Berlin Calling

1. What do drugs mean to Ickarus?

I almost feel like Ickarus believes that drugs are just a necessity in his life. They allow him to work harder and for longer allowing him to be more creative. He has been on drugs for such a long time that they have become just an average part of his life.

 2. When, why, and how are his fans taking drugs, and which drugs do they take?

 

From what I recall his fans have been shown smoking weed, shooting up heroin, and snorting cocaine. A lot of the time these fans are shown doing it during and after he performs.

 

3. While we can see that his drug habits get him ill and into psychosis, and while we witness his relapse and inability to work successfully, why does the subculture Ickarus belongs to focus on drugs 

 I would have to assume that many of them are on drugs just for the feeling that they get when they are high. They enjoy feeling like they are on top of the world and feel like they can perform better. In Ickarus's case he feels like he can be more creative whilst on drugs. 

 

4. Compare the standards you know from your home society with the people you see depicted in this movie. Which are the stark differences and contrasts? 

 This movie almost makes it seem like it is normal for them to be doing these drugs. They are doing them out in public, albeit they are in slimy run down areas. In the US I don't think anyone would find it normal to just start shooting up in a public space.

 

5.  Germany is considered a strong industrial nation the world over. Do you think that the youth culture as depicted here could change that? How about work ethics of Ickarus and of Alice, the label director who fires and then resigns him?

 I do not think that the culture depicted in this film could change that. If anything they add to the idea. They need suppliers and the suppliers have a demand for their product. In a morbid sense they are promoting capitalism with their purchases. 

Alice seems like she worries about Ickarus and cares about him as a person. She is concerned about his well being and sees that he needs to change.

  

Question 6: Which similar “cult movies” of US origin have you seen, if any?

I don't know if you could compare the two, but in my mind this movie reminds me of A Clockwork Orange (movie, not the book). We see a man going through a dramatic change in his life, but be it for better or for worse?

 I like the movie so far. It is a strange trip through the mind of a man that is addicted to drugs and uses them to try and better his career. It is a nice change from other movies about drug use that just try and force into your mind that drugs are bad and you should hate them. It has an interesting plot and I feel like the director actually cared about the movie he was making. It intrigues me how the writer could have came up with the movie. I also love the dramatic change that we get to see the main character go through. I only hope that this movie does not end in tragedy, I hope Ickarus achieves some form of redemption. I have become attached to Ickarus as a character. We can also see how the German culture is so different from American culture. The use of drugs in public areas in today's US would not be okay in the least. We get to see how they affect himself, his fans, and even some of his friends. I would recommend this movie to others and I am probably going to go out and buy a copy for myself.

 

 

 

 

Freikörperkultur

Freikörperkultur

• A German movement that roughly translates into Free body culture.
• A movement that endorses a naturalistic (a cultural/political movement defending social nudity) approach to sports and community living.
• They wished to experience the nature of being nude without a direct relationship to sexuality.
• The FKK movement is based on the attitude that the naked body is not a source of shame.
• The FKK culture does not involve secuality, nudity has to have prior group consent.
• The followers of this ideology are called Traditional Naturalist, FKK'ler, or nudist.

The beginning

• Before the 18th century
• People bathed naked in rivers, often divided by gender.

• Nude bathing was practiced by Lord Monboddo who preached the attitude that the Ancient Greeks had towards nudity 
• After the ban
• In 1898 the first Freikörperkultur club was founded in Essen.
• 1900's: More Swedish baths arose in Berlin and the North and Baltic Seas.
• Between WWI and WWII
•  First Nude beach established in Germany in 1920
• When Hitler came to power nudist organizations were either banned or integrated into Nazi organizations.
• By 1942 the German ban against nude swimming was softened by allowing nude swimming in some areas.

WWII to Present Day

•    The Deutscher Verband fur Freikörperkultur (German Association for Free Body Culture) was founded in 1949
• 1950: The first naturist holiday resorts were opened in France
• Naturist organizations gain many new members in the 1960s
• Later in the 20th century Naturism became popular outside of Germany.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freik%C3%B6rperkultur. October 20th

Character Bio

"My name is Gerard Duval. Almost nothing is known about me. I was a printer and I had a wife and family waiting for me back home. What kind of man was I? Who knows? That doesn't matter now. When the bombardment ended we knew that it was our sign to attack. Our company charged forward towards the Germans. I took cover inside a bombed out crater, its only occupant was a dead German soldier, or so I thought. He attacked me before I even had a chance to react. I felt the blade enter my body and fell to the ground in agony. I wasn't dead but I knew that I would be before long. As I sat there waiting for death's sweet embrace the German seemed to notice that I was not dead. He approached me, this is it, I thought, he is going to finish me off now. Instead the man began to bandage my wounds and give me water. What a joke, was he trying to somehow make himself out to be a good guy? They attacked us, not the other way around. What does it matter to me though? The last hours of my life were filled with pain, but that's okay to me, I'm sure he will be haunted by his actions a lot longer than I suffered....."

AQOTWF Chapter 1

Chapter 1 Summary and Character Review

Top Layer Summary:

- Introduction to the main characters

-Circumstances of being in the war:

           ·         Modesty is lost

           ·         Bargaining is a big tool (Cigarettes, Rum, Bread, Clothes, etc.)

           ·         Loyalty and Brotherhood

           ·         Becoming hardened

-Disappointment in the older generation:

           ·         For not teaching them what would come of them for joining the war

           ·         For allowing the military to mature them the hard way

           ·         For falsely glorifying the war

Specifics:

The first chapter is used as an introduction to the different characters: the way they act and they way they are treated during the war. 

We see the waste of the resources they have and the inadequate form of communication they had during the war. 


The first thing that we notice is the terrible amount of communication that goes on between the different areas in the war.

• The cook has no idea of the amount of men that are coming back from the front. He believes he is preparing rations for 150 men but only 80 have survived. The 80 left are then issued all the rations that were prepared for those men. 

An example of misusing what little resources they did have, was the environment at the hospital that Kemmerich is kept in. 

• There are wounded left everywhere and when Kemmerich eventually dies they waste no time moving him and replacing someone else in his bed. 

The war was tough on everyone and they had to deal with the inadequate amount of supplies, but because of no communication they are wasting a whole lot of rations (that they don't necessarily have) on a smaller group of soldiers.

Kantorek, the schoolmaster, encouraged them all to join and if you didn't you'd be ostracized.

Franz Kemmerich is the first to get wounded in battle.  Him and Behm both pass away.

Paul and his friends are forced to disconnect from emotions, like grief, sympathy, and fear. They now have to be in survival mode.

Characters:

Paul Bäumer

• Narrator
• Sensitive, but the brutal experiences of warfare teaches him to detach himself from his feelings.

Leer

• Paul's classmate
• Close friend during the war
• Thinks of women a lot

Müller

• Paul's classmate
• Hardheaded
• Dynamic
• A bit of a dreamer but looks out for No. 1

Kropp

      ·    Paul's classmate

      ·   A close friend of Paul's 

      ·   His interest in analyzing the causes of the war lead to many of the most critical anti war

      ·   He notices the ranking differences and the treatments that come with it. (Hospital with Kemmerich)

Tjaden

      ·   Locksmith

      ·  Skinny, young man with a voracious appetite

Katczinsky

      ·   Kat is the unofficial leader

      ·   40 years old

      ·   Resourceful, inventive, and always finds food, clothing, and blankets

Haie

            ·   Peat-digger was a body as large and powerful

            ·  Wants to remain in the war

Detering

      ·  Homesick

      ·  Kind hearted

      ·  Nature lover