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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'

Fateless (2006)

7/10
Director: Lajos Koltai
Starring: Marcell Nagy, Aron Dimeny, Andras M Kecskes, Joszef Gyabronka, Daniel Craig

A subtle, yet disturbing and profoundly moving drama about a Hungarian Jewish boy's life-changing experiences in Nazi concentration camps, and his att... Read more

Faust (2011)

6.7/10
Director: Alexander Sokurov
Starring: Hanna Schygulla, Georg Friedrich, Johannes Zeiler, Isolda Dychauk, Anton Adasins...

Aleksandr Sokurov directs this German-language adaptation of the classic tale about a man who sells his soul to the Devil. The story, woven into the f... Read more

Faust (Blu-ray) (2011)

6.6/10
Director: Alexander Sokurov
Starring: Hanna Schygulla, Georg Friedrich, Johannes Zeiler, Isolda Dychauk, Anton Adasins...

Aleksandr Sokurov directs this German-language adaptation of the classic tale about a man who sells his soul to the Devil. The story, woven into the f... Read more

Fitzcarraldo (1982)

8.1/10
Director: Werner Herzog
Starring: Klaus Kinski, Claudia Cardinale

Herzog's saga of an impressario's obsession to bring his own opera boat up the Amazon River and over a mountain into Peru where he will have Caruso si... Read more

Four Minutes (2006)

6.9/10
Director: Chris Kraus
Starring: Monica Bleibtreu, Hannah Herzsprung

Former pianist Traude Kruger (Monica Bleibtreu) has been driving to the same women's prison at Luckau almost every morning since 1944. She teaches her... Read more

Fox and His Friends (1975)

7.8/10
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Starring: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Peter Chatel, Harry Bar

A down-and-out, down on his luck homosexual carnival worker wins the lottery and along with it, some new friends. Unfortunately, a charming, scheming... Read more

Frantz (2016)

7.5/10
Director: Francois Ozon
Starring: Pierre Niney, Paula Beer, Ernst Stotzner

Anna is a bereft young German woman whose fiance, Frantz, was killed in the trenches of World War I. Adrien, a French veteran of the war, makes a myst... Read more

Gloomy Sunday (1999)

7.9/10
Director: Rolf Schubel
Starring: Stefano Dionisi, Ben Becker, Joachim Krol, Erika Marozsan

"Please play the song. You know, the famous one." Jewish restaurateur László and his restaurant pianist András both love beautiful waitress Ilona. And... Read more

Go For Zucker (2004)

6.8/10
Director: Dani Levy
Starring: Henry Hubchen, Hannelore Elsner, Udo Samel, Golda Tencer, Steffen Groth, Anja Fr...

Zucker (Henry Hubchen) was a big wheel in East Germany before the wall came down, now he's a pool hustler with a disintegrating family. However his e... Read more

Goodbye Lenin! (2002)

Director: Wolfgang Becker
Starring: Michael Gwisdek, Daniel Bruhl, Katrin Sass, Chulpan Khamatova, Maria Simon, Flor...

Germany 1989, shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall, and a young East German dissident is arrested during a protest. His pro-Communist mother, up... Read more