the good german

the good german is from director steven soderbergh (oceans 11 and 12, traffic) and is an homage/pastiche/copy basically of 1940s style filmmaking, in the vein of films like casablanca. as one who loves noirs, this is initially what made me want to see this film. soderbergh effectively copies this style of filmmaking, from the black and white chiaroscuro lighting, to the editing, even to the type of story told; it is difficult to notice any flaws in his style. the content, however, differs from that of the production code era in that there are portrayals of sex, violence, and profanity that could not have appeared in films of the 1940s. everytime the f-bomb is dropped is somewhat startling because we’ve never heard humphrey bogart utter that sort of language. and aside from a brief reference to the film his girl friday, there really wasn’t anything new going on with the style of the film, which I had kind of hoped for. The film is set in post-WWII berlin, with george clooney playing an american soldier and cate blanchett as his ex-girlfriend and a prostitute who is trying to get herself out of berlin. As with films of this era, the plot is slightly convoluted and would benefit from multiple viewings, but easy enough to follow that you get the jist of it. cate blanchett is the femme fatale of this film and orchestrates the entire plot, as well as motivates pretty much all of the narrative. in this sense, the film diverges from other noirs in that we can’t really trust the point of view of the male protagonist. while we are aligned with george clooney’s character for most of the film, we know that he lacks all of the information and that instead cate blanchett is the knowledgeable party. We discover along with him where he’s gone wrong and what exactly blanchett’s motivations are. i would recommend this to other film geeks like myself because the homage to an older style will bring you great joy. i don’t think it’d be for everyone though as the story is not modern and this might cause some to lose interest.

watch the trailer