Ursula Monn Movies

Popular Swiss comedian Walter Roderer reprises his stage role for this situation comedy. Josef Notzli is a timid bookkeeper who has worked for 26 years in a West Berlin chemical plant. By mistake, he receives a letter intended for the relative of the big boss and is quickly given the position of executive director. Josef's ideas that were once laughed at are implemented and proven to be immensely successful for the company. For once, the little guy wins out over the callous corporate executives that have ignored him for years. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Set in post-war Germany before funding from the U.S. had time to make a difference in the economy, this restrained and uneven drama centers on the hardships of 11-year-old Ilse (Angela Hunger). She lives like a servant with her single mother and two brothers, bearing the brunt of after-school chores. Without any time for herself, Ilse has periods of helpless anger. Nothing alleviates the misery of her existence, until one day, she finds a little kitten. She discovers the tiny, mewing feline abandoned in a garbage heap, and her heart goes out to the small creature. Ilse's understanding grandmother lives next door, and after she brings the kitten home, it acts as the catalyst (no pun intended) that first sends her to grandma's house to live and then causes some reshuffling of attitudes within the family as well. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Set in the long days when East and West Germany were severely, and often fatally, divided by walls and armed soldiers (still current at the time this film was created), a real love story as interpreted by director Herbert Ballmann helps to crumble the barriers set by heads of state. Thomas (Christian Kohlund) is a cook at the Swiss embassy in East Germany and can freely travel back and forth across the checkpoints into West Berlin on shopping errands to the marketplace. As he fills the larder for state functions so often, the guards at the border just say hi and wave him on. One day, Thomas meets Ulla (Ursela Monn), a secretary for an East German official, on the way back from one of his shopping errands -- it is pouring down rain and she is looking for a ride back home to her parent's apartment. Once he gives her a lift, he is quite taken by her charming demeanor (and vice-versa) -- and so a forbidden liaison between these small representatives of East and West is under way. When Ulla sees how easily Thomas comes and goes across the somber dividing line, she gets an urge to hide out in the trunk of his car and visit the great shops along the Kurfurstendamm. And so she does, with his complicity, and more than just one such trip takes place. But while they are enjoying their illicit affair and illicit trips together, trouble is brewing in the wings of officialdom that may put their relationship at risk. Ursela Monn won the 1985 Max Lubitsch Prize (given by the Association of Berlin Film Journalists) for her portrayal of Ulla.
~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Anyone interested in why UFOs might be stealing our lettuce deserves to sit through this film. The plot, not a regular garden-variety, involves an earthling experimenting with the explosive potential of lettuce. This singularly dedicated biologist runs into interference by the police, finds his mother who has been missing for years, and begins a love affair with the daughter of a baker. Involved in this mix of characters is the U.S and Russian armies, and a film crew working on a movie about Hitler. None of these elements make sense in the long run, or short run either. These oddities are being observed from the UFO, which is perched out in space like a hawk, waiting for one of the little lettuces to blossom into a full-blown explosive device before it swoops down to steal the organic weapon of mass destruction. This film was distinguished at the 1984 Vienna Film Festival as being one of the entries in the "Cinema Nobody Likes" category. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide