The Best German Films of All Time – A Guide to German Cinema
Die besten deutschen Filme aller Zeiten.
Some of the best films German cinema has to offer. In chronological order.
Number of films by decade:
1910s: 4
1920s: 18
1930s: 11
1940s: 6
1950s: 5
1960s: 8
1970s: 24
1980s: 12
1990s: 7
2000s: 11
2010s: 9
2020s: 7
Directors with the most entries on this list:
1. Fritz Lang (9 films)
2. Rainer Werner Fassbinder (9 films)
3. Werner Herzog (8 films)
4. Georg Wilhelm Pabst (5 films)
5. Wim Wenders (5 films)
6. Helmut Käutner (4 films)
7. Christian Petzold (4 films)
8. Edgar Reitz (4 films)
9. Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet (4 films)
10. F.W. Murnau (3 films)
11. Hans-Jürgen Syberberg (3 films)
small glossary:
Berliner Schule - Berlin School (A term used to describe a style of contemporary German auteur cinema. The movement's name was coined Berlin School because the first generation of its filmmakers all graduated from the film school DFFB in Berlin. The films of the Berlin School are often considered an alternative to contemporary German mainstream cinema.)
Neuer Deutscher Film – New German Cinema
Trümmerfilm – literally "rubble film", a short-lived movement in German post-war cinema, heavily influenced by Italian Neorealism, usually filmed on location in the post-war ruins of German cities
Some of the best films German cinema has to offer. In chronological order.
Number of films by decade:
1910s: 4
1920s: 18
1930s: 11
1940s: 6
1950s: 5
1960s: 8
1970s: 24
1980s: 12
1990s: 7
2000s: 11
2010s: 9
2020s: 7
Directors with the most entries on this list:
1. Fritz Lang (9 films)
2. Rainer Werner Fassbinder (9 films)
3. Werner Herzog (8 films)
4. Georg Wilhelm Pabst (5 films)
5. Wim Wenders (5 films)
6. Helmut Käutner (4 films)
7. Christian Petzold (4 films)
8. Edgar Reitz (4 films)
9. Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet (4 films)
10. F.W. Murnau (3 films)
11. Hans-Jürgen Syberberg (3 films)
small glossary:
Berliner Schule - Berlin School (A term used to describe a style of contemporary German auteur cinema. The movement's name was coined Berlin School because the first generation of its filmmakers all graduated from the film school DFFB in Berlin. The films of the Berlin School are often considered an alternative to contemporary German mainstream cinema.)
Neuer Deutscher Film – New German Cinema
Trümmerfilm – literally "rubble film", a short-lived movement in German post-war cinema, heavily influenced by Italian Neorealism, usually filmed on location in the post-war ruins of German cities
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- DirectorHanns Heinz EwersStellan RyeStarsPaul WegenerGrete BergerLyda SalmonovaBalduin, a student of Prague, leaves his roystering companions in the beer garden, when he finds he has reached the end of his resources. He is scarcely seated in a quiet corner when a hideous, shriveled-up old man taps him upon the shoulder and whispers vaguely of a big inheritance for Prague's finest swordsman and wildest student if he will enter into a certain agreement. Balduin rebuffs him, satirically asking his weird companion to procure him "the luckiest ticket in a lottery or a doweried wife." The old man goes off chuckling and thence onward persistently shadows Balduin, exerting a sinister influence over him, while Balduin is still disconsolate under the frowns of fortune. The Countess Margit Schwarzenberg, hunting with her cousin, to whom her father has betrothed her, meets with an accident. She is thrown over her horse's head into a river, but Balduin, who has been directed to the spot by his evil genius, plunges in and rescues her. Subsequently Balduin calls to inquire as to her condition at the castle of her father, the count, but be makes a hurried departure when Baron Waldis arrives, the contrast in their appearance discrediting him. His desire to win the countess and to humiliate the baron becomes so pronounced that he readily accedes to the compact suggested by Scapinelli, the old man, who has so pertinaciously dogged his footsteps, particularly when he learns that untold wealth and power will be his when he assigns to the other the right to take from his room whatever he chooses for his own use as he desires. The agreement is signed. Balduin receives a shower of gold and notes as his portion; Scapinelli takes Balduin's soul exposed in concrete form by his shadow. Balduin prosecutes his love affair assiduously and with apparent success, till the baron is informed of it by a jealous gypsy girl. He challenges Balduin to a duel, and the latter, assured of his superiority as a fencer, readily agrees. Count Schwarzenberg learns of the impending duel and appeals to Balduin not to kill "my sister's child, my daughter's future husband, and my heir." Balduin gives his promise, but when he goes to the venue of the duel he meets, his own counterpart stalking away derisively wiping his gory sword on his cloak. Balduin turns and in the far distance sees the dying victim of the deed he swore he would not do. He rushes from the spot horror-stricken. When he regains sufficient composure he makes his way to the castle of the count, but is refused admission. Determined to explain that he had no complicity in the death of the baron, Balduin climbs into a room in which the countess is seated. She receives him coldly, but soon succumbs to his ardent wooing. Just as he seeks to leave her she notices he has no shadow and that the mirror gives no reflection of him; and she drops back affrighted, the ghastly apparition of himself which takes shape in the corner of the room sends Balduin scuttling away from the castle in a paroxysm of terror. He makes a frenzied flight through a woodland estate and the streets of Prague, but wherever he stops to recover his breath he is haunted by the counterpart of himself. He reaches his rooms and draws a murderous looking fire-arm from its case. As the phantasmagorical figure strides towards him with a sinister grin, he fires, and in a few minutes the blood gushes from his own side from a fatal wound.
- DirectorRichard OswaldStarsConrad VeidtLeo ConnardIlse von Tasso-LindTwo male musicians fall in love, but blackmail and scandal makes the affair take a tragic turn.
- DirectorErnst LubitschStarsVictor JansonOssi OswaldaHarry LiedtkeAn American heiress seeks the hand of an impoverished German prince.
- DirectorErnst LubitschStarsOssi OswaldaHermann ThimigVictor JansonForced into marriage by his uncle, a man decides to fool him by marrying a life-like mechanical doll instead.
- DirectorRobert WieneStarsWerner KraussConrad VeidtFriedrich FeherHypnotist Dr. Caligari uses a somnambulist, Cesare, to commit murders.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsBernhard GoetzkeLil DagoverWalter JanssenWhen a woman's fiancé disappears, Death gives her three chances to save him from his fate.
- DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsMax SchreckAlexander GranachGustav von WangenheimVampire Count Orlok expresses interest in a new residence and real estate agent Hutter's wife.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsRudolf Klein-RoggeAud Egede-NissenGertrude WelckerArch-criminal Dr. Mabuse sets out to make a fortune and run Berlin. Detective Wenk sets out to stop him.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsPaul RichterMargarete SchönTheodor LoosSiegfried, son of King Siegmund of Xanten, sets off on a treacherous journey to the Kingdom of Burgundy to ask King Gunther for the hand of his sister, the beautiful Princess Kriemhild.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsMargarete SchönGertrud ArnoldTheodor LoosPrincess Kriemhild vows to avenge her husband's murder but must overcome her brothers who swore allegiance to Hagen. She marries Etzel, King of the Huns, and persuades his army to attack Hagen, but she loses more than she bargained for.
- DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsEmil JanningsMaly DelschaftMax HillerAn aging doorman is forced to face the scorn of his friends, neighbors and society after being fired from his prestigious job at a luxurious hotel.
- DirectorEwald André DupontStarsEmil JanningsMaly DelschaftLya De PuttiPrologue: The murderer "Boss" Huller - after having spent ten years in prison - breaks his silence to tell the warden his story. "Boss", a former trapeze artist, and his wife own a cheap side-show that displays ''erotic sensations''. But he longs for his former glamorous life in the circus. When he meets the orphan Berta-Marie, he falls under her spell and leaves his wife and young son behind. He makes Berta-Marie his partner in a new trapeze number. One day, the famous trapeze artist Artinelli takes note of them and engages them for his trapeze show in Berlin. Their salto mortale becomes an immediate sensation. Calculatedly and cold, Artinelli seduces Berta-Marie and destroys "Boss'" happiness.
- DirectorLotte ReinigerCarl KochA handsome prince rides a flying horse to faraway lands and embarks on magical adventures, which include befriending a witch, meeting Aladdin, battling demons and falling in love with a princess.
- DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsGösta EkmanEmil JanningsCamilla HornThe demon Mephisto wagers with God that he can corrupt a mortal man's soul.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsBrigitte HelmAlfred AbelGustav FröhlichIn a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city's mastermind falls in love with a working-class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.
- DirectorWalter RuttmannStarsPaul von HindenburgThis movie shows us one day in Berlin, the rhythm of that time, starting at the earliest morning and ends in the deepest night.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsRudolf Klein-RoggeGerda MaurusWilly FritschThe mastermind behind a ubiquitous spy operation learns of a dangerous romance between a Russian lady in his employ and a dashing agent from the government's secret service.
- DirectorGeorg Wilhelm PabstStarsLouise BrooksFritz KortnerFrancis LedererThe rise and inevitable fall of an amoral but naive young woman whose insouciant eroticism inspires lust and violence in those around her.
- DirectorJoe MayStarsAlbert SteinrückElse HellerGustav FröhlichJoe May's sensual drama of life in the Berlin underworld is in many ways the perfect summation of German filmmaking in the silent era: a dazzling visual style, a psychological approach to its characters, and the ability to take a simple and essentially melodramatic story and turn it into something more complex and inherently cinematic.
- DirectorGeorg Wilhelm PabstStarsLouise BrooksJosef RovenskýFritz RaspAfter falling pregnant by a pharmacist and refusing to marry, a young woman is ejected from her home and sent to a strict girls' reform school.
- DirectorPhil JutziStarsAlexandra SchmittHolmes ZimmermannIlse TrautscholdMutter Krause and her children live in the poorer section of Berlin's Wedding district. The film depicts the cruelty of poverty and communism as a rescuing force that reaches Mutter Krause and the child too late.
- DirectorArnold FanckGeorg Wilhelm PabstStarsGustav DiesslLeni RiefenstahlErnst PetersenA man climbs a 12,000-foot mountain to search for his wife, who was lost on their honeymoon. Another couple makes the dangerous climb with him.
- DirectorRobert SiodmakEdgar G. UlmerRochus GlieseStarsErwin SplettstößerBrigitte BorchertWolfgang von WaltershausenTwo men and two women enjoy a pleasant Sunday at the beach amid the unending toil of the working week.
- DirectorJosef von SternbergStarsEmil JanningsMarlene DietrichKurt GerronAn elderly professor's ordered life spins dangerously out of control when he falls for a nightclub singer.
- DirectorGeorg Wilhelm PabstStarsRudolf ForsterLotte LenyaCarola NeherThe Gangster Macheath secretly marries the daughter of beggar king Peachum. When Peachum finds out, he instructs the police chief Brown to arrest and hang Macheath. If not, all the beggars of Soho will disturb the upcoming coronation.