German

  • Michael Glawogger – Contact High (2009)

    Michael Glawogger2001-2010AustriaComedy

    Quote:
    A handful of lackadaisical crooks are on a wild goose chase across Europe in this comedy. Carlos (Jeremy Strong) is an underworld kingpin who has lost a leather shoulder bag while traveling through Poland and wants it back, the sooner the better. Carlos orders one of his underlings, Harry (Detlev Buck), to find it, but Harry is too busy with his sexual fantasies about the good looking blonde that works at his car repair shop, so he calls up Schorsch (Georg Friedrich), a second-rate thief who resembles a down-market version of Edgar Winter, and hands the assignment over to him. Schorsch is ambivalent about the request, and tries to pass it along to Mao (Pia Hierzegger), who is the first person down this chain of criminal slackers who has a good reason for not looking for the bag — she’s busy looking after her daughter. The search for the bag finally falls to Max (Michael Ostrowski) and Hans (Raimund Wallisch), two guys who run a hot dog stand; Max also sells drugs on the side, while lightweight Hans gets high of the fumes from Max’s marijuana and eats a large percentage of their wares.Read More »

  • Carmen Losmann – Oeconomia (2020)

    2011-2020Carmen LosmannDocumentaryGermanyPolitics

    Quote:
    Ex Scientia pecuniae libertas – From the knowledge of money comes liberty

    Our economic system has made itself invisible and eludes understanding. In recent years, we have often had little more than a diffuse and unsatisfactory feeling that something is going wrong. But what? Beyond the distanced phrases of media coverage, which ultimately make it impossible to grasp the monstrous logic behind the basic structures of our everyday lives, OECONOMIA sets out with great perspicacity and lucid stringency to break things down to the simple rules, to illuminate the capitalism of the present. A zero-sum game is discernible, a game that places us and our entire world in the logic of an endlessly perpetual increase in capital – no matter how great the cost.Read More »

  • Wim Wenders – Alabama (2000 Light Years) (1969)

    1961-1970GermanyShort FilmWim Wenders

    Synopsis
    Because the driver is unable to fulfill correctly his order to kill somebody, he and his friends have to pay the price. “Alabama” is a road-movie. The camera is constantly in the back of the car shooting through the back window… But more important than this story is how the song “All Along the Watchtower” by Bob Dylan is changing when it is interpreted by Jimi Hendrix. And the recurring album of the Stones “His Satanic Majesty’s Request”.
    Kurzfilmtage – international short film festival OberhausenRead More »

  • Michael Klier – Alter und Schönheit aka Age and Beauty (2009)

    2001-2010ArthouseDramaGermanyMichael Klier

    An ill man’s dying wish reunites four old friends. (IMDb)
    *
    Friends brought together by tragic circumstances discover how sad their own lives have become in this bittersweet comedy-drama from German filmmaker Michael Klier. Harry (Henry Hübchen), Justus (Burghart Klaussner) and Bernhard (Armin Rohde) were close when they were young but haven’t seen each other in many years. However, they meet for the first time in decades when they learn another member of their circle, Manni (Peter Lohmeyer), has fallen ill and has only a short time to live. Manni has done well for himself and has a fine house with a pool as well as a vintage Ferrari, but as his life draws to a close he wants to spend time with his pals and asks them to help him with his one nagging regret. Manni used to date a beautiful girl named Rosi (Sibylle Canonica), but he treated her badly and she left him; all these years later, Manni asks his pals to find her so he can apologize and beg her forgiveness.Read More »

  • Gerd Kroske & Andreas Voigt – Leipzig im Herbst AKA Leipzig in Autumn (1990)

    1981-1990Andreas VoigtDocumentaryGerd KroskeGermanyPolitics

    The most comprehensive documentation of events surrounding the 1989 Monday demonstrations in Leipzig, East Germany. The film team finally got the permission of the state-owned film studio to document these historic events on October 16, 1989 and filmed until the fall of the Berlin Wall. With their heavy 35mm camera equipment, they were the only professional team filming in Leipzig. The film includes interviews with demonstrators, members of the citizens’ rights movement, officials and bystanders in East Germany’s peaceful revolution.Read More »

  • Kurt Hoffmann – Ich denke oft an Piroschka AKA I Often Think of Piroschka (1955)

    Comedy1951-1960GermanyKurt HoffmannRomance

    Quote:
    Andreas, a young German student comes to Hungary on an exchange programme. In the Hungarian village he falls in love with the stationmaster’s daughter Piroschka and spends much of his time with her. They have an enchanting summer until Andreas gets an invitation to join another young woman at a nearby resort. Piroschka is jealous and follows him there, causing trouble. It takes a long time for Andreas and Piroschka to even talk to each other again. When Andreas has to leave Hungary at the end of his holiday, he is determined to return some day.Read More »

  • Fred Kelemen – Abendland AKA Nightfall (1999)

    1991-2000ArthouseDramaFred KelemenGermany

    Synopsis
    A largely plotless, fado-scored journey through the gloomy cobblestone streets, zombie bars, and fetid basements of a sordid harbor town populated by German-speaking sots and Portuguese guest workers, Nightfall is Kelemen’s most polished despair-fest. An unhappy young couple, Leni and Anton, quarrel and split separately into the rat’s ass of the evening. Everyone is looking for love, but no one finds any—although Leni does pick up a trick. With perfect bad timing, Anton wanders by the parked car where she is engaged, and in a frenzy of depression, carves her name on his knuckles. A sympathetic hooker bandages his hand and even gets him to dance before she lets her wig slip and passes out on the bar. Then it’s on through an after-hours club of sodden depravity to the bleary dawn.Read More »

  • Urs Odermatt – Mein Kampf (2009)

    2001-2010AustriaComedyUrs Odermatt

    The young, despotic and untalented artist Adolf Hitler comes to Vienna to study art. He befriends the Jew Schlomo Herzl working on a novel with the title “Mein Kampf”. Hitler is rejected by the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. Herzl’s concern for the sad young man continues, and leads him to a new career with disastrous consequences for world history.Read More »

  • Gerd Kroske – Vokzal – Bahnhof Brest (1994)

    Documentary1991-2000Gerd KroskeGermany

    History and stories of Brest station on the border between Poland and Belarus, 1941 starting point of the National Socialist war against the Soviet Union. An oppressive study, enriched with archive material, which reports with partly bizarre, partly moving snapshots of the disintegration of a society. Private and history are skillfully interwoven into a fascinating kaleidoscope. (Russian with German subtitles; TV and video title: “Bahnhof Brest”)Read More »

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