Thomas Brasch lived many lives: he was a writer and a worker; a rebel, protesting the oppression in the East Germany; a controversial figure in West Germany; and an internationally renowned filmmaker. And that was “just“ his real life – in his head there were so many more lives … With an impressive ensemble, including a tour de force by Albrecht Schuch, and mesmerizing black-and-white cinematography, director Kleinert crafts an inventive, breathless portrait of a complex character.Read More »
Quote:
One of the most controversial productions by the late German writer-director Rainer Werner Fassbinder was his stage play The Garbage, the City and Death; when he sought to film the play in Germany, Fassbinder was denied state funds on the basis of a charge of anti-Semitic content. Swiss filmmaker Daniel Schmid, a film-school colleague and longtime friend of Fassbinder’s, undertook the project in 1976, employing Fassbinder’s now-familiar repertory company including Fassbinder and his then-wife Ingrid Caven. Set amid the Frankfurt lowlife–prostitutes, pimps, sadistic police and perverted businessmen–the story concerns a streetwalker (Caven) who is reportedly too chic for her own good and can’t make a go of it among her only available clientele. She is brutalized by her pimp (portrayed by a very slim Fassbinder), who continues to send her out on the streets while he indulges his preference for men. Luck comes her way in the form of a Jewish businessman (Klaus Lowitsch); he hires her only to listen to him talk and, occasionally, pose as his bride in the murky nocturnal street scene.Read More »
Super Robot Mach Baron is the 1974 sequel TV series to Super Robot Red Baron and this sequel to the Red Baron.Read More »
Africa, … Land of the infinite sun, of curly hair and the smell of diesel oil. German soldiers on a mission from the United Nations. For General Werner Brenner (Udo Kier), a dream comes true: the new crematorium, the multicultural children’s playground and, above all, the old V2-Rocket from the Führer! Here, where people are still “crude and simple”, every German can display his abilities! But after a couple of days, Brenner’s unbreakable optimism starts to crumble…Read More »
Synopsis:
Alfred and Lisa – he a car mechanic, she a nurse – live in a tiny old apartment in Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg district. After two years of marriage, they seem to have nothing more to say to each other. Divorce proceedings have been initiated. Alfred takes a few days off, lives aimlessly into the day and yet is looking for something out of the ordinary. Lisa doesn’t quite understand Alfred’s request for divorce, but doesn’t fight to preserve the marriage. Alfred’s vacation also becomes too monotonous, so he would rather work for free in his auto repair shop than be bored. There, the head of the squad morally reproaches him for his failed marriage. The film leaves open whether Alfred and Lisa find their way back to each other.Read More »
An African-American GI goes to Berlin and faces prejudice.
An African-American GI retires from the US Army in West Berlin to live with his (white) girlfriend, who already has a baby with another black man. After an argument with her family, she deserts him as well. Despite finding a job and a new place to live, he keeps running into racism, which also manifests itself in sexual intimidation.Read More »
Oskar Roehler was born in 1959, the son of writers Gisela Elsner and Klaus Roehler. He grew up in London, Rome and Nuremberg and made his first short film She LA in 1994. He had his feature debut in 1995 with Gentleman, which was shown at the Munich Filmfest the same year.
Frank Seltsam likes fast cars good looking girls and expensive drugs. but lately more and more doesn’t work out the way he wants anymore: his car was taken in by the police, in the shoping center there are no more wonderbras and germaine – the girl he fancies – comes with some other man to his party. his frustration turns into an orgie of blood champaign and heroin…Read More »
Synopsis:
As the title “The Queen’s Heart” suggests, this early German black and white version of Mary Queen of Scott’s eventful reign and death focuses on her emotional perception rather lyrically, with some songs, mainly by her. Starting in the Tower, awaiting and receiving her sentence to the ax from the English court, where Elisabeth I chose to remain absent in person, we flash back to Mary’s arrival after a long exile at the sophisticated, splendidly hedonistic French royal court, where she was raised as a Catholic, in her people’s eyes effeminate or even depraved, elegant pleasure-accustomed lady, at utter odds with the stern Scottish protestantism of John Knox as well as England’s Anglicanism.Read More »
The Tyrolean mountain farmer’s son Franz loves the beautiful Sanna. A hunter who is also interested in her catches Franz poaching, shoots him and leaves him alone. On the run, he falls fatally into a crevasse. When Franz returns home badly injured, he is believed to be the murderer of the missing hunter. Although he is acquitted in court for lack of evidence, the village community turns their backs on him. Only Sanna sticks by him. Years later, their children get lost in the mountains at Christmas time and come across the hunter’s body, unharmed from gunshot wounds. So Franz is finally rehabilitated.Read More »