Wolf Harnisch Movies
- 1989
Isabelle Pasco and Gerard Sandoz play an impressionable young couple living in Marseilles. Both husband and wife are mesmerized by the lions in the city zoo, the wife in particular. The husband goes so far as to take a job at the zoo so as to be nearer the animals. Fired from his position, the husband takes the wife to another town, where they continue their vicarious love affair with lions in a circus. Roselyne et Les Lions is a typically out-of-mainstream effort by Jean-Jacques Beineix, the auteur of Diva and Betty Blue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Isabelle Pasco, Gerard Sandoz, (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
James Bond-flick director Guy Hamilton helmed this episodic, all-star World War II film. With Sir Laurence Olivier heading up an ensemble cast as flight commander Sir Hugh Dowdling, The Battle of Britain pays tribute to other nationalities instrumental in fending off the waves of Luftwaffe planes, notably the expatriate Polish and Czech pilots. Trevor Howard, Michael Caine, and Michael Redgrave also populate the cast. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harry Andrews, Trevor Howard, (more)
- 1961
Originally released in Germany as Das Nachtlokal Zum Silbermond, 5 Sinners mostly takes place in a dingy Turkish nightclub. The joint is being used as a front for a gang of jewel robbers, and is overseen by implicitly AC-DC villainess Magali (Marina Petrowa). Stripper Liliane (Marisa Mell), one of the few honest souls hereabouts, tries to bring Magali and her cohorts to justice. She is aided by a bouncer (Pero Alexander), who isn't as brutish as he looks. Dark, moody and pessimistic, 5 Sinners, has the flavor, if not the substance of the classic film noir, but perhaps because of its tawdry ambience, the film was frequently shown in grindhouses specializing in "nudies." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1958
Douglas Sirk directed this doomed World War II love story, seen from the German side of the war, as filtered through a distinctly late-'50s Hollywood banality. The film is based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque, the author of the classic World War I anti-war novel All Quiet On the Western Front -- and who makes a cameo appearance in the film as an elderly schoolteacher. The film stars John Gavin as Ernst Graber, a young Nazi soldier home on leave during the height of World War II. While on leave, he falls in love and marries Elizabeth Kruze (Lilo Pulver). With bombs falling all around the young couple, they set up house with a kindly old woman. Then Elizabeth becomes pregnant. But before Ernst can grasp the reality of his becoming a father, he is sent back to the war -- to fight the brutal battle along the Russian front. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Gavin, Liselotte Pulver, (more)
