Dieter Pochlatko Movies

The thirtieth season premiere of Nature examines the resurgence of wildlife in the region around the Chernobyl power plant, the site of a 1986 Ukraine nuclear accident. The disaster caused radioactive contamination of the countryside and led to the creation of a no-man's-zone. Here, scientists monitoring wildlife, especially wolves, are accompanied on their studies. Included: the wildlife that lives in the ghost town of Pripyat, which was once home to 58,000 people. ~ Jeff Gemmill, Rovi

Raúl Ruiz's Klimt uses an amorphous, nonchronological narrative to cinematize events from the life of one of the 20th century's most profound artists: the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt (here portrayed by John Malkovich). Ruiz begins with Klimt's painful death from syphilis, and spends the remainder of the film transitioning, loosely and freely, between episodes that befell the painter. The film pays particularly strong attention to the artist's proclivity for scandalizing the European upper crust with overtly erotic subject matter and presentation, and his many affairs -- notably a lengthy one with his perpetual inspiration, Lea de Castro (Saffron Burrows). Throughout Klimt's life, a figure known as the Secretary (Stephen Dillane) comes and goes, who is actually a product of his fevered imagination -- and with whom the painter debates continually about the function of art in contemporary Western civilization, and the relevance of the artist. This enables Ruiz to create both a biographical sketch and a philosophical treatise. Visually, Ruiz and director of photography Ricardo Aronovich make the ambitious decision to recreate Klimt's style of painting on a cinematographic plane.

Unfortunately, difficulty befell this picture from the beginning, when the director (for some unascertainable reason) opted to draft the initial script in French, have it translated into German, and then have the German draft translated into English and revised by author Gilbert Adair -- rendering the dialogue stilted and unconvincing. Complications also arose on the distribution end. Still infuriated by the distributive mutilation that befell his previous film, the whopping Time Regained (and doubtless concerned that this might happen again), Ruiz pliantly struck a bargain with distributors for Klimt. He trimmed his original, 135-minute "director's cut" down to a 96-minute "producer's cut" for general consumption, which rendered much of the material less fluid and coherent. Both versions screened at the 2006 Rotterdam Film Festival. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Eighteen years after his acclaimed 1984 documentary on Marlene Dietrich, actor/director Maximilian Schell has created another moving portrait of a German-speaking actress, this time his own sister. Meine Schwester Maria documents the rapid rise and decline of Maria Schell, the briefly beloved star of such films as Die Ratten and The Brothers Karamosov. Using excerpts of her feature films along with home movie footage, Schell explores the high points his sister's career throughout the 1950s, as well as the personal problems that cast her into obscurity only a decade later. The film offers quite a few emotional peaks, especially when an elderly Maria Schell goes before her brother's camera to speak candidly about her life, and a suicide attempt which she refers to as her "first death." ~ Connor McMadden, Rovi

Though it starts out like a romantic comedy, Hannah is actually a chilling and suspenseful political thriller. Bright, energetic and charming Hannah has just landed a public relations job at the aging Hochstedt Doll Company. Her presence attracts the attention of both company owner Thomas and assistant director Wolfgang Heck, the nephew of Thomas. Things start out well for Hannah, but as she becomes more intimate with the company's inner workings, disturbing and potentially dangerous secrets emerge regarding the Hochstedt family's connections with the neo-Nazi movement. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This Austrian comedy is laced with a touch of black humor as it follows the exploits of a young man runs away to the country to get away from his family and life in the city. Mario had a tough life. He was abused by his father, gang raped in prison, and then after he becomes friends with a transvestite is booted out by his dad. He goes to the country and meets an old farmer who invites him to stay. There he meets the farmer's never-wed middle aged daughter. Mario and she gradually fall in love. She helps him after his father shows up and tries to blackmail him. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This exceedingly grim drama follows the growth and development of a child in a miserable home, as his prostitute mother's indifferent care leads to her abandoning him. After that, he is taken in hand by his grandfather, who molested his daughter (the boy's mother). Before long, the boy is in and out of juvenile prisons and foster homes, eventually "winning" a life sentence to prison for assault. This unflinching examination of a deprived and badly lived life is based on the autobiographical reminiscences of the ex-convict Jack Unterberger. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi