Albert Heins Movies
- 1987
In this German comedy, the proprietors of a Hamburg drag queen bar hope to bring in more customers by changing into a male-strip joint for female patrons. The bar manager and her friends begin choosing their handsome dancers. Among the new employees are a judge, a lonely petshop clerk, a student, a muscle-bound deaf-mute, a Turk, and one of their lovers. They call the bar "The Crazy Boys" and it is a big hit. Much of the story centers on the relationship between the dancers and their patrons. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Albert Heins, Udo Schenk, (more)
- 1986
This is an original underground hodge-podge that mixes the philosophy of Berliner Lothar Lambert's filmmaking with excerpts from his previous film, hacked to ruinous pieces in a processing lab. Ulrike S. stars as a refugee from an asylum who bares it all when accosted by a nosy bourgeois in the street. All she has to do is open her raincoat, the only garment she owns. At the same time, Ulrike S. shows up at Lambert's editing table as he mourns the loss of his last film and comments on his rising career in the film medium. Also offering their sharp comments are producer Albert Heins, and Dagmar Beiersdorf, who challenges Lambert on what his previous film was supposed to mean. Meanwhile, the "other film" within this film continues, centering on a gay man on the prowl and a wheelchair-bound voyeur. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ulrike S., Dieter Schidor, (more)
- 1985
Sexual preferences simmer and bubble to the fore in this low-budgeter about a TV producer and director who is troubled enough about going over the hill to quit her job for awhile. After she meets an intriguing woman working in a local theater, she feels an unexpected attraction to her. Before long, she has dumped her boyfriend, and the two women head off on a vacation where they meet a crazy transvestite (Lothar Lambert).
~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Imke Barnstedt, Lothar Lambert, (more)
- 1984
In another Berlin underground farce from Lothar Lambert, the popular 1970's and '80s director/writer/actor focuses his sights on Gerhard, a buttoned-down bank clerk (played by Lambert) desperately in need of liberation. The poor man is hounded by his sister and a lustful neighbor and seems trapped in his life until Hans (Hans Marquardt), another bank employee, convinces Gerhard to come along to a big transvestite club to watch him and others perform. Gerhard goes -- and his evening out becomes the hot topic for the staid bank employees the next day. Undaunted, Gerhard decides to go back to the club and join in the performances after some serious practice in front of a mirror -- and he not only comes out of the closet, but runs wildly rampant through the neighborhood, taking down society's taboos as he goes along. Parents who supervise their young children's viewing should take note that much of Lambert's humor derives from very adult situations, and perhaps less-than-adult attitudes. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lothar Lambert, Dagmar Beiersdorf, (more)
- 1983
Glentz (Gottfried John) is a strongman who was once a member of the Foreign Legion. He is trying to fulfill his job as a store detective, but because of his temper and his strength, he does considerable bodily harm to the minor thieves he catches in the act. His rough tactics cost him his job, are no help in getting another job -- and actually land him in jail when after several too many drinks, he clubs a woman who had once been his lover. Unfortunately, she forgives him his transgressions, gets him out of jail, and invites him to join her commune. In reality, the commune itself is into shoplifting (it is anti-establishment which in this case, means outside the law) and before he knows what is happening, Glentz is planning a robbery of the same store he used to guard as a detective. With his moral fiber unraveling at breakneck speed, Glentz seems to be careening toward disaster. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gottfried John, Ute Cremer, (more)
- 1983
Underground director Lothar Lambert steps up to a slightly more mainstream comedy line in this uneven story about a wacky, middle-class family who go to their Mediterranean coastal home for a yearly summer vacation. The mother (Ulrike S.) is fascinated by an Iranian masseur, and the father becomes interested in a young, mute waiter -- while the teenage son and daughter take their parents' behavior in stride, because they know that sooner or later, everything will return to what passes for normal in their home. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ulrike S., Albert Heins, (more)
- 1981
As Orlando (Magdalena Montezuma) enters the world of "freaks," the movie develops scenes from a mythological netherworld, the Spanish Inquisition, the Middle Ages, and a few other settings to focus on unusual characters with physical or mental oddities. By the time the various vignettes that take place in these separate periods are completed, each with their own points and counterpoints, the "freaks" seem much less odd than their physically normal contemporaries. After Orlando has revealed much about the human condition through glimpses of a P.T. Barnum side-show, Siamese twins, as well as modern sexual morés, her journey with the viewer is completed. The device of Orlando, the time-traveler and liberated bisexual is based on Virginia Woolf's "Orlando: A Biography." The same set of actors play different roles in each of the five chronological segments. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Magdalena Montezuma, Delphine Seyrig, (more)
- 1980
This low-budget, off-the-wall comedy by Hans Noever relies on improvisation for some of its 80-minute running time, and on a screwball group of characters. A film crew is housed in a Berlin mansion to work on a project, and during their stay the owner of the villa dies while sitting on the bathroom facilities listening to classical music on the radio. His body soon becomes the center piece of the living room (no pun intended) where the cast, crew, and family members gather around for a very strange homage and for conversation. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rio Reiser, Juergen von Alten, (more)
