Robert Fischer

When Francois Truffaut approached Alfred Hitchcock in 1962 with the idea of having a long conversation with him about his work and publishing this in book form, he didn't imagine that more than four years would pass before Le Cinéma selon Hitchcock finally appeared in 1966. Not only in France but all over the world, Truffaut's Hitchcock interview developed over the years into a standard bible of film literature. In 1983, three years after Hitchcock's death, Truffaut decided to expand his by now legendary book to include a concluding chapter and have it published as the "Edition définitive". This film describes the genesis of the "Hitchbook" and throws light on the strange friendship between two completely different men. The centrepieces are the extracts from the original sound recordings of the interview with the voices of Alfred Hitchcock, Francois Truffaut, and Helen Scott – recordings which have never been heard in public before.

Featuring interviews with daughter Nicola Lubitsch, film historians Enno Patalas and Jan-Christopher Horak and filmmaker Tom Tykwer (among others), Ernst Lubitsch in Berlin documents the life of the legendary filmmaker from his birth in 1892 to his departure for Hollywood in 1923. The documentary is sprinkled with excerpts from Lubitsch's rarely-seen early work (both as actor and director) and offers fascinating insights into the German film industry in the silent era.

Don Siegel’s classic crime thriller "Charley Varrick," made in 1972 in the wake of the immensely successful "Dirty Harry," stars Walter Matthau in what is probably the actor’s finest dramatic role, airshow pilot turned crop duster turned bank robber turned mob target Charley Varrick. This feature-length documentary takes the viewer back to the time of the shooting of this cult item and features original interviews with Siegel’s son, Kristoffer Tabori, actors Andy Robinson and Jacqueline Scott, stunt driver and actor Craig R. Baxley, composer Lalo Schifrin and Howard A. Rodman, whose father co-wrote the screenplay.

In June 2015, forty-five years after OUT 1 was made, the filmmakers went to Paris to interview cast and crew members and to revisit some of the film’s most significant locations. THE MYSTERIES OF PARIS features new contributions from actors Bulle Ogier, Michael Lonsdale and Hermine Karagheuz, cinematographer Pierre-William Glenn, assistant director Jean-François Stévenin and producer Stéphane Tchal Gadjieff, but also rare archival interviews with actors Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Michel Delahaye and, most prominently, illuminating statements by director Jacques Rivette himself from two different archival interviews.

Walter Hill's Streets of Fire Revisited

In retracing the making of FEDORA, Robert Fischer’s documentary SWAN SONG: THE STORY OF BILLY WILDERʼS FEDORA adds yet another layer of comment and reflection on the film’s very own subject matter: 35 years after playing the romantic leads in FEDORA, Marthe Keller and Michael York look back at working with Billy Wilder – and their careers. Additional testimonies come from acclaimed cinematographer Gerry Fisher, producer Harold Nebenzal, Paul Diamond (son of Wilder’s writing partner I.A.L. Diamond), and German actor Mario Adorf.

Though he never actually worked in Hollywood, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who died in 1982 at the age of 36, was influenced greatly by American studio films of the 1950s and the convention of melodrama (the link most often mentioned is Douglas Sirk).

This brand new documentary takes a closer look at the production history, unique style, and lasting appeal of Fat City, as well as Leonard Gardner's novel that inspired it. Included in it are new interviews with actors Stacy Keach and Candy Clark, casting director Fred Roos, and camera assistant Gary Vidor.

Evil teenager assassins Rike & Tom want to kill and film the execution of the rock star Daniel Küblböck [or Lana Kaiser to be correct], who is spiritually supported by his dead grandfather Johnny, with the support of the mysterious Baltazar! Will our well-intentioned wizard succeed to survive this Christmas related mess and learn to forgive the others while beign kidnapped and almost executed, even if that means stickin' his finger in cakes, rollin' in tha snow like a cat or having psychedelic music dreams? (and singin' some bangers in the meanwhile!)

The stars and director of 'Written on the Wind' and 'The Tarnished Angels' talk about director Douglas Sirk's techniques. Archival interviews originally appeared in the documentary "Douglas Sirk: Uber Stars" (Eckhart Schmidt, 1980)

The story behind the novel and the film Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo.

New conversation between director Christian Petzold and actor Nina Hoss

Joseph Wambaugh wrote his first novel 'The New Centurions' while still active as a member of the Los Angeles Police Department, and his fact-based, painfully realistic book became a nation-wide bestseller when it came out in 1971. Replacing heroic cops with struggling, psychologically damaged characters, Wambaugh changed crime literature forever. Richard Fleischer’s filming of Wambaugh’s novel, also called THE NEW CENTURIONS, followed a year later and, in turn, revolutionized crime movies. Featuring newly filmed interviews with writer Joseph Wambaugh, star Stacy Keach, technical advisor Richard E. Kalk (Wambaugh’s real-life LAPD partner) and assistant cameraman Ronald Vidor, COP STORIES: THE MAKING OF RICHARD FLEISCHER’S THE NEW CENTURIONS chronicles the production of that landmark film in all its stages from script to screen.

A documentary on the 1973 Sam Fuller film Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street.

For over half a century, the filmmaker Edgar Reitz, one of the signatories of the Oberhausen Manifesto and a pioneer of epic film narration, has explored, as a practitioner and theoretician, the rules and limits of cinema, which he always seeks to break and extend in new ways. One example of his tireless search and research are the Geschichten vom Kübelkind, which he co-directed with Ula Stöckl in 1969/70, 22 absurdly funny, subversive and anarchistic short films of different lengths, which consciously oppose all conventions, with incredible success. The films remain unrivalled in their Dadaistic inventiveness.

This absolutely top-notch documentary by Robert Fischer is a fascinating look back at not just the film in question, but Fassbinder's meteoric career which ended all too soon with his untimely death. Archival footage of Fassbinder is utilized (including several fascinating snippets culled from interviews he did at the disastrous Cannes premiere of Despair), as well as many others involved in the film and its release. Even if you're not a particular fan of Despair, or even in fact of Fassbinder, this is stellar documentary film making and is an intriguing look at one of the most enigmatic masters of the New German Cinema.

Vilmos Zsigmond on 'Blow Out'

Fiona Lewis discusses her role in 'The Fury'

Todd Haynes, who considers Max Ophuls’ THE RECKLESS MOMENT (1949) one of his ten favorite films of all time, gives a wonderful 22 minute introduction of the film, titled "Maternal Overdrive," a term he uses to describe the state of the protagonist, Lucia Harper (Joan Bennett).

Featuring brand new interviews with producer Douglas Wick, screenwriter Wesley Strick, and special effects artist Rick Baker, THE BEAST INSIDE: CREATING »WOLF« examines the making of Mike Nichols’ WOLF (1994) in all its stages from original idea to final appearance.