Kai Wiesinger
- 2001
A criminal discovers that stealing from a child isn't as simple -- or as easy to get away with -- as he thought in this comedy-drama for the family. Emil (Tobias Retzlaff) is a 12-year-old boy who lives in Germany with his father after his parents were divorced. Emil's father, a salesman, gets in an auto accident that sends him to the hospital and costs him his driver's license for three months. With his mother living in Canada, Emil's schoolteacher arranges for the boy to stay with her sister, a fellow teacher, while Emil's father is on the mend. While taking the train to Berlin, Emil finds himself discussing his father's predicament with a stranger who broaches the possibility of selling him a phony driver's ID for his father. Emil expresses interest in the idea, which leads to the stranger robbing the young man of all his belongings. Emil, however, is too bright and resourceful to let the thief go without a fight; the lad trails the crook as he gets off the train, and with the help of a group of streetwise youngsters, Emil soon has dozens of kids in Berlin acting as his eyes and ears as they scheme to get Emil's money back. This was the fourth screen adaptation of the popular children's story Emil Und Die Detektive by Erich Kastner; the supporting cast includes Anja Sommavilla, Jurgen Vogel, and Maria Schrader. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tobias Retzlaff, Jürgen Vogel, (more)
- 1999
Acclaimed Finnish director Mika Kaurismaki helms this deadpan, oddball road movie. Jack Bogart (Kai Wiesinger) is a dodgy car mechanic living in the backwaters of Germany. His motto is "Live for the moment; that's all that counts," and, indeed, for a moment he hooked up with an older Korean woman (Francisca Tu), until a couple of thugs he had previously swindled, Bruno (Hannes Hellmann) and doltish Popo, pay him a visit. Jack promptly hits the road along with bitchy Verena (Michaela Rosen) and her saucy spoiled daughter Elisabeth (Marie Zielcke). The latter falls for Jack, much to his consternation, and soon she is tagging along all the way to Finland. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kai Wiesinger, Marie Zielcke, (more)
- 1999
While a number of American and European films have examined the horrible legacy of the Third Reich and the Holocaust, Du Sollst Nicht Toeten is one of the first dramatic films from Germany to examine the crimes of the Nazi era and their impact on the German psyche. Peter Rohm (Kai Wiesinger) is a successful lawyer living in Berlin with his wife Rebekka (Karoline Eichhorn). One day, Peter receives an unusual package in the mail -- a Nazi officer's uniform. Puzzled, Peter does some research which suggests that the uniform once belonged to fugitive war criminal Josef Mengele. Peter is soon visited by a mysterious stranger named Mueller (Heinz Trixner), who slips him a powerful drug. When he awakes, Peter is in Argentina, where he's introduced to an elderly man who has lived for years under the name Heinz Baumgarten, but announces that he is in fact Joseph Mengele (Goetz George). Mengele has decided to return to Germany to stand trial for war crimes, and he wants Peter to represent him; Peter reluctantly agrees. As the German media goes into a frenzy and angry demonstrations crowd the streets, Mengele calmly argues that he was merely a research scientist whose work ultimately aided humanity, and that no firm evidence links him to any murders. While a handful of eyewitnesses offer support to the accusations against Mengele, no one seems able to present hard evidence that contradicts Mengele's claims. Adapted from a screenplay by American writers Christopher Riley and Kathleen Riley (which no U.S. producers were willing to film), Du Sollst Nicht Toeten so impressed Goetz George that he helped finance the film to the tune of one million marks; Kai Wiesinger was also enthusiastic about the material and waived his usual fee in order to aid production of the picture. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kai Wiesinger, Götz George, (more)
- 1998
Actress Dana Vavrova directed this German drama about a woman suffering from an eating disorder. Attractive Laura (Catherine Flemming) lives alone and holds down a Munich marketing job, stressful enough to trigger bulimic binges. When Laura gets a new boyfriend, Simon (Kai Wiesinger), she lives in fear that her secret will be discovered. This film is produced by director Joseph Vilsmaier, who is Dana Vavrova's husband. Shown at 1998 film fests (Berlin, Karlovy Vary). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Catherine Flemming, Kai Wiesinger, (more)
A flash flood rips through a shopping mall and many people are trapped inside. Matters get more complicated when those struggling to survive discover a desperate killer in their midst. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rob Estes, Shannon Sturges, (more)
- 1998
Roland Suso Richter directed this German prison drama about lawyer Konrad von Seidlitz (Kai Wiesinger) and his attractive fiancee (Sylvia Leifheit). With plenty of promotional press coverage, the arrogant Konrad serves a 14-day jail sentence for unpaid parking tickets. His release, however, doesn't happen since drugs are planted in his cell; instead, he gets a two-year sentence minus parole, is abandoned by his fiancee, has a close encounter with rape, is nearly killed, and works on a plan to prove his innocence. Shown in the market section at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kai Wiesinger, Michael Mendl, (more)
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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Becker, Heino Ferch, (more)
- 1996
In this German language comedy, Barbara (Veronica Ferres) discovers that her husband (Kai Wiesinger) is having sex with his secretary, and runs to the apartment of her friends Christine (Julia Stemberger) and Linda (Anica Dobra) for comfort. There she discovers that all of them have recently suffered too much from their alliances with men. Christine, can't find a man who can fulfill her romantic vision, and Linda is jaded after bedding many. The three of them agree to swear off men. As soon as they do this, suitable men appear in the lives of Christine and Linda, and Barbara's husband is contrite. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1995
This lively German comedy follows the exploits of the cynical Monika, a never-married woman who just turned 30 and earns her living giving advice to the lovelorn on a local radio station. Though acerbic and glib with her replies on the air, Monika is a total washout in the outside world of l'amour. Her mother makes her feel worse, and her gay brother helps her put an add in the lonely hearts column of the local paper. Through her ad, she meets Erik, a tone-deaf dentist who likes to sing "That's Amore." He says he's single, but soon Monika discovers that he is married to a friend of hers, Sabine. A romantic triangle is born; mayhem and frank, funny discussions of sex ensue. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
The Beatles' early days as a struggling bar band are depicted in this fact-based drama, which tells the little-known story of original member Stuart Sutcliffe (Stephen Dorff). A close friend of John Lennon, Sutcliffe acts as the band's original bassist, accompanying them on their early gigs in Liverpool and Hamburg, Germany. The friendship becomes strained, however, when Sutcliffe falls in love with a German art student and starts to question his commitment to the band. With Sutcliffe's story taking center stage, the stories of the more famous Beatles largely fade into the background. The exception is John Lennon, thanks to a fierce performance by Ian Hart, who had previously portrayed the musician in the more intimate and provocative The Hours and the Times. While Backbeat does provide a new perspective on the band's beginning, and numerous opportunities for a group of modern rock musicians to recreate the band's energetic early performances, it never makes Sutcliffe's story seem more than a footnote to musical history. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sheryl Lee, Stephen Dorff, (more)
- 1994
- R
Much of the dialog in this very funny German film was taken directly from the two gay comic books by underground cartoonist Ralf Koenig on which the movie was based. Though the comics were written from a gay perspective, the film is slanted towards heterosexual couples. It tells the story of Axel, a handsome hunk with a taste for cheating on his girl friend Doro. When she throws him out, he ends up staying with his gay friend Norbert who is terribly attracted to Axel. Norbert is too shy to act upon his desire, and so, suffers in silence. Doro, upon visiting the two, becomes suspicious and wonders if Axel is also gay. Her suspicions about the naive Axel do not abate, even after her "shot-gun" wedding to him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Til Schweiger, Katja Riemann, (more)
- 1993
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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kai Wiesinger, Gedeon Burkhard, (more)
