In the days of big shot Hollywood productions - be it action movies, comedys, thrillers, sci-fi or even drama - it's kinda sad to see that the European film, especially the German independent film is still living a dire existence on the outskirts of the industry. Of course you'll see well-advertised, expensive domestic productions on the big screen from time to time. Some of them, like Good Bye Lenin! or Der Untergang might even make it across the Atlantic (of course, it has Nazis in it...). But yet, there are so many really really good small productions almost no one takes notice of. Except you know your local indy theater well or like watching Arte. So, to show that - especially in the past decade - there have been so many well shot and well acted 'teutonian' movies, here's a small selection of more popular ones and some you maybe have never heard of but should definitely see. By the way, I think this isn't just a German problem. I'm sure there are just as many good French, Swedish or Danish movies that I don't even know about because they aren't shown anywhere near.

Absolute Giganten (1999) - Comedy / Drama
Shoppen (2006) - Comedy
Nichts Bereuen (2001) - Romance / Drama
Vergiss Amerika (2000) - Romance / Drama
Crazy (2000) - Coming of Age
Lammbock (2001) - Comedy
Die Innere Sicherheit (2000) - Drama
Klassenfahrt (2002) - Drama
Tattoo (2002) - Thriller
Mein Bruder Der Vampir (2001) - Drama
Bungalow (2002) - Drama
Kammerflimmern (2004) - Romance / Drama
Herr Lehmann (2003) - Comedy
Montag Kommen Die Fenster (2006) - Drama
Scherbentanz (2002) - Drama
Lichter (2003) - Drama
Das Experiment (2001) - Thriller
Bang Boom Bang (1999) - Comedy
Der Himmel Kann Warten (2000) - Drama
Lola Rennt (1998) - Drama / Thriller

That's what Felix and I are doing right now. After he had built himself one last summer it's my turn now. We used his old bending form to get the flex into the six layers of birch and beech plywood which we had glued together beforehand. After cutting the shape it's up to me now to grind and smoothen the edges, varnish and put the design on the board. I'll keep you posted.

Sorry for the lousy quality of the pics, my Mac's at a repair place for two weeks so I'm using crappy online software for my image processing.