Wittenberg University

German Movies: (Text and images from www.amazon.com unless otherwise noted.)

NOTE:  NEWEST ADDITIONS ARE AT THE END, AND NOT LISTED ALPHABETICALLY.

All pictures and text from www.amazon.com unless otherwise noted.

	1   Am I Beautiful?  (Bin ich schön? ) 1998 In German, English subtitles		2   Bread & Tulips (Brot & Tulpen) 2000 In German, French and Italian; German and French subtitles
The film is like a round; people come together and then lose sight of each other again, through Germany and Spain: Franziska who marries the wrong man in order to put an end forever to her great, but troubled love for Klaus; Klaus who mourns his love Franziska and wanders through Spain until he finally meets up with Linda; Herbert, who has an affair with Jessica who silently slashes her wrists in the bathtub in his house; Unna, Herbert's wife, who finds her old flame David again, who has lost his memory following a stroke... www.german-cinema.de		Rosalba, a housewife from Pescara, finds herself left behind in a highway café during a bus trip.  Instead of waiting for her less-than-devoted husband to come pick her up, she rebels and takes off for an adventure of her own, hitch-hiking to Venice.  There she meets people that will change her life forever.
	3 The Downfall (Der Untergang ) 2004 In German, with English subtitles		4   The Edukators (Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei) 2004  In German, with English subtitles
It's the last days of Adolf Hitler, April 1945, and Hitler's personal secretary Traudl Junge finds herself in the Der Fuhrer's bunker. Facing inevitable defeat, Hilter's moods range from defiance to fight or flee, remain loyal or opt for self-preservation. Eva Braun parties while Magda Goebbels kills her children. The movie goes on to show how Hitler and Eva lived their last hours in the Bunker.		Jan and Peter are the best friends behind the radical and mysterious group The Edukators, united by their passion to change the world.  When the rich go on vacation, The Edukators break into their homes. They don’t steal, but simply rearrange everything, leaving the message "Your days of plenty are numbered." But when a rich businessman catches them in the act, they rashly decide to kidnap him. Passions rage and loyalties shatter in this exciting film that’s "Fresh, biting, gripping, tender, and tense." (The Telegraph On Sunday) (www.amazon.com)
	5   Europa Europa 1991 In German, with English subtitles		6   The Fisherman and His Wife (Der Fischer und Seine Frau) 2005 In German, NO subtitles
This "incredible, true story" (Los Angeles Times) is at once "eye-opening, harrowing and humorous" (Leonard Maltin).  Based on the autobiography of Solomon Perel, a young German Jew separated from his family at the age of thirteen, the film recounts the severe actions a young boy must take in order to survive the Holocaust. Solly (Marco Hofschneider) takes on various identities to hide his Jewish heritage ending up as one of the "Hitler Youth." Solly carries on his charade, hoping desperately to keep his identity hidden and make it through the war alive. (www.amazon.com)		A modern take on a Brothers Grimm classics. The story revolves around Ida and Otto who have both gone to Japan on business.  They meet, fall in love, and marry in a traditional Japanese ceremony, but the honeymoon ends when they return to Germany.  Ida wants it all: a family, a flourishing career and an ambitious husband, but the more Otto sacrifices, the more she asks of him, to a point where Otto feels sad and rejected. http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809423689/details

	7   Good Bye, Lenin! 2002 In German, English subtitles			8 The Harmonists   1998 In German, English subtitles
The ambition and intelligence of Good bye, Lenin! is not simply entertaining but downright refreshing. The movie starts in East Germany before the fall of communism; our hero, Alex (Daniel Bruhl), describes how his mother (Katrin Sass), a true believer in the communist cause, has a heart attack when she sees him being clubbed by police at a protest. She falls into a coma for eight months--during which the Berlin Wall comes down. When she awakens, her fragile health must avoid any shocks, so Alex creates an illusive reality around his bedridden mother to convince her that communism is still alive. --Bret Fetzer (www.amazon.com)			The true story of the Comedian Harmonists, the legendary German singing group that was forced to disband in 1934 as the Nazis came to power (because some of their members were Jewish). The film, directed in rich Technicolor by Joseph Vilsmaier, features the original musical performances (ably lip-synched by the actors), digitally remastered to highlight the group's sophisticated harmonies. The offstage story involves romantic conflicts, Nazi sympathizers, and leadership struggles within the group; these subplots give the picture an emotional core that raises it above what could have been simply a music-hall experience. It has all the verve and inspiration of the Harmonists themselves. -Bruce Diones   Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker  (www.amazon.com)
	9   Head-On (Gegen Die Wand) 2004 In German, with English subtitles			10 In July (Im Juli) 2000 In German, with English subtitles
Cahit, a German Turk in his late 30's, has given up on life after his wife's death.   In the hospital after an attempted suicide, he meets Sibel, another German Turk who has also tried to commit suicide. When they actually start to fall in love, they arrange a marriage of convenience with absolute freedom to date other people, but things don’t turn out as simply as planned.			Daniel (Moritz Bleibtreu), a naive student teacher from Hamburg is pursuaded to buy an antique ring adorned with the image of the sun by a street vendor. July (Christiane Paul) the pretty girl selling the item tells him he will soon meet a woman wearing the same symbol. She will be his one true love.  July plans to be that true love, but Daniel bumps into someone else first wearing the sunburst symbol on her tanktop. She spends one night with him before leaving for Istanbul. He decides to pursue her and as fate would have it, July inadvertantly joins in the journey. And so the romantic adventure begins. –Brian E. Erland
		11 Keine Lieder über Liebe (No Songs about Love) 2005 In German, with English subtitles			12   Killer (Die ärzte) 1999 In German, with English, Spanish, and Japanese subtitles
As Tobias, a young director, supposes that his girl-friend Ellen had an affair with his brother Markus, front man of "Hansen", one year ago, he decides to shoot a documentary about the band's next tour. When Ellen joins the project, everybody's emotions boil over, although the two are observed all the time... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0448009/plotsummary			This film is a music video from the German punk band, "die beste Band der Welt".

	13 The Legend of Paul and Paula 1973 In German, with English subtitles		14 Die Leiden des Jungen Werthers (The Sorrow of Young Werthers) 1976 In German, NO subtitles
Paula is a frustrated single mother of two kids, dying, quite frankly, for sex. Paul is pretty continuously being cheated on by his gorgeous blonde wife. (As his coworkers say when they're upbraiding him for cheating on her: "We understand. She has no education. But whose fault is that?") Paul and Paula, well, come together, and to the melody of trippy sixties' music. Trippy German sixties' music. It's a beautiful thing. Reviewer:  Irina Dumitrescu "Grad student in English and Medieval Studies" (New Haven, Connecticut) (www.amazon.com)		This film version of Goethe's novel is a sensitive exploration into the mind of a young artist.  The tale addresses age-old questions­ the meaning of love, of death, and the possibility of redemption­in the form of Werther's alternately joyful and despairing letters about his unrequited love. Goethe's portrayal of a character who struggles to reconcile his artistic sensibilities with the demands of the objective world proved tremendously influential to subsequent writers and continues to speak to modern viewers. http://www.amazon.com/Sorrows-Young-Werther-Penguin-Classics/dp/
	15 The Lives of Others 2006 In German, with English subtitles				16   Love in Thoughts (Was nützt die Liebe in Gedanken) 2003 In German, with English subtitles
Before the collapse of the Berlin Wall, East Germany’s population was closely monitored by the State Secret Police (Stasi). Only a few citizens above suspicion like renowned pro-Socialist playwright Georg Dreyman were permitted to lead private lives. But when a corrupt government official falls for Georg’s stunning actress-girlfriend, an ambitious Stasi policeman is ordered to bug the writer’s apartment to gain incriminating evidence against the rival. What the officer discovers is about to dramatically change their lives - as well as his - in this seductive political thriller that won the 2006 Best Foreign Language Film.		A posthumous look at the last days of Guenther's life as he, his best friend, and his sister let loose on a four-day binge of alcohol, drugs, and sex.
	17 Mostly Martha 2001 In German, with English subtitles		18   Nosferatu – Phantom der nacht 1979 In German, NO subtitles
Mostly Martha is a rich addition to the recent banquet of movies about food. Martha (Martina Gedeck), the domineering chef at a fancy restaurant, has her rigid routine broken when her sister dies in a car wreck, leaving behind her 9-year-old daughter Lina (Maxime Foerste). Martha takes the girl in, but has no gift for maternal expression; she offers Lina food, but Lina refuses to eat. Meanwhile, her control over her kitchen is threatened when her boss hires a buoyant Italian named Mario (Sergio Castellitto) to assist, and Martha finds herself flailing in an effort to reestablish control of her life. –Bret Fetzer		Jonathan Harker is sent away to Count Dracula's castle to sell him a house in Virna, where he lives.  But Count Dracula is a vampire, an undead ghoul living off men's blood. Inspired by a photograph of Lucy Harker, Jonathan's wife, Dracula moves to Virna, bringing with him death and plague... An unusually contemplative version of Dracula, in which the vampire bears the cross of not being able to get old and die.
	19 Nowhere in Africa 2001 In German, with English subtitles			20 The Princess and the Warrior (Der Krieger und Die Kaiserin) 2000 In German, with English subtitles
The film begins with a Jewish woman named Jettel fleeing Nazi Germany with her daughter Regina, to join her husband on a farm in Kenya. Jettel refuses to adjust to her new circumstances (she brought with her a set of china dishes and an evening gown), while Regina adapts readily to this new world, forming a strong bond with her father's cook, an African named Owuor. as the surface of their lives is torn away, Walter and Jettel find they have little in common, and must--under tumultuous circumstances--build their marriage anew. This film richly deserves the Academy Award® it received in 2002. A powerful, deeply moving film. --Bret Fetzer  (www.amazon.com)		Young nurse Sissi (Franka Potente) lives a secluded life at Birkenhof asylum. Her first encounter with ex-soldier and drifter Bodo has a lasting impact. He causes an accident that results in her lying under a truck, unable to breathe. While he provides life-saving first aid, Sissi begins to wonder whether he may be the man of her dreams. But when she tracks him down weeks later her affection is rejected, as Bodo is stuck somewhere between a traumatic past and a criminal future.
	21 Run Lola Run (Lola Rennt)   1999 In German, with English subtitles				22   Schultze Gets the Blues 2003 In German, with English and German subtitles
A young woman in Germany has twenty minutes to find and bring 100,000 Deutschmarks to her boyfriend before he robs a grocery store.		Schultze is a retired lignite miner living in an East German village and a passionate Polka musician on his accordion.  One night he listens to a Zydeco tune in the radio, which changes his taste of music radically. Notwithstanding his complete ignorance of the English language he starts a trip into the heart of the Zydeco; to Louisana.
	23 Sonnen Allee (Sun Ally) 1999 In German, NO subtitles					24   The Tunnel 2001 In German, with English subtitles
Literally divided by the Berlin wall, the teens on the East side of Sun Alley experience the influence of American Rock & Roll and love with less freedom than their Western peers. A fun and generally enjoyable piece.    http://www.cvmc.net/movie.jsp?movie_id=2564		A gripping escape plan provides the narrative spine to The Tunnel, an exciting Cold War story. This film fictionalizes the true story of the digging of a 430-foot tunnel running under the Berlin Wall in 1964, as tunnel rats on the west side labor to find a way out for friends and family in the Communist East. Led by a famous German swimmer whose sister is trapped in East Berlin, the group includes some compromised East Berliners and unlikely heroes on the West side. Also incorporated into this story is an American TV news crew shooting the digging as it goes along. --Robert Horton

		25 What To Do In Case Of Fire   2002 In German, with English subtitles		26 Black Book 2006 In Dutch, with English, Spanish and French subtitles
When a twenty-year-old bomb explodes in an abandoned mansion in modern-day Berlin, the evidence points to a notorious late-1980s anarchist group. As the police start looking for them, the six former rebels reunite for the first time in 12 years to come up with a plan to protect themselves. But sparks fly when the group must reconcile their youthful ideals with their new lives and pick up the pieces of the relationships they left behind.			Jewish fugitives attempt to escape occupied Holland – only to face a Nazi ambush. Rachel Stein alone survives the attack and joins the Dutch Resistance to avenge her family. She soon confronts the ultimate test: she must infiltrate German headquarters by tempting Captain Ludwig Mÿntze. In the heat of passion, he uncovers her duplicity...but keeps her secret. Then Rachel's espionage reveals that a murderous traitor lurks within Resistance ranks. Unable to fully trust anyone, Rachel navigates a minefield of deception and becomes an enemy to both sides.
	27 Dead Man’s Memories (Der Glaserne Blick) 2003 In German and Portuguese, with English, German, and Portuguese  subtitles			28   Dresden 2006 In German and English, with English subtitles
A man's body washes ashore on the Portuguese coast and inspector Pinto is placed in charge of the investigation. Searching his body, Pinto discovers a video containing footage of a young woman (Testud), whom he realizes is a visiting music student from France. But even though she presents Pinto with a strong lead in the case, her testimony and the other clues just obscure the case further. http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1808643722/info			January, 1945. In the uncertain days leading up to the Allied bombings of Dresden, Anna discovers Robert Newman, an injured British pilot, hiding in a hospital cellar. Torn between loyalty and desire, the young nurse risks everything to help him recover. As Anna struggles to keep his true identity a secret and Robert battles to survive behind enemy lines, a catastrophic fate descends upon the city.

	29 The Counterfeiters   2008 In German; with English, French, and Spanish  subtitles		30   The Edge of Heaven   2007 In German and English, with English subtitles
Winner of the Academy Award® for Best Foreign Language Film, The Counterfeiters tells the true story of Salomon Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics), a swindler who made a name for himself as Berlin's "King of the Counterfeiters." However, his life of women and easy money is cut short when he's arrested and placed in a Nazi concentration camp. With the German army on the verge of bankruptcy, Sorowitsch makes a sobering deal with his captors: in exchange for a comfortable bed, good food and fair treatment, Sorowitsch, along with the other hand-picked specialists, must counterfeit bank notes to fund the Nazi War effort. If he does as they say, he lives another day. If he rebels, he faces the same fate as the rest of the camp's prisoners. But if he lives, will he be able to live with himself?		Fatih Akin, the critically-acclaimed director of HEAD-ON, weaves overlapping tales of friendship and sexuality into a powerful narrative of universal love. Six characters are drawn together by circumstances-an old man and a prostitute forging a partnership, a young scholar reconciling his past, two young women falling in love, and a mother putting the shattered pieces of her life back together. Akin's piercing sense of the human condition and contemporary world events charge these hyperlinked stories into a multi-cultural powder keg.
	31 Fraulein   2006 In German; with English subtitles		32 Der Schuh des Manitu   2002 In English, Russian and Hungarian with German subtitles
Reza left Belgrade more than 25 years ago to seek a new life in Zurich. Now in her fifties, she has completely detached herself from the past. She owns a cafeteria and maintains an orderly, joyless existence. Mila, a waitress there, is a good-humored Croatian woman who also emigrated decades ago, but, unlike Reza, she dreams of returning to a house on the Croatian coast. Both of them receive a jolt when Ana, a young, itinerant woman who has fled Sarajevo, breezes into the cafeteria looking for work.		Abahachi, Chief of the Apache Indians, and his blood brother Ranger maintain peace and justice in the Wild West. One day, Abahachi asks for credit from the Shoshone Indians to finance his tribe's new saloon. Unfortunately Santa Maria, who sold the saloon, betrays Abahachi, takes the money and leaves. Soon, the Shoshones are on the warpath to get their money back.  Luckily, he, his twin brother Winnetouch, beautiful dancer Uschi and the Greek Dimitri each own a quarter of a treasure map that leads them to 'the shoe of Manitu'.  Will they get there before Santa Maria?
	33 Der Schuh des Manitu   2002 In German with English subtitles		34 The Baader Meinhof Complex   In German with English subtitles
Abahachi, Chief of the Apache Indians, and his blood brother Ranger maintain peace and justice in the Wild West. One day, Abahachi asks for credit from the Shoshone Indians to finance his tribe's new saloon. Unfortunately Santa Maria, who sold the saloon, betrays Abahachi, takes the money and leaves. Soon, the Shoshones are on the warpath to get their money back.  Luckily, he, his twin brother Winnetouch, beautiful dancer Uschi and the Greek Dimitri each own a quarter of a treasure map that leads them to 'the shoe of Manitu'.  Will they get there before Santa Maria?		A look at Germany's terrorist group, The Red Army Faction (RAF), which organized bombings, robberies, kidnappings and assassinations in the late 1960s and '70s. Based on Stefan Aust's best-selling nonfiction book.
	35 GunShy   2003 In German with English subtitles		36 As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me 2001 In German with English subtitles
A major hit on the European film festival circuit, Ditto Tsintsadze's "poetic thriller" will keep you on the edge from the startling beginning to the jaw-dropping final shot. A young man sits alone on a bus. A beautiful young woman drops a note in his lap as she walks by. It says simply, "help me." But what help could she, a self-assured martial arts student, ever need? And how could he, a gentle pacifist who delivers meals to the elderly, ever help her? Yet as our hero follows after her, his bizarre journey begins. Does he become a rescuing knight falling in love? Or a psychotic killer descending into madness? And is there even a difference?		Based on a true story and a best selling novel, this powerful epic captures the incredible journey of German soldier Clemens Forell in his dramatic escape from a Siberian labor camp after World War II. Through bitter cold winter, desolate landscapes, and life threatening adventures, Forell determined to be reunited with his beloved family makes his way, step by step, day by day, towards freedom.
	37 The Forest For The Trees   2003 In German with English subtitles		38   Der Unhold (The Ogre)     In German with English subtitles
Bursting with idealism, Melanie Pröschle, a young teacher from the countryside, starts her first job at a high school in the city. Desperate to fulfil her hopes, Melanie intends to do everything the right way. Politely she introduces herself to her neighbours with homemade schnapps. At her first day of school she gives a very ambitious speech for her colleagues. She wants to be a fresh breeze to the school, but it is not easy to start a new life, as Melanie copes with loneliness, established teachers and ninth grade students.		Taken prisoner by the Germans, Abel Tiffauges finds himself in a forteresse in Eastern Prussia.  There, his charge is to recruit children as soldiers for the Third Reich.
	39 Adam’s Apples   2005 In Danish with English subtitles		40 Operation Valkyrie   2004 In German with English subtitles
Ivan is an insanely optimistic preacher who takes in convicts to help around the remote, rural church he ministers to. His current charges are a psychotic Saudi immigrant addicted to robbing gas stations and an alcoholic tennis pro convicted of sexual assault. His newest "helper" is Adam, a vicious neo-Nazi anxiously biding his time before he can return to hell-raising. Asked to set a goal for his stay, Adam sarcastically answers that he'd like to bake a cake. Ivan cheerfully takes that statement at face value and puts him in charge of the parish's pride and joy: the only apple tree in the vicinity. Grasping the extent of Ivan's crazed, preternatural determination to look on the bright side of everything - Adam immediately decides to shake him out of his rose-colored stupor.		Operation Valkyrie tells the astonishing true story about a bold German plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler -- and the man who risked everything to make it happen. Sebastian Koch (The Lives of Others) stars as Clause von Stauffenberg, a once-idealistic German army colonel whose exposure to wartime atrocities and personal battle injuries move him to conspire to eliminate the power-crazed Fuhrer. The heroic tale remains a fascinating, must-see example of the German resistance to Hitler’s oppression.
	41 Keinohrhasen (Rabbit without Ears) 2007 In German with English subtitles		42 Barfuss (Barefoot)   2005 In German with English subtitles
What would gutter-press reporter Ludo do without women? He needs the famous ones for his dirt-digging stories, and the less famous ones for his legendary one-night stands. Blessed with virile bravado and unshakable self-confidence, Ludo usually gets the interviews he wants - and the sexiest girls as well. All goes fine until he lands in big trouble, naked, in the middle of a celebrity party, and is sentenced to 300 hours of social work in a nursery school. Expecting it to be child's play, Ludo is in for a big surprise when he discovers that the place is run by Anna, whom he enjoyed taunting in their primary-school days.		Nick Keller (Schweiger) can't hold down a job and has "a problem with authority." Working as an orderly in a psychiatric clinic, he's followed home by one of the patients, Leila (Johanna Wokalek), who's suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after her mother's death and starts hyper-ventilating if touched. An offbeat, strangely tender love story develops as the two hit the road away from the authorities, and Nick has to take responsibility for someone for the first time in his life. Wallpapered with star names and cameos, and with some nicely turned, wry dialogue, pic has an infectious sense of fun, with Christof Wahl's lensing bathing everything in a warm amber light.
	43 Go For Zucker!   2005 In German with English subtitles
Dani Levy's controversial and highly entertaining contemporary farce is one of the first German-Jewish comedy to come out of Germany since World War II. The story features two brothers-- Jaeckie Zucker, a hard-living, hustling former East German celebrity sportscaster and his quasi-Orthodox brother Samuel from the West. Jaeckie is up to his ears in debt --facing jail, divorce and general ruin--when word comes that his mother has died, leaving an inheritance. But according to his mother's will, before he can cash in, Zucker first must reconcile with his long-estranged brother, who is arriving the next day, family in tow, expecting to sit shiva for seven days. Can the secular Zucker and his non-Jewish wife pass as observant? And will he be able to sneak away to compete in a high-stakes pool tournament?

 

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