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 sweeping 'road' movie concerning two men who journey across Germany visiting shuttered movie houses, listening to rock 'n' roll and discovering what... Read more
This trilogy of road movies from acclaimed German director Wim Wenders, starring Rudiger Vogler, form a commentary on the adoption of American culture... 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
Bruno S (Discovered by Herzog while working as a Toilet Attendant) gives a remarkable performance as a simple minded jailbird who abandons Berlin with... Read more
Werner Herzog each day put the cast into a hypnotic trance in an attempt to achieve an effect of collective hysteria in this tale of a glassblower who... Read more
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
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
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
A lurid and stylized account of the mangled web of domination, sado-masochism and jealousy among three lesbians. One of Fassbinder's most controversia... Read more
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