German

Quote:
Albrecht Froben, though married to Octavia, falls in love with his neighbor, Äls Flodéen. She, however, is slowly dying from a debilitating disease. During an epidemic, Albrecht goes to bring her daughter to safety but he catches typhoid and is quarantined in hospital. Octavia, realising the love match, and hearing that Als is now bedridden and dying, dresses up as him and rides by her gates every day to keep her spirits up – her bed is next to the window. Albrecht returns. Äls has a dream in which she talks to her projection of Albrecht and concludes that she does not wish to take part in this union and accepts death. Albrecht is reconciled with his wife.Read More »

Quote:
The topic of the film is Alois Brummer, a likeable and inoffensive man from Lower Bavaria, a sex film producer. A man, small and round in stature, unusually active, with a nose for the market, dealing in films and girls in his own special manner in Bavaria – as another man would deal in used cars. There are worse things in our market-oriented society and in film as well. The film describes a forgotten or neglected form of triviality.Read More »

Synopsis:
Sebastian and Alex are two egocentric yuppies who stockpile underhanded up-skirt shots and bully others for their own amusement. On a night out they come across an inebriated man passed-out on a park bench and decide to prank him by smuggling him across the border.Read More »

Quote:
After a night of partying in a mansion with a swimming pool, teenager Tina starts to experience weird things. She hallucinates a violent deja-vu, and hears discomforting sounds. At home she is haunted by a mysterious creature that only she can see. The film suggest several explanations for her visions. Is she overly tense? Psychotic? Drugged? Jealous? Her parents and friends seem to think she is going through a phase. Tina is convinced that the creature is for real, and she starts identifying with in a way that prompts her parents to take drastic measures on her behalf.Read More »

The third of Daniel Eisenberg’s thematically connected film essays about postwar Europe, PERSISTENCE, an award-winning feature-length experimental documentary in gorgeous color, once again explores the relationships between past, present and future in a complex portrait of the city of Berlin (divided from 1961 to 1989 by the grandiose Berlin Wall). The film was shot through the period of unification in 1991-92 and edited together with films by U.S. Army cameramen (1945-46) obtained from the Department of Defense archives. Read More »

Kathi wants to make it as an actress in Berlin but she’s not particularly successful. She’s just the opposite of her control freak mother Chris, who is very successful at undermining Kathi’s attempts at independence.
When Kathi has to leave her 4-year-old son for a short while, Chris seizes the moment and takes her daughter’s child away.
To make matters worse, Kathi’s father Wolfgang suddenly appears because he wants to win back his ex-wife. Kathi finds herself caught between her parents. Wolfgang keeps reminding the two of them of the past until mother and daughter can no longer suppress their conflict. Kathi finally manages to confront her mother.Read More »

Synopsis (courtesy of Rovi):
Seventeen and Anxious was also released as O Happy Day. The film’s alternate title is a reference to a popular gospel song, which is performed often in the course of the action. The film’s official title alludes to the coming of age experienced by its youthful protagonists. The younger actors are green but eager to please, while the veterans in the supporting cast-including Nadja Tiller and Karl Michael Vogler-help make the film palatable for those among us not politely inclined to nervous teenagers. The film’s R rating is admittedly necessary, but should not suggest that the film is overtly offensive. Read More »

A “Three Movie Buffs” review:
This early Fassbinder film tells the story of two very different women, both friends, in a small German town. One is Berta an innocent maid and virgin who falls hopelessly in love with Karl, the first man she has sex with. The other woman is Alma the town slut. She is sleeping her way through all the soldiers (or pioneers as they are called) that are in town to build a bridge.Read More »

a review from the New York Times by Stephen Holden:
Quote:
In the opening moments of “Taiga,” a mesmerizing eight-hour journey into the nomadic tribal culture of northern Mongolia, the camera makes a slow 360-degree panning shot across the magnificent desolation of the Darkhad Valley, a remote steppe ringed by snowcapped mountains. The only sounds to be heard are wind, running water, bird calls and the moans of grazing herds of yak, sheep and goats.Read More »