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'
About a young man who in the 1820's suddenly appeared in a small German town, full-grown but seemingly a new born child, unable to speak and stand. Br... Read more
Aka "Das Experiment". An undercover reporter signs up to be a paid volunteer in a two-week scientific research project designed to test the psychologi... Read more
Directed, produced by and starring Paul Wegener, "Der Golem" is a masterpiece of early cinema. The story centres on a Jewish community threatened with... Read more
Roland Emmerich (Stargate, Independence Day, and Godzilla) brings you John Rhys-Davies in a Monty Pythonesque tale of a band of Crusaders who find the... Read more
In director Arnold Fanck's breathtaking silent drama, considered by many to be the epitome of the German "mountain film" genre, Leni Riefenstahl plays... Read more
This skilfully-crafted thriller, deserving winner of the Oscar and the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film, is an intelligent and potent blend of polit... Read more
A mass murder, a female judge and diary entries from ages ago, surely now forgotten. Judge Brigitta Roslin has to make a long and dangerous journey b... Read more
Faithful to the Heinrich von Kleist novella, this German-made drama from French filmmaker Eric Rohmer stars Edith Clever as the widowed German noblewo... Read more
Hanna Schygulla shines in her role as a penniless soldier's wife who builds an industrial empire after the end of WW II. The first of Fassbinder's thr... Read more
Filmmaker and former professional footballer Sonke Wortmann directs this family sports drama, using the backdrop of the 1954 World Cup game between Ge... Read more