Guntbert Warns Movies
- 2007
A beautiful woman is suddenly forced to rely on her wits on a cold night in December in this character study from Germany. Valerie (Agata Buzek) was a successful fashion model when she was living in Paris in her mid-twenties, but now she's turned thirty and her career is not what it used to be. With her bank account empty, Valerie can no longer afford the fancy hotel room that had been her home for several months, or even get her car out of their underground parking garage. The photographer who discovered Valerie and was her lover for years (Birol Unel) has found a new protégé and isn't interested in her anymore, while Valerie's agent (Sabine Vitua) tells her in no uncertain terms her career is probably over. While she's able to use her looks and charm to persuade Andre (Devid Streisow), a parking attendant, to let her sleep in her car, she finds herself essentially homeless in Berlin with Christmas just around the corner. Valerie can still turn heads with the right dress and make-up, but with no cash or practical skills, she's forced to turn to others to supply her with food, drinks and cigarettes, and flirts with the idea of prostitution in order to support herself. Valerie was the first directorial effort from cinematographer Birgit Moller. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Agata Buzek, Devid Striesow, (more)
- 1988
An American filmmaker travels to modern day Berlin to make a film based on a real-life incident from 1942 in which 13 Jewish prisoners from a concentration camp were promised freedom if they appeared in a German propaganda film. Unfortunately, the German's lied. The psychological process undergone by the modern filmmaker while shooting the story provide the basis of this arty and challenging film. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tony Curtis, Matthias Habich, (more)
- 1985
- PG13
Forbidden represented not only the TV-movie bow of Jacqueline Bisset, but also the American debut of German film favorite Jurgen Prochnow. Filmed in Berlin by a British production crew, this fact-based story concerns German countess Nina von Halder (Bissett). Despite the anti-Semitic edicts of the Hitler regime, Nina becomes romantically involved with Jewish Fritz Friedlander (Jurgen Prochnow). Complicating matters is the fact that Fritz is already married. The infidelity angle is put on hold as Nina hides her lover from the Nazis, all the while remaining active with the Resistance. Based on the Leonard Gross novel The Last Jews of Berlin, Forbidden originally aired March 24, 1985, over the HBO cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Director John Frankenheimer and writers Edward Anhalt and George Axelrod try to inject some life into this adaptation of Robert Ludlum's best-selling espionage novel. Michael Caine stars as Noel Holcroft, who was adopted in Germany by an American family in the waning days of World War II. Now middle-aged, Noel learns that his biological father, who had been one of Hitler's key economic advisors, left him more than $4 billion at his death. Noel is supposed to dispense the money to specific individuals who had suffered under the oppression of Hitler. But Noel comes to realize the money is, in fact, being used by fascists starting a new Nazi regime. When the neo-Nazis find out Noel is wise to their plans, they chase him through Europe, trying to assassinate him and make way for a Fourth Reich. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michael Caine, Anthony Andrews, (more)
