Film critic Mr.Lalit Rao (FIPRESCI) recommends 25 important films to teach German language.
by FilmCriticLalitRao | created - 18 Jul 2015 | updated - 06 Aug 2015 | Public- Instant Watch Options
- Genres
- Movies or TV
- IMDb Rating
- In Theaters
- Release Year
- Keywords
1. Young Törless (1966)
Not Rated | 87 min | Drama
In a boarding school, a student observes in passive disgust as his two friends manipulate, humiliate and torture a fellow student, justifying their every act.
Director: Volker Schlöndorff | Stars: Mathieu Carrière, Marian Seidowsky, Bernd Tischer, Fred Dietz
Votes: 2,662
2. Good Bye Lenin! (2003)
R | 121 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
In 1990, to protect his fragile mother from a fatal shock after a long coma, a young man must keep her from learning that her beloved nation of East Germany as she knew it has disappeared.
Director: Wolfgang Becker | Stars: Daniel Brühl, Katrin Sass, Chulpan Khamatova, Florian Lukas
Votes: 152,539 | Gross: $4.06M
3. Schtonk (1992)
115 min | Comedy, Crime
The slightly fictionalized story of an art forger, a journalist desperate for a big story, and the biggest press scandal in German history: the Hitler Diaries.
Director: Helmut Dietl | Stars: Götz George, Uwe Ochsenknecht, Christiane Hörbiger, Dagmar Manzel
Votes: 4,024
4. Murderers Among Us (1946)
Not Rated | 85 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
After returning from a concentration camp, Susanne finds an ex-soldier living in her apartment. Together the two try to move past their experiences during World War II.
Director: Wolfgang Staudte | Stars: Hildegard Knef, Elly Burgmer, Erna Sellmer, Hilde Adolphi
Votes: 2,544
5. I Was Nineteen (1968)
115 min | Biography, Drama, War
Gregor Hecker, who fled Germany with his parents, returns to Germany as a lieutenant in the Red Army.
Director: Konrad Wolf | Stars: Jaecki Schwarz, Vasiliy Livanov, Aleksey Eybozhenko, Dieter Mann
Votes: 1,035
6. Abschied von gestern - (Anita G.) (1966)
88 min | Drama
The film tells the story of Anita G., a young East German migrant to West Germany and her struggle to adjust to her new life.
Director: Alexander Kluge | Stars: Alexandra Kluge, Günter Mack, Eva Maria Meineke, Hans Korte
Votes: 1,056
7. Night Shapes (1999)
101 min | Comedy, Drama
The Pope is in town and the night of his visit is anything but heavenly for some of Berlin's inhabitants. The down-and-out, the rich and the poor, the polizei, the street kids and taxi ... See full summary »
Director: Andreas Dresen | Stars: Myriam Abbas, Dominique Horwitz, Oliver Breite, Susanne Bormann
Votes: 723
8. Nobody Loves Me (1994)
104 min | Comedy, Drama
On the brink of her 30th birthday, Fanny feels the door to marital happiness closing on her. She is obsessed with death and even visits evening classes on dying, so it seems fitting that ... See full summary »
Director: Doris Dörrie | Stars: Maria Schrader, Pierre Sanoussi-Bliss, Michael von Au, Elisabeth Trissenaar
Votes: 1,245
9. Jacob the Liar (1974)
100 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A Jewish ghetto in central Europe, 1944. By coincidence, Jakob Heym eavesdrops on a German radio broadcast announcing the Soviet Army is making slow by steady progress towards central ... See full summary »
Director: Frank Beyer | Stars: Vlastimil Brodský, Erwin Geschonneck, Henry Hübchen, Blanche Kommerell
Votes: 1,375
10. M (1931)
Passed | 99 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
When the police in a German city are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Peter Lorre, Ellen Widmann, Inge Landgut, Otto Wernicke
Votes: 168,278 | Gross: $0.03M
11. Germany Pale Mother (1980)
152 min | Drama, History, War
Germany 1939. Hans and Lene marry the day before the war breaks out, and Hans is sent to the Eastern front. During a bombing raid their daughter Anna is born. The house is destroyed and ... See full summary »
Director: Helma Sanders-Brahms | Stars: Eva Mattes, Ernst Jacobi, Elisabeth Stepanek, Angelika Thomas
Votes: 845
12. Das Andechser Gefühl (1975)
68 min | Drama
An anxious teacher (played, as is the lead role in all his films, by the director) sits in a beer garden on the hill of the Andechs monastery. While flies drown in his mug of beer, he ... See full summary »
Director: Herbert Achternbusch | Stars: Herbert Achternbusch, Judit Achternbusch, Heinz Braun, Ella Fießinger
Votes: 94
13. Die Unberührbare (2000)
110 min | Drama
Flanders, a famous female author, travels 1989 after the fall of the Berlin wall into the German capital. She is deeply depressed of the events because she saw the communistic states as a ... See full summary »
Director: Oskar Roehler | Stars: Hannelore Elsner, Vadim Glowna, Tonio Arango, Michael Gwisdek
Votes: 887
14. Despair (1978)
119 min | Drama, History
In early-1930s Berlin, an elegant Russian émigré and eccentric chocolatier convinces himself that he has seen his doppelgänger, and hatches a murderous plan to trade his existence for an entirely new one. Will he get over the deep despair?
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Stars: Dirk Bogarde, Andréa Ferréol, Klaus Löwitsch, Volker Spengler
Votes: 2,710
15. Knife in the Head (1978)
113 min | Drama
During a police raid on a youth center, the biogeneticist Hoffmann is shot in the head. When he awakes from a coma, he can't remember anyting. The police accuse him of being a terrorist.
Director: Reinhard Hauff | Stars: Bruno Ganz, Angela Winkler, Hans Christian Blech, Heinz Hoenig
Votes: 722
16. Joan of Arc of Mongolia (1989)
165 min | Comedy, Drama
A group of cosmopolitan women passengers aboard the Trans-Siberian/Mongolian Railway are taken prisoner by Ulan Iga, a warrior princess.
Director: Ulrike Ottinger | Stars: Delphine Seyrig, Irm Hermann, Gillian Scalici, Peter Kern
Votes: 249
17. Where the Green Ants Dream (1984)
R | 100 min | Drama
A geologist employed by an Australian mining company finds himself disputing the rights of some aborigines who believe their land to be sacred.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Bruce Spence, Wandjuk Marika, Roy Marika, Ray Barrett
Votes: 2,628
18. Palermo or Wolfsburg (1980)
173 min | Drama
An impoverished young man from Sicily travels to Wolfsburg, West Germany to find work. He takes a job in the Volkswagen factory after he travels through Northern Italy by train.
Director: Werner Schroeter | Stars: Nicola Zarbo, Otto Sander, Ida Di Benedetto, Magdalena Montezuma
Votes: 270
19. Three from the Filling Station (1930)
99 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
Willy, Kurt and Hans are broke, so they sell their car and open a filling station. Then they all fall in love with the same girl.
Director: Wilhelm Thiele | Stars: Willy Fritsch, Lilian Harvey, Heinz Rühmann, Oskar Karlweis
Votes: 877
20. Paris, Texas (1984)
R | 145 min | Drama
Travis Henderson, an aimless drifter who has been missing for four years, wanders out of the desert and must reconnect with society, himself, his life, and his family.
Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski, Dean Stockwell, Sam Berry
Votes: 118,581 | Gross: $2.18M
21. Karakum (1994)
101 min | Adventure, Family
Robert, a 13-year-old German boy starts a journey to find his father who he thinks lives in Turkmenistan. When he reaches the country, he meets a local boy named Murad, who agrees to help him in his search.
Directors: Arend Agthe, Uzmaan Saparov | Stars: Max Kullmann, Murad Orazov, Pjotr Olev, Neithardt Riedel
Votes: 89
22. Nowhere in Africa (2001)
R | 141 min | Biography, Drama, History
Due to Hitler's threat, Walter Redlich, a Jewish lawyer, immigrates to Kenya with his wife Jettel and daughter Regina. Things take a turn when the family is ordered to move by the British officers.
Director: Caroline Link | Stars: Juliane Köhler, Merab Ninidze, Matthias Habich, Sidede Onyulo
Votes: 13,948 | Gross: $6.17M
23. The State I Am In (2000)
Not Rated | 106 min | Drama
Clara and Hans are left-wing terrorists who have been sought by police for almost fifteen years. Their increasingly rebellious daughter begins to pose a threat to their security when she falls in love with a boy she meets on the beach.
Director: Christian Petzold | Stars: Julia Hummer, Barbara Auer, Richy Müller, Bilge Bingül
Votes: 2,760
24. Das Boot (1981)
R | 149 min | Drama, War
A German U-boat stalks the frigid waters of the North Atlantic as its young crew experience the sheer terror and claustrophobic life of a submariner in World War II.
Director: Wolfgang Petersen | Stars: Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, Klaus Wennemann, Hubertus Bengsch
Votes: 264,078 | Gross: $11.49M
25. Verlorene Landschaft (1992)
95 min | Drama
Director: Andreas Kleinert | Stars: Roland Schäfer, Friederike Kammer, Sylvester Groth, Christoph Engel
Votes: 37
Tell Your Friends