Cinema - German films - Drama

German cinema: Drama (Page 1 of 3)

Abwege (1928)

Georg Wilhelm Pabst

Neglected by her workaholic husband Thomas, Irene Beck plans to elope with her secret admirer, the artist Walter Frank. When Thomas, a respected lawyer, manages to thwart this scheme, Irene takes her revenge by slipping away one evening to a debauched Berlin nightclub. Influenced by drugs and drink, she succumbs to the earthy charms of a young boxer... [More...]

Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes (1972)

Werner Herzog

In 1560, a party of conquistadors led by Gonzalo Pizarro cross the Andes and undertake a hazardous journey through the Amazon rain forest in search of El Dorado, the fabled city of gold. When the terrain becomes too difficult to cross on foot, a smaller group of about fifty men is sent on ahead on rafts, led by Don Pedro de Ursúa... [More...]

Der Amerikanische Soldat (1970)

Rainer Werner Fassbinder

After serving in the American army in Vietnam, a former professional killer named Ricky returns to his hometown of Munich in Germany. The town is in the grip of a serious crime wave, which the police seem incapable of containing. Three renegade cops hire Ricky to kill the gangsters who are behind the crime wave, which he does with his usual professional detachment... [More...]

Angst essen Seele auf (1974)

Rainer Werner Fassbinder

One rainy evening, Emmi Kurowski, a 60-year-old cleaning lady, ducks into an Arab bar to avoid being soaked. She immediately notices a Moroccan worker, twenty years her junior, and invites him to dance with her. The Moroccan introduces himself as Ali and an unlikely friendship develops between the two... [More...]

Anna Boleyn (1920)

Ernst Lubitsch

Once she has completed her education in France, Anne Boleyn returns to England to take up the position of lady-in-waiting to Queen Katherine, the wife of the English monarch, King Henry VIII. By the time of Anne’s arrival, the King has grown tired of Katherine and intends to divorce her on the grounds that she has failed to supply him with a male heir... [More...]

Die Blechtrommel (1979)

Volker Schlöndorff

Born into a German family in Danzig of the early 1920s, Oskar Matzerath becomes aware of the world around him at an early age. Unimpressed by the childish and hypocritical behaviour of the adults who surround him, he makes the decision on his third birthday never to grow up. By throwing himself down a flight of stairs, he manages to arrest his growth, but whilst he retains the stature of a child, his mind is more lucid than that of any adult... [More...]

Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari (1920)

Robert Wiene

Seated on a park bench, a young man, Francis, tells an older man the tragic story of his fiancée. It began some years ago, when he and his friend, Alan, were in love with the same young woman, Jane... One day, Francis and Alain decide to visit a travelling fair at which one of the exhibits is Dr Caligari’s cabinet... [More...]

Carlos (2010)

Olivier Assayas

A legend in his own lifetime, Carlos the Jackal (né Ilich Ramírez Sánchez) was at the epicentre of international terrorism in the 1970s and ’80s. He was both an extreme leftwing activist and opportunistic mercenary, selling his services to political organisations in the Middle East, whilst building up his own terrorist network behind the Iron Curtain... [More...]

Cross of Iron (1977)

Sam Peckinpah

It is 1943 and Germany is losing the war on the Eastern Front. After a humiliating defeat at Stalingrad, German troops are in retreat, repelled by a determined Soviet fighting machine. Corporal Steiner is a battle-hardened soldier in the Germany army, contemptuous of officers but fiercely loyal to the men who fight alongside him... [More...]

Dorothea Angermann (1959)

Robert Siodmak

Late one evening, a young woman walks out of a bar and confesses to the murder of her husband. At her trial, Dorothea Angermann looks back on the events that have brought her to this tragic outcome. It all began when her father, a prim country priest, sent her away from home to start her own life. At the restaurant where she worked, she attracted the attentions of a womanising chef named Mario... [More...]

Die Ehe der Maria Braun (1979)

Rainer Werner Fassbinder

In 1943, a young German woman named Maria marries Hermann Braun, just before he goes off to fight on the Russian front. Shortly after the end of the war, Maria’s brother-in-law returns with the news that Hermann has been killed in action. To support herself and her mother, Maria finds work in a bar frequented by American servicemen... [More...]

The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)

Werner Herzog

In 1828, a young man dressed in ragged clothes is found standing in the town square at Nuremberg. No one recognises him and he can only speak one phrase, "I want to be a cavalryman, like my father." The townsfolk adopt him as one of their own and attempt to civilise him, although when he becomes a financial burden he ends up as an exhibit in a sideshow... [More...]

Fata Morgana (1971)

Werner Herzog

A barren desert landscape, a wilderness that looks as if it has been devoid of life for an eternity... Yet, there are signs of civilisation, signs that once life existed here. A wrecked aircraft, the decaying carcasses of dead animals, abandoned structures... It is impossible, unthinkable, but there are also people living in this wild desolation, this broken paradise..... [More...]

Faust (1926)

F.W. Murnau

The Devil persuades an archangel to agree to a bet: if he can corrupt one good man then the whole world will be his; if not, he will return to Hell forever. To snare his victim, the Prince of Darkness sends a plague down on a German town, a disease which kills people in their thousands. Brought to despair through his inability to counter the plague, the aged Dr Faust calls up the Devil in a moment of desperation - and he duly appears, in the guise of Mephisto... [More...]

Faustrecht der Freiheit (1975)

Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Franz Biberkopf is a good-natured but guileless young man who earns a modest living as an act in a travelling circus. When his employer is arrested for tax evasion, Franz loses both his job and his boyfriend. He is not downhearted, however. He is convinced he will win the national lottery. Whilst cruising, he is picked up by a gay antiques dealer, Max, and just manages to get to the newsagents’ in time to buy his winning lottery ticket... [More...]

Frau im Mond (1929)

Fritz Lang

For some time, engineers Wolf Helius and Hans Windegger have been working on a project to send a manned rocket to the moon. Helius consults a once-eminent astronomer, Professor Manfeldt, who is convinced that the dark side of the moon holds many secrets. Manfeldt was ridiculed for his theory that the lunar surface is strewn with deposits of mineral gold... [More...]

From the Life of the Marionettes (1980)

Ingmar Bergman

One evening, successful businessman Peter Egermann pays a visit to a brothel where he meets and kills a prostitute. What could have driven such a seemingly well-adjusted young man to perform this random act of brutality? His wife Katarina was devoted to him and, apart from a few brief extra-marital adventures, they seemed to be the perfect wedded couple... [More...]

Geheimnisse einer Seele (1926)

Georg Wilhelm Pabst

One day, a respectable chemist, Dr Fellman, begins to have a sudden irrational fear of knives. It began when he learnt that a neighbour of his had been murdered. Not long after that, he received the present of a knife from a close friend who has been away travelling in the Far East. Fellman’s anxieties quickly turn to terror as he starts to have baffling dreams and acquires an almost overwhelming urge to murder his wife..... [More...]

Gruppenbild mit Dame (1977)

Aleksandar Petrovic

Leni Gruyten’s life has been as turbulent and unpredictable as her own wayward character. To save her from the Nazis, Leni, a bourgeois Jew living in Germany, is placed in the care of a convent of nuns. During the war, she has an affair with her cousin, who is later shot for refusing to join the German army... [More...]

Hamlet (1921)

Sven Gade

Hamlet, king of Denmark, returns from the war against Norway badly wounded. At the same time, Gertrude, his queen, gives birth – to a daughter. Fearing that the king will die, and anxious to protect the royal line, the queen insists the news be given that she has produced a male heir. The years pass, and no one except the king and queen know that their child, the Prince Hamlet, is a young woman... [More...]

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