Germany

  • Edgar Reitz & Ula Stöckl – Geschichten vom Kübelkind AKA Tales Of The Dumpster Kid (1971)

    1971-1980Amos Vogel: Film as a Subversive ArtArthouseEdgar ReitzExperimentalGermanyUla Stöckl

    A woman screams, a newborn baby cries. A nurse leaves the hospital and dumps a bucketfull of slimy afterbirth into a bin.Moments later, Kubelkind (“Dumpster-kid”, an Austrian insult) emerges fully grown from the slime. “Frau Dr. Welfare”, a cold, upper middle-class do-gooder discovers Kubelkind in the dustbin and plans to “save” her. But such “polymorphous-perverse, infantile monsters” have no place in normal society….Read More »

  • Jean-Marie Straub – Nicht versöhnt oder Es hilft nur Gewalt wo Gewalt herrscht AKA Not Reconciled (1965)

    1961-1970ArthouseGermanyJean-Marie StraubShort Film

    JONATHAN ROSENBAUM:
    Quote:

    “Far from being a puzzle film (like Citizen Kane or Muriel), Not Reconciled is better described as a ‘lacunary film’, in the same sense that Littré defines a lacunary body: a whole composed of agglomerated crystals with intervals among them, like the interstitial spaces between the cells of an organism”. Jean-Marie Straub’s description of his second film and second Heinrich Böll adaptation (after Machorka-Muff) helps to explain why, although it has more plot than any of his other works — containing even more characters and intrigues than Othon — it is virtually impossible to paraphrase in the form of a synopsis. Read More »

  • Paul Leni – Das Tagebuch des Dr. Hart aka The Diary of Dr. Hart (1916)

    1911-1920DramaGermanyPaul LeniSilent

    “Dr. Robert Hart visits his friend Ursula von Hohenau in Saxony in July 1914. There he hears about the Austrian ultimatum to Serbia. He immediately returns to his home town where, just before mobilisation, he meets the Polish count Bransky and his daughter Jadwiga, the French Vicomte Latour and the Russian counsellor of embassy count Bronislaw Krascinsky. Bronislaw is madly in love with Jadwiga and jealous of Dr. Hart. After the outbreak of the war Dr. Hart works close to the Polish frontlines. Bronislaw leads the Russian troops in this area. When Bronislaw is wounded during a battle with the Germans Dr. Hart finds him and takes care of his wounds.”Read More »

  • Pola Beck – Am Himmel der Tag AKA Breaking Horizons (2012)

    2011-2020DramaGermanyPola Beck

    The 25-year-old Lara (Aylin Tezel) takes her studies in architecture not very seriously and spends her free time with her best friend Nora (Henrike of Kuick) in Techno clubs. She is surprised when she becomes pregnant from a one-night stand. Initially full of doubt, the young woman decides ultimately to get the child and draws new strength from it. But soon Lara’s fate takes a cruel twist.Read More »

  • Rosa von Praunheim – Der Einstein des Sex AKA The Einstein of Sex: Life and Work of Dr. M. Hirschfeld (1999)

    1991-2000DramaGermanyRosa von Praunheim

    The Einstein of Sex: Life and Work of Dr. M. Hirschfeld (German: Der Einstein des Sex) is a 1999 German film directed by Rosa von Praunheim. The plot follows the life of the Jewish doctor Magnus Hirschfeld who was a sexologist and gay socialist. In 1897, Hirschfeld founded the first political gay group in history.

    In the film three of Hirschfeld’s closest friends are portrayed: Baron Hermann von Teschenberg, Karl Giese and Dorchen (a transsexual). They establish the first Institut für Sexualwissenschaft in Berlin in 1919. They try to keep the institute open during the rise of the Third Reich in the early 1930s.Read More »

  • Johannes Schaaf – Traumstadt AKA Dream City (1973)

    1971-1980GermanyHorrorJohannes SchaafSci-Fi

    TRAUMSTADT concerns a remote town where people from all over can indulge in their wildest dreams. Per Oscarsson and Rosemarie Fendel play an unhappy couple who hope that a trip to this magic town will patch up their relationship. Instead, they find themselves fighting for their lives when several of the wackier fantasies get out of hand. Based on Albert Kubin’s novel The Other Side.Read More »

  • Veit Helmer – Tuvalu (1999)

    1991-2000ArthouseComedyGermanyVeit Helmer

    PLOT: Anton is a lowly, mistreated assistant at a bathhouse run by his blind father; he falls in love with Eva, the daughter of a sea captain. His real estate developer brother wants to tear down the bathhouse, and also seeks the hand of Eva. After a piece of rubble falls from the ceiling and kills Eva’s father while he’s swimming in the pool, an inspector gives the family a few weeks to bring it up to code or face demolition.Read More »

  • Ewald André Dupont – Das alte Gesetz AKA This Ancient Law [+extras] (1923)

    1921-1930DramaEwald André DupontGermanySilent

    Baruch Mayr, son of an orthodox rabbi from a poor shtetl in Galizia, decides to break with the family tradition and leave the shtetl to become an actor. Due to this behaviour his father bans him from his family. Baruch, who joined a small burlesque troupe is discovered by an Austrian Erzherzogin (archdutchess) who introduces him to the director of the most important Theater in Vienna, the Burgtheater. Baruch receives a contract there and becomes more and more an assimilated jew. Read More »

  • Ulrike Ottinger – Zwölf Stühle aka Twelve Chairs (2004)

    2001-2010ArthouseGermanyUlrike Ottinger

    Short Synopsis
    …Her son-in-law, Ippolit Matwejewitch Worobjaninow, is a former nobleman and a dandy who is currently wasting away as a small town magistrate in charge of civil marriages. He eagerly takes up the quest to find the treasure. Meanwhile, over the years, the twelve chairs have been dispersed all over the country. However, Worobjaninow is not the only one in pursuit of the treasure. Hot on its trail are Ostap Bender, a clever and colorful conman, as well as Father Fjodor, a priest to whom the wealthy aristocrat has also confessed her secret. Thus begins a wild chase that ranges from North to South, West to East, across water and land, from the country to the city.Read More »

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