U. Grant Miller Library has an extensive and continually growing collection of films which may be of interest to students of German. Films are listed below by their English titles; the original German title follows in brackets. Numbers at bottom left are the library call number.
Many of the films are rated with asterisks on a scale of 1 to 4, with **** being the best. Ratings and descriptions for these films are drawn primarily from Leonard Maltin's 1998 Movie and Video Guide.
Feature Films Index:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Aguirre: The Wrath of God [Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes]
Director: Werner Herzog (1972) ***½
Starring: Klaus Kinski, Del Negro, Helena Rojo, Cecilia Rivera.
Powerful, hypnotic tale of deluded conquistador who leads a group of men away from Pizarro's 1560 South American expedition in search of seven cities of gold. Dreamlike film was shot on location in remote Amazon jungles; Kinski is perfect as the mad Aguirre.
#2544. In German with English subtitles. 94 minutes.
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul [Angst essen Seele auf]
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1974) ***
Starring: Brigitte Mira, El Hedi Ben Salem, Barbara Valentin.
Widow Mira, in her 60s, falls in love with and marries an Arab 30 years her junior. Interesting, quietly effective Fassbinder film.
#1916. In German with English subtitles. 94 minutes.
Angry Harvest [Bittere Ernte]
Director: Agnieszka Holland (1985) ***
Starring: Armin Müller-Stahl, Elisabeth Trissenaar.
Discerning drama, set during WW2, highlighting the intricacies in the relationship between a working-class Polish farmer (Müller-Stahl, who is outstanding) and the upper-class Viennese Jewish refugee (Trissenaar) he shelters. Scripted by director Holland, who later made Europa, Europa.
#2610. In German with English subtitles. 102 minutes.
Bagdad Café [Out of Rosenheim]
Director: Percy Adlon (1988) **½
Starring: Marianne Sägebrecht, CCH Pounder, Jack Palance.
Nearly plotless charmer from the director and star of Sugarbaby has Sägebrecht stranded in the California desert, making friends with the kooky folks who hang out at Pounder's roadside café. Palance provides an extra treat portraying an ex-Hollywood set decorator who becomes obsessed with painting Sägebrecht's portrait.
#2984. In English. 108 minutes.
Berlin unterm Hakenkreuz - Die 30er Jahre
Berlin unter den Alliierten 1945-1949
Berlin - Ruine 1945 - Metropole 2000
The Blue Angel [Der Blaue Engel]
Director: Josef von Sternberg (1930) ***½
Starring: Marlene Dietrich, Emil Jannings, Hans Albers.
Ever-fascinating film classic with Jannings as stuffy professor who falls blindly in love with cabaret entertainer Lola-Lola (Dietrich), who ruins his life. Dietrich introduces "Falling in Love Again"; this role made her an international star. Robert Liebman scripted from Heinrich Mann's novel Professor Unrath.
#1021. In German with English subtitles. 103 minutes.
The Blue Light [Das Blaue Licht]
Director: Leni Riefenstahl (1932) **
Starring: Riefenstahl, Matthias Weimann, Beni Fuhrer.
Mysterious mountain-maiden Riefenstahl is loved and destroyed by artist Weimann. Slow, pretentious fable, also produced and co-written by Riefenstahl.
#1922. Silent with English subtitles. 77 minutes.
The Boat [Das Boot]
Director: Wolfgang Peterson (1981) ***½
Starring: Jurgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer.
Realistic, meticulously mounted nail-biter chronicling a German U-boat on a mission during WW2, with Prochnow solid as its commander. Manages to embrace an anti-war message as well.
#1553. Dubbed in English. 145 minutes.
The Boat is Full [Das Boot ist voll]
Director: Marcus Imhoof (1980)
Starring: Tina Engel, Curt Bois, Gerd David, Renate Steiger.
In the summer of 1942 the Swiss government, alarmed at the vast number of people fleeing Nazi Germany, declared Switzerland "a full lifeboat" and set up stringent immigration policies. This powerful film portrays the ill-fated attempt by a group of Jewish refugees to find sanctuary in Switzerland. Based on a true story.
#2615. Dubbed in English. 100 minutes.Brechts letzter Sommer (Brecht's last summer)
In German without subtitles.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari [Das Kabinett des Dr. Caligari]
Director: Robert Wiene (1919) ***½
Starring: Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Lil Dagover.
Somewhat stiff but still fascinating German Expressionist film about "magician" Caligari and hypnotic victim who carries out his evil bidding. Landmark film still impresses audiences today.
#1116. Silent with English subtitles. 69 minutes.
Das war die DDR, Zweier-Edition
Effi Briest
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1974) ***½
Starring: Hanna Schygulla, Wolfgang Schenck, Karl-Heinz Bohm.
Sharply observed drama, set in 19th-century Germany, is one of Fassbinder's best. It's the story of the social and sexual victimization of the title character (Schygulla), an innocent teenager stifled by the conventions of society and lacking the resolve to challenge them. Fassbinder also scripted; based on the novel by Theodor Fontane.
#2863. In German with English subtitles. 135 minutes.
Europa, Europa
Director: Agnieszka Holland (1991) ***½
Starring: Marco Hofschneider, Rene Hofschneider, Julie Delpy.
German-Jewish teenage boy flees the Nazis and conceals his identity only to find himself drafted into Hitler's army! Eye-opening, fact-based WW2 Holocaust drama, from Solomon Perel's autobiography, is both harrowing and humorous; deftly blends horrific images with black comedy to depict the growing pains of a boy becoming a man in the midst of a world in chaos.
#1973. In German with English subtitles. 115 minutes.Eyes Wide Shut (Traumnovelle)
Code 2 DVD with German, English Audio, Subtitles in
Faust
Director: F. W. Murnau (1926)
Starring: Gosta Ekman, Emil Jannings, Camilla Horn, Frida Richard.
Earliest filming of the famous legend about a jaded intellectual who makes a deal with the devil to experience love. Brilliant camera work makes this version memorable.
#1355. Silent with German and English intertitles.
Germany in Autumn [Deutschland im Herbst]
#2865
Hanussen
Director: Istvan Svabo (1988) ***½
Starring: Klaus Maria Brandauer, Erland Josephson, Ildiko Bansagi.
Brandauer offers a compelling performance as the title character, a WW1 Austrian soldier who is shot in the head and develops the ability to read minds and foretell the future. An intriguing, insightful, fact-based tale; third in a trilogy, with Mephisto and Colonel Redl.
#2715. In German with English subtitles. 120 minutes.
Heimat: A Chronicle of Germany [Heimat]
Director: Edgar Reitz (1984) ***
Starring: Marita Breuer, Dieter Schaad, Rudiger Weigang.
An ambitious epic, almost 16 hours in length, about life in a provincial German village between 1919 and 1982. First few hours are generally more compelling than the last. Has its boring stretches, and after a while it does seem like a glorified soap opera, but at its best it is perceptive, comic, even poetic. Gernot Roll's cinematography is exquisite.
#2986a-i. In German with English subtitles. 940 minutes.
Hundert (100) Deutsche Jahre:
Short documentaries in German (approx. 30 Minutes) dealing with cultural topics of the 20th century. (Without subtitles) Each cassette contains between 3-4 documentaries. (16 Tapes total)
Kanzler, Krisen, Koalitionen - Folge 1 bis 4
Die Leiden des Jungen Werthers (The sorrows of young Werther)
In German without subtitles.
The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum [Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum]
Director: Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta (1975) ***½
Starring: Angela Winkler, Mario Adorf, Dieter Laser.
Solid drama about a woman persecuted because she is suspected of aiding terrorists is also a stinging commentary on individual freedom, political repression, and the dangers of media manipulation. Based on the Heinrich Böll novel of the same name.
#1279. In German with English subtitles. 106 minutes.
M
Director: Fritz Lang (1931) ****
Starring: Peter Lorre, Ellen Widmann, Gustav Gründgens.
Harrowing melodrama about psychotic child murderer brought to justice by Berlin underworld. Riveting and frighteningly contemporary; cinematically dazzling, especially for an early talkie. Lorre's performance is unforgettable.
#1008. In German with English subtitles. 99 minutes.
Makin' Up [Abgeschminkt]
Director: Katja Von Garnier#2991. In German with English subtitles. 68 minutes.
Die Mörder sind unter Uns (The murderers are among us)
Malou
Director: Jeannine Meerapfel
Starring:
The story of two women: Malou long dead, a French woman married to a German Jew during Hitler's reign; and her daughter Hannah intent on putting together the puzzle of her mother's difficult and transitory life. Hannah's need to find herself creates an obsession with the past. She desperately wants to resurrect her crumbling marriage and avoid the mistakes that ruined her mother, but the truth of her mother's existence contradicts the fantasy of the mother's, making her journey all the more difficult.
#1448. In German with English subtitles.
The Marriage of Maria Braun [Die Ehe der Maria Braun]
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1978) ***½
Starring: Hanna Schygulla, Ivan Desny, Gottfried John.
Schygulla shines in the Joan Crawfordesque role of a penniless soldier's wife who builds an industrial empire after the end of WW2. Riveting; the first of Fassbinder's three parables of postwar Germany, followed by Lola and Veronika Voss.
#1278. In German with English subtitles. 120 minutes.
Maybe . . . Maybe Not [Der bewegte Mann]
Director: Sönke Wortmann (1995) **
Starring: Til Schweiger, Katja Riemann, Jaochim Król.
Thrown out for cheating on his girlfriend, a heterosexual male finds respite at the home of a gay acquaintance. While the ensuing advances of gay suitors are somewhat humorous, the film is filled with characters about whom we care very little. The most successful German film to date, it is based on a series of German comic books, entitled "Der bewegte Mann" and "Pretty Baby," by comic artist Ralf König.
#3006. In German with English subtitles. 93 minutes.
Men . . . [Männer . . . ]
Director: Doris Dörrie (1985) ***½
Starring: Heiner Lauterbach, Uwe Ochsenknecht, Ulrike Kriener.
Ingenious comedy-satire about an uptight adman who becomes haplessly jealous when he learns that his wife is having an affair. He promptly befriends her lover and becomes his roommate, with hilarious results.
#2881. In German with English subtitles. 99 minutes.
Mephisto
Director: Istvan Svabo (1981) ***
Starring: Klaus Maria Brandauer, Krystyna Janda, Ildiko Bansagi.
Brandauer is magnetic as a vain, brilliant German actor who sells himself to gain prestige when the Nazis come to power. Engrossing drama is handsomely produced if a bit uneven. Based on a novel by Klaus Mann, son of Thomas, who committed suicide allegedly because he could not get the book published. Academy Award winner as Best Foreign Film. First of trilogy, followed by Colonel Redl and Hanussen.
#1667. In German with English subtitles. 135 minutes.
Metropolis
Director: Fritz Lang (1926) ****
Starring: Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Gustav Froehlich.
Classic silent-film fantasy of futuristic city and its mechanized society, with upper-class young man abandoning his life of luxury to join oppressed workers in a revolt. Heavy going at times, but startling set design and special effects command attention throughout.
#1053. Silent. 120 minutes.
The Nasty Girl [Das schreckliche Mdchen]
Director: Michael Verhoeven (1990) ***½
Starring: Lena Stolze, Monika Baumgartner, Michael Gahr.
Biting serio-comic story of a young woman (Stolze) from a small Bavarian town whose attempts to enter a national essay contest on the subject of "My Hometown During the Third Reich" results in her obsessive quest for the truth. Stolze convincingly ages from adolescence to womanhood in this remarkable film, which is based on a true story. Verhoeven's visual style is equally striking, mixing real locations and theatrical backdrops for his actors.
#2665. In German with English subtitles. 92 minutes.
Nosferatu
Director: F. W. Murnau (1922) ***½
Starring: Max Schreck, Alexander Granach, Greta Schroeder.
Early film version of Dracula is brilliantly eerie, full of imaginative touches that none of the later films quite recaptured. Schreck's vampire is also the ugliest in film history.
#1370. Silent with English subtitles. 63 minutes.
Novembertage
Am 9. November 1989 öffnete die DDR die Berliner Mauer. Die Bilder gingen um die ganze Welt. Der Regisseur Marcel Ophüls hat Menschen befragt, die an diesen Ereignissen teilgenommen haben, darunter auch Politiker der DDR. Seine kritische Dokumentation vergleicht die Situation im Frühjahr 1990 mit den Verhältnissen im Deutschland der Nachkriegszeit
Olympia
Director: Leni Riefenstahl (1936) ****
Two-part record of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, highlighted by truly eyepopping cinematography, camera movement, and editing. Of course, it's all supposed to be a glorification of the Nazi state.
#1180a-b. English commentary. 220 minutes.
Pandora's Box [Die Büchse der Pandora]
Director: G. W. Pabst (1928) ****
Starring: Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Franz Lederer, Carl Goetz.
Hypnotic silent film stars legendary Brooks as flower girl who becomes protge then wife of newspaper editor, with bizarre and unexpected consequences. Striking sexuality and drama, with Brooks and unforgettable Lulu.
#1952. Silent with English intertitles. 110 minutes.
Rosa Luxemburg
Director: Margarethe von Trotta (1986) ***½
Starring: Barbara Sukowa, Daniel Olbrychski, Otto Sander.
Sukowa offers a towering performance in this compelling, multi- leveled biography of the dedicated, idealistic socialist/pacifist/ humanist who played a prominent role in German politics in the early years of the century. Extremely provocative and well-directed.
#2987. In German with English subtitles. 122 minutes.
The Threepenny Opera [Die Dreigroschenoper]
Director: G. W. Pabst (1931) ***½
Starring: Lotte Lenya, Rudolph Forster, Carola Neher.
Fine musical satire chronicling activities of dashing gangster Forster, his cohorts, and antagonists, with Lenya outstanding as Pirate Jenny. From Bertolt Brecht's play, with music by Kurt Weill.
#1010. 112 minutes.
The Tin Drum [Die Blechtrommel]
Director: Volker Schlöndorff (1979) ****
Starring: David Bennent, Mario Adorf, Angela Winkler.
Mesmerizing adaptation of the Günter Grass novel. Three-year-old Oskar (Bennent) ceases to grow physically as the Nazis take power in Germany and beats out his anger on his tin drum. A "realistic fantasy" with superb acting, particularly by the 12-year- old Bennent. Memorable sequence after memorable sequence; deservedly won a Best Foreign Film Academy Award.
#1276. In German with English subtitles. 142 minutes.
Triumph of the Will [Triumph des Willens]
Director: Leni Riefenstahl (1935) ****
Riefenstahl's infamous documentary on Hitler's 1934 Nürnberg rallies is rightly regarded as the greatest propaganda film of all time. Fascinating and (of course) frightening to see.
#1049. In German with English subtitles. 110 minutes.
Voyager
Director: Volker Schlöndorff (1991) ***
Starring: Sam Shepard, Julie Delpy, Barbara Sukowa.
In the 1950s, American construction engineer Shepard—an inveterate, nearly rootless traveler—meets a man with a link to his pre-WW2 student days in Europe; soon after, he encounters young German beauty Delpy and they take a romantic journey to her home in Athens. Adult tale is quite leisurely paced but well acted and directed. Long-awaited adaptation of Max Frisch's 1957 Swiss- German bestseller, Homo Faber; not without flaws, but more interesting and though-provoking than most contemporary films.
#2988. In English. 117 minutes.
The Wannsee Conference
Director: Heinz Schirk (1984) ***½
Starring: Dietrich Mattausch, Gerd Bockmann, Friedrich Beckhaus.
Fascinating, chilling recreation of the infamous meeting, held in a Berlin suburb in January 1942, in which Nazi bigwigs discussed implementation of the Final Solution. Participants plot the destruction of millions with a casual air, which only adds to the terror. Based on minutes taken at the conference; film's length matches the event's actual running time.
#2690. In German with English subtitles. 87 minutes.
Weltbühne Berlin - Die Zwanziger Jahre
Wings of Desire [Der Himmel über Berlin]
Director: Wim Wenders (1988) ***½
Starring: Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander, Peter Falk.
Haunting, lyrical, thoroughly fascinating meditation/fairy tale about a pair of angels who wander through the streets of Berlin. They observe life around them and ponder what it would be like to be human. Scripted by Wenders and Peter Handke and inspired in part by some Rainer Maira Rilke poems. A must-see.
#2071. In German with English subtitles. 130 minutes.Wir Wunderkinder (Aren't we wondeful?)
Director: (1954)
Starring