Martin Lüttge Movies
- 1989
This atmospheric melodrama/thriller tells the odd story of a modern-day Lorelei, a woman who lures others to their doom. In the story, the similarly named Laura Ley (Hilde van Mieghem) is a single mother who works as a chambermaid and has a very unusual hobby. When she is off work and her son has been put to bed, she dresses up in evening gowns and has highly suggestive conversations by CB radio with truck drivers and others far into the night. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hilde Van Mieghem, Tom Jansen, (more)
- 1987
Konig is a very minor cog in a huge piece of legal machinery, a low-level state prosecutor. He would like to be a bigger cog, but when he gets involved investigating a routine bankruptcy case which turns out to implicate governmental higher-ups, he opts for something resembling professional integrity over what he knows the government would prefer and effectively kisses his career goodbye. This film marks the directing debut of the well-known character actor Hark Bohm, who also stars. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hark Bohm, Martin Lüttge, (more)
- 1985
Adapted from his successful German TV series about a cop named Schimanski (Gotz George), director Hajo Gies has this Polish policeman going after the killers in a vile multiple homicide. When Schimanski discovers that a young friend and his family have been brutally murdered, his investigation steps on the wrong toes, and he is suspended from the force. His reporter-girlfriend catches on to the hot story he is chasing down, and they go after a suspect whose underworld activities link him to drug lords in Marseilles. The question is, can Schimanski and his girlfriend stop competing with each other long enough to unplug the Marseilles connection? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Götz George, Renan Demirken, (more)
- 1985
A little slow-paced and cliched for most viewers, this children's film is about a bear (impersonated) named Paul who loves bananas but hates being cooped up in his circus cage. Determined to see the wide world, Banana Paul takes advantage of an off-guard moment to close the door on his trainer -- now locked in the cage -- and take off on a motorcycle he has learned to ride in his circus act. The sudden appearance of a bear on a motorcycle has the good citizens of the town in an uproar, except for a little girl who likes the renegade beast and is somehow the only one who realizes the bear can talk. If only the police and the town's officials had her insight...
~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martin Lüttge
- 1984
When Nazi "exterminator" Adolph Eichmann was tried for war crimes in 1961, more than one observer, taking into consideration Eichmann's "normal" veneer, commented upon "the banality of evil." Much the same can be said of the quietly chilling docudrama The Wannsee Conference. This re-creation of a January, 1942 meeting of several Nazi officials is based on the actual minutes of the conference. In calm, measured tones, the various Nazi higher-ups discuss the extermination of Europe's Jewish population. The film is shot in "real time": it runs 87 minutes, precisely the same amount of time consumed by the actual event. Don't let anyone ever tell you that a film consisting of an hour and a half of conversation is dull: The Wannsee Conference is one of the most disturbing pictures ever committed to celluloid. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Artzorn, Friedrich Georg Beckhaus, (more)
- 1981
This is the second comedy made by director Adolf Winkelmann about societal dropouts in the Ruhr industrial valley. Katlewski (Delle Quandt) has an acerbic way of pinpointing the buttoned-down minds of fellow workers who conform without question to their class-imposed parameters. Katlewski has had it with his wife who cannot let any neighbor surpass her in material gewgaws, and he has had it with his job as a coal miner as well -- quitting one day by just walking out. To survive, he finds odd jobs anywhere -- driving trucks, tending bars -- but he finally has a chance to find some gratification in life. He not only develops a relationship with a girlfriend who shares his views and understands him, but he craftily lifts enough money from a fat-cat who needs pruning anyway and pays off the debts his wife had accumulated for him. Perhaps Katlewski will be on another track entirely as he heads back to the miner's job he had recently abandoned. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hermann Lause
- 1978
In the years immediately following World War II, chaos and violence touched the lives of many Germans. In this story, Anna (Pola Kinski) has been damaged by some such incident. Nonetheless, she is able to fall in love with a German-born American member of the Occupation Forces, Colonel Stone (Mel Ferrer). Later, she marries Alfons Eichmayr, and finds her life narrowing unbearably. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mel Ferrer, Pola Kinski, (more)
- 1972
In this drama, a divorcee has difficulty adjusting to life without her family as she tries to start a new life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1972
Margarethe Von Trotta, who later became a well-known film director herself, stars in this film which is directed by her husband Volker Schlondorff. It tells the story of a woman whose divorce has just been finalized. At first, she is joyful and feels very free, but gradually the realities of trying to earn her living in what is still a man's world, and the gritty custody battle for her son, begin to wear her down. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
