Maruschka Detmers Movies

Acclaimed German director Soenke Wortmann spins this cleverly constructed, sumptuously shot crime drama set in St. Pauli, Hamburg's notorious red light district. The film opens with a gang of thugs dumping someone's ashes in the harbor. One of the group, brash punk Johnny (Benno Fuermann) crosses town in a cab driven by Robby (Ill-young Kim). As the film jumps from one story to the next, Robby and his taxi emerge as the central thread that holds the film together. Later, a naked man with a gun terrorizes a crowded street and accidentally kills Johnny. The film immediately dives into the naked man's history before moving on to the movie's sundry other outcasts and miscreants such as brassy transvestite Roberta, disaffected punk Sven, and sleazy club owner Billi. With a cool, almost clinical eye, Wortmann artfully cuts back and forth through both space and time as his characters are systematically picked off. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Despite his lifelong efforts, Jean is one of those unfortunate men who can never understand women. This arty, metaphorical French film presents three examples of Jean's difficulties over the course of his long life. Each of the three episodes takes place beside the same river. He is first seen as a small boy playing on the river banks with the teenage girl he secretly loves. She mischievously promises to tell him her darkest secret if only he will perform a certain task for her. The story then takes a more surreal turn as a now-grown Jean, once again beside the river, toys with a beautiful woman at a picnic. She wants a commitment from him, but wily Jean is unwilling to satisfy her. In the final segment, Jean has become an old man and is once again deeply in love. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

New York art dealer Arne Glimcher took his first crack at film directing with this florid, high-energy romance about two brothers who flee Cuba in the early 1950s to make it as musicians in the United States. Cynthia Cidre wrote the literate screenplay adapted from Oscar Hijuelos's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love. Cesar (Armand Assante) and Nestor Castillo (Antonio Banderas) are popular musicians on Havana's club circuit, but when they make enemies of the wrong people, they are forced to leave for New York City, the moody Nestor leaving behind his true love. In New York, the brothers work as meat-cutters during the day as Cesar tries to organize a band and make inroads into the lively New York music scene. Soon, as The Mambo Kings, they get club bookings and Cesar falls in love with a sharp-tongued cigarette girl, Lanna Lake (Cathy Moriarty), and Nestor with the beautiful Delores Fuentes (Maruschka Detmers), who wants to be a teacher. Cesar concentrates on singing and managing the band, while Nestor plays the trumpet and writes emotional songs of love. All seems to be going well until Cesar antagonizes the moneymen on the Latin nightclub circuit and they finds themselves playing bar mitzvahs. But after they're discovered by Desi Arnaz (Desi Arnaz Jr.), the group is prominently featured on I Love Lucy. Their popularity soars and they cut a successful album called "Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love." Cesar is glorying in his success, but Nestor is disappointed and longs to return to Cuba. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

All of Europe was affected by the Great Depression of the 1930s, but some parts were hurt less badly than others. France, for instance, was relatively prosperous. In this grim drama, a sturdy Polish boxer and his family have settled into a mining town in northern France because that's where the work is. Like European "guest workers" in the 1990s, the Polish immigrants then were frequently treated badly by the locals. In this drama, the romantic aspirations of the boxer's son are thwarted by the concerted efforts of the local men and his own family's preference that he marry another Polish girl. After his romance fails, the son becomes a union activist and sacrifices a great deal to try to gain higher wages for the miners, but the contract he works out is reneged on by the duplicitous owners. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

The "two" of the title are concert promoter Gerard Depardieu and real estate agent Marushka Detmers. Thrown together by chance and indirection, Depardieu and Detmars begin a romance. Claude Zidi directs Deux with the same breezy aplomb he has applied on his earlier wacky comedies. Zidi also produced and co-wrote the film, which hasn't yet gotten the American distribution afforded most Gerard Depardieu vehicles. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A European humanitarian organization tries to bring relief to the famine-stricken Sahel region of North Africa in this satirical comedy. The convoy of five trucks is victimized by rebel guerillas and marauding tribes and is soon lost in the desert. When two party members try to leave, they end up being eaten by cannibals, and the Africans end up being irritated that the relief aid does more harm than good. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Some young international terrorists are holed up in the apartment Loulou Dupin (Coluche) inherited from his recently deceased grandmother, a premise that quickly leads to unlikely entanglements in this low-brow political farce. When Loulou opens the closets and finds dynamite, nitroglycerine, and various weapons, he begins to get suspicious about the intentions of the young men and women who have commandeered the apartment. In fact, they are planning to smuggle their leader out of prison and then head to Mexico to plant a bomb at a meeting of world leaders in Cancún. The imprisoned gang leader assigns the most seductive terrorist (Maruschka Detmers) the task of eliminating Loulou -- which she finds increasingly difficult and finally, impossible to do. After the leader is freed from prison, the gang takes off for Mexico and Loulou, furious, follows in hot pursuit. Their destination is the Mayan ruins, and Loulou is the only one who can stop their dastardly plot -- though he cannot do much for this plot which is rarely paired with funny lines or inspired comedy. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

First Name: Carmen tells the parallel stories of a quartet rehearsing Beethoven and a group of young people robbing a bank, supposedly to get the funds to make a film. Director Jean-Luc Godard attempts to make a film that resembles a string quartet, each of whose parts serves an abstract whole. The film is a meditation on the difficulties of youth in the 1980s, the relations between cinema and capital, and how to film the human body. Godard fills the film with carefully composed shots of bodies playing music, making love, and acting violently. His attention to bodies in First Name: Carmen makes the film's images very close to sculptures, particularly those of Rodin. The film's engagement with painting and sculpture continues Godard's ongoing investigation of the relationships between cinema and other arts ~ Louis Schwartz, Rovi