This television documentary in four episodes features interviews, archival footage, and scenery to trace the history of railroads from Victorian England to high-tech Japan.
This television documentary in four episodes features interviews, archival footage, and scenery to trace the history of railroads from Victorian England to high-tech Japan. close
A series of 32 short scenes, uniformly set in West German instructional and training classes, that show various tasks among the citizenry being done solely more
A series of 32 short scenes, uniformly set in West German instructional and training classes, that show various tasks among the citizenry being done solely as the result of exhaustive preparation - everything from women preparing to give birth, to strippers stripping, to policemen making arrests. Farocki uses the material to savagely dissect the West German mode of life. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi close
This first film by choreographer Pina Bausch reflects her method of working as developed with the Wuppertal Theatre of Dance during the 1973/74 season. more
This first film by choreographer Pina Bausch reflects her method of working as developed with the Wuppertal Theatre of Dance during the 1973/74 season. The film does not tell a story, but is made up of various scenes put together as a collage with scenes set in different locations. The futility of human activity and the search for love make up the film's central theme set against the strains of a Silician funeral march. Filmed on location in Wuppertal, Germany, between October 1987 and April 1989. close
A young customs officer is bored by his job and his situation at all. He tries to have some fun, but in a way that nobody else can enjoy. The situation more
A young customs officer is bored by his job and his situation at all. He tries to have some fun, but in a way that nobody else can enjoy. The situation changes when he decides to let his too long hair be cut. close
Jeanne is a woman who is driven by her very active conscience. She attempts to assuage her idealistic bent by trying out life as a nun, but this doesn't more
Jeanne is a woman who is driven by her very active conscience. She attempts to assuage her idealistic bent by trying out life as a nun, but this doesn't work out. After she leaves the convent, she takes a job at a factory, where the callousness of management spurs her to become a labor activist. Her efforts are marked by great persistence and fervor, but she lacks any kind of diplomacy or persuasiveness, and as the years progress, she manages to alienate everyone in her life. By the end of the film, there is only one way that she can see to resolve the horrible situation she finds herself in. close
Friedrich (Uwe Bohm) manages to escape from East Germany to the West in the 1950s. On his arrival, he is greeted with the words Herzlich Willkommen, or more
Friedrich (Uwe Bohm) manages to escape from East Germany to the West in the 1950s. On his arrival, he is greeted with the words Herzlich Willkommen, or "cordial, heartfelt welcome." However, once he finds employment, what he experiences is anything but a cordial welcome at his new job, where he is a teacher/counselor for "wayward children" located in a former castle. The institution is headed by a former Nazi who runs it with the help of the more criminal, bullying boys. Despite these obstacles, Friedrich manages to establish a rapport with a boy who wants to go "straight," and also begins to have an affair with an attractive female teacher at the school. close
The son of a photographer chasing his dream of life in a deserted harbor area is reminded by a chance acquaintance that he loves the same type of woman more
The son of a photographer chasing his dream of life in a deserted harbor area is reminded by a chance acquaintance that he loves the same type of woman as his father. When the New Yorker discovers her father's work, she begins to tell new stories with the old pictures, while the man is reminded of the past reality. close
This one is a collage of Hollywood melodramas of the 1950s and 1960s, filmed directly from the television set. The constantly recurring motifs of suspense more
This one is a collage of Hollywood melodramas of the 1950s and 1960s, filmed directly from the television set. The constantly recurring motifs of suspense and clichés of plot make it possible to move seamlessly among scenes from different films with different protagonists: uneasy sleep, getting up, listening at the door, turning on the lights, being startled, etc. In the montage, the movements and gestures of the actresses – stars like Lana Turner, Tippi Hedren, and Grace Kelly– seem choreographed and planned for each other. The soundtrack supports this effect with connecting passages of sound that imitate the stereotypes of the genre. The treatment concentrates the dramatic shift from the familiar to the eerie and shows how women become the victims of the voyeuristic glance of film. close
Riedau, an idyllic wine-producing village on the Hungarian frontier with Austria. Young Sandor is brought to the local police station by border guards more
Riedau, an idyllic wine-producing village on the Hungarian frontier with Austria. Young Sandor is brought to the local police station by border guards during New Years' celebrations. Next morning he has disappeared without a trace. When Sandor is finally discovered by chance in the stations detention cell he has survived for 18 days, suffering a loss of memory. close
A young Russian man arrives in Berlin in search of a woman, but becomes entangled with two others one of whom falls in love with him and another who represents more
A young Russian man arrives in Berlin in search of a woman, but becomes entangled with two others one of whom falls in love with him and another who represents a classic Russian heroine like out of a novel from one of his countrymen idols. close
A chance meeting between British nobleman and lovely young Mistral foils a plot by her manipulating Aunt Emilie to avenge the death of her sister, Mistral's more
A chance meeting between British nobleman and lovely young Mistral foils a plot by her manipulating Aunt Emilie to avenge the death of her sister, Mistral's mother, who died in childbirth. But when an unscrupulous blackmailer and a rapacious Rajah enter the plot, the growing attraction between Lord and convent girl becomes yet more fraught with Danger. close
A companion piece to the earlier film ‘The Death of Empedocles’, 'Black Sin' is an adaptation of the third version of Friedrich Hölderlin’s play ‘Der Tod Des Empedokles’.
A companion piece to the earlier film ‘The Death of Empedocles’, 'Black Sin' is an adaptation of the third version of Friedrich Hölderlin’s play ‘Der Tod Des Empedokles’. close
In this loose remake of Black Sunday (1960), a group of skiers in Northern Italy land in a huge crevasse where they find the body of a long dead girl more
In this loose remake of Black Sunday (1960), a group of skiers in Northern Italy land in a huge crevasse where they find the body of a long dead girl covered by a mask. Out of curiosity and nothing better to do they remove the mask and start playing games with it. Turns out this dead girl is the witch Anibas who had been condemned to die by burning and the mask put on her face to prevent her return. close
In this tragic melodrama, a man who has been hiding his Nazi past has it come back to haunt him when his hippie daughter, whom he disapproves of, comes more
In this tragic melodrama, a man who has been hiding his Nazi past has it come back to haunt him when his hippie daughter, whom he disapproves of, comes back to bond with her daughter, whom he's been raising. Meanwhile, he and his drinking buddy, a beer-truck driver, go on a jaunt to Poland to recover some gold fillings he had hidden years ago during the time when he worked in a concentration camp. The truck driver inadvertently leaves a filling lying around at home, and his mother immediately recognizes it for what it is. When she confronts him, he claims that "Jews don't mean anything to me" and she must then reveal his Jewish heritage to him: she was a housekeeper in a Jewish household and he was a child there whom she adopted during the Holocaust in order to save his life. The driver then confronts the wily old Nazi, who conceives a brutal scheme which will save his cozy life at the expense of the reputations of the driver and his granddaughter. close
Genua, 3rd October 1985. Together with over 500 other passengers Margot and Pierre Bergeron, a married couple from France, the Serafinis, an Italian family, more
Genua, 3rd October 1985. Together with over 500 other passengers Margot and Pierre Bergeron, a married couple from France, the Serafinis, an Italian family, Anne Higgins, an Englishwoman, Gitta and Helmut Holzer from Germany and an American couple called Marilyn and Leon Klinghoffer board the 'Achille Lauro'. The mood is cheerful and relaxed, everyone is looking forward to twelve days of sun, sea and peace. No one suspects that there are four Palestinian terrorists among the passengers: Al Assadi, Fatayer, Al Ashker and Molqi, their leader. The ship puts to sea in perfect weather. Three marvellous days follow. Everyone appears to be happy and contented. But in the case of some of the passengers appearances are deceiving. Marilyn Klinghoffer, for example, only pretends to her crippled husband that she is well and happy; in reality she is seriously ill with cancer and knows that this will be her last voyage. She does not want to upset her husband, however. A crisis is brewing between ... close
Post-war Germany in 1946 while people are struggling to make ends meet, the film follows Hermann, a war veteran who finds employment at a train station. more
Post-war Germany in 1946 while people are struggling to make ends meet, the film follows Hermann, a war veteran who finds employment at a train station. As he falls in love with an agricultural worker and starts comitting thefts, his fragile psyche seems to fall more and more out of balance. close
Rose Sellars is a middle-aged woman who falls in love with a widower. However, his children believe that their father is too old to start a new relationship.
Rose Sellars is a middle-aged woman who falls in love with a widower. However, his children believe that their father is too old to start a new relationship. close
