Nikolaus Paryla Movies
- 2000
In this thought-provoking drama, Franz (Ulrich Tukur) is a recently divorced man who has a keen appreciation for beauty. He's an artist who loves the paintings that hang in the gallery where he works, and he takes comfort in the unspoiled vistas of the countryside. But Franz lives in the city, where pollution, noise, construction, and urban sprawl are a familiar part of the landscape. One day, Franz snaps, and he begins lashing out violently at the world, plowing into a bus full of tourists in his car and firebombing a supermarket that's put a number of smaller local shops out of business. Franz gains a comrade in arms in a young girl (Julia Filiminow) who shares his love for nature and distrust for the trappings of modern life, but he soon discovers that they're risking their lives in a battle they cannot win. Heimkehr der Jager was shown in competition at the 2000 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julia Filiminow
- 1999
Rosi (Gisela Schneeberger) is a bookish middle-aged woman working for an insurance company who becomes smitten with Rainer (August Zirner), a good-looking German novelist, when she sees him read from his works. Rosi happens to be nearby when Rainer kills his obsessively jealous girl friend in self-defense. Rosi's more than happy to help Rainer cover up the incident, but she sees this as a chance to work her way into his inner circle, and before long she gets the notion that the easiest way to eliminate competition for his attentions is to simply kill a few people who stand in her way. Though produced for European television, Die Hahn Ist Tot received a screening at the 1999 Munich Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gisela Schneeberger, August Zirner, (more)
- 1998
A burnt-out Berlin cop investigating his 652nd case slowly loses the ability to discern the differences between the grim realities of the job and a decaying personal life as his mental instability grows progressively worse. His latest case is particularly nasty and puzzling, but Detective Bernie Kominka (Gotz George) finds himself strangely pleased, for it distracts him from his tumultuous home life wherein his wife grows fussy and distant, and his nearly lunatic son proclaims his undying hatred for him. The mystery involves the apparently sexually-motivated mutilation, beating death, and robbery of a young man. During his initial investigation of the crime scene, Kominka notes a yellow umbrella that is surreptitiously picked up by a young woman. While vainly searching for clues, Kominka's marriage finally crumbles, but not before he is suspended by his boss/brother-in-law Hecht (Christian Redl) during a heated argument. With no work and no family, Kominka, who seems to be teetering on the brink of a breakdown without realizing it himself, starts looking for the woman and the missing umbrella. During his search, he learns that the victim's ex-wife has become a suspect and that the deceased had been selling his son to pedophiles. Kominka finds the woman, Anna Weller (Corinna Harfouch) soon enough. A recent divorcée, she is as vulnerable and fragile as he is. Without identifying himself as a cop, Kominka picks Anna up at a singles bar and the two embark upon a decidedly sexual and unhealthy relationship that only worsens the situation. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Götz George, Corinna Harfouch, (more)
- 1998
In this comedy thriller, Carla is the daughter of a mobster and Alex is a modern Casanova. He is looking for romance in the pub, while she is hiding from the police. Alex's pick-up line for the day is that he is a gangster on the run. Carla shrewdly offers herself as a cover without Alex realizing that he is in fact her cover. Everything goes wrong when Carla takes Alex on as an accomplice. They steal a huge amount of money from an arms dealer, but Alex accidentally burns the money. Before long, they are on the run from the gun dealer, his customer as well as the police. Helden und andere Feiglinge was shown as part of the New German Films at the 49th International Berlin Film Festival, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ralf Bauer, Carin C. Tietze, (more)
- 1995
Set within a Viennese apartment block, this affectionate Austrian comedy makes fun of the strange habits of the famed city's residents. The building is located in a middle-class area and has residents from many age groups and walks of life. Many of the tenants are much older, but there are also a few children about. In one apartment lives a large group of Polish construction workers, while a Yugoslavian woman and her huge family attempt to survive in their tiny flat. The episodic story of the lives of these and other tenants is framed by a visit from a civil servant from the Office of Statistics. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Though not quite as bad as it might have been, the 1994 "reunion" TV-movie I Spy Returns was some distance removed from great. Written by Michael Norell, this two-hour film is set some 25 years after the conclusion of the original I Spy weekly series. Former secret agent Alexander "Scotty" Scott (Bill Cosby), now a romance-language professor at a tweedy California college, is aghast to learn that his feisty daughter Nicole (Salli Richardson) has signed up as a spy with Special Services. Making a beeline to the organization's director Kelly Robinson (Robert Culp), who'd once been his partner in the espionage business, Scotty demands that Nicole be bounced from the program. Kelly merely chuckles and replies that the girl couldn't be in safer hands: Her partner is the organization's most gifted and resourceful young agent-Kelly's own son Ben (George Newbern). Realizing that he will never be able to win an argument with his old pal Kelly, Scotty agrees to join Robinson in surreptitiously supervising Nicole and Ben as they head to Vienna to tackle their first assignment: Providing protection for defecting Russian scientist Cherbakov (Nikalous Parlya) and his wife (Lynsey Baxter). When they discover that their former adversary Baroodi (Jonathan Hyde) is also in Vienna, Kelly and Scotty take an active hand in matters-and the results are, if not hilarious, certainly diverting. The film's high points include the lengthy "bickering banter" exchanges between old pros Culp and Cosby. I Spy Returns originally aired as a "CBS Movie Special" on February 3, 1994. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1991
Maca Daracs (Barbara Auer) is a gypsy woman working in Austria, and she has a problem: she doesn't have any legal right to be working there. Furthermore, the police have already tagged her as someone to check up on really soon. If she can't come up with a husband to make it possible for her to stay, she can kiss her "good life" in Austria goodbye. For her, the long hours she spends working in a resort kitchen and the cot she has in a tiny room (and even the effort she must exert to fend of the unwelcome attentions of a hotel manager) are all infinitely better than what she has waiting for her where she came from. Suffice it to say, she's motivated. In this comedy, due to time constraints, she has basically two choices of mates: a paranoid semi-retired arms dealer, and a wealthy and socially prominent politician. Naturally, she hits on the politician first, but he admits that, while he finds her sexually alluring, he's not about to marry her. She tries to woo the nutso arms dealer next, but he soon appears to go genuinely off his rocker, and she's forced to seek him out at a nearby asylum. There, he proves his sanity by choosing to wed her instead of one of the formidable (and undoubtedly mustachioed) asylum matrons. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Auer, Nikolaus Paryla, (more)
- 1983
In this comedy about the triumph of the exploited against the powerful few, an affable and honest Bavarian truck driver is hoodwinked by a shifty salesman into buying seven different insurance policies. When the driver slowly realizes that the cost of the policies comes to about half of his salary - an impossible situation - he innocently goes to the company headquarters in Munich to right the "mistake" - only to find that a secretary is sending him on one wild goose chase after another. In his meanderings, he comes across a hidden system of cameras that have been spying on the workers on the sixth floor - where the secretary is located. So he lets her know what is going on, and in return, she tells him that the salesman he wants will be at a company party that evening - along with everyone else in the company as well. The resolution of the driver's problems takes place during the festivities that night, among a very eccentric crowd of people. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gerhard Polt, Gisela Schneeberger, (more)
- 1980
An insightful, well-rounded, and often acerbic look at the slow burn of a middle-aged housewife, Lena Rais says a lot in its 116-minute running time. Lena (Krista Stadler) begins to feel like a tool for her husband's sexual needs and an automatic machine for her children. Her life is losing its meaning and she wants to do something about it. She wants out -- but when she leans in that direction, her husband starts to abuse her physically. He wants the old passive Lena back again and abuse is the only way he understands to get what he wants. Lena muddles along awhile longer and ends up rebelling by having a brief fling with an altogether bad sort, which lands her in psychotherapy. This chain of events finally gets her the advice and encouragement she needed all along, and the brave woman faces up to her violent husband and a future without him. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tilo Prückner, Nikolaus Paryla, (more)
