Meret Becker Movies

Sixty years after the fall of the Third Reich, German filmmaker Dani Levy takes the bold step of playing the most notorious man of the 20th century for laughs in this offbeat historical comedy. In December 1944, the war in Europe is in its final stages; Germany has been decimated by Allied attacks, and the Third Reich is fated to collapse in just a few months. With the Nazi empire in tatters, Adolf Hitler (Helge Schneider) is understandably depressed, and while he's scheduled to give a major address to the nation on New Year's Day, he can barely summon up the enthusiasm to get out of bed. Joseph Goebbels (Sylvester Groth), Hitler's propaganda czar, realizes the Führer needs some help to get out of his funk, and thinks some coaching from a trained actor would help him put on a brave face for his big speech. Goebbels approaches Adolf Grünbaum (Ulrich Mühe), one of Germany's most respected thespians, and asks him if he'd be willing to help Hitler prepare for his address; since Grünbaum is Jewish and currently residing in a concentration camp, he jumps at the chance, provided his wife and children are also released and the camp is shut down before the next round of executions. While Goebbels and his men have no intention of honoring Grünbaum's latter request, they are willing to free his loved ones, and soon Grünbaum is spending his days with the emotionally immature dictator as he tries to help him get back on his feet. Meanwhile, Goebbels and SS leader Heinrich Himmler (Ulrich Noethen) suspect that Hitler may be too far gone for help and start hatching a backup plan, in which they'll kill the Führer in a phony accident and seize control of the Reich. No stranger to controversy, writer and directory Levy's previous project was Go for Zucker, a comedy which poked fun at the division of Berlin during the Cold War and one man's opportunistic embrace of Orthodox Judaism. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Much as Steven Spielberg followed 1993's special-effects blockbuster Jurassic Park with a far more downbeat and personal project later the same year, Schindler's List, in 2005 after tearing up the box office with War of the Worlds the director closed out the year with a powerful and thoughtful drama about the human costs of international terrorism. The 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany, were supposed to be a peaceful gathering of outstanding athletes from around the world, but on September 5, the games took a sinister turn when eight masked Palestinian terrorists invaded the Olympic village, killing two Israeli athletes and abducting nine others. The kidnappers demanded safe passage out of Germany in addition to the release of Arab prisoners in Israeli and German prisons, but when they arrived at the Munich airport they were met by German police and military forces, and in the melee that followed, all nine hostages were killed. In the wake of the killings, the Israeli government gave Mossad, the nation's intelligence agency, a special assignment -- to track down and eliminate the Palestinians responsible for the death of the Israeli athletes. A young and idealistic Mossad agent (Eric Bana) is assigned to the four-man unit created to wipe out the Olympic terrorists, but while he believes in serving his country, as their bloody work goes on he begins to buckle under the weight of his work and wonders if he can morally justify his nation's acts of revenge. Munich also stars Geoffrey Rush, Daniel Craig, Mathieu Kassovitz, and Ciarán Hinds. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Written and directed by the filmmaking team of Gerhard Ertl and Sabine Hiebler, this odd German comedy is about three couples and the way their lives cross paths at one gas station. The first pair of lovers meets at the gas station where the man works. Falling in love, they decide to live together at the station. Next, the second couple arrives with a peculiar proposal. It seems the woman is fatally ill and they'd always dreamed of owning a gas station together, so they've come to offer to buy it. Finally, the third couple, a bank robbing duo, enters the story with plans to stick up the station. Nominated for the top prize at Germany's 2002 Max Ophuls Festival, Nogo had its U.S. premiere at the 2002 Chicago International Film Festival. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi

Controversial German filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim narrates an unusual story in this dramatic feature film about the once world-famous sexologist Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld. Founder of the world's first gay rights movement, as well as an influential thinker and researcher, Hirschfeld was a homosexual socialist Jew, which made it impossible for him to pursue his career in his native Germany during the 1930s. He was forced into exile in the U.S., where he earned the nickname 'Einstein of Sex.' The film reveals Hirschfeld through events, which involve the major figures in his life such as an unfulfilled love affair with Baron von Teschenberg; the happy years with young Karl Giese; his struggle with major gay opponent, right-wing writer Adolf Brand; and the presence of his guardian angel, the witty and courageous transvestite Dorchen. Interestingly, von Praunheim chooses a rather conventional narrative for this non-conventional subject, employing key episodes to build a provocative biography of a controversial figure. Der Einstein des Sex was screened in competition at the 1999 Locarno International Film Festival. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi

Joseph Vilsmaier (Stalingrad and Brother of Sleep) directed this fact-based German musical drama about a popular barbershop sextet in Nazi Germany of the '30s. In 1927, musician Harry Frommermann (Ulrich Noethen), attracted to music-shop assistant Erna (Meret Becker), joins ambitious vocalist Robert Biberti (Ben Becker) in forming a vocal group with arranger Erwin (Kai Wiesinger) and Bulgarian cafe-singer Ari (Max Tidof). As their fame increases, the authorities, who object to the Jews in the group, pressure them to perform National Socialist material. Traveling to New York, they eventually must decide whether to remain in the U.S. or return to Germany. The musical numbers use digitally remastered recordings by the real-life group, and computer graphics were employed to re-create a 1934 concert aboard an aircraft carrier in New York harbor. Barry Manilow's stage musical Harmony is based on this same music group. Shown at the 1998 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

Kelly McGillis and Brenda Fricker star in this drama about a group of women who operate a bordello in the old West. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Densely plotted and featuring a large ensemble cast, this German drama offers a smorgasbord of lush visuals, intrigue, sex, egos run amok, and raw emotion. Set in Bavaria, within a posh Italian restaurant owned by Pierrot, much of the story centers on a filmmaker and his producers as they try to keep bankers from backing out on their promise to pay for a new film about the Lorelay, the ideal woman of German mythology. At the same time, the director is searching for a woman to play her. Despite his outward confidence, the director Uhu is deeply insecure about his career. Beautiful Snow White is determined to win the title role and will stop at nothing, not even the prostitution of her body, to get the part. Her girlfriend, Watsussnik is not pleased but is too emotionally unstable to speak out. Meanwhile Jakob, the writer of the novel on which the film is to be based, sits in a back room musing about how to get the film rights for himself. As the stories progress and unfold, more people are added to the mix, including a lonely beauty who is worshipped by a cosmetic surgeon. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Two star-crossed lovers, separated by the Berlin wall for thirty years are reunited. The major events in their separate lives become the focus in this German political drama. The story begins in August 1961 as the Wall is being built. In Eastern Berlin a group of young adults plans their escape. Included in the group are Konrad and Sophie who has an aunt on the other side. It is the aunt who will sponsor the escapees. Escape will be the only way Konrad and Sophie will be able to stay together. Konrad is involved in a mishap en route and must remain in East Berlin. In 1968, the lovers at last get a chance to briefly meet in Prague. There they express their frustration and pain. At least there, in Prague they can find occasional happiness. Suddenly Russian tanks appear and destroy their new dream. 1980 comes. Sophie and Konrad have since married other people. Their next meeting is bittersweet as they look back upon their promise which was broken by circumstance, and by the decisions each lover had to make. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Ingo (Jurgen Vogel) is a moody fellow, much given to dark looks and long silences. In his personal life, he is a writer, but his "day job" is as a dishwasher at a restaurant. One day, an actor at one of Germany's eight major acting schools leaves a stool from the school at the restaurant, and Ingo must go to return it. Since the only people who ever darken the school's doors are actors, the people there immediately assume that Ingo is one, too - especially since he has so much beautiful "attitude." One thing leads to another, and before long he has made the acquaintance of Johannes (Kai Wiesinger), a very dedicated actor, who has flunked out of all seven of the other acting schools due to his pathological fear of auditions. He persuades Ingo to join him in a jaunt to Munich to try for a role on the professional stage, so that he won't have to constantly audition for school productions. For a lark, Ingo, whose girlfriend just jilted him, agrees to go along. Before long the two intrepid aspiring actors are joined by a third, a smooth ladies' man named Ali (Gedeon Burkhard), and their adventures have just begun. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In this romantic comedy, three militant feminists decide that the ultimate proof of their superiority in the battle of the sexes will be if they can convert a leather-clad man (whom they assume to be an oaf, an "arrogant, self-centered braggart") into what they imagine is an archetypically sensitive man. However, despite some amusingly pointed rhetoric from the women, when they persuade this paragon of masculine crudeness to take a job which includes quarters in the basement of their house, they get embroiled in a plain and very ordinary romantic competition. In fact, the real winner is the puzzled but highly satisfied subject of their machinations. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Injustices and misdemeanors in agencies like the local police and the National Security Bureau (West Germany's equivalent of the American FBI) are featured in this highly politicized drama about Brasch, a teacher (Helmut Griem) and Koerner (Martin Benrath), a NSB agent. A polarized society is, at one end, terrified after a public official (Hanns Martin Schleyer) is kidnapped and at the other end, enraged by the mysterious, sudden deaths of members of the Baader-Meinhof leftist guerrillas in prison. Brasch sympathizes with the liberal causes, and after he implicates Koerner and the NSB in some dirty dealings that resulted in the suicide of a young teen, the schoolteacher is fired -- and so is Koerner for being caught out. Both men react combatively to their dismissals and the drama escalates. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi