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'
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
"Beware Of A Holy Whore" is Fassbinder's most autobiographical film, examining the tangled relationships which exist between a group of artists who ar... Read more
Strange, disturbing and truly unsettling parable about dwarfs and midgets confined to a barren correctional institution who literally take over the as... Read more
The beautiful Romy Schneider, while still in her teens, leads in a star making performance as the beloved Austrian Empress Elisabeth, "Sissi". This 19... Read more
Bernhard Wicki's Oscar-nominated directorial debut, this is an excellent little film with no known names on the roster. In the final days of World War... Read more
In this sequel to "Dr Mabuse, The Gambler", Dr Mabuse has been in prison for ten years, plotting his master crimes of chaos and destruction, while hi... Read more
With 'Vampyr', Danish filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer's brilliance at achieving mesmerizing atmosphere and austere, profoundly unsettling imagery ('The... Read more
Uncut for the first time. Harrowing images, shadows and symbolism permeate Fritz Lang's first sound film, an internationally heralded German cinematic... Read more
Von Sternberg's classic study of sexual humiliation made Marlene Dietrich a star as Lola-Lola, the vulgar nightclub singer who brings the dignified un... Read more
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