I guess Istvan Zsabo is Czech, but I loved "Mephisto" and "Oberst Redl". I have a lot of friends who love Wim Wenders, but I find him a little too "arty"

I prefer Tykwer over Wenders, always. Wender's style is like some other's. Tykwer's style is unique, with a far more developed sense for visual completeness and beauty.

In fact I stopped caring for Wenders. I must admit I find him simply boring.

:rotfl:

Petersen, Emmerich and even Wenders simply got out of Dodge at the first opportunity.
They preferred being relatively nobodies in Hollywood over being the first men in german cinema. Wenders is just different from the rest because he went into intellectual cinema instead of the normal hollywood machine.
Ok, I can understand them, in the 80s german cinema was deader than dead.
But still, Petersen could do comparable films here right now and they would be better.
Emmerich's films would still be a CGI fest without any sense but at least he would have spared us "the Patriot" :D

That is probably why you view them all as rubbish. You look and think, is this really made by the guy who brought us Das Boot?

Basically, had somebody else done these films, while you may not have loved them you may not be as criticial, if you see my point.

As a matter of fact Emmerich has a very solid reputation in Hollywood, not only becasue the box office hits he created, but for one reason producers like more than any other: at the start he gives a number on costs - and he then is able to realise the project with that money, never demanding more in the second half of the work. He is considered to be a very clever economist in that regard, who is able to improvise when money runs short without that tricks being too obvious in the movie.

His first German movie was "Das Arche Noah-Prinzip", where he already copied the style of Spielberg's early movies a bit, using certain narrative elements from him, and the SF movies of the 80s that were produced in Hollywood. However, Spielberg developed beyond movies like ET and Indiana Jones, and showed that he can do some more serious films, too. Emmerich remained at that relatively "infantile" level of building towers with wooden bricks, and then film how they fall down again. I found such films entertaining 10-15 years ago. Today: no more.

Tom Tykwer produced what is probably my favourite film - Absoluten Giganten

Sebastian Schipper (the guy on the nike from Lola) directed.

I love Das Boot because I love looking at the u-boat's interior, and I love a fun war movie, but I have no delusions; as a movie it really is just a little better than average.