Sunday 25 May 2008

Olympiad Movies

For the 2000 Chess Olympiad in Istanbul it was a common joke to say that watching "Midnight Express" was part of your preparation. For the 2006 Olympiad in Turin, Italy, seeing the original "The Italian Job" was a useful way of familiarising yourself with the sights of the city (including the famous roof top race track which was located next to the playing hall). But try as I might, I haven't been able to find much in the way of cinematic brilliance coming from Dresden, Germany.
Once you exclude various dramatisations of World War II bombings, and German TV Police dramas, the best I can find is a couple of ordinary sequels to better known originals. The only two movies I've vaguely heard of are "Go Trabi Go 2" and "Leningrad Cowboys meet Moses". The first is obviously a sequel to "Go Trabi Go", while the second was a follow up to "Leningrad Cowboys go America". And I'm pretty sure neither movie will be much of a guide to Dresden, just as I'm pretty sure I won't find either of them in my local video store either.
But of course I could be missing the obvious (I once asked on live radio why there were no songs sung about Las Vegas), so if I am, feel free to suggest the definitive Dresden film.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Shaun!

As a former DJ you should probably have known The Dresden Dolls...

OK, it was slightly off topic.

At least Dresden have a famous "Old Town". And definately the worst footballhooligans in Germany rooting for Dynamo Dresden. All in alle you should be looking forward to visit Dresden.

Cheers

Henrik Mortensen

Anonymous said...

Part of the story of "Slaughterhouse-Five" was set in Dresden in WW2. But I assume the outdoor scenes were filmed in Prague: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069280/locations