German Cinema
The devastation of World War One left Germany's budding film industry, like much of Europe, in tatters. But necessity being the mother of invention, German Expressionism was born. Relying heavily on symbolism and shadow rather than elaborate and costly sets, films like 'The Cabinet of Dr Caligari' are still studied by film students the world over. By the mid-1920s, the industry was getting back on its feet and great directors like Fritz Lang and FW Murnau were making their early masterpieces. However the onset of Nazism and the impending war led many of Germany's artists, including filmmakers, to flee to the U.S. Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, Douglas Sirk, Karl Freund and many more all continued their careers in America while the German film industry virtually disappeared. It was not unitl the '60s and '70s that new talents emerged. Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Werner Herzog, Viktor Schlondorff and Wim Wenders revitalised German cinema and today international hits such as 'Run Lola Run' and 'Goodbye Lenin!' assure us it is here to stay.
Right: 'Run Lola Run'
13 Minutes (2015)
7/10
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Starring: Christian Friedel, Katharina Schuttler, Burghart Klaubner
Georg Elser was a man who could have changed world history and saved millions of human lives, if only he had had 13 more minutes. With 13 more minutes... Read more
71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance (1994)
7.3/10
Director: Michael Haneke
Starring: Udo Samel, Anne Bennent, Branko Samarovski, Otto Grunmandl, Gabriel Cosmin Urdes
Inspired by a shocking true life shooting spree in Vienna in 1993, Michael Haneke's challenging film weaves together fragments of the story in an atte... Read more
A Stasi Comedy (2022)
Starring: David Kross
After falling in love with the Nathalie and sleeping with his first target, Corinna, Ludger ends up living two lives - one as an underground poet and... Read more
Aguirre, The Wrath Of God (1972)
8/10
Director: Werner Herzog
Starring: Klaus Kinski, Ruy Guerra, Del Negro, Helena Rojo
Based on the journals of Brother Gaspar de Carvajal, and tells a hallucinatory tale of Spanish colonialists searching for El Dorado, the legendary cit... Read more
Aguirre, The Wrath Of God (Blu-ray) (1972)
7.9/10
Director: Werner Herzog
Starring: Klaus Kinski, Ruy Guerra, Del Negro, Helena Rojo
Based on the journals of Brother Gaspar de Carvajal, and tells a hallucinatory tale of Spanish colonialists searching for El Dorado, the legendary cit... Read more
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
8.1/10
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Starring: Brigitte Mira, El Hedi Ben Salem, Barbara Valentin
A fable of modern Germany in which an unlikely romance between a young Moroccan immigrant worker and a sixty year old charlady blossoms into marriage,... Read more
As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me (2001)
7.4/10
Director: Hardy Martins
Starring: Bernhard Bettermann, Michael Mendl, Irina Pantaeva
Captured while fighting in World War II, German soldier Clemens Forell (Bernhard Bettermann) escapes the hell of his confinement in a Siberian labor c... Read more
Asphalt (1929)
7.6/10
Director: Joe May
Starring: Betty Amann, Gustav Frohlich, Else Heller
One of the last great German Expressionist films of the silent era from acclaimed director Joe May. A by-the-book traffic cop (Gustav Frohlich) catche... Read more
Atomised (2006)
6.6/10
Director: Oskar Roehler
Starring: Moritz Bleibtreu, Franka Potente
Based on Michel Houellebecq's controversial novel, this movie focuses on Michael and Bruno, two very different half-brothers and their disturbed sexua... Read more
Balls (2004)
6.8/10
Director: Sherry Hormann
Starring: Eileen Eilender
Guys and Balls (German: Männer wie wir, literally Men like us, UK title : Balls) is a 2004 sports comedy/romance film by German American director Sher... Read more