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I was just looking at Konrad Wolf's Sterne and was wondering how people here research old films, yes Sterne certainly has a good rating on imdb, but we all know it cannot be trusted. It did win the Prix du Jury at Cannes but is it any good? If I felt compelled to track this down how would I know it was worth it? Like so many of the other rare films I seem to come across how do I ever know (unless the director is a well known respected auteur)? I wonder whether I am the only crazy person who likes looking up rare unknown films?

If you think something sounds interesting, you take a chance on it. Simple as that - and the story of my life.

What I tend to do is order DVDs from places like Poland and the Czech Republic in batches of half a dozen at a time - partly to keep postage costs down, but also because it's easier to take a chance on something unknown: a typical order will feature three or four titles I already know about, plus a couple that sound vaguely interesting.

Mind you, it helps that I also have advisers on board - Skuhn8 has been a mine of information on Hungarian cinema (and has got me to see titles I'd never have turned up on my own), and more recently a Polish friend has been lending me discs and video files by the barrowload, but that's the point of forums like this too.

As a side-note, SF, Sterne may very well get a release in the not-too-distant future. As a DEFA co-production, Icestorm is likely to give it an R2 release (which would probably lead to an R1 port from First Run). Of course, I don't know that for certain, but it sometimes helps to track down who has the rights and send them an e-mail of interest. Unfortunately, then you just have to wait for them to get the ball rolling.

MichaelB wrote:What I tend to do is order DVDs from places like Poland and the Czech Republic in batches of half a dozen at a time - partly to keep postage costs down, but also because it's easier to take a chance on something unknown: a typical order will feature three or four titles I already know about, plus a couple that sound vaguely interesting.

That's a great,I like taking chances on following my instinct.I'd so like to follow your advice and order a bunch of japanese dvds,but alas that would cost me a fortune

LionelHutz wrote:That's a great,I like taking chances on following my instinct.I'd so like to follow your advice and order a bunch of japanese dvds,but alas that would cost me a fortune

If you're just interested in seeing the films (and not preoccupied with archival image quality), you may be able to find much cheaper knockoffs from other countries on Yesasia. The Panorama Ozus are a decidedly mixed bag in terms of quality, but the films are absolutely essential, and they can be very cheap.

Back to your original question, with older cinema a good library is likely to yield much more information, and of a better quality, than the internet. The 60s and 70s were a golden age of film publishing, with volumes dedicated to all manner of obscure filmmakers and cinemas. And the big advantage of going to a book on Eastern European cinema is that it's likely to alert you to all manner of other films of interest. Serendipity is much more haphazard on imdb.

Icestorm released Konrad Wolf's, Ich war neunzehn (I was Nineteen) in 2003 and Mama, ich lebe (Mama, I'm Alive) in May, 2007, so they might have Sterne lined up.

I'm not sure if the German edition of I was Nineteen has english subs, but the Chinese edition does: Yes Asia listing. It's a pretty good transfer. Extraordinarily powerful war film.