Tag Archives: Germany

Auch Zwerge haben klein angefangen / Even Dwarfs Started Small (1970) Werner Herzog, Helmut Döring, Paul Glauer, Gisela Hertwig, Comedy, Drama

Auch Zwerge haben klein angefangen (Werner Herzog, 1970)
The inhabitants of an institution in a remote country rebel against their keepers. Their acts of rebellion are by turns humorous, boring and alarming. An allegory on the problematic nature of fully liberating the human spirit, as both commendable and disturbing elements of our nature come forward. The film shows how justifiable revolt may be empowering, but may also turn to chaos and depravity. The allegory is developed in part by the fact that the film is cast entirely with dwarfs.
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Hoffmann und Sohne (1976) Alan Vydra, Candy Dallas, Robert Le Ray, Susan Rosebush, Adult

Hoffmann und Sohne (1976)
Mr Hoffman sells books and provides his female customers with nice moments in a room at the back of the shop. The number of female customers grows very rapidly and when Mr Hoffman isn’t up th the demand, he calls in his two oldest sons who keep the shop going. Unfortunately his youngest son is only interested in reading. One day, as he delivers books to one of the customers, the lady teaches him about the pleasures of sex. In order to celebrate this, the father organises a party and all is well that ends well
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Une femme française / A French Woman (1995) Régis Wargnier, Emmanuelle Béart, Daniel Auteuil, Gabriel Barylli, Drama

Une femme francaise AKA A French Woman (1995)
Wed just as war breaks out, Jeanne hardly gets to know her military husband, Louis, before the debacle of 1940. While waiting for his return from a POW camp, Jeanne journeys through countless affairs with Louis’ comrades- in-arms. Hopiing to forget these wartime betrayls, Louis takes his wife and the infant twins he didn’t father to Berlin, where she falls for Matthais, a sensitive German industrialist. When the Indochinese war sends Louis to Vietnam, Matthais follows Jeanne back to France. A subsequent move to Damascus where Louis is posted as military attache, fails to break their bond.
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Zwartboek / Black Book (2006) Paul Verhoeven, Carice van Houten, Sebastian Koch, Thom Hoffman, Drama, Thriller, War

Zwartboek (2006)
Israel 1956. Rachel, a Jew, rather unexpectedly meets an old friend at the kibbutz where she is working as a teacher. It brings back memories of her experiences in The Netherlands during the war, memories of betrayal. September 1944. Rachel is in trouble when her hiding place is bombed by allied troops. She gets in contact with a man from the resistance and joins a group of Jews who are to be smuggled across the Biesbosch by boat to the freed South Netherlands. Germans from a patrol boat murder them all however. Only Rachel is able to escape. She is rescued by a resistance group under the leadership of Gerben Kuipers. When Kuipers’ son is captured after trying to smuggle weapons, he asks Rachel to seduce SS-hauptsturmführer Ludwig Müntze. Soon she will find out the attack in the Biesbosch wasn’t a coincidence.
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Das Experiment / The Experiment (2001) Oliver Hirschbiegel, Moritz Bleibtreu, Christian Berkel, Oliver Stokowski, Drama, Thriller

Das Experiment (2001)
The movie is based on the infamous “Stanford Prison Experiment” conducted in 1971. A makeshift prison is set up in a research lab, complete with cells, bars and surveillance cameras. For two weeks 20 male participants are hired to play prisoners and guards. The ‘prisoners’ are locked up and have to follow seemingly mild rules, and the ‘guards’ are told simply to retain order without using physical violence. Everybody is free to quit at any time, thereby forfeiting payment. In the beginning the mood between both groups is insecure and rather emphatic. But soon quarrels arise and the wardens employ ever more drastic sanctions to confirm their authority.
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Swann In Love / Un amour de Swann (1984) Volker Schlöndorff, Jeremy Irons, Ornella Muti, Alain Delon, Drama, Romance

Swann In Love (1984)
Elegant and educated bachelor, Charles Swann, moves in the most powerful and fashionable circles of Paris in the 1890’s. When he falls in love with Odette de Crecy, a courtesan, his friends warn him against marriage. Proving himself a silly and socially-foul goose, Swann ducks his social responsibilities, Odette ensnares him, and he is gently but firmly cast out of society amidst everyone’s great politeness.
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Nachthelle (2015) Florian Gottschick, Anna Grisebach, Benno Fürmann, Vladimir Burlakov, Drama, Mystery

Nachthelle (2015)
A drama with a supernatural edge, this genre-crossing gem finds two couples visiting a home from their past, and sexual tension that brings out the worst in each other. Long-buried grudges resurface and it seems unlikely the couples will return intact. Faced with an outcome that will upset their delicate balance of happiness, the world offers them a bizarre opportunity to correct it.
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