André Hennicke Movies

Julie Delpy directs and stars in this biography of Erzebet Bathory, the 17th century countess whose love of a younger man drove her to madness and beyond. At the dawn of the 17th century, Countess Bathory was the most powerful woman in Hungary. At the age of 14, she married a powerful warlord twice her age and bore him four children. While her husband was away fighting wars, Countess Bathory maintained their estate with the help of her one true confidant, a powerful witch named Anna Darvulia. Over time, Countess Bathory's gained great influence, even holding sway over decisions made by the King. But she was unwilling to accept a world in which men were able to break the rules without consequence while women were expected to be unquestionably subservient, and after her husband died, Countess Bathory fell deeply in love with a young nobleman named Istvan (Daniel Brühl), whom she encountered at a lavish feast. Istvan too was smitten, though his relationship with the countess was cut short when his father, Count Thurzo (William Hurt), forced him to break off the romance. Meanwhile, as Countess Bathory becomes obsessed with the prospect that age was a factor in the failure of the relationship, Count Thurzo begins crafting an elaborate plot against her. Eventually Countess Bathory's blinding sadness gives way to irreversible madness, and she becomes convinced that she can maintain her youth and beauty forever by bathing in the blood of virgins. Her dementia and obsession flowing like the virginal blood she bathes in every night, Countess Bathory eventually realizes that she has become the victim of a vast political conspiracy hatched by the father of her beloved. But by now it's already too late, Countess Erzebet Bathory's downfall had already been set into motion. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Legendary director Francis Ford Coppola returns to the director's chair after a ten-year hiatus with this adaptation of Romanian author Mircea Eliade's tome detailing the arduous journey of a professor whose life is thrown into chaos as World War II looms ominously on the horizon. When the 70-year-old scholar is struck by lightning, his age begins to reverse as his mind grows infinitely more brilliant. Now determined to understand the origins of language and consciousness, the fugitive professor leads authorities on a wild chase through Romania, Switzerland, Malta, and India. Tim Roth, Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, and Marcel Iures star in an ambitious low-budget drama trumpeted by Zoetrope as a "return to personal filmmaking" for the revered Godfather director. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Theo (Jürgen Vogel) has raped several women and is, after several years of committing acts of sexual violence, caught. He is committed to a psychiatric prison and, after 12 years in prison, he is released to return to normal life. Theo finds work as a printer, goes regularly to therapy, and lives in a supervised group. But Theo finds that finding a normal life isn't all that easy. Functioning more like a wooden puppet than a person, Theo wanders through his post-prison days more like an inhibited loner with severe difficulties in his social encounters with women. In spite of overwhelming loneliness and growing depression, Theo fights returning to his old violent ways. And then a ray of hope enters Theo's life: he gets to know Netti (Sabine Timoteo), the daughter of the domineering printing house owner. Netti mistrusts men in the same way that Theo mistrusts women. The two outsiders befriend each other and eventually fall in love. But Nettie knows nothing about Theo's past and his problems -- until one night when Theo decides that he can't keep living a lie. Der Freie Wille tells the story of a man who is given freedom but still remains a prisoner inside. ~ Heidi Philipsen, All Movie Guide

Italian helmer Silverio Constanzo's gentle, understated coming-of-age drama In Memoria di Me (AKA In Memory of Myself, 2006) follows a life-changing period in the spiritual journey of twentysomething Andrea (Christo Jivkov), a young man who undergoes a personal crisis and decides to withdraw from the world by entering a monastic order. As he begins his novitiate, however (a period in which the senior monks observe his every doing, to deem him genuinely called to the monastic life) Andrea's illusions and preconceptions about becoming a monk begin to shatter. Instead of the silence, prayer and introversion that he initially anticipated, Andrea instead runs headfirst into suspicion, surveillance and distrust - as the fellow brethren seem almost eager to find a flaw in him, that will disqualify him from ordination. And gradually, Andrea begins to question if this world is even suited for him. Filippo Timi, Marco Baliani, André Hennicke and Fausto Russo Alesi co-star. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

When a notorious German serial killer is captured after committing some of the most heinous acts against humanity ever imaginable, a farmer and police officer from a sleepy rural community on the outskirts of Berlin is drawn into the case as he searches for the answers to a murder that has shaken his tight-knit community in director Christian Alvart's tense psychological nightmare. Gabriel Engel (André Hennicke) is the most depraved kind of predator imaginable. In his brutal and bloody killing spree, Engel has preyed on not only adults, but defenseless young children as well. Now Engel has been captured by the authorities, and the shaken citizens can all breathe a little bit easier. All except for Michael Martens (Wotan Wilke Moehring), that is. It's been a year since young Lucia Flieder was found viciously slain, and the citizens of the community that Martens presides over are growing impatient as they await the capture of her killer. Engel has admitted to 14 murders, but he has staunchly denied any connection to the Flieder case. Nevertheless, he claims to know the identity of the killer. Before he entrusts Martens with the sensitive information, Engel demands that Martens allow him to engage in a total psychological evaluation of his interrogator. With a convicted maniac gradually working his way deep into Martens' fragile psyche, an urban police force who derides the rural lawman as an ineffective incompetent, and a family life that is slowly coming unraveled, the once determined police officer slowly feels himself succumbing to the madness that encircles him with each step closer he gets to realizing the true identity of Flieder's killer. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Drawing favorable comparisons to Alfred Hitchcock upon inital release in its native Germany despite having been originally made-for-television, director Christian Petzold's sophomore effort concerns a middle-aged lawyer whose tentative romance sets the stage for an elaborate con. Attracted to Leyla (Nina Hoss) after a chance encounter at a public pool, lawyer Thomas (Andre Hennicke) soon works up the courage to ask out the comely blonde who, much to his surprise, accepts. Though their first date seems headed downhill when she arrives late at the restaurant just before closing time, the couple make the best of things by heading to Thomas' place for pizza and a few drinks - shortly after which finds Leyla falling asleep on Thomas' couch. Awakening to find both Leyla and his laptop missing, Thomas begins a frantic search for both the woman and the vital case files now in her possession. When Thomas' investigation begins to hint at an elaborage scam, he tracks Leyla as she begins to size up her next target; a factory worker and former client of Thomas'. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Adapted from the novel of celebrated German writer Ingrid Noll, Kalt ist der Abendhauch bounces back and forth over a span of 50 years to tell the darkly comic tale of a destructive love affair between two people. When the film opens, octogenarian Charlotte (Gisela Trowe) has just received a letter from Hugo (Heinz Bennent), an old friend who is coming for a visit. The news of Hugo's impending arrival takes Charlotte back to the year 1936, when she was 16. One of four children born to middle-class parents, young Charlotte (Fritzi Haberlandt) carries a torch for handsome stud Hugo (August Diehl), and is understandably put out when he marries her older sister Ida (Georgia Stahl). An even deeper pall is cast over the couple's union when Charlotte's brother shows up at the wedding dinner wearing a dress, then proceeds to hang himself in the attic. A few years later, Charlotte enters into an unsatisfying marriage with Bernhard (Andre Hennicke), a dull schoolteacher with whom she has two children. Bernhard disappears during the course of World War II and is presumed dead, making it easy for Charlotte to consummate her long-simmering lust with Hugo when he drops by one day after the war. However, on a proverbial dark and stormy night, Bernhard reappears at Charlotte's doorstep, wet, unkempt, and hungry for sex. Hugo's arrival fifty years later exposes -- literally -- five decades of family secrets and dysfunction, thanks in part to the gruesome discovery of a body buried in the cellar. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

In this taut contemporary thriller, a group of vacationers who find a can of valuable gems must figure out why they're dying one by one in the wilderness. Five German friends travel to South Africa for a rugged 11-day wilderness vacation without cell phones or any other contact with civilization. One of them befriends a stranger and invites him along as they take a chartered plane to a region near the Namibian border. Their hiking and camping expedition goes smoothly until the second day, when they find a dead parachutist with a can of uncut diamonds worth around six million dollars. They decide to bury the man and debate whether they should inform the authorities when they reach civilization. Then someone dies suddenly from an apparent accident. The deaths continue as tensions and suspicions mount. Before it's too late, the survivors have to figure out if the victims died by accident, were killed by an outsider who appears to be stalking them, or were murdered by one or more members of their own group. ~ Todd Kristel, All Movie Guide

In this political allegory and drama, Leon has taken a train to his way to visit Israel for the first time, but his train is stopped for no apparent reason in a capacious tunnel, where circumstance that resemble those of late 1930s Germany have been recreated. Fortunately for him, he only has to stroll around for a little while in this unappealing society before he finds an exit which isn't guarded, and leaves. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this remake of Marriage in the Shadows, one of the first and most successful postwar East German films, the life of a Jewish actress is destroyed by rising fascist sentiment. After leading a successful life as a popular actress, who does slightly conceal her background, she falls in love with a German man and is married. As the historical situation worsens, the actress finds the theatres begin to turn her away and public sentiment forces her and her husband to divorce. Their tragic story begins spinning out of control when the husband realizes he is powerless to protect her from the Nazis and, unable to emigrate, the two contemplate suicide. At the film's bleak end, they look into each other's eyes and drift off. ~ Brian Whitener, All Movie Guide