German

  • Monika Treut – Die Jungfrauenmaschine AKA Virgin Machine (1988)

    1981-1990CultDramaGermanyMonika TreutQueer Cinema(s)

    synopsis
    Dorothee, a would-be writer and journalist, leaves Germany for the Oz of San Francisco, searching for her long-lost mother and a cure for the malady of love. Installed in the Tenderloin, she peeps in on neighbors’ bizarre sex rituals as well as does sightseeing of the more traditional kind. But encounters with male impersonator Ramona, charming Hungarian bohemian Dominique, and Susie Sexpert, barker for an all-girl strip show, lead to exploratory adventures of self-discovery and fun. When Dorothy surfaces like a dazzled tourist on the wilder shores of the city’s lesbian community, she has discovered her true sexuality. . . . and left some illusions behind.Read More »

  • Ulrike Ottinger – Bildnis einer Trinkerin aka Ticket of no Return (1979)

    1971-1980ArthouseGermanyQueer Cinema(s)Ulrike Ottinger

    She purchased a ticket of no return to Berlin-Tegel. She wanted to forget her past, or rather to abandon it like a condemned house. She wanted to concentrate all her energies on one thing, something all her own. To follow her own destiny at last was her only desire. Berlin, a city in which she was a complete stranger, seemed just the place to indulge her passion undisturbed. Her passion was alcohol, she lived to drink and drank to live, the life of a drunkard. Her resolve to live out a narcissistic, pessimistic cult of solitude strengthened during her flight until it reached the level at which it could be lived. The time was ripe to put her plans into action.Read More »

  • Philipp Döring – Nagel zum Sarg aka The Nail (2012)

    2011-2020DramaGermanyPhilipp DöringShort Film

    The film is set in Berlin in 1965. Τhe old woman welcomes the Commissioner at her doorstep with the words “I have been waiting for you for 30 years”. She has been maintaining for years the grave, where now by accident, this skull was found. The skull, has a rusty nail in it. In a long monologue, the woman confesses for the first time, her tragic life story.Read More »

  • Pipilotti Rist – Pepperminta (2009)

    2001-2010ExperimentalPerformancePipilotti RistSwitzerland

    Pepperminta is an anarchist of the imagination. She lives in a futuristic rainbow villa and according to her own rules. Colors are the young woman’s best friends and strawberries are her pets. She knows the most amazing remedies to free people of their fears. Pepperminta’s wish is for everyone to see the world in her favorite colors. Werwen , a young plump and shy man yet whose sex appeal Pepperminta finds highly attractive, and the beautiful Edna, who talks to tulips, join her on her passionate mission. These three musketeers of a different kind set out to fight for a more humane world. Wherever the gang appears, everything is turned upside down and people’s lives are transformed in the most miraculous and wondrous of ways.Read More »

  • Claus Bredenbrock – Pier Paolo Pasolinis Reisen durch Italien AKA Pier Paolo Pasolini: An Italian Journey (2018)

    2011-2020Claus BredenbrockDocumentaryGermanyPier Paolo Pasolini

    The documentary retraces Pier Paolo Pasolini’s journey along the coast of Italy in 1959. His reportage was published on the magazine “Successo” alongside the pictures of photographer Paolo di Paolo, who had the original idea of the trip.Read More »

  • Claude Lanzmann – Les quatre soeurs – La Puce joyeuse, Ada Lichtman (2017)

    2011-2020Claude LanzmannDocumentaryFrance

    From MUBI:
    Four Sisters, a quartet of Lanzmann documentaries that recently premiered at the New York Film Festival, avoids many of the pitfalls of the often-irascible documentarian’s lesser films by dint of its remarkable self-effacement. Devoted to the frequently jaw-dropping stories of four women who survived the Holocaust, the films—The Hippocratic Oath, Baluty, The Merry Flea, and Noah’s Ark— confirm that filmed oral history is Lanzmann’s métier. This seems particularly noteworthy in an era where the macro-historical approach of scholars such as Timothy Snyder has become embraced as the best conceptual tool for defining and explicating the Holocaust. Read More »

  • Chris Kraus – Scherbentanz AKA Shattered Glass (2002)

    2001-2010Chris KrausDramaGermany

    Plot:
    Written and directed by newcomer Chris Kraus, this German art-house family drama centers around the eccentric Jesko (Jürgen Vogel), who, despite his debilitating condition, – he is dying of cancer and only his mother’s bone-marrow could save him – makes a visit to his father, Gebhard (Dietrich Hollinderbaumer), and brother, Ansgar (Peter Davor), on the day that Ansgar is scheduled to take over the family company. What Jesko doesn´t know, is that his mother, who went insane 20 years ago, ran away and got drug addicted, was found and brought back.
    Interesting plot, beautiful photography, well-written dialogue, well-developed characters.Read More »

  • Hans-Christian Schmid – Crazy (2000)

    1991-2000ArthouseDramaGermanyHans-Christian Schmid

    On his fifth attempt at boarding school, young Benni has one last
    chance to prove to his parents he can function in the academic world, and, most importantly, pass math. But Benni has other concerns; he is partially paralyzed and struggling with typical teenage issues – making friends, falling in love and having sex. When his mother decides to move him to yet another school, Benni must decide whether to make a stand for what truly matters to him. Based on an autobiographical novel by Benjamin Lebert, Crazy has earned Schmid great praise for its honest portrait of teenage life.Read More »

  • Ruth Beckermann – Waldheims Walzer AKA The Waldheim Waltz (2018)

    2011-2020AustriaDocumentaryPoliticsRuth Beckermann

    A film about truth and lies or “alternative facts”. About individual and collective consciousness.  

    “Waldheim no, Waldheim no” shouts a crowd in the center of Vienna in 1986. Ruth Beckermann was one of the activists trying to prevent the election of Kurt Waldheim and documented the political events with her camera. More than 30 years later she goes back into her own archive and additionally uses international TV-material to analyse this turning point in Austrian political culture. Read More »

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