Peter Franke Movies

German filmmaker and former professional footballer (read: soccer player) Sönke Wortmann directs the family sports drama Das Wunder von Bern (The Miracle of Bern). The title is in reference to the unexpected German victory over the Hungarians at the 1954 World Cup in Bern, Switzerland. In the working-class Ruhr region of West Germany, the Lubanski family eagerly awaits husband and father Richard (Peter Lohmeyer) to be released from the Soviet POW camp. During his absence, mother Christa (Johanna Gastdorf) and daughter Ingrid (Birthe Wolter) have started up their own business, while son Matthias (Louis Klamroth) has developed an interest in soccer. He idolizes local player Helmut Rahn, but his father doesn't approve of it. Meanwhile, sports journalist Paul Ackermann (Lucas Gregorowicz) heads to Switzerland to cover the World Cup events. The finale at the climactic soccer game was re-created with professional players from the German Football Liga along with a 3-D stadium and CGI crowd. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

In the port town of Hamburg, Germany, Floyd (Frank Giering) disappoints his sanctimonious boss by announcing that he's shipping out to South Africa and Singapore now that his two-year probation for an unspecified juvenile offense has been completed. When he shares the news with his devoted friends Chubby (Antoine Monot Jr.), a mechanic, and Ricco (Florian Lukas), a fast-food cook and would-be b-boy, they can't comprehend their thoughtful friend's willingness to trade camaraderie for a wider view of the world. Overcoming their anger and bewilderment, the guys decide to spend one last night with Floyd, but the problem, as always, is how to find some fun. A succession of fast-food restaurants, parking garages, and local watering holes chronicles the inherent boredom of life in the provinces. But a run-in with a convention of dragster-racing Elvis impersonators sends the boys and their friend Telsa Julia Hummer on a series of adventures that veers from the farcical to the almost-tragic. Absolute Giganten was screened at the 1999 Flanders Film Festival and thereafter received limited international distribution. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

In this frankly bizarre fantasy story based on a novel by Austrian writer Robert Schneider, Elias Johannes Alder (Andre Eisermann) is born into a filthy, poverty-stricken village in the alps; his mother doesn't much care for him, and he later discovers he's the bastard son of the town's clergyman. As his mother is giving birth to his sister Elsbeth, Elias has an epiphany that causes his hearing to become unusually keen and his eyes to change color. He suddenly develops a tremendous talent for music, quickly mastering the church organ and performing and writing music with remarkable skill and passion. Once Elsbeth grows to maturity, Elias becomes obsessed with his sister and longs to be her lover; however, she breaks his heart by instead marrying Peter (Ben Becker), an old friend who is deeply moved by Elias' music. Driven to despair, Elias decides to commit suicide, but in a truly novel manner -- by giving up sleep. Director Joseph Vilsmaier also served as cinematographer; Schneider wrote the screenplay from his own novel. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

This German psychodrama looks into the events that lead an introverted woman into taking extreme action against her oppressors. Poor Maria has spent her life being ignored and pushed around by men. First there was her invalid father whom she waited on hand and foot. Then there was her cold and emotionally distant husband. Maria has been internalizing her rage for years. Her anger finally erupts when her husband takes the little bit of money she'd been secretly saving over the last few years. She kills both her husband and her father. The film ends with her new boyfriend's distressed facial expression as he learns of her murders. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Friedrich (Uwe Bohm) manages to escape from East Germany to the West in the 1950s. On his arrival, he is greeted with the words Herzlich Willkommen, or "cordial, heartfelt welcome." However, once he finds employment, what he experiences is anything but a cordial welcome at his new job, where he is a teacher/counselor for "wayward children" located in a former castle. The institution is headed by a former Nazi who runs it with the help of the more criminal, bullying boys. Despite these obstacles, Friedrich manages to establish a rapport with a boy who wants to go "straight," and also begins to have an affair with an attractive female teacher at the school. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This somewhat superficial historical drama is about the 1525 Peasants' War in Germany when the lower classes rebelled against oppressive conditions imposed by the clergy and nobility and then committed many acts (including atrocities) that did not morally set them far apart from the people they were fighting. It was a time of upheaval: Martin Luther (1483-1556) had broken away from the Catholic Church, calling for reform, and Anabaptists in Germany, like Thomas Munzer fought on the side of the peasants (opposed by Luther). This complex age and its political and religious turmoil are summed up in a story about an attack on a small monastery whose monks used a forged document to confiscate some land from the peasants. When their wrong-doing is revealed by the monk who forged the document in the first place, the peasants attack. While the peasants wait for the heralded arrival of their warrior-savior on a white horse to bring justice to their cause, their fortunes go from bad to worse as the nobility gear up for revenge. This epic story might have been better served if director Christian Ziewer's budget had not been cut, forcing economic measures that have an effect on both depth and continuity.
~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Children from families of diverse political and religious backgrounds gather in the courtyard of a Berlin tenement house during the beginning of The Third Reich under Adolph Hitler. While the adults worry about the effects that socialism, communism, and Nazi sabre-rattling has on their lives, the children play games that reflect the anxieties felt by their concerned parents. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Franz Lang (Gotz George) was one of the commandants of the Auschwitz concentration camps. He was also a man whose honor consisted of following the orders given to him by his superiors as perfectly as possible, whatever those orders might be. This German-made movie chronicles his career beginning in World War I, and shows in detail how he came to occupy the infamous position of Auschwitz commandant. Told in an understated manner without extraneous moral commentary, the story continues up to his interrogation at the end of the war by an American officer, and shows how it was possible for this fairly ordinary man to, without any particular anger or hatred, personally execute or cause to be killed hundreds of thousands of people. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum marks the directorial debut for actress Margarethe von Trotta, who co-directed the film with her then-husband Volker Schlöndorff. At a costume party, Katharina Blum (Angela Winkler) meets Ludwig Goetten (Jürgen Prochnow ) and spends the night with him. The next morning, he's gone and the police bust into her apartment looking for him with the belief that he is a dangerous terrorist. She is taken into police custody and interrogated by Kommissar Beizmenne (Mario Adorf), who questions her about her every action. Meanwhile, sleazy reporter Werner Toetges (Dieter Laser) makes her story into a scandal in the papers by writing sensational stories about her personal life and portraying her as a criminal in photos. He exaggerates the testimonies of her ex-husband, neighbors, and even her elderly mother who is dying of cancer in an intensive care hospital. With the fear-induced public thinking she is a Communist and terrorist sympathizer, Katharina receives hate mail and personal threats until she is finally driven over the edge. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi