Giovanni Fruh Movies
- 1986
In this frank and open drama about a 1941 Swiss government decree and a man who disobeyed it, the nature and strength of individual protest is luminously etched. Otto Machtlinger (who died shortly after this film was completed from an already-diagnosed fatal illness) plays Tanner, the man who refuses to give up his grazing land for farming purposes. Because imports to Switzerland were cut off at the beginning of World War II, the Swiss government was worried about food supplies. Their solution was to mandate the expansion of farm land, and when Tanner refuses to go along because he knows his grazing pastures are no good for farming, he starts a confrontation with the government which seems impossible to win. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Otto Machtlinger, Renate Steiger, (more)
- 1981
The directors and writers of Raindrops (the name of a popular German song) are Harry Raymon who lived through the experiences dramatized in the film, and Michael Hoffman who grew up after WW II and wanted to know what it was like for Jews before the war started. When Raymon started telling Hoffman his own story, the two decided to make the narration into a semi-documentary film. The story begins in the early 1930s as the Goldbach family, owners of a textile business, see their customers thinning out and associates shunning them; their little son Benny is also ostracized at the playground. This clear message convinces them to emigrate to America before it is too late. They have an Aunt living in the U.S. who will sponsor them, and they can apply for a visa at the American Consulate in Stuttgart - but not that easily. First, they must learn some English and make a stronger case for their application, so they sell their business and move to Cologne, where they can study English. While in Cologne, they reside in cramped quarters with other Jewish families, fear, apprehension, and tempers building as they know full well how difficult it will be to get a visa, and how menacing the future is. Benny wiles away some time by going to the movies, but then that pasttime is cut off when Jews are no longer allowed inside the cinema. Once preparations are completed, the Goldbach's drama unfolds in visits to the American Consulate, where visa applications are refused time and time again for the flimsiest of reasons, or for reasons that were far from legal. The Goldbachs complete the difficult physical exams demanded by the Consulate and wait for the response to their application, fearful of the consequences if they are denied, like so many others. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elfriede Irrall
- 1979
At first the protagonist of this story is pleased with his promotion. He now is in charge of his company's entire electronic surveillance program, which monitors every employee's activities minutely. However, when he hears a program on an underground radio station detailing the inexpressible dreariness of most workers' lives, he undergoes a change of heart and decides to reveal his company's policy of spying on its workers. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Giovanni Fruh
- 1979
An elderly umbrella mender and his longtime drinking buddy and basket maker engage in a night of revelry in this satirical drama. The drunken umbrella maker tries to make his way through the snow to the house of his old flame, the village prostitute. He is found frozen to death in the snow by his friend the next morning. Since the body is right on the border between two countries, both villages refuse to take responsibility for the man's burial. After the body is volleyed back and forth between the two villages, the basket maker devises a scheme. He makes out a false will that has both villages clamoring over the right to give the dead man a decent Christian burial. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sigfrit Steiner, Emilia Krakowska, (more)
