KINO: The German Film Magazine

The German cinema landscape has a lot to offer this year.

International stars, high quality literary films and gripping thrillers.

Whats on in 2009? This years highlights.

Candy-colored, not Black and White Oskar Roehler: the Chameleon of German Cinema

LULU AND JIMI is the new film from German director Oskar Roehler. Its been described as David Lynchs "Wild At Heart" meets Rainer Werner Fassbinder's" "Fear Eats The Soul." It's the story of the love between a rich girl and an unemployed black man in a candy-colored Germany of the 1950s. A rock-and-roll melodrama that mixes fantasy and thriller elements to surprising effect and is worlds away from the stern black and white of Roehlers "No Place To Go" (2000), the psychological trauma of "Angst" (2003) or the literary adaptation "The Elementary Particles" (2006). As a director, Oskar Roehler is hard to pin down but KINO gives it a try with a portrait of the artist and his work.DIE PERLMUTTERFARBE School Days in 1930s Germany

Markus H. Rosenmüller, the Bavarian director who has been at the forefront of the "new Heimat Film" movement, has adapted a book from the 1930s as his latest project. Anna Maria Jokl 's DIE PERLMUTTERFARBE is the story of two competing classes in a small school. A microcosm of Germany in the 1930s and the mounting Nazi threat. But Rosenmüller, while retaining the political context, has made a timeless parable for young and old.SHORTCUTS

* Deluxe Cinema

Berlin has opened Germanys first luxury cinema: the "ASTOR Film Lounge". A world away from the pop and popcorn of the multiplex and the shoddy charm of arthouse theaters, the Astor offers a classier night out at the movies, with leather chairs, food and drink delivered to your seats and more than enough leg room.

* AGE AND BEAUTY

A group of 50-something men meet again after many years and realize that little remains of their young dreams. A tragic comedy about love, death and friendship.

* Girl Power: THE WILD CHICKS AND LIFE

Part three in the hugely-successful series of teenie tales about from bestselling author Cornelia Funke.Film of the Month: Christian Petzold's JERICHO

You can immediately tell you're watching a Christian Petzold film. The director has created his own film language, which features precise observation of ordinary but tragic stories, whittled-down dialogue and exacting camera work. Far from the mainstream, his films are in demand from art house audiences around the world. His latest, JERICHO, is set in eastern Germany and is the story of a dangerous affair.KINO 2009 Highlights of the Coming Year

A look ahead at the best of 2009. Three big Hollywood films with a German connection hit theaters this year: Bryan Singer's VALKYRIE starring Tom Cruise; literary adaptation THE READER from Stephen Daldry and the political thriller THE INTERNATIONAL from Tom Tykwer. Julia Jentsch, star of the Oscar-nominated SOPHIE SCHOLL returns as the lead in EFFI Hermine Huntgeburth's adaptation of the Theodor Fontane classic Effi Briest. And in October Sönke Wortmanns long-awaited period film POPE JOAN makes its debut.