Douglas Sirk

  • Douglas Sirk – A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1958)

    Douglas Sirk1951-1960DramaRomanceUSA
    A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1958)
    A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1958)

    On the Russian front in 1944 German Private Ernst Graeber receives a leave and visits his family in Germany but Germany isn’t the same country he left behind.Read More »

  • Douglas Sirk – Hitler’s Madman (1943)

    Douglas Sirk1941-1950DramaUSAWar
    Hitler's Madman (1943)
    Hitler’s Madman (1943)

    Synopsis:
    Somewhat fictionalized account of the destruction of the village of Lidice in Czechoslovakia and the events leading up to it. In 1942, the Allies parachuted a Czech resistance fighter into the area. He quickly reunites with his former girlfriend and many of the villagers who knew him from before the war. The Nazis are evil however and under the command of Reinhardt Heydrich rule the country with an iron fist, arbitrarily arresting innocents and charging them with fictitious crimes. When Heydrich is severely wounded in a roadside attack – he dies three days later – Henrich Himmler orders the destruction of Lidice. The men are herded into a church which is set aflame and the women are sent to concentration camps. The town itself is leveled.Read More »

  • Douglas Sirk – Sign of the Pagan (1954)

    1951-1960Douglas SirkEpicUSA

    Roman centurion Marcian is captured by Attila the Hun en route to Constantinople, but escapes. On arrival, he finds the eastern Roman emperor Theodosius plotting with Attila to look the other way while the latter marches against Rome. But Marcian gains the favor of Pulcheria, lovely sister of Theodosius, who favors a united Empire. As Attila marches, things look bleak for the weakened imperial forces. But the conqueror has an awe of the power of the Christians’ God…Read More »

  • Douglas Sirk – Zwei Windhunde AKA Zwei Genies (1934)

    Comedy1931-1940Douglas SirkGermanyShort FilmThird Reich Cinema

    An early short film by Douglas Sirk (Detlef Sierck) which takes a satirical look at dubious business practices during the Weimar Republic. It was banned under the title “Zwei Genies” but released as “Zwei Windhunde” after revisions were madeRead More »

  • Douglas Sirk – Schlußakkord AKA The Final Chord (1936)

    1931-1940ClassicsDouglas SirkDramaGermanyThird Reich Cinema

    Plot:
    A young, impoverished German woman named Hanna (Maria von Tasnady) gives her infant up for adoption and emigrates to American to live with her husband. When her husband commits suicide, Hanna returns to Germany and works her way into becoming the live-in maid and nurse to her child being raised by an orchestra conductor and his wife.Read More »

  • Hans Schönherr & Douglas Sirk & Tilman Taube – Bourbon Street Blues (1979)

    Douglas Sirk1971-1980DramaGermanyHans SchönherrTilman Taube

    At the end of 1970, the Filmmuseum in the City Museum of Munich showed a small Sirk retrospective (six productions from All That Heaven Allows to Imitation of Life). Fassbinder watched all of the films in this showcase and was deeply moved: “That really breaks you up in the movie theater. You understand something about the world and what it is doing to you.” This cinematic experience must have been a revelation for him. He described his impressions vividly in an extensive essay, and came to the conclusion: “I have seen six films by Douglas Sirk. Among them are the finest films in the world.” The young filmmaker went to visit the Hollywood veteran, who was now living in the Swiss canton of Ticino. And when the almost eighty-year-old director was teaching at the Munich Academy of Television and Film (HFF/M), Fassbinder took on one of the parts in an academic production that Sirk was supervising. (He played in Bourbon Street Blues, the film adaptation of a one-act play by the well-known writer Tennessee Williams). Sirk’s work experienced a renaissance, not least of all thanks to Fassbinder’s essay, but the influence Sirk exerted on him has nevertheless been somewhat exaggerated.Read More »

  • Douglas Sirk and Hajo Gies – Sprich zu mir wie der Regen AKA Talk to Me Like the Rain (1976)

    1971-1980Douglas SirkDramaGermanyHajo Gies

    Encouraged by Fassbinder, with whom he became friendly after the then-enfant terrible of the German cinema visited him in Lugano, Sirk also did some teaching during the late 1970s at the film school in Munich, where he made three short films with his students. Sprich zu mir wie der Regen was the first of these films supervised by Sirk.Read More »

  • Douglas Sirk – Taza, Son of Cochise (1954)

    1951-1960Douglas SirkDramaUSAWestern

    Quote:
    Three years after the end of the Apache wars, peacemaking chief Cochise dies. His elder son Taza shares his ideas, but brother Naiche yearns for war…and for Taza’s betrothed, Oona. Naiche loses no time in starting trouble which, thanks to a bigoted cavalry officer, ends with the proud Chiricahua Apaches on a reservation, where they are soon joined by the captured renegade Geronimo, who is all it takes to light the firecracker’s fuse…Read More »

  • Douglas Sirk – Thunder on the Hill (1951)

    1951-1960CrimeDouglas SirkDramaUSA

    Synopsis:
    A convicted murderer is being transported to Norwich for execution when a flood strands her and her guards at a convent hospital. During her stay, a nun becomes convinced of her innocence and sets out to find the real killer.Read More »

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