Horst in Translation ([email protected])
"Cinema Perverso" or "Cinema Perverso: The Wonderful and Twisted World of Railroad Cinemas" is a German documentary movie from 2015, so still relatively new and fresh and at slightly under 60 minutes it is a pretty short work. The title is very long and summarizes the concept this work is about, namely a special sort of cinemas here in Germany that have pretty much vanished by no. In these cinemas you could see underground and trashy movies, no blockbusters and no Academy Award nominees. And the interviewees here are mostly names that German film buffs will recognize and they all had some kind of connection to these films, either they really enjoyed them or they even starred in them. For me personally, this one had the disadvantage that the genre and approach to filmmaking that this is about is one that is not really appealing to me at all and I have seen some movies featured in here and I find it tough to say they had any artistic impact really. But this does not mean at all that this wasn't a good documentary. I think it was. And I also think that it is a film that because of its subject is not for the big masses. But it never tries to be and that's a good thing. The runtime is not a disadvantage at all either. It helps in keeping the focus, even if I must say I would not have minded seeing this one for another half hour perhaps. But it's all good. And honestly if writer and director Oliver Schwehm gets something insightful here out of gently-speaking not-so-great filmmakers like Boll and Buttgereit, then that says quite something about his skill. I did not grow up with these films or movies, but I still managed to enjoy the watch. If you did, you will probably really love it. After my initial skepticism disappeared quickly, I cannot deny that this one here was a success. I give it a thumbs-up and suggest you check it out.
