It’s a feeling moviegoers don’t experience much anymore: that rush upon walking out of a theater and feeling somehow different. In the two hours you’ve spent in the dark, you’ve come to know characters you now care about. You’ve learned spiritual and philosophical lessons. You’ve laughed with them and even, perhaps, fallen in love.
Such was the case last December when I left the AFI Theater and Culture Center in Maryland after seeing Köln 75. It’s a movie that reminded me why I love movies. It also reminded me why so many modern movies, particularly American ones, are just so bad these days. With awards season underway and the Oscars approaching, I picked up the recently released Blu-Ray edition of Köln 75. After a second viewing I can confidentially say that this little, small-budget, independent German film by the Brooklyn writer and director, Ido Fluk, is better than any of the Best Picture contenders.
Köln 75 tells the story of Vera Brandes (Mala Emde). In 1975 Brandes was an effervescent teenager living in Germany. The hot music in that country at the time was not rock-n-roll but jazz, and at 16 years-old, Brandes is asked by saxophonist Ronnie Scott to book his next concert (she had lied to him about her age). Brandes is a natural, changing her voice to sound British, or older and more confident, and easily winning people over with her exuberance and good looks. She is surrounded by Bohemian friends and a boyfriend, and some of the characters occasionally break the fourth wall to directly address the audience. Soon Brandes is getting attention in the newspaper in sexy punk rock poses, the media’s newly minted “jazz bunny.” Her parents are not amused.
One night, Brandes sees the great jazz pianist Keith Jarrett in concert. The effect is transformative. Brades is determined to bring Jarrett (a great John Magaro) to Köln, Germany, a feat which she accomplished on Jan. 24, 1975. Entirely improvised, the show, The Köln Concert, later ends up becoming the best-selling jazz solo and piano solo album of all time.
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