Annemarie Düringer

Count Five and Die is a neat British-made programmer set just before the D-Day invasion. Nigel Patrick plays a British major who heads a group of special agents, dedicated to misleading the Nazis into thinking the invasion will take place in Holland. The Allied spies, which include American Jeffrey Hunter and Frenchwoman Annemarie Duringer operate under cover as the owners of a documentary filmmaking firm. The plan is nearly destroyed when one of the spies turns out to be a Nazi agent. The title Count Five and Die refers to the length of time its takes for the traditional cyanide capsules (always doled out to secret agents in films of this nature) to take effect.Read More »

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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 »

Probably Früh’s most unique work: an elliptical sort-of-biopic about Karl Tellenbach, a barber from Bern, who was known in the whole city for his strange, unhinged jokes. Also, a dark, desperate film about alcoholism and loneliness. In a way, DÄLLEBACH KARI sees an old master discovering modernism – indeed, today the film is thought of as an important part of the New Swiss Cinema. At the same time, the film might be seen as a reflection of Früh’s own personal and artistic struggles.Read More »