The other side of german cinema - some "lost" masterpieces
by The_Coma-Man | created - 14 May 2011 | updated - 14 May 2011 | PublicGermany is often derided (especially by its own inhabitants) for its lackluster cinematic efforts. While maybe true in regard of the "blockbusters" of the recent future, germany has an amazing past when it comes to great, weird, surreal and unique films. This list collects some films I have seen, some I've yet to see but heard great things about and some classics to re-visit.
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1. The Parallel Street (1962)
86 min | Drama
Feature-documentary "pointing up a thousand facets of this world and probing to determine what may lie beneath the surface".
Director: Ferdinand Khittl | Stars: Friedrich Joloff, Ernst Marbeck, Wilfried Schröpfer, Herbert Tiede
Votes: 226
2. The Bread of Those Early Years (1962)
84 min | Drama
A young electrical engineer, engaged to his boss's daughter and on the way to a secure existence, breaks out of his usual life when he meets a childhood friend.
Director: Herbert Vesely | Stars: Christian Doermer, Karen Blanguernon, Vera Tschechowa, Eike Siegel
Votes: 137
3. Artists Under the Big Top: Perplexed (1968)
103 min | Drama
"Neues Kino movie" about life in the circus dome narrated in Brechtian spirit; deceptively illusionist grip is broken violently by aloofness and sweeping subjective tracking shots.
Director: Alexander Kluge | Stars: Hannelore Hoger, Sigi Graue, Alfred Edel, Bernd Höltz
Votes: 461
4. Deadlock (1970)
93 min | Thriller, Western
In a deserted mining town at the end of nowhere three desperate men fight over a suitcase full of cash.
Director: Roland Klick | Stars: Mario Adorf, Marquard Bohm, Anthony Dawson, Mascha Rabben
Votes: 1,436
5. Das Millionenspiel (1970 TV Movie)
96 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
A candidate in a game show is hunted by three men. He will get a Million DMark, if he survives for a week; the hunters will get the money, if they can kill the candidate. The audience of ... See full summary »
Director: Tom Toelle | Stars: Jörg Pleva, Suzanne Roquette, Dieter Thomas Heck, Theo Fink
Votes: 1,280
6. Red Sun (1970)
89 min | Crime
Thomas hitchhikes from Hamburg to Munich where he runs into his ex-girlfriend Peggy. As Thomas doesn't have a bed, he lets Peggy take him home, not knowing that she and her four roommates have all made a strange pact.
Director: Rudolf Thome | Stars: Uschi Obermaier, Marquard Bohm, Sylvia Kekulé, Gaby Go
Votes: 656
7. Engel, die ihre Flügel verbrennen (1970)
93 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
Munich at night: Robert Susmeit, a 16-year-old teenager who is jealously obsessed with his mother Hilde, traces her and her latest lover at a mundane apartment building where he kills the ... See full summary »
Director: Zbynek Brynych | Stars: Susanne Uhlen, Jan Koester, Ellen Umlauf, Harald Baerow
Votes: 88
8. Jonathan (1970)
110 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
In a apocalyptic 19th century landscape where wealthy vampires have taken over the world, a group of humans prepare an uprising, and select an adventurous young man to track down the leader of the undead and destroy him.
Director: Hans W. Geissendörfer | Stars: Jürgen Jung, Hans-Dieter Jendreyko, Paul Albert Krumm, Hertha von Walther
Votes: 329
9. Die Weibchen (1970)
90 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
A young woman joins an exclusive women's health clinic only to discover it's run by feminist cannibals.
Director: Zbynek Brynych | Stars: Uschi Glas, Irina Demick, Françoise Fabian, George Ardisson
Votes: 247
10. The Death of Maria Malibran (1972)
104 min | Musical, Drama, Comedy
This is about the life and myths about famous opera singer Maria Malibran (1808-1836). She died on the stage.
Director: Werner Schroeter | Stars: Magdalena Montezuma, Christine Kaufmann, Candy Darling, Manuela Riva
Votes: 400
11. Dream City (1973)
R | 124 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
A married couple of artists move to a utopian town known for its absolute freedom, but behind the surface perversion and violence are spreading.
Director: Johannes Schaaf | Stars: Per Oscarsson, Rosemarie Fendel, Olimpia, Eva Maria Meineke
Votes: 234
12. World on a Wire (1973)
Not Rated | 212 min | Crime, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Somewhere in the future there is a computer project called Simulacron one of which is able to simulate a full featured reality, when suddenly project leader Henry Vollmer dies. His ... See full summary »
Stars: Klaus Löwitsch, Barbara Valentin, Mascha Rabben, Karl Heinz Vosgerau
Votes: 6,767
13. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
Not Rated | 92 min | Drama, Romance
A lonely widow meets a much younger Moroccan worker in a bar during a rainstorm. They fall in love, to their own surprise and to the outright shock of their families, colleagues, and drinking buddies.
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Stars: Brigitte Mira, El Hedi ben Salem, Barbara Valentin, Irm Hermann
Votes: 23,829
14. The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1975)
R | 106 min | Crime, Drama
A young woman's life is scrutinized by police and tabloid press after she spends the night with a suspected terrorist.
Directors: Volker Schlöndorff, Margarethe von Trotta | Stars: Angela Winkler, Mario Adorf, Dieter Laser, Jürgen Prochnow
Votes: 4,879
15. The Glass Cell (1978)
93 min | Crime, Drama
A man is wrongfully imprisoned for five years. Once out, he hears about his wife's supposed adventures outside of their marriage and becomes increasingly jealous.
Director: Hans W. Geissendörfer | Stars: Brigitte Fossey, Helmut Griem, Dieter Laser, Walter Kohut
Votes: 280
16. In a Year with 13 Moons (1978)
Not Rated | 124 min | Drama
A transgender woman tries to salvage something from the wreckage love has made of her life by confronting her anguished past, hoping to find ultimate acceptance among former acquaintances and herself.
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Stars: Volker Spengler, Ingrid Caven, Gottfried John, Elisabeth Trissenaar
Votes: 4,731
17. The Left-Handed Woman (1977)
119 min | Drama
After returning from a business trip in Finland, Bruno (Bruno Ganz) find that his wife Marianne (Edith Clever) wants her husband to leave her alone with their son. A struggle with loneliness and adapting to the new situation ensues.
Director: Peter Handke | Stars: Edith Clever, Markus Mühleisen, Bruno Ganz, Michael Lonsdale
Votes: 368
18. Ticket of No Return (1979)
108 min | Drama
A woman presented as a "trinkerin" is having a special tour in Berlin. She bought herself a single-way ticket and will drink everywhere she can.
Director: Ulrike Ottinger | Stars: Tabea Blumenschein, Lutze, Magdalena Montezuma, Orpha Termin
Votes: 587
19. The Third Generation (1979)
111 min | Crime, Drama
A wildly anarchic satire of urban guerrilla warfare in which a band of leftist radicals inadvertently become puppets of the West German government, which uses them to justify its authoritarian policies.
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Stars: Eddie Constantine, Hanna Schygulla, Volker Spengler, Margit Carstensen
Votes: 2,801
20. Céleste (1980)
107 min | Biography, Drama, History
In 1914, with men gone to war, Marcel Proust hired Céleste Albaret as his attendant. More than eight years later, she was at his side when he died. During this entire time, she only entered... See full summary »
Director: Percy Adlon | Stars: Eva Mattes, Jürgen Arndt, Norbert Wartha, Wolf Euba
Votes: 284
21. Ediths Tagebuch (1983)
R | 102 min | Drama
When Edith Howland's husband abandons her for a younger woman, leaving her with their alcoholic son and his senile uncle, she begins recording details of an imaginary, much more successful ... See full summary »
Director: Hans W. Geissendörfer | Stars: Angela Winkler, Vadim Glowna, Leopold von Verschuer, Hans Madin
Votes: 76
22. A Man Like Eva (1984)
92 min | Biography, Drama
A bearded director named EVA, a fictive Rainer Werner Fassbinder, lives in a large house with his cast and crew as he films Dumas' Lady of the Camellias. His accountant informs him he has ... See full summary »
Director: Radu Gabrea | Stars: Eva Mattes, Lisa Kreuzer, Werner Stocker, Charles Regnier
Votes: 127
23. Tausend Augen (1984)
92 min | Drama, Thriller
In Hamburg in winter, Gabriele dreams of sunny Australia and her lover who sends her taped messages. Gabriele lives with her parents and is studying marine biology, but at night she works ... See full summary »
Director: Hans-Christoph Blumenberg | Stars: Barbara Rudnik, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Karin Baal, Peter Kraus
Votes: 124
24. Tarot (1986)
120 min | Comedy, Drama
A film director, his fiancée, a scriptwriter and a student interact and discuss their emotions, at length.
Director: Rudolf Thome | Stars: Vera Tschechowa, Rüdiger Vogler, Hanns Zischler, Katharina Böhm
Votes: 55
25. Stammheim - The Baader-Meinhof Gang on Trial (1986)
107 min | Crime, Drama
Stammheim Prison in Stuttgart, West Germany, as the five defendants--Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof Gudrun Ensslin, Jan-Carl Raspe, and Holger Meins--are brought before the judge and ... See full summary »
Director: Reinhard Hauff | Stars: Ulrich Tukur, Hans Kremer, Therese Affolter, Ulrich Pleitgen
Votes: 497
26. The Nasty Girl (1990)
PG-13 | 92 min | Comedy, Drama, History
When a young woman investigates her town's Nazi past, the community turns against her.
Director: Michael Verhoeven | Stars: Lena Stolze, Hans-Reinhard Müller, Monika Baumgartner, Elisabeth Bertram
Votes: 2,755 | Gross: $2.28M
27. Under the Milky Way (1995)
84 min | Comedy, Drama
A young German moving to the city to start studying experiences a troublesome arrival: Within a few minutes he falls in love, learns that the girl has a boyfriend already, and discovers ... See full summary »
Director: Matthias X. Oberg | Stars: Fabian Busch, Sophie Rois, Christiane Paul, Antonio Paradiso
Votes: 83
28. Der Felsen (2002)
122 min | Drama, Thriller
Katrin and Jürgen spend their holidays in Corsica. Katrin is in her mid-thirties, working as a tracer at Jürgen's company who suddenly remembers he's married -- but not with Kathrin. So ... See full summary »
Director: Dominik Graf | Stars: Karoline Eichhorn, Antonio Wannek, Sebastian Urzendowsky, Ralph Herforth
Votes: 365
29. Stratosphere Girl (2004)
Unrated | 85 min | Drama, Mystery
Enter a dark, dangerous world where the lines between reality and fantasy are blurred. Angela is 18, a stunning Dutch blonde, a comic illustrator, and bored with life. Eager for adventure, ... See full summary »
Director: Matthias X. Oberg | Stars: Chloé Winkel, Jon Yang, Rebecca Palmer, Tuva Novotny
Votes: 1,409
30. Baal (2004 TV Movie)
90 min | Drama
Baal, a young artist whom society regards as a genius, does not want to be monopolized by the culture and business.
Director: Uwe Janson | Stars: Matthias Schweighöfer, Pasquale Aleardi, Sheri Hagen, Bernhard Piesk
Votes: 144
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