Zwolf Stunden Angst

Another fantastic work from Japanese genius director Masahiro Shinoda. In The Petrified Forest (Kaseki no mori, 1973), director Masahiro Shinoda adapts a Shintaro Ishihara novel about youth angst and a complicated relationship between mother and son. Haruo works in a university hospital trying to work toward a degree in medicine, but is hindered by his hatred of department head Mr. Miyaji. Meanwhile, he decides to get a rival in love out of the way by poisoning him. As the angst-ridden Haruo deals with his problems in his own unique ways, his nagging mother holds out hope that her son will soon return home.

A loose adaptation of a novelette by author Peter Handke, this early effort from acclaimed director Wim Wenders follows penalized goalie Joseph Bloch (Arthur Brauss) as he makes his way through the city after missing penalty kick and getting suspended from a game. Wandering by a local cinema, Joseph picks up the pretty cashier and the two spend the night together. Inexplicably strangling the girl in the light of the morning, the seemingly unaffected Joseph makes his way through the city streets as emotion begins to boil under the surface of his stony gaze. Making his way to an old girlfriends house in the country, the emotionally shattered goalie has little to do but wait for the police to close in on him.

The Secaucus 7 of the film's title are seven friends who, during their college days, were arrested in New Jersey on their way to a protest in Washington. The film takes place ten years after all that, as the friends gather at the home of Mike and Katie, now schoolteachers in New Hampshire, bringing with them old problems and new: Maura has left Jeff and seeks consolation with his best friend, J.T.; J.T., arguably the least successful of the friends, finally gets the courage to move to Los Angeles to start a career as a songwriter; Irene brings her new boyfriend along, hoping he'll like and be liked by her friends and expecting them to challenge him for his more-conservative politics; and more. This is the film that inspired "The Big Chill."