7/14/15 ATTENTION: GOETHE INSTITUTE L.A. FAREED MAJARI & DANIEL CHAFFEY,
& Stefan Kloo ET AL After coming across the Goethe because of the Jewish film festival (although I am a Christian American, not Jewish), I recently began attending some of the Wednesday evening films at the Goethe, and looked forward to seeing some of the "best of" films in June & July. However, the last three films I saw ("Finster World", "Kohlhaas or the Proportionality of Means", and in particular the most recent one..."Wetlands" or Feuchtgebiete ) ranged from somewhat to quite disturbing. Finster World was bizarre, with the kindly professor being framed for rape at the concentration camp.. a strange ending..a perversion of justice leaving me feeling quite disturbed. Then, I walked out of Kolhaas about halfway thru the film when they started showing a "king" sitting on a toilet & handing his used toilet paper to a person at the door. I thought that was going too far...getting too disgusting. Finally, I arrived for "Wetlands" just after it had 1
begun. Sitting down I saw the lyrics and the word "p---y" on the screen. For Americans, this language is quite offensive and something you might only see or hear in pornography magazines or movies, which, as a Christian, I don't endorse. Furthermore, one would not normally expect to see or hear such language in a film at a cultural institute such as Goethe. At least I wouldn't have expected it. So I was already a bit disturbed, but thought it might just be a temporary thing...and kept watching, assuming the film would settle into a decent story. However, the next scene showed a girl sitting on a dirty toilet seat...and the list goes on. I didn't stay much longer. The next scene she was standing at a beach bar and meets a guy and the next scene he was performing a graphic sex act with her. I really was NOT expecting, nor desiring, to see, in essence, a pornography film at the Goethe. Thus, at that point I walked out, only five minutes into the movie. So I am now inclined to never return again to the Goethe for the German films, unless you offer some sort of “ratings” guide such as we have at theatres here in the USA. I prefer so-called “family friendly” films…that don’t attempt to shock with language or violence or sexuality etc. I guess I will leave it at that for now. I don’t know what else to say apart from the fact that I was rather disturbed and even shocked at what I experienced in the three films mentioned above, especially “Wetlands.” 2
Sincerely John Anon
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