August Zirner Movies

Many Germans who collaborated with the Nazi regime during the Third Reich later found themselves standing trial for crimes against humanity, but only one was an artist prosecuted for his work. Veit Harlan was a film director who, unlike many noted German auteurs, chose to stay in his homeland after Adolf Hitler rose to power, and made films under the supervision of the Nazi propaganda authorities. Harlan's best-known picture was Jud Süss (aka Jew Süss), a vehemently anti-Semitic drama that was required viewing for Hitler's top brass, a frequent attraction in Germany and occupied countries, and with the possible exception of Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will, the most notorious film to emerge from the Third Reich. Harlan was tried for his work as a Nazi propagandist, though he insisted he was coerced into making Jud Süss and other pro-Nazi films (a contention disputed by a number of his colleagues); two trials failed to convict Harlan, and he continued to work in Europe until his death in 1964. Filmmaker Felix Moeller presents a look at the life and work of this most notorious director in the documentary Harlan: Im Schatten von Jud Süss (aka Harlan: In the Shadow of Jew Süss), which examines Harlan's career as well as the impact his legacy has had on his descendants, some of whom have struggled to right Harlan's wrongs while others have preferred to keep their distance from his tainted reputation. One of the distant relatives interviewed for the picture is Christiane Kubrick, Harlan's niece who later wed the great director Stanley Kubrick. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Andre Erkau's Come In and Burn Out follows the lives of four people who work together at a phone bank. While each makes a living thanks to their ability to communicate with strangers, each of them fails to bring that expertise to their personal lives. This causes each of them a variety of troubles in their relationships. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

A seemingly insignificant act may cause the fabric of history to unravel in this sci-fi adventure. Charles Hatton (Ben Kingsley) owns and operates a successful firm known as Time Safari. Thanks to time travel technology developed by Hatton's employee Sonia Rand (Catherine McCormack), Time Safari allows big game hunters to journey back to prehistoric days and shoot living, breathing dinosaurs. Rand picks out the dinosaur in question, who is soon to die, and creates a floating walkway for the hunters, so the impact of their presence will not be felt by the land around them. But on one expedition, things go horribly wrong when a nervous hunter steps off the walkway and crushes a butterfly, a tiny act that proves to have massive consequences over the course of several million years. As the earth's climate and animal life begin to mutate due to this shift in natural history, Time Safari's leading hunting guide, Travis Ryer (Edward Burns), works beside Rand in a desperate attempt to halt the "ripples of time" before modern civilization completely collapses. A Sound of Thunder was based on a classic short story by pioneering science fiction author Ray Bradbury. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The terror of the holocaust proves itself to be a lasting force, even between generations, in this film about the lasting effect of this event. A man named Geburtig is the only person alive who can testify against a Nazi war criminal set to go on trial. A reporter named Susanne leaves her boyfriend, Danny, in search of the aged man and finds him, only to develop feelings for him that are beyond professional interest. Meanwhile, Danny, an actor, is preparing to play a prisoner at Auschwitz in an upcoming film and must confront his own Jewish heritage and the pain suffered by his parents. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide

Set in Germany in 1946, Taking Sides tells the story of the investigation of Wilhelm Furtwängler (Stellan Skarsgård), the renowned conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic and Vienna Philharmonic orchestras, by the American occupying army. Major Steve Arnold (Harvey Keitel) has been told by his superiors that they want Furtwängler convicted of being a willing participant in the crimes of the Hitler regime, by virtue of his supposed support for and support from the Hitler government. They haven't got the time or resources to go after every ex-Nazi, so they want Furtwängler, as the biggest cultural target they can hit. Arnold does his loud, boorish best to first humiliate and then attack the conductor over the supposed favoritism that he was shown by Hitler, Goering, Himmler, et al. and his conducting of a concert at the 1934 Nuremberg rally and at Hitler's 53rd birthday. Arnold finds, to his eventual distress but not dissuasion, that nothing is as simple as he would like to make it. His civilian secretary, Emmi Straube (Birgit Minichmayr), a concentration camp survivor whose father was part of the German Army plot to kill Hitler, and Lt. David Wills (Moritz Bleibtreu), a German-born Jew representing the War Crimes Tribunal, keep trying to remind Arnold that life and politics in Germany only deteriorated gradually after 1933, and in ways that couldn't always be anticipated by those who were there. Germans who chose not to leave weren't necessarily casting their lot with Hitler, but with protecting what was decent or even great about Germany, including her orchestras and music. Arnold knows nothing about music and even less about Germany and her people, and won't be deterred from his goal. Wills and Straube wish to resign from working with him, until they realize that they're facing the same choice that Furtwängler faced -- to leave a horrendous situation and have no way of affecting its conduct or outcome, or remain and do their best to stand up for decency and truth. In the process of doing that, they find out that Furtwängler is not only a great artist -- which they knew already -- but a great and brave man, who also has his flaws. The latter include an outsized ego that may have caused him to participate a little too willingly at times in the dangerous game he played of maintaining the excellence of Germany's musical institutions while protecting them (and also many musicians) from the worst ravages of the Nazi regime, at the same time also keeping lesser, more compliant figures from usurping his control. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

This German family film was based on a book by Erich Kaestner, whose work was previously adapted for the screen in the films Emil and the Detectives and The Parent Trap. Ten-year-old Annaluise (Elea Geissler), nicknamed "Puenktchen," is best friends with Anton (Max Felder) despite the difference in their backgrounds -- Annaluise's parents work in the medical field and are quite well-to-do, while Anton's father is missing and his mother Elli (Meret Becker) has health problems and can only work part-time at a local café. When Elli's doctor advises her to take a trip to the seashore that she cannot afford, Anton steals a gold cigarette lighter from Annaluise's folks, causing serious friction between his mother and her parents. Meanwhile, Anton "borrows" the café's delivery van to head to Berlin in search of his father, while Annaluise tries to make some extra money to help her friend by performing in the subway. The story also pauses occasionally for musical numbers and mild romantic interludes among the grown-up characters. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Traveling down DePalma-like pathways, director Rainer Kaufmann made this dark comedy-thriller about 30-year-old small-town pharmacist Hella Moormann (Katja Riemann), unlucky with men. She finally beds Levin (Jürgen Vogel), who's in debt to imprisoned drug-dealer Dieter (Richy Mueller). Hella is shocked when Levin suggests that they kill his wealthy grandfather Hermann Graber (Joachim Tomaschewsky) to get his mansion and money. So when Graber dies, Hella suspects Levin. Soon Dieter joins Levin and Hella in the mansion, and the events become even more convoluted after Hella catches Levin making out with Dieter's sexy wife Margot (Isabella Parkinson). Shown at the 1998 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

This lively German comedy follows the exploits of the cynical Monika, a never-married woman who just turned 30 and earns her living giving advice to the lovelorn on a local radio station. Though acerbic and glib with her replies on the air, Monika is a total washout in the outside world of l'amour. Her mother makes her feel worse, and her gay brother helps her put an add in the lonely hearts column of the local paper. Through her ad, she meets Erik, a tone-deaf dentist who likes to sing "That's Amore." He says he's single, but soon Monika discovers that he is married to a friend of hers, Sabine. A romantic triangle is born; mayhem and frank, funny discussions of sex ensue. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Two star-crossed lovers, separated by the Berlin wall for thirty years are reunited. The major events in their separate lives become the focus in this German political drama. The story begins in August 1961 as the Wall is being built. In Eastern Berlin a group of young adults plans their escape. Included in the group are Konrad and Sophie who has an aunt on the other side. It is the aunt who will sponsor the escapees. Escape will be the only way Konrad and Sophie will be able to stay together. Konrad is involved in a mishap en route and must remain in East Berlin. In 1968, the lovers at last get a chance to briefly meet in Prague. There they express their frustration and pain. At least there, in Prague they can find occasional happiness. Suddenly Russian tanks appear and destroy their new dream. 1980 comes. Sophie and Konrad have since married other people. Their next meeting is bittersweet as they look back upon their promise which was broken by circumstance, and by the decisions each lover had to make. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this technically outstanding made-for-television police drama, a pair of feuding policemen only have their mutual disagreements to keep them going, because their careers are going nowhere. Then they stop in at a run-down restaurant and discover indications of a widespread protection racket. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Carmen is a middle-aged housewife with two teen-aged children and a husband. The family has been living a comfortably middle-class existence. Carmen is shocked to discover that her husband has been unemployed for months without telling her about it. Desperate to pay their mounting bills, she hits on a scheme to acquire the money she needs by robbing a bank run by a neighbor of hers. She disguises herself by wearing sexy clothes, but once at the bank, she is so petrified that she forgets how to rob it. Fortunately, the child of one of the bank customers coaches her, and she succeeds in taking the manager (her friend) hostage using the threat of her toy pistol. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This is an emotionally wrenching drama about a woman dying of a brain tumor. The single mother (Eva Mattes) does not tell her young son or anyone else about her condition. Instead, she travels to Hamburg and leaves her son in their hotel room while she goes off for a tryst with his father, the man she truly loves. Since she does not let the child's father know why she has come back into his life, he does not follow up on their momentary meeting. After all, he has his own girlfriend and his own life to live. The inevitable moment comes when the dying mother must tell her son about his father, and the son's pursuit of his dad begins. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide