5 Nazi movies: Joseph Goebbels’ ‘Third Reich’ cinema - a crucial and extremely popular propaganda tool - promoted the White Nationalist German ethos.
Die Nibelungen: Siegfried: Paul Richter as the tragic dragon-slaying hero of medieval Germanic mythology – with a bit from Homer’s Iliad thrown in. ‘Die Nibelungen’: Enthralling silent classic despite complex…
Luise Rainer: MGM star in the mid-1930s. Luise Rainer dead at 104: MGM actress was first two-time and first consecutive Oscar winner in acting categories, and oldest surviving winner The…
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…
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 & Harriet Andersson Swedish Oscars Honor + German Terrorists & Oskar Schindler of Nanking
Jan Troell Swedish Oscars honor: Best Film Guldbagge Award winner Everlasting Moments with Maria Heiskanen. A feature film director since the mid-1960s (Here’s Your Life, Ole dole doff), Jan Troell –…
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’ psychological drama Woyzeck is superior to most ‘Hollywood Masterpieces.’ Klaus Kinski and Eva Mattes star.
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…
Katharine Hepburn Oscars: Morning Glory with Adolphe Menjou. An RKO star in the 1930s and an MGM star in the 1940s, Katharine Hepburn won a record-setting four Best Actress Oscars.…
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 Hitler and Corinna Harfouch is a steely Magda Goebbels in Oliver Hirschbiegel’s convoluted Downfall.
A Carmen-inspired South African ‘dance movie,’ German anti-Nazi fighters, and a Taiwanese watermelon sex tale are Berlin’s key Golden Bear winners.
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.
Adolf Hitler movie debate: Should the most hated modern political leader be portrayed as Freddy Krueger or as a complex human being?
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,…
Til Schweiger and Sima Bürgin in the Bernd Eichinger-produced Der bewegte Mann / Maybe…Maybe Not Producer-director-screenwriter Bernd Eichinger died of a heart attack yesterday while having dinner with family and friends…
Camino with Carmen Elias: Controversial Opus Dei drama. Goya Award winners Written and directed by Javier Fesser, the controversial drama Camino – described by Screen Daily‘s Lee Marshall as a…
Stage, film, and television actor Ulrich Mühe, winner of last year’s Best Actor European Film Award, died at age 54 on July 22 at his home in Walbeck, in the…
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…
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.