportunities were sparse, finding work in Germany and soon after bringing his wife and children there.
The common everyday adjustments which the family had to make, with plenty of humorous highs and lows, provided an entertaining and insightful 101 minutes. The languages were German, Turkish, and another dialect, and we were provided with English subtitles. Unfortunately, the subtitle letters were in white, and whenever there was a white background under the subtitles, they were not readable; and this problem obliterated about a third of the text, and consequently, limited me from fully understanding what was taking place.
Nevertheless, this was a fascinating study on how various generations of a specific family had to simultaneously adjust to a new way of life. Both the very young and the adults dealt with their new country, with its different language, food, and traditions in different and amusing ways. You could almost take this same scenario and think of it as Mexicans coming to the U.S., or various immigrants arriving to Israel and taking permanent residence.
What is truly worthwhile to see how all of us, from here or any other place, are creatures of habit, and how much we desire to hang on to tradition and familiarity. This applies in different aspects to both young and old.
I even saw a bit of Tevye in the patriarch, Huseyin, who in spite of wanting to keep the old contacts and traditions, was faced with adjustments of the younger generation in a rapidly changing world. And, it was amusing to see how after forty years of living in Germany, he took his entire family to his village in Turkey, and the way his “Germanized” grandchildren reacted to the more primitive surroundings.
Being of the Sephardic background, some of my roots are from Turkey. Although the film’s premise was not Jewish at all, I did see some behavioral similarities and picturesque expressions which had a ring of familiarity with some of my elderly relatives in Israel.
This was a sympathetic, warm, and touching film.
**
The second film covered a subject with which I am more familiar. It was presented in cooperation with the Jewish Film Festival. The title tells us quite a bit of its contents: Mahler on the Couch.
Written and directed by Percy Adlon and members of his family, the film is introduced as “That it happened is fact. How it happened is fiction.” The basic historical facts are true, but the dramatic dialogue is the imagination of the screenwriter. The premise is based on the events in Gustav Mahler’s last ten years of life. He died in 1911, and was married to Alma Schindler. We are led through a series of conversations which Mahler had with Sigmund Freud, cutting in and out of dramatic scenes between Alma and Gustav. In this script, Freud served more as a mirror, showing Mahler clarity and direction and providing us, the viewers with the narrative. The true focus, however, was with Gustav and Alma.
Their relationship was very complex, with obsessions of the need to compose and the inevitability of his approaching death from his part, and a few infidelities and artistic desires from hers. After Mahler’s death, Alma married a few more times, to Walter Gropius of the Bauhaus School of Architecture, and later to the Jewish poet and writer Franz Werfel. She moved to the U.S., and lived until 1964, and her life alone is a fascinating study of achievements, milestones, men of great creativity, and a few choice contradictions. (The comedian-musician Tom Leher wrote and performed a hilarious song about Alma Mahler).
Although the film suggested involved conversations with Freud, the real focus was Alma, brilliantly portrayed by Barbara Romaner. Johannes Silberschneider played a very credible Mahler and his striking resemblance to the real composer was uncanny.
But what made the film truly magnificent was the musical score. All of it was Mahler’s music, as performed by conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Swedish Radio Symphony. The interpretations and sound quality were nothing less than superb. We were treated frequently to the haunting sounds of the unfinished Tenth Symphony, and the quotation of the Adagietto from the Fifth Symphony was most effective. There were other touching and very appropriate symphonic excerpts.
I have to observe, that the use of Mahler’s music is what made this film so effective. If another composer would have been selected to write other music for this film, the overall effect would have been a weak shadow in comparison to what we heard.
A technical glitch during the viewing took place, when the projection reels were not played in their proper order. It caused us to wonder as to the time sequences and the scenes from the past, as Mahler narrated them. But, the first and last reels were in their proper place, and although the order of events might have been a bit scrambled, the overall effect was not too disrupting.
Mahler Auf Der Couch is a sensitive, tasteful, and dramatic film, and it portrayed the tortured mind of Mahler, and that of many other composers. You will find this motion picture extra satisfying if you know and enjoy the symphonic music of greats; but even for its purely dramatic content, it is worthy of your viewing.
*
Amos is conductor of the Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra in San Diego, and has guest conducted professional orchestras around the world. He may be contacted at david.amos@sdjewishworld.com