Gems of German Cinema
After moving to Germany I've been delving into the world of domestic cinema to learn more about the country's history, language and culture. Many of my recommendations might have their technical or artistic flaws, but their other qualities overrule these shortcomings. First and foremost, these films have shaken, thrilled, confused, and amused me, and I wish they'll do the same for you.
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- DirectorSebastian PetersonStarsDaniel BorgwardtXenia SnagowskiAdrian HeidenreichHeroes Like Us presents as heroes ordinary teenagers and young East German adults, who in Thomas Brussig's (the novel and screenplay author) story, caused the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Our young hero falls in love, from an early age, with a girl whose family is not in good standing with the ruling Communist party. Our hero's father, however, is a member of the "Stasi", the secret state police. The father not only hinders his son's relationship with the girl, but he arranges for his son, after finishing school, to become a Stasi spy himself. The absurdities of everyday life in the former German "Democratic" Republic are comically (sometimes tragically) are exposed throughout the film.A satirical coming-of-age story of a boy growing up in the later years of GDR, and ending up working for the Stasi until the German reunification. Awkward, absurd, touching and funny – it is beyond me why it's so often overlooked on lists and rated low on the database.
- DirectorLeander HaußmannStarsAlexander ScheerAlexander BeyerRobert StadloberA group of kids grows up on the east side of the Sonnenallee in Berlin, right next to one of the few border crossings between East and West Germany. The antics of the people on Sonnenallee all show the absurdity of their everyday life.A light-hearted, nostalgic and groovy comedy film about rebellious rock 'n' roll teenagers in the GDR in the late seventies.
- DirectorDavid WnendtStarsCarla JuriChristoph LetkowskiMarlen KruseThe adventures of an eccentric girl who has strange attitudes towards hygiene and sexuality longs for the reunion of her divorced parents.A fun, weird movie that's a lot more tame than people claim it to be.
- DirectorAkizStarsCarolyn GenzkowSina TkotschWilson GonzalezAfter attending a rave party, a teenage girl forms a bond with a strange monster as she suffers a slow chaotic mental breakdown.A teenager horror movie that leaves the viewer with multiple interpretations on what's actually real – thematically sort of reminded me of Polanski's classic, "The Tenant."
- DirectorWolfgang PetersenStarsJürgen ProchnowHerbert GrönemeyerKlaus WennemannA German U-boat stalks the frigid waters of the North Atlantic as its young crew experience the sheer terror and claustrophobic life of a submariner in World War II.Considering how little actual action is in this film, it's ironic that it still manages to be one of the best war movies I've ever seen. Watching a bunch of bearded men wrecking their nerves deep below the sea level has never been this thrilling.
- DirectorUlli LommelStarsKurt RaabJeff RodenMargit CarstensenUsing his status as a police informant to procure his victims, baby-faced, shaven-headed Fritz Haarmann dismembers their bodies after death and sells the flesh to restaurants, dumping the remainder out of sight.A genuinely unnerving and startling film based on a true story of a homosexual serial killer in early 20th century Germany.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsKlaus KinskiEva MattesWolfgang ReichmannFranz Woyzeck is a hapless, hopeless soldier, alone and powerless in society, assaulted from all sides by forces he can not control.Klaus Kinski and Werner Herzog depict with painful dedication the predicaments of a mentally and physically strained soldier.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsKlaus KinskiIsabelle AdjaniBruno GanzCount Dracula moves from Transylvania to Wismar, spreading the Black Plague across the land. Only a woman pure of heart can bring an end to his reign of horror.An excellent, feverish and disorienting take on a classic.
- DirectorRobert WieneStarsWerner KraussConrad VeidtFriedrich FeherHypnotist Dr. Caligari uses a somnambulist, Cesare, to commit murders.A wonderful, fantastic horror film that lives well up to its reputation.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsBrigitte HelmAlfred AbelGustav FröhlichIn a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city's mastermind falls in love with a working-class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.A futuristic love story of struggling workers in the midst of an eerie, dystopian city, where humans are reduced to mere cogwheels in the machinery.
- DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsMax SchreckAlexander GranachGustav von WangenheimVampire Count Orlok expresses interest in a new residence and real estate agent Hutter's wife.The ultimative vampire film with unparalleled atmosphere.
- DirectorFlorian Henckel von DonnersmarckStarsUlrich MüheMartina GedeckSebastian KochIn 1984 East Berlin, an agent of the secret police conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsPeter LorreEllen WidmannInge LandgutWhen the police in a German city are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt.A thrilling serial killer flick, based on the same events that inspired the film "Die Zärtlichkeit der Wölfe" (1973). What this movie spares in gory details it gains with the painful devotion of the actor Peter Lorre.
- DirectorOliver HirschbiegelStarsBruno GanzAlexandra Maria LaraUlrich MatthesTraudl Junge, the final secretary for Adolf Hitler, tells of the Nazi dictator's final days in his Berlin bunker at the end of WWII.
- DirectorTom TykwerStarsFranka PotenteMoritz BleibtreuHerbert KnaupAfter a botched money delivery, Lola has 20 minutes to come up with 100,000 Deutschmarks.A fast-paced, music video-esque crime film that is so nineties it seeps through the cracks.
- DirectorUli EdelStarsMartina GedeckMoritz BleibtreuJohanna WokalekA look at Germany's terrorist group, The Red Army Faction (RAF), which organized bombings, robberies, kidnappings, and assassinations in the late 1960s and '70s.A thrilling action flick depicting the lives of the main culprits of the infamous RAF that shook West Germany in the seventies.
- DirectorStephen DaldryStarsKate WinsletRalph FiennesBruno GanzPost-WWII Germany: Nearly a decade after his affair with an older woman came to a mysterious end, law student Michael Berg re-encounters his former lover as she defends herself in a war-crime trial.
- DirectorDennis GanselStarsJürgen VogelFrederick LauMax RiemeltA high school teacher's experiment to demonstrate to his students what life is like under a dictatorship spins horribly out of control when he forms a social unit with a life of its own.
- DirectorOliver HirschbiegelStarsMoritz BleibtreuChristian BerkelOliver StokowskiFor two weeks, 20 male participants are hired to play prisoners and guards in a prison. The "prisoners" have to follow seemingly mild rules, and the "guards" are told to retain order without using physical violence.
- DirectorOskar RoehlerStarsMoritz BleibtreuChristian UlmenFranka PotenteTwo half brothers in Berlin, 30+, one an introverted scientist, the other a sexually frustrated teacher, have no love life. That's about to change.
- DirectorUli EdelStarsNatja BrunckhorstEberhard AurigaPeggy BussieckA teen girl in 1970s Berlin becomes addicted to heroin. Everything in her life slowly begins to distort and disappear as she befriends a small crew of junkies and falls in love with a drug-abusing male prostitute.Gruesomely realistic view on lives of teenage heroin addicts.
- DirectorVolker SchlöndorffStarsDavid BennentMario AdorfAngela WinklerIn 1924, Oskar Matzerath is born in the Free City of Danzig. At age three, he falls down a flight of stairs and stops growing. In 1939, World War II breaks out.
- DirectorAkizStarsNatalia AvelonMatthias SchweighöferDavid SchellerUschi Obermeier, a German cover model from the 1960s who embodied the dreams of the hippie generation - joins a commune, begins a modelling career, meets rock stars, and travels the world in a bus, enjoying love, drugs and freedom.This light-hearted flick depicts the wild life of the nude model, groupie, activist, musician Uschi Obermaier through the tumultous sixties and seventies.