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'
A.k.a. 'The Boat.' Totally restored and with over an hour of never-before-seen footage, Das Boot: The Director's Cut is Wolfgang Petersen's acclaimed... Read more
An extravagant story of love, war and propaganda in the shadows of Nazi Germany, Fassbinder's "Lili Marleen" is, ironically, one of his few English la... Read more
Powerful story of an alienated teen who falls into the degrading drug and prostitution scene of Berlin's Zoo station. Featuring the music of, and an a... Read more
A.k.a. 'The Boat.' Totally restored and with over an hour of never-before-seen footage, Das Boot: The Director's Cut is Wolfgang Petersen's acclaimed... Read more
RW Fassbinder's Bundesrepublik Deutschland trilogy comprises three of his most celebrated films which chart West Germany's post-war economic miracle t... Read more
The fantastic and moving tale about the Nazi regime as seen through the eyes of a 'man-boy'. David Bennett, is the child who 'refuses to grow,' in ord... 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
The tragedy of a simple soldier who is humiliated by everyone around him and is finally driven to murder; fashioned into a brilliant, compelling piece... Read more
Using Patricia Highsmith's novel, 'Ripley's Game', Wenders has made a spellbinding existential thriller which moves from the docks of Hamburg to the s... Read more
Set in Berlin in 1923, the film is about a Jewish-American trapeze artist (David Carradine) and his sister-in-law (Liv Ullman), who are entrapped by a... Read more