German Cinema

The Doll (1919) movie review: Ernst Lubitsch satire features incredibly inventive production design. Ossi Oswalda (‘the German Mary Pickford’) stars.

Die Nibelungen: Siegfried and Kriemhild’s Revenge (1924) movie review: Semi-historical Fritz Lang epic is a cinematic masterpiece.

Luise Rainer Dead: At 104 years old first Two-Time Oscar Winner in the acting categories was oldest surviving Academy Award recipient.

Nymphomaniac: Vol. I (2013) movie review: Lars von Trier shows once again his cinematic genius in this starkly funny effort. Shia LaBeouf stars.

Nosferatu the Vampyre 1979 with Isabelle Adjani and Klaus Kinski. ‘Nosferatu the Vampyre’ 1979: Werner Herzog German-language version screening Werner Herzog’s stylish 1979 horror drama Nosferatu the Vampyre will have…

Kurt Maetzig. Remembering pioneer East German filmmaker Kurt Maetzig Kurt Maetzig, one of East Germany’s pioneering filmmakers, died on Aug. 8 at his home in the village of Wildkuhl, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern,…

Veteran German actor Heinz Bennent died on Oct. 12. He was 90. The Aachen-born (July 18, 1921) Heinz Bennent never became an international name despite several important roles in international…

The Love of Jeanne Ney with Uno Henning and Edith Jehanne. G.W. Pabst’s The Love of Jeanne Ney / Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney is a real mystery. And I mean…

Sophie Scholl: The Final Days with Julia Jentsch and Fabian Hinrichs. Directed with clenched fists by Berlin Film Festival winner Marc Rothemund, who seems to have been at least partly…

La Habanera with Zarah Leander and Ferdinand Marian. First, I have to state that I watched Douglas Sirk’s La Habanera, not knowing what to expect. All I knew was the…

German Film Awards: The White Ribbon. The White Ribbon, Michael Haneke’s depiction of rural Germany on the eve of World War I – and how the cute (if dangerous) little…

Monica Bleibtreu in Four Minutes with Hannah Herzsprung. Monica Bleibtreu, a respected stage, film, and television actress, and mother of Moritz Bleibtreu, died at age 65 on May 14 in…

Jan Troell and Harriet Andersson Swedish Oscars Honor + anti-capitalist German terrorists and the largely forgotten Oskar Schindler of Nanking.

Somebody Save Me: Gay conversion therapy film Save Me. Save Me is the tale of a couple of troubled gay men (Chad Allen, Robert Gant) who find salvation (of an…

Werner Herzog’s ‘minor’ period psychological drama Woyzeck is superior to most acclaimed Hollywood fare. Klaus Kinski and Eva Mattes star.

This evening, Friday, June 29, Turner Classic Movies will screen three creepies: The Unholy Three (1925), West of Zanzibar (1928), and Vampyr - Der Traum des Allan Grey / The…

Monica Bleibtrau is this year’s German Oscar winner. German Oscar winners The 2007 German Film Academy’s Lola Award nominees were announced on March 16. The 57th German Film Academy’s Lola…

Lady Chatterley with Marina Hands. Perhaps there’s hope for this evening’s Oscar ceremony. On Saturday, I watched (most of) the French Academy of Film Arts and Sciences’ 32nd César du…

Pola Negri in Madame Dubarry / Passion with Emil Jannings. New York City’s Museum of Modern Art (website) is currently presenting “Pola Negri: Life Is a Dream,” a week-long retrospective on…

Marc-André Grondin in C.R.A.Z.Y. C.R.A.Z.Y. movie tops Genie Awards “I’m touched. This has been something – a crazy experience,” remarked C.R.A.Z.Y. filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallée upon accepting the Academy of Canadian…

Bruno Ganz Is an out-of-control Adolf Hitler and Corinna Harfouch is a coolly deranged Magda Goebbels in Oliver Hirschbiegel’s convoluted drama Downfall.

Set to open the Berlin Film Festival, Régis Wargnier’s ‘missing link movie’ starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Joseph Fiennes focuses on ‘science-based’ racism.

Culture clash movies have dominated this year’s European Film Awards, while Pedro Almodóvar was the biggest loser and Liv Ullmann got the longest standing ovation.

Robert Siodmak’s 1957 political drama The Devil Strikes at Night asks whether serial killers are any worse than socially sanctioned mass murderers.