If you throw one stone, it’s a punishable offence. If one thousand stones are thrown, it’s political action.

If violence begets violence, then there can be little surprise at how this epic examination of the notorious German terrorist cell, the Red Army Faction (”RAF”), ends up. For the opening scene contains one of the most stunningly chaotic portrayals of mob violence ever witnessed on cinema screens. In those few frenetic minutes, the audience is immediately clued into the political tensions tearing 1960s Germany apart, as violent right-wing protestors, with the support of the police, attack peaceful left-wing ones. The clubbed blows reign down mercilessly on unprotected bodies and, as the low bass-fuelled music becomes more noticeable, there is a sudden culmination in one protestor being shot dead. So, we are led to believe, begins the radicalisation of mouse-like left-wing journalist Ulrike Meinhof (Martina Gedeck).

In the following scenes, the audience is introduced to the spirited and captivating Gudrun Ensslin (Johanna Wokalek) and the hotheaded and dangerous Andreas Baader (Moritz Bleibtreu). These three will become integral figures in the formation of the RAF, an urban guerilla group that quickly escalates from bank robberies to bombings. The carnage that this causes leads to an unprecedented police hunt for the group’s members. However, the story does not end with their eventual capture and incarceration. For this very act brings about an even greater challenge, which this film, written and produced by Bernd Eichinger of Downfall fame, goes on to examine.

Essentially, this is a fascinating exploration of Germany as it strives to emerge once more as a functioning democratic State following the long years of the Nazi regime. As explained in the film, the likes of Meinhof, Ensslin, and Baader perceive it as the duty of their generation to ensure that their county does break free of this terrible past. In this respect, they are growing increasingly concerned by what they perceive as a pervasive right-wing media agenda, as well as the country’s support of the US military involvement in Vietnam. In one riveting montage, the growing tensions that exist around the world flash past - from the death of Che Guevara to the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam to the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy respectively. It is hard to be politically-minded and not be influenced by such developments.

Indeed, the person with the greatest insights in the film is actually the country’s police chief Horst Herold. He is played here by Bruno Ganz, who so memorably portayed Adolf Hitler in Downfall. While Herold is unrelenting in his determination to stop the RAF, he is equally the person who gives voice to the the belief that to truly stop such acts of terrorism, society must understand what radicalises people so and change itself in ways that addresses their grievances. It is not an opinion that is widely shared, though, by either his political masters or his own men. However, the wisdom of his words rings out when the arrested RAF members take on a mythical status for the generation who follow them. Their actions quickly become far more brutal and extreme than their predecessors ever were and so the spiral of violence continues.

At the same time, as frank and as vivid a potrait as this film may present of the RAF, it neither romanticises who they were or looks to airbrush their failings from history. If anything, they are shown to be a youthful group of Mao Zedong-spouting idealists drawn in almost amateurish fashion into violently striking out against capitalism, injustice, and inequality. For example, the contrast between their group and the Palestinians in a Middle Eastern terrorist training camp could not be clearer. The latter are dedicated, obediant, and serious-looking men. In contrast, the Germans are loud, aggressive, and blatantly naive. How quickly most of them are arrested upon their return to Germany is proof enough of this. Morreover, without veering into voyeurism, director Uli Edel does not shy away either from showing bloody images of the havoc that they wreaked.

Mahatma Ghandi once famously said that an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. However, the “effect” that is political violence continues to be addressed whilst the “cause” of it typically goes unheeded. In this respect, it is the greatest strength of this film that it affords itself the time and space to ask probing questions of why acts of politically-motivated violence occur without being overly sympathetic to any one point of view.

On the whole, so, this is a fantastic, stimulating, and challenging film that contains many superb cinematic moments and balances its heavier ideas with some moments of genuine light-heartedness. Moreover, beyond the gravitas of Ganz, the film is also a fine vehicle for the obvious acting talents of rising young stars Wokalek and Bleibtreu.

Tis many a handsome fur or sunset rubdown that has taken place since Wolf Parade last visited Dublin and a nearly full Vicar Street was on hand last night to hail their return. However, the band was not quite at full strength, with Hadji Bakara having stayed behind in Canada. In any event, things still seemed to be going okay until Dante DeCaro unexpectedly ran offstage. Suddenly, the grim possibility that the band could be falling apart right in front of many an adoring eye seemed on! After all, an onstage joke earlier in the month that Dante was playing his last show with the band that night triggered all sorts of idle blogosphere chatter. Fortunately, his call of nature was swiftly answered and on with the show it was!

The band, of course, are touring in support of their new album At Mount Zoomer. However, they bookended the performance with songs from their debut album, beginning with You Are a Runner and I Am My Father’s Son and ending with I’ll Believe In Anything and Fancy Claps. In between, it was mostly their new material that they were showcasing. In this respect, particularly striking songs included Call It a Ritual and Language City.

However, as enjoyable as the first two-thirds of the show were, in hindsight, this was actually just a prelude to the final trio of songs. It was at this point that the band’s playing went into overdrive. The sequence began with a lengthy version of California Dreamer, before Dan Boeckner dedicated a passionately sung This Heart’s On Fire to his late mother. Perhaps, as he admitted, it was not a terribly rock ‘n roll thing to do. However, as the man went on to say, fuck it! Hell, with that sleeveless shirt he had on, it might even have been The Boss himself at work up there! Where is a bandana when you need one?

They finally closed the main part of the show out with the magnificent Kissing the Beehive, in all of its 10-minute plus glory. As they played it, each musician seemed lost in his own world with Dan and Dante turned away from the crowd half of the time and Spencer Krug almost slumped down on top of his keyboards. Behind them, Arlen Thompson, who had been fantastic all night, tirelessly kept the rhythm going, whilst his heavy beard gave him an impassive look.

At some stage on the night, their “spiritual advisor” came out on stage with a few replacement beers and, bizarrely, a packet of bouncing rubber balls. After some equally odd attempts to engage the crowd with them,  the band gave up and went back to their tunes. Indeed, this is where Wolf Parade excels. It is hard to believe that they only have two albums worth of songs to their credit, such was the quality of the set list performed last night. Sadly, with Dan likely to spend next year promoting a new album from Handsome Furs (supposedly out in February), it may be some time before Wolf Parade are back in Dublin again. After last night, that is quite the shame!

This week’s mixtape gives pride of place to that great Canadian songstress, Joni Mitchell in response to a shameful and unprovoked attack on her by that villainous prince of vulgar vaudeville Extreme Listening Mode during the week. May he become a Keane groupie!

By the way, for those of you who do not know it, Judee Sill’s The Kiss is an exceptionally beautiful song! Enjoy!

You can play the tape here!

* A Case of You - Joni Mitchell

* Can You Blame the Sky? - Alela Diane

* Sea of Love - Cat Power

* The Kiss - Judee Sill

* Dimanche en hiver - Keren Ann

* Gloria - Patti Smith

* Us - Regina Spektor

* I Want You - Rachael Yamagata

It is often said that all that is needed for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. In this play by Bertolt Brecht, good men either are entirely subsumed into the poisonous system or are quickly and permanently silenced at the first sign of their discontent. Justice becomes a mockery and the weak get trampled upon in the service of the strong. Throughout it all, the audience witnesses the emergence of a horrendous monster - one whose worst deeds still lie ahead of him.

Indeed, the last time that Brecht’s play about the rise of Adolf Hitler and Nazism in Germany featured in the Abbey Theatre, Des Cave played the central character of Arturo Ui. Thirty-four years later on, he appropriately returns as the actor employed by Ui (now played by Tom Vaughan-Lawlor) to provide lessons in gait, poise, and elocution. This essentially comic scene is an important one as it ends in Ui standing to his full height for the first time in the play and suddenly snapping into that all-too-familiar one-arm salute. The deathly silence that suddenly pervades the theatre is enough to show that a seminal moment has just occurred.

Brecht was a German playwright with strong socialist leanings. He fled Germany in 1933, as Hilter and his cohorts begain to take contol of the country. In this play, he portrays a number of key moments in how Germany became this fascist State in the context of an economically-depressed, crime-ridden Chicago of the same era. At first, Ui is a known gangster who is held in complete contempt by any well-to-do businessman. However, when the hitherto incorruptible Dogsborough (Eamon Morrissey) becomes embroiled in a fraud, Ui spots his opportunity and ruthlessly uses it as a way to seize power of the main merchants’ association. From there, his plans grow ever more ambitious and no one seems able to stand up to his thugs and he.

The play is stolen by Vaughan-Lawlor, as he provides a riveting central performance as the complicated Ui. At times, hunched double, with his knees locked tegether and his feet at odd angles, Vaughan-Lawlor seems in perpetual danger of toppling over. However, he moves with such litheness and grace, it is remarkable. Indeed, his entire performance will call to mind Charlie Chaplin’s portrayal of Hitler in The Great Dictator. Moreover, Vaughan-Lawlor is capable of effortlessly shifting between Ui’s various moods - from deepest gloom, to pathetic grovelling, to passionate public speaker. His henchmen are also quite well portrayed, with Aidan Kelly as the loyal enforcer Roma and Karl Shiels as the psychotic Givola being particularly memorable. Another survivor from the 1974 production, the familiar Bosco Hogan, also features.

Despite the strong acting and the impressive set design of Conor Murphy, there is an inescapable sense of stodginess about Brecht’s play. This is, in part, due to it being set in a context that predated the full horrors of the Second World War and the Final Solution and, in part, because of Brecht’s insistence on an increasingly tiresome foreshadowing of each scene with a news bulletin of its direct historic parallel. However, these quibbles do not siginificantly lessen the impact of how easily power can fall into the wrong hands if influential people put their self-interests far ahead of what the common good is. While some may be (justifiably) critical of the excesses of confrontational politics, this plays serves as a timely reminder of why a strong and vocal opposition is so critical to the preservation of a free society.

This Wednesday sees the start of the annual German-language film festival at the Irish Film Institute. Sixteen films will be shown there over a 10-day period. To whet your appetite for it, here are a few that sound of interest to this film buff. However, definitely check out the full programme if you are interested!

- CHIKO – A fierce drama based on the German illegal drug trade from respected director Fatih Akin;

- BEAUTIFUL BITCH – A powerful social commentary based on an immigrant pickpocket who encounters a girl from a wealthy background;

- LENIN ONLY GOT AS FAR AS LUDENSCHEID – Amusing documentary about how the parents of German philosopher Richard David Precht sought to create their own left-wing oasis in an ocean of capitalism;

- THE STRANGER IN ME – A daring film about a mother who rejects her newborn child; and

- THE ANARCHIST’S WIFE – A tale of undying love set against the harrowing backdrop of the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath from German director Peter Sehr

Tickets can be purchased from the IFI via their website or their ticket office.

If it is Friday come again, then it must be time to showcase the musical talent of yet another Portland band on these august pages! This time around, we have Horse Feathers, a three-piece band consisting of lead vocalist Justin Ringle and brother and sister Peter and Heather Broderick. Their sound is created mostly by way of violin, cello, and guitar. The result is a gorgeously sparse, lonesome, and lingering set of folk songs.

The video below is for Curs in the Grass from this year’s album House With No Home.

Have a good weekend mes braves!

You have two brothers, the elder has been on the wrong side of the law since his teenage years and the other is a police detective. You set them in a provincial French city in the 1970s and you dream up a set of scenarios whereby they clash on both a personal and a professional level, before things come to a dramatic conclusion!

What the Dickens do you mean that this is a pretty hackneyed idea for a crime thriller?

Well, okay, maybe it is.

Fortunately, though, there is still enough that is engaging about Rivals to ensure that it does not become just another snore bore…

In particular, the older brother is played by the versatile François Cluzet. Here, he gives another fine performance as the leather-clad, chain-smoking, and perennially-twitchy Gabriel. This is a character who has an almost binary-like personality that can be warm, big-hearted, and laughing one minute and effortlessly become coldblooded, ruthless, and angry the next. In contrast, François (Guillaume Canet) is earnest, straitlaced, and dutiful. Having spent years apart, their reunion at the beginning of the film leaves both uncertain as to whether he should love or loathe the other and this irreconcilable tension propels the story forward.

Indeed, this could be described as a film of two parts. In the first, director Jacques Maillot is more than content to allow the plot’s development meander along whilst the characters’ disparate personalities are developed by way of a lengthy series of vignettes. This equally gives the audience enough time to enjoy the impressively realistic-looking seventies setting. In particular, all of the old cars are great to see, including the amusing opening chase scene. By the time, then, that the second part begins, all of the pieces are in play on the board and serious attention can now be given to achieving the film’s guns-at-the-ready finale.

While Rivals is not without a misstep or two along the way, it is equally an enjoyable and undemanding piece of entertainment. On a broader level, though, it is let down by its failure to generate a real emotional bond between the characters and the audience. Therefore, as grimy and as gritty as it all ends up getting, none of them ever do enough for you to really care what Fate holds in store for them. Instead, this ends up being a film to slosh around noisily in some cheap seventies sordidness and, other than his atrocious-looking mullet, appreciate some engaging acting from Cluzet as the irrepressible Gabriel.

This incredibly innovative war documentary took four years to make, beginning with an entire year spent interviewing Israeli soldiers who had fought in the First Lebanon War in 1982. Once a screenplay had been written, all of the scenes photographed, and a storyboard developped, the subsequent animation process, led by Yoni Goodman, began. This advanced at a painstaking rate of four minutes of film a month. A full day’s work by any one animator would generate no more than one and a half seconds of footage!

The result of all of this labour was a film about director Ari Folman’s attempts to remember a war that he had fought in twenty years beforehand, yet could now recall nothing about. It begins with Folman being told of a friend’s recurring nightmare about being hunted down by a pack of wild-eyed dogs. For whatever reason, this disturbing dream triggers a singular evocative memory for Folman of being in Beruit during the war. It is a strange recollection that he can make no sense of. Therefore, at a friend’s urging, he decides to seek out other men that he had served with in the hope of remembering those days properly.

It is worth explaining, at this stage, that the background to this war was that Israel’s military forces invaded Lebanon on the pretext of establishing a security barrier between the two countries. This was in response to ongoing missile attacks on its northernmost towns. Unbeknownst to everyone but a select few, there was a greater objective in mind whereby Israel would occupy Lebanon as far north as Beruit and install an ally in Bashir Gemayel, a Lebanese Christian, as President. When the charismatic Bashmir was subsequently assassinated as President-elect, a terrible massacre of Palestinian refugees took place inside Sabra and Shatila - two camps in west Beruit where they were being housed. Whilst the Lebanese Christian militia loyal to Bashir were responsible for the killing, the Israeli forces were heavily criticised at home and abroad for being present, yet taking no action to stop the slaughter of some 3,000 men, women, and children.

This war was seen by many israelis as being their Vietnam, i.e. their soliders were being killed in a foreign country whilst carrying out a mission that had never been explained to them, never mind being supported by them. As a result, it is perhaps of little surprise that Folman chooses to pay enormous homage in this film to the magnificent opus that is Apocalypse Now and, by extension, to Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.

Indeed, just as the full truth lay at the end of the river in both of those works, here Folman must travel the full journey’s course before he can properly understand why he is so troubled by that first memory. Amongst those helping him are friend and informal shrink Ori Sivan, his former commanding officer Shmuel Frenkel, and renowned Israeli war journalist Ron Ben-Yishai. Most characters are voiced by the actual person in question. This all results in a work that both recollects the horror and awfulness of war, as well as some dreamy and fantastical representations of how men try to cope with their terror and revulsion at what they experience.

Waltz With Bashir is scored in part by original compositions from Max Richter. It is also beautifully and convincingly animated by Goodman and his team. Whilst rich in dark humour, it is, ultimately, a film that is a deeply moving and traumatic reflection on the brutality and futility of war, the terrible damage that it does to men, and the dangers of not subjecting political leaders’ decision-making to proper levels of scrutiny. It perhaps goes without saying, but one need only look a few hundred kilometres east from where this story takes place to see those lessons going unheeded to this day.

The ending to this film will live with you for a long, long time.

Dressed, quite honestly, like a cross between a pint of Guinness and B. A. Baracus, Lykke Li took to the Button Factory stage last night. Her black outfit recalled a Cat Power gig from last year. That evening, most of the audience were a little disgusted that Chan Marshall was having one of her infamous off-nights and was refusing to be ever more than side-on to the crowd. Last night, it was Lykke Li who seemed to be continuously fretting about the level of engagement that the audience was having with the show. She said that they were too quiet and insisted on several occasions that she was here to “dance, dance, dance”. In the end, she needed to briefly jump in amongst those in the front row to show them how it is done.

The set list was broadly similar to her last visit to Dublin in June, with I’m Good, I’m Gone, Breaking It Up, and Tonight all featuring. Interestingly, though, the better sounding songs seemed to be when her drummer played on a pair of Conga drums. Quite simply, this provided a bolder, more dynamic rhythm for the rest of the band to feed off. These songs included opening number Dance, Dance, Dance, Let It Fall, and, later on, Window Blues. The scant 50-minute set also includes two covers - the anticpated show-closer of Can I Kick It? and a rendition of Wendy Rene’s R&B classic After Laughter (Comes Tears). Unfortunately, the latter did betray the limitations of her voice a bit.

On the whole, though, Lykke Li never stopped dancing and prancing throughout. She sang well, the band was more then competent behind her, and both the sound and lights were fine. Yet there was a spark of magic missing from the perfomance that might have made it truly memorable. Lykke Li said that she felt like a newborn baby having enjoyed a whole week away from touring. However, that liveliness that she had so clearly displayed when she was last here now seems to come with a hint of joyless routine attached. It would be a shame if this were to be the case over the longer-term, as this is a sprightly, charismatic, and highly enjoyable entertainer when she is right on top of her game.

Near the end of the show, last night, Stuart Staples admitted that this was one of the venues that he had always wanted to play in. With its fine sound and intimate nature, Vicar Street does seem the ideal location for a band who turn up with a five-piece string ensemble in tow. In the past, Tindersticks had trod the boards at the Olympia Theatre. As part of his support act, David Kitt reminisced about how he had seen them there as a morose chain-smoking teenager with just a naggin of whiskey for company. There were probably several dozen more such stories in a decidedly middle-aged audience!

Indeed, being a seated-at-tables show made it a little easier to talk to a few other people there. It was notable that none of them were particularly familiar with the new music and that was made generally obvious when the first real roar of appreciation on the night went up, four songs in, for Travelling Light. This is a shame, as Tindersticks have produced a fine new album. In any event, thanks to last night’s impressive performance, a number of Christmas stockings just got a little heavier!

In fact, it is worth saying that in those first four songs alone, there were quite a few highlights - from the slow urgency of Introduction, as the various musicians gradually came out on stage, to the forlorn chirpiness of Yesterday’s Tomorrows, the wheezy-sounding oboe on the brilliant The Flicker of a Little Girl, and the lonesome plea of Come Feel The Sun. There are, of course, some contradictory comparisons there. However, is that not the nature of Tindersticks? Beautiful music, big smiles, but such melancholy in the words!

In The Devil’s Saw, the band have penned one of their best ever songs. The imagery is so visceral and original, as Old Nick gets busy opening up his victim. The fact that it comes hot on the heels of Buried Bones is a nice piece of set listing! Moreover, the song triggers a return to the current album, with a further trio of songs closing out the main set, including my favourite The Turns We Took.

The encores were decidely of the older variety, though. They featured both If You’re Looking for a Way Out and Her, before they rounded off with the song of the night in the amazing The Not Knowing. It was a sublime rendition of it, with all ten musicians fully contributing. Indeed, if there was one complaint on the night, it was that the sound had felt a bit subdued at times. One explanation for this is that the band had a three-piece brass section with them when touring earlier in the year and that would have made a big difference last night. Nevertheless, it was still very enjoyable as the sedate, serene, and soothing show that it turned out to be.

Here is the set list as I remember it:

* Introduction

* Yesterday’s Tomorrows

* The Flicker of a Little Girl

* Come Feel the Sun

* Travelling Light

* The Other Side of the World

* The Organist Entertains

* Dying Slowly

* Sixteen Summers, Fifteen Falls (Townes Van Zandt cover)

* Say Goodbye to the City

* Sleepy Song

* She’s Gone

* Buried Bones

* The Hungry Saw

* Mother Dear

* Boobar Come Back to Me

* The Turns We Took

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* If You’re Looking For a Way Out

* Her

* The Not Knowing