Production
In late 1920s Berlin, Franz Biberkopf is released from prison and vows to go straight. However, he soon finds himself embroiled in the city’s criminal underworld.
Berlin, 1930, during the rise of Nazism. Hermann Hermann, a Russian emigrant and chocolate manufacturer, married to the capricious Lydia, loses his temper more and more every day when dealing with his workers and other businessmen; until he meets Felix, a vagrant, who seems to be physically identical to him; a disconcerting fact that leads Hermann Hermann to plot a particular way out of a fake world he actually hates.
Follows two wealthy families in Germany during the first half of the 20th century. One of them is German, the other one Jewish.
General George S. Patton died in a car accident in 1945. But was his death actually a murder. Is he targeted by Nazis angered by Germany's defeat? Or by Russians who knew that Patton had argued in favor of invading the Soviet Union towards the end of the war? Or is it because Patton is investigating the theft of a quarter of a billion dollars of Nazi gold? Or is it because his subordinate Colonels - the flamboyantly gay Colonel and his worried lover are fearful that he is getting too close to discovering the truth.
The shaggy poodle-bobtail mix Willy Wuff rescues two small puppies and ends up with them involuntarily in a mountain hut. Thomas also wants to spend Christmas there with his wife Hilde, his future wife Geli and his seven-year-old son Michael. The constant quarrels between the adults make things difficult for Michael until he discovers Willy and the puppies. The boy lovingly begins to look after the dogs.
Elated by the Italian attitude to life, family Struutz returns to Bitterfeld and experiences a shock: In the turmoil of the reunification her house must give way to a golf course. Hope Udo teacher, his wife Rita and daughter Jacqueline through the surprising inheritance of a factory near Dresden. But of market economy, the staid Saxons unfortunately have no idea. Help comes in the guise of adventurer and condoms dealer Charlie, who works as a "business consultant" and gives Udo a Rock & Roll crash course in capitalism - with unsurpassed success.
After fleeing Europe, the brilliant scientist and mad doctor Frankenstein prepares his campaign of revenge against all of humanity in distant China. Completely isolated from the outside world, he develops his terrifying kung-fu monsters in his laboratory, using both test tubes and operating tables, quickly spreading panic and terror. With his weapon of horror, he also intends to destroy the Earth's axis. No one dares to oppose him, no army can stop his monsters. Only the Kung Fu Super Riders, a small elite troop of daring death riders, possess the technological skills, thanks to their advanced weaponry, to avert catastrophe. A race against time begins...
Simon, the leader of a police special unit, becomes caught up in a complex scheme involving bribery and money-laundering, as well as an affair with the beautiful wife of a government official investigating organized crime and political corruption. After the official is kidnapped, the chase leads to a dramatic conclusion high in the Bavarian Alps.
A documentary about the making of the television mini-series by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, including interviewees with the principal actors.
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.
Family Struutz lives in Bitterfeld (GDR). After the fall of the wall, they take the opportunity to go on holiday with their car, an old Trabant. They simply want to visit Italy. But there are some incidents during their journey.
