A European director is commissioned to make a documentary about Istanbul. He starts to film its everyday life – but soon becomes drawn to the darker, more mysterious side of the city – its past, its secrets, its ghosts. Gradually he succumbs to obsession. Read More »
Synopsis:
First part of two-film adaptation of Thea von Harbous novel “The Indian Tomb.” The focus of the elaborate adventure film is a dramatic love triangle: Chandra, the Maharajah of Eschnapur, lives happily with his wife Sitha. But Sithas former lovers Sascha from Germany in the palace arises, the revival of passion between the two
grounds for malicious intrigue. Prince Ramagani of secretly planning a coup d’etat, uses the occasion to the Maharajah of Sascha and Sitha raise. Both flee around
the world to Berlin, constantly haunted by Chandra and his entourage.Read More »
Synopsis:
Second and last part of the filming of Thea von Harbous Roman: After their daring escape from the jealous and the Maharajah Chandra intriguing Prince Ramagani reach Sitah the Maharani and her German lover Sascha back to India.
In the Palace of Eschnapur is the decisive confrontation between the main actors: Ramaganis coup attempt by Sascha and Sitah – given their lives for Chandra sacrifices – frustrated. Sascha Ramagani finally kills and is reconciled with the Maharajah.Read More »
After three short films, Roland Klick finally wanted to shoot a real feature-length film in 1966. It almost worked out with that. But then the production company Atlas Film went bankrupt during the shooting of Jimmy Orpheus. That’s why this 50-minute film isn’t Klick’s originally planned film, but only his torso. Jimmy Orpheus also clearly shows this. And it does the film astonishingly good! This is a similarly successful creative accident as Jean-Luc Godard’s feature film debut Breathless, which came to the cinemas six years earlier. It was finished, as planned by Godard, but should be shortened afterwards at the instigation of the producer. Thus Godard radically snipped away everything that was not absolutely necessary to understand the plot – and invented the jump cut in this way.Read More »
Stars: Sten Jacobs, Anna Altmann, Jaspar Fuld, Nina Splettstößer, Stephan Bürgi, Natascha Zimmermann, Felix Witzlau, Tobias Frieben, León Delor
A haunting portrait of a well-established German family living on the outskirts of Berlin in their ideal world, but are slowly shaken by external influences.
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The architect and head of the family Markus Larsen secretly lives out his bisexual tendencies while his wife Christine and their 11-year-old daughter Elisabeth drown in unbearable loneliness. When Markus gets to know the 12-year-old son of a colleague, he feels an immediate affection for the boy. Slowly, Markus begins to approach Johannes and creates an intimacy of which he increasingly loses control. While his wife and daughter are damagingly affected by their symbiotic relationship, Johannes is playing his own secret game which, in the end, leads to disaster for every family member.Read More »
Quote:
Rainer Werner Fassbinder visits for two weeks the “Theater der Welt” festival 1981 in Cologne. 30 companies showed in over 100 performances their own visions of a new theater. Framed by Fassbinders reading of one of the famoust essays on theater: Antonin Artauds “The Theater and its double”.Read More »
An indeterminate location, summer. The inhabitants of a shared apartment ask themselves where they might live. They imagine countries, communities, and places. Time passes and nothing can change that. At some point, they all drift into a deep sleep.
Mubi wrote:
We proudly continue our partnership with the New York Film Festival to bring you some of the best films directly from its Projections sidebar. First is up-and-coming German filmmaker Helena Wittmann’s sun-lit evocation of youths’ desire to travel, one that mysteriously breaks-up a group of friends.Read More »
In 1938 Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler sponsored an expedition to Tibet lead by several Nazi SS scientists to study the regions flora and fauna, and to take scientific measurements of the Earths magnetic fields. The expedition was also sent to find traces of the orgins of the “Aryan” race in Tibet which was where Himmler thought evidence of could be found. This film is a Nazi era documentary of that expedition.Read More »
Stories about workers determined to use their own initiative
On October 29, 1972, the first part of Fassbinder’s five-part family series flickered across West German TV screens. Over the next months, the public broadcaster ARD showed all five episodes, in each case on a Saturday evening in the prime-time slot: I. Jochen and Marion, (October 29, 1972), II. Grandma and Gregor (December 17, 1972), III. Franz and Ernst (January 2, 1973), IV. Harald and Monika (February 18, 1973), and V. Irmgard and Rolf (March 18, 1973). Ratings during this time ranged between 45 and 60%, figures comparable with those for the broadcaster’s top-rating crime series TATORT.Read More »