Germany

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A chef discovers that the old saw “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach” works for women as well in this romantic comedy from Germany. Gregor (Josef Ostendorf) is a gourmet chef who runs a small but highly regarded restaurant in Berlin. Gregor believes that food can awaken the erotic impulses and he revels in the sensual pleasures of his cooking; however, he hasn’t had much luck in finding someone to share the joy of cooking with him. One night, Gregor meets Eden (Charlotte Roche), a woman who works as a waitress at a nearby resort hotel, and he’s immediately smitten. However, Gregor soon discovers that Eden is married to Xaver (Devid Striesow), an older man who teaches dancercise to the elderly, and they have a young daughter with Down’s syndrome.Read More »

Suddenly appearing in Florence, an evil seductress causes Cesare, the city’s ruler, and his son to both fall madly in love with her. The son, killing his father before an order to torture the woman can be carried out, then turns the city’s churches into dens of sexual debauchery. Acts of evil and corruption continue unabated until the arrival of Death, who brings with her a horrible plague which she is about to loose upon the city. Written by Doug SederbergRead More »

“The Tailor from Ulm was the last of Edgar Reitz’ pre-Heimat features and a far cry from Lust for Love in terms of style and setting. It was a biopic of Albrecht Ludwig Berbinger, who had created a flying contraption in the early nineteenth century akin to a hang glider. Handsomely mounted, The Tailor from Ulm recreates both the age and those contraptions exceedingly well; the budget is all up there on the screen. And the film itself is an engaging one, though far more conventional than the works which had preceded it. Nonetheless, audiences weren’t particularly interested and it came close to bankrupting both its director and his production company. As a result he took some time away from filmmaking to research his homeland – his Heimat – eventually returning with his masterpiece six years later. Perhaps Berbinger was the wrong subject for Reitz. In retrospect you’d imagine that his compatriot Werner Herzog would have done much more with this driven figure from their country’s past. “Read More »

Zero Hour (German: Stunde Null) is a 1977 West German drama film directed by Edgar Reitz, starring Kai Taschner and Anette Jünger. The narrative is set in the summer of 1945 in a small village outside Leipzig, where the Americans have just pulled back and been replaced by Soviet troops. The film follows the inhabitants as they adjust to the new situation, in particular Joschi, a teenage Hitler Youth member who is fascinated by the Americans.Read More »

Synopsis:
‘[An accidental detective] begins to investigate the death of an attractive woman whose naked body was found in Beverly Hills. When he recovers her journal, he is taken into her past where he finds that she lead a sexually promiscuous life. Perhaps in the pages of the diary will be a clue to her killer’s identity.’
– Kristie Hassen [Edited for inaccuracies]Read More »

Synopsis
In 1923 a Japanese comes to Munich and immediately falls in love with a street artist with a red hat, without knowing her past is. She turns to the Japanese, for the first time she thinks she has found her really great love- exotic stranger attracts her. They say a lot, but they do not understand each other – but they can show their love. Nevertheless, the relationship is doomed to failure from the beginning. Disappointment, death and loss.Read More »

Synopsis
After a 13-year-old student disappears without a trace for a week and suddenly reappears, his mother and teachers are confronted with existential questions that change their whole view of life.Read More »

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At the end of the 1960s the post-war generation began to revolt against their parents. This was a generation disillusioned by anti-communist capitalism and a state apparatus in which they believed they saw fascist tendencies. This generation included journalist Ulrike Meinhof, lawyer Horst Mahler, filmmaker Holger Meins as well as students Gudrun Ensslin and Andreas Baader.Read More »

1933, the bosses of a large German chemical concern pave the way for Hitler’s rise to power: Thus begins the story line of the feature film Der Rat der Götter (The Council of the Gods), which deals with the history of I.G. Farben. The film adheres throughout to the Communist theory of fascism. Hitler is largely unidimensional: a creature of capital. Thus the story continues: While the directors assist Germany’s military buildup, they continue to cultivate their business dealings with the U.S. company Standard Oil in order to have joint control of the world market.Read More »