Kramer vs. Kramer (1979). The custody battle between Ted and Joanna Kramer is marked by repeated legal negotiations, court appearances, and check-ins with lawyers and the judge. Each party must follow up on legal filings, court orders, and parental responsibilities, showing how ongoing communication and status updates are essential in high-stakes agreements.
movies
Das Boot
Das Boot (1981). Plot: This classic war film follows the crew of a German U-boat during World War II as they face life-and-death decisions in extreme conditions. The submarine’s captain and crew meticulously analyze every situation, weighing risks and gathering all available information before making critical decisions. Their survival depends on only committing to actions they are certain they can carry out.
Gundermann
Gundermann (2018). Plot: The biopic of East German singer-songwriter Gerhard Gundermann explores his double life as both a celebrated musician and a Stasi informant. The film delves into Gundermann’s internal struggle with the commitments he makes, showing how he seeks to understand the full context and consequences before giving his word.
hidden mental processes
German film scholarship, as noted by critics like Siegfried Kracauer and Walter Benjamin, often emphasizes how cinema can reveal the “hidden mental processes” and the importance of context in shaping individual and collective outcomes. Films that neglect or underestimate context frequently use this as a narrative device to explore the consequences—sometimes tragic—of such oversights.
Yasemin
Yasemin (1988). Director: Hark Bohm. Plot: A romance between a Turkish-German woman and a German man in Hamburg, set against the backdrop of cultural expectations and integration. The film explores how cultural context—tradition, family expectations, and integration—shapes both personal and professional relationships. Business and workplace interactions are influenced by cultural misunderstandings and the need for sensitivity to different backgrounds.
The Wave
Die Welle (The Wave, 2008). Plot: Based on a real-life experiment, a high school teacher demonstrates to his students how easily society can slip into autocracy. The project spirals out of control as students commit to the movement without fully understanding its implications. The film serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of commitment without adequate context. It contrasts the German value of careful deliberation with the risks of impulsive agreement.
Robert De Niro sells cars
Vulgar, but humorous.
Unfortunate Selling Techniques
In the children’s book series, A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket (the pen name of American Daniel Handler), three recently orphaned children are initially placed in the custody of Mr. Poe, the banker who is in charge of the large fortune that they will inherit when Violet, the eldest, comes of age. Mr. Poe soon finds a distant relative who is willing to adopt the orphans, and the children move in with Count Olaf, their third/fourth cousin several times removed.
As it turns out, Count Olaf is not interested in raising the orphans, but only in stealing their parents’ fortune. After his first failed attempt to steal it, he has to go on the run to avoid the police, and the children are sent to live with a different relative.
Undeterred, Count Olaf will attempt to steal the orphans’ fortune multiple times over the course of the next several books, each time masquerading as a respectable member of the local community. In the first book, he is a count, in the second, he pretends to be a herpetological assistant, in the third, a retired captain, and so on.
Every time that the children discover one of Count Olaf’s disguises, they attempt to elicit the help of their legal guardian and/or the banker Mr. Poe. Even though the orphans point out mistakes in the count’s disguises, Count Olaf is so skilled at selling himself that the adults ignore the mistakes and contradictions in his product (his disguises) until they become extremely obvious.
“Sell me this pen”
At some point during the life of every American they hear the figure of speech: “You sell yourself first, then your product or service.” The presenter needs initially to get the audience to accept them as interesting, motivated, experienced, as a person with expertise, worth listening to.
This is Leonardo DiCaprio in the 2013 Martin Scorsese-film Wolf of Wall Street.
It is the initial hurdle the presenter needs to overcome, the first yes to be gained. The audience needs to be convinced of the messenger before being convinced by the message. Otherwise audiences ask themselves “If the presenter isn’t convinced of himself, why should I be convinced?”
In amazon.com there are 226 results when searching for “sell yourself first.” On YouTube 37,900 videos are found. The bookstore chain Barnes and Nobles sells 24 books related to “sell yourself first” with titles such as:
Invisible to Remarkable: In Today’s Job Market, You Need to Sell Yourself as ‘Talent’, Not Just Someone Looking for Work…, Good in a Room: How to Sell Yourself (and Your Ideas) and Win Over Any Audience…, or The One Minute Sales Person: The Quickest Way to Sell People on Yourself, Your Services, Products, or Ideas—at Work and in Life.
“Make an Englishman shit”
This is also a reason why it is anecdotes, if well told and timed, are enormously persuasive in the American cultural context. For Americans anecdotes are empirical. They are reality experienced, the opposite of theory, which is often seen as abstract and unrealistic, separated from reality.
An anecdote says: “I know what I’m talking about. I was there. I saw it with my own eyes. This is no theory, it’s reality!” Any American politician, for example, speaking in their legislative district or in the media about a difficult issue, such as the war in Iraq, will come across as especially convincing if they can claim to have visited that region.
Like aphorisms, anecdotes transport deeper-lying wisdom. Isn’t that what the Bible – Old and New Testament – does via one story after the other, communicate the deepest-felt, and therefore most complex, beliefs of a people, of Jews and Christians?
Isn’t story-telling the highest, the most sophisticated, form of activating (speaking to) the human imagination? Truly persuasive communicators in the U.S. plan very carefully when they draw on anecdotes. This is why we all listen so carefully when our grandparents tell their stories. They have the years of human experience.
The historians are in agreement. That Abraham Lincoln was the most masterful storytellers in American history. It has been written that he could hold audiences for up to four hours at a time.