OK, so maybe Captain Sensible's 80s single hit song has nothing to do with the mighty Captain Berlin. I couldn't come up with any other way to start this review, so sue me.
I have been a fan of Herr Buttgereit longer than I can remember. His early projects were very hard to get a hold of legitimately over here in the states, but many people were bootleging them. I believe it was the early 90's that someone handed me a blank vhs tape, telling me 'you're gonna love this S*^t!' Well, it was Nekromantik...and was he right. Oh boy. I have been hooked ever since. Jörg Buttgereit has the ability to do what very few filmmakers can do, which is assault you from the moment you press play. Which is what most of his films are; an assault on the senses.
This one is a little bit different. Not quite a movie. It's actually a stage play that is shot through multiple camera angles. Heavy in dialogue and props. It's very clean, no gore or too much craziness, yeah, he still manages to assault you, but in a different way. In a much more subtle way. Through a quite entertaining narrative, delivered lightly but dramatically by skilled thespians, and of course with that killer technokraut theme song.
I had watched captain Berlin years ago, also on a bootleg, and now finally on my own legitimate release. I am hoping that, like the comic book series, we see more of these. I may even write my own screenplay for it to present, humbly, to Herr Buttgereit. Very few cooler characters exist out there.
To those of you into Buttgereit's main body of work, do not expect that here, this is completely different. But it retains his originality. And if you do end up, loving Captain Berlin, there is a whole slew of comics out there although they have not been translated into English they are cool to look at.
If you can find this one, I highly recommend it. I think I picked mine up on Amazon so it's not too difficult to find. And the version I got does have English subs.
Long live the Captain...Captain Berlin.
