Stefan Zweig

The Grand Budapest Hotel tells of a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars and his friendship with a young employee who becomes his trusted protégé. The story involves the theft and recovery of a priceless Renaissance painting, the battle for an enormous family fortune and the slow and then sudden upheavals that transformed Europe during the first half of the 20th century.

1938. While the Nazi troops march into Vienna, the lawyer Josef Bartok hastily tries to escape to the USA with his wife but is arrested by the Gestapo. Bartok remains steadfast and refuses to cooperate with the Gestapo that requires confidential information from him. Thrown into solitary confinement, Bartok is psychologically tormented for months and begins to weaken. However, when he steals an old book about chess it sets him on course to overcome the mental suffering inflicted upon him, until it becomes a dangerous obsession.

A romantic drama set in Denmark in 1913, the story follows Anton, a noble and conscientious young man whose top priority is to complete his training as a cavalry officer. During a training session, he orders his platoon to help Baron von Løvenskjold and finds himself invited to a ball at the castle, where he meets the baron’s beautiful daughter Edith who has been in an accident and ended up in a wheelchair.

While recuperating in a sanatorium in the mountains, a young boy becomes very close friends with an older baron. But the baron is only using the boy to get to know his mother, the wife of an older diplomat. When the boy realises the baron’s intentions, he becomes jealous, moody and depressed.

A half-hour anthology series.

A romantic drama set in Germany just before WWI and centered on a married woman who falls in love with her husband's teacher. Separated by the war, they pledge their devotion to one another.

No description available.

Edgar M. and his mother come abroad a small ship to Eden Sanatorium spa. It is here that the wife, wronged by her husband, will seek a cure for her bad headache, while the 13-year-old Edgar M. is fighting his first male impulses as well as 'enoresis nocturna', the prettier word for wetting one's bed. The boy's amazed gaze hungrily devours the diverse hotel guests, their love joys and sorrows, while passion lustfully penetrates the walls, carried by the voice of the enchanting opera singer.

A young, revolutionary couple aboard the last train leaving Budapest after the Russian invasion of 1956. Based on a novel by the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig.

The young Austrian princess Marie Antoinette is arranged to marry Louis XVI, future king of France, in a politically advantageous marriage for the rival countries. The opulent Marie indulges in various whims and flirtations. When Louis XV passes and Louis XVI ascends the French throne, his queen's extravagant lifestyle earns the hatred of the French people, who despise her Austrian heritage.

A married woman finds herself being blackmailed by her forbidden lover's ex-girlfriend. This cat-and-mouse game plunges the woman into fear and anxiety.

A pianist about to flee from a duel receives a letter from a woman he cannot remember. As she tells the story of her lifelong love for him, he is forced to reinterpret his own past.

"The Fear of an Unfaithful Woman" - Inge Duhan lives with her husband, the lawyer Erich Duhan, and her little daughter Susi in Berlin. Inge is a very attractive woman. She loves her husband and has always been faithful to him. On a holiday trip to the French Riviera Inge meet the charming painter Francard. A brief affair begins that turns into blackmail.

The story of Lieutenant Aleksandr Grigoryev.

Werner von Basil, a Austrian intellectual, was captured by the Nazis in 1938. They want to break him to confess smuggling. Without any mental sustenance, the only thing left to keep his mind busy is an old tactics book for chess.

Byzance uses a text by Stefan Zweig to describe the Ottoman conquest of the city in 1453. Before he turned to feature filmmaking in 1968 with Naked Childhood, Pialat worked on a series of short films, many of them financed by French television. Byzance is one of Pialat’s six Turkish shorts.

Whenever people are released from their society's constraints, there is the possibility that they will behave badly, at least according to the rules of the society they have left behind. This seems to have been particularly the case for Europeans living in colonial establishments in Africa and Asia. In this drama, based on a story by Stefan Zweig, Dr. Steiner (Andrzej Seweryn) was caught with his fingers in the till at a German hospital. Rather than prosecute him, they gave him the option of emigrating elsewhere. He chose to serve at a clinic in a remote part of Portuguese Goa. He has been on his best behavior for years, but when the beautiful wife (Fanny Ardant) of a diplomat comes to him asking for an abortion, he is tempted to ask for sexual favors in return, and his life swiftly goes out of control.

Two men in a game of chess. One of the players is a country boy who accidentally discovered a chess talent, and the other is a former lawyer who has not played chess for twenty years. The lawyer tells the story of learning to play chess: during World War II, he was arrested for no reason and imprisoned. One day, while waiting for another interrogation, he stole the book "Chess Review" from the investigating officer's coat. He perfected it for several months and started playing against himself. The intense mental effort led him to a nervous breakdown eventually...

Irene Wagner, the wife of the prominent German scientist Professor Albert Wagner, had been having an affair with Erich Baumann. She does not disclose this to her husband, hoping to preserve his innocence and their "perfect marriage". This fills her with anxiety and guilt. However, Johanna Schultze, Erich's jealous ex-girlfriend, learns about the affair and begins to blackmail Irene, turning Irene's psychological torture into a harsh reality.

Imprisoned in an ordinary room, Dr. B. discovers a book on chess after months of isolation. Slowly losing his mind, the prisoner devours the book and replays every game in it. But once he's played through them all, all that remains is a game against himself...