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Like the early works of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Rudolf Thome’s films owe a significant debt to the French New Wave, particularly Jean-Luc Godard’s penchant for irreverent genre deconstruction. In that vein, Thome’s Red Sun is an exercise in keeping things “medium cool,” holding both its erratic narrative and characters’ motivations at a Brechtian distance. The violence, when it comes, is perfunctory and decidedly nondramatic, paving the way for The American Friend, Wim Wenders’s abstract and stylized adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley’s Game.

After drifting into Munich, Thomas (Marquard Bohm) heads straight for the Take Five nightclub, where he renews his relationship with his ex-girlfriend, Peggy (Uschi Obermaier). Little does this rambling man realize that, by crashing at her pad, he’s stumbled into a truly bizarre living arrangement. Peggy and her three roommates—statuesque Christine (Diana Körner), redheaded Sylvie (Sylvia Kekulé), and sprightly Isolde (Gaby Go...

By Neil Pedley

This week finds the U.S. Army bringing war games to a whole other level, a '60s sex icon getting an exposé, Ron Perlman returning as the defender of small fluffy kittens everywhere and Eddie Murphy taking cinema egotism to new heights.

"August"

After the warm reception his first feature "Xx/Xy" received at Sundance in 2002, director Austin Chick returned to the snowy slopes of Park City to debut his sophomore effort, which seemed to impress our own Matt Singer when he saw it in January. Assembling an noteworthy ensemble that includes the likes of Robin Tunney, Naomie Harris, Rip Torn and David Bowie, Chick follows Tom and Josh Sterling (Josh Hartnett and Adam Scott, respectively), two brothers desperately trying to right the sinking ship of their failing dot-com company in the weeks leading up to the devastating September 11th attacks.

Opens in New York.

"Days...

• Groupies. If you are a rock star you've got to love them. While good looks and randomness can momentarily get a groupie into celeb wonderland, to remain there, it takes plenty of hard work. Back in the day when models became bed fellows, and then stars in their own right and sometimes even parlaying it into a political activist type of career. I'm not sure where Uschi Obermaier ranks in terms of popularity when comparing to Warhol subjects Nico or "Edie" Sedgwick (on which Factory Girl was based upon) or when comparing to musician arm candy like Pattie Boyd and Bebe Buell (Liv Tyler's mom), but apparently her story was a profitable biopic at the German box office. Eight Miles High sees actress Natalia Avelon (who'll next appear in an Uwe Boll project called Far Cry) play the Obermaier. Dokument Films releases in NYC and then L.A.

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You are to be forgiven if the name Uschi Obermaier doesn't ring a bell, but she is remembered in some circles as a 1960s German sex symbol, model and political radical who is said to have slept with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Jimi Hendrix.

Achim Bornhak's "Eight Miles High" is a shallow account of Obermaier's drug- and booze-fueled early life. It follows Obermaier from the Munich suburb where she grew up (her...

Like a shapelier Forrest Gump, the German model Uschi Obermaier had a knack for witnessing history without ever affecting it. A close consort of The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, and the leaders of Germany's radical left, she was a poster child for the counterculture of the '60s and '70s, doffing her clothes for the covers of news magazines and lending a touch of glamour to political protests. The trouble for Achim Bornhak's biopic Eight Miles High is that, apart from being famous, Obermaier doesn't appear to have actually done much. As played by Polish-born newcomer Natalia Avelon, she's a shallow dilettante in thrall to ideas beyond her ken, Marianne Faithfull without the talent. At times, Bornhak shows an awareness of his heroine's vapidity. She steals away from the grungy anti-capitalists in Munich's Kommune 1 to apply a touch of eye shadow; going without clothes is one thing, going without.

Dokument Films, the MPI Media' Group'ss new independent film label, has acquired all North American rights to Achim Bornhak's biopic 8 Miles High (Das Wilde Leben). The film, starring Natalia Avelon and slated for release next year, recounts the life of Uschi Obermaier, a small town girl from rural Bavaria who became a '60s fashion icon and companion of The Rolling Stones. MPI's Greg Newman negotiated the deal with Andreas Rothbauer of Beta Cinema, repping the film.

BERLIN -- Veteran German producer Eberhard Junkersdorf (The Tin Drum, Homo Faber) has launched a private investment fund to bankroll four mid-budget pictures from his Munich-based company, Neue Bioskop Film. The fund aims to raise around €32 million ($32.3 million), half of which will come from private investors. The remainder will be made up of national and regional film subsidies, bank loans and contributions from co-producers. The cash should give Neue Bioskop a degree of independence from its bankrupt parent company, Kinowelt Medien. Films to be financed through the fund will come from a short list of six in-development projects: The Prophet, an adaptation of Ray O'Nolan's Nostrodamus-themed thriller; an adventure film titled Goldrausch (Goldrush); teen comedy Shooting Carlo; prison drama Julia; an untitled biopic of German supermodel Uschi Obermaier and action feature Auferstanden (Revival). Junkersdorf and Neue Bioskop managing director Dietmar Guentsche will manage the fund with Tin Drum director Volker Schloendorff acting as artistic consultant on the projects.