Stefan Arndt 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, All Movie Guide

A new bride finds she's tempted to leave her husband under circumstances she never anticipated in this romantic comedy-drama. Rachel (Piper Perabo) and Heck (Matthew Goode) are longtime sweethearts who have decided to take the plunge and get married, but on the day of their wedding, while Rachel is walking down the aisle, she finds herself struck by the beauty of Luce (Lena Headey), who has been hired to do the floral arrangements for the ceremony. While Rachel thinks little of this at first, she finds she can't get Luce out of her mind, and when Rachel invites Luce over to dinner in hopes of fixing her up with Coop (Darren Boyd), Heck's best friend and best man, she learns the lovely florist is a lesbian. When Rachel and Luce meet again while shopping, they strike up a friendship that deepens into something more, until Rachel declares her attraction to Luce -- and Luce reveals she feels the same way. Rachel has never had a relationship with a woman before, and while she's fallen deeply in love with Luce, she isn't at all sure of what to do next, and Heck soon realizes something has gone wrong in their marriage. Produced under the title Click, Imagine Me & You was the first directorial credit for screenwriter Ol Parker. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The Tschirn brothers have their share of problems. Middle brother Hans-Jörg (Moritz Bleibtreu of Run Lola Run) is a librarian who neglects his duties in order to ogle every attractive woman that enters his workplace. His clumsy efforts to make conversation with them go nowhere. He takes his fetishistic peeping a step further, following women into the ladies room so he can sit in the next stall and pleasure himself while he spies on them. Older brother Werner (Herbert Knaup), a successful Green Party politico, would seem to be a bit more together, but his home life is in shambles. His wife, Signe (Katja Riemann of Rosenstrasse), no longer responds to his marital advances, and seems to have an unhealthily intimate relationship with their rebellious teenage son, Ralf (Tom Schilling), who spends much of his time trying to videotape his father's every embarrassment. Younger brother Martin has had a sex change and become Agnes (Martin Weiss). Agnes is a good-natured person, but profoundly unhappy, perhaps stemming from his unfulfilled relationship with an American fashion designer (played by Monster's Ball producer Lee Daniels in a cameo). But Hans-Jörg blames all of their problems on their father, Günther (Vadim Glowna), and can't even bring himself to visit the old man. Agnes and His Brothers, written and directed by Oskar Roehler, was selected by the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center for inclusion in the 2005 edition of New Directors/New Films. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

German screenwriter Achim von Borries makes his directorial feature debut with the stylish period drama Was Nützt die Liebe in Gedanken (Love in Thoughts), based on original material by Annette Hess and Alexander Pfeuffer and the novel The Suicide Club by Arno Meyer Zu Kueingdorf. Bohemian Guenther (August Diehl) and the sensual Hilde (Anna Maria Mühe) are a wealthy brother and sister who host a wild weekend of sex, poetry, and alienation in a countryside summer home. Invited are working-class Paul (Daniel Brühl), hunky Hans (Thure Lindhardt), and shy Elli (Jana Pallaske). They all take absinthe and indulge in their most romantic psychosexual urges, only to return to Berlin on Sunday completely depressed and/or suicidal. Love in Thoughts premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

A dedicated young German boy pulls off an elaborate scheme to keep his mother in good health in this comedy drama from director Wolfgang Becker. Suffering a heart attack and falling into a coma after seeing her son arrested during a protest, Alex's (Daniel Brühl) socialist mother, Christiane (Katrin Sass), remains comatose through the fall of the Berlin wall and the German Democratic Republic. Knowing that the slightest shock could prove fatal upon his mother's awakening, Alex strives to keep the fall of the GDR a secret for as long as possible. Keeping their apartment firmly rooted in the past, Alex's scheme works for a while, but it's not long before his mother is feeling better and ready to get up and around again. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A teenager discovers a startling revelation about his favorite band -- but does so nearly 20 years after the rest of the world in this bright comedy. In the mid-1980s, Tobias (Sebastian Schmidtke) is a teenager growing up in a small, sleepy German town. Tobias' greatest passion in life is rock & roll, and his favorite radio show is a weekly series that accompanies highlights from the Beatles' back catalog with bits of history and trivia about the band. One week, the host offers a prize to whomever can identify what John Lennon is mumbling at the end of "Strawberry Fields Forever," and a salesman at a local record store tells Tobias that John is saying "I buried Paul." Tobias and his best friend Helmut (Martin Reinhold) start pondering the implications of this statement, and Tobias comes to the conclusion that Paul McCartney was killed, an imposter took over so the band could continue, and his bandmates left clues in their music and on their album covers to let loyal fans know about the tragedy. Tobias and Helmut are, however, entirely unaware of the "Paul is dead" rumor that ran rampant among Beatles fans in the late 1960s, in which many people came to the same false conclusion, and soon the two boys are obsessed with finding out the truth about Paul's death, as well as bringing his murderer to justice. Paul Is Dead features a host of Beatles tunes on its soundtrack, and was warmly received in its North American premiere at the 2001 Slamdance Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

Tom Tykwer directed this German thriller in which Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu) handled a smuggling job, delivered the loot, collected the payment, left the bag on the subway, and now has 20 minutes to gather 100,000 deutsche marks or confront the wrath of his boss, local criminal Ronnie (Heino Ferch). Desperate, Manni phones his girlfriend Lola (Franka Potente) who immediately runs downstairs and through Berlin streets to the bank run by her father (Herbert Knaup). However, she's rejected and leaves minus money. When she goes to meet Manni, he's holding up a supermarket, and she's shot by the cops. In a destiny device familiar to readers of Ken Grimwood's acclaimed novel Replay, the story begins anew with different outcomes. In one version, Lola robs the bank and takes her father hostage; in another, there's casino cash to be won. All Lola-Manni scenes were in 35mm, while scenes without them were shot in video. Other cinematic techniques on display here include whip pans, jump cuts, slow and fast motion, split-screen, intercut color and black and white, segment titles, and animation. Shown at 1998 film fests (Venice, Montreal, Toronto). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Winterschlaefer (Winter Sleepers) is the sophomore effort from German director Tom Tykwer, released a year before Lola Rennt (Run Lola Run) won him international acclaim for its unique look and storytelling methods. Winter Sleepers follows a blizzard-filled winter in the lives of a handful of mountain town denizens: Marco (Heino Ferch), a dashing ski instructor; Rebecca (Floriane Daniel), his receptionist girlfriend; Laura (Marie-Lou Sellem), a nurse who is Rebecca's roommate; and Rene (Ulrich Matthes), a mysterious stranger who takes up with Laura. Before meeting them, Rene has unknowingly set into motion a tragedy that will affect the others' lives. While driving on an icy road (in Marco's stolen car), he swerves into the path of a destitute farmer taking his horse to the doctor, flipping the farmer's vehicle and sending his own careening down a snowy hillside. Rene emerges from the wreck unharmed, forgetting what has happened due to an old war injury that has damaged his ability to make short-term memories. When the farmer, Theo (Josef Bierbichler), emerges later to find that his young daughter had stowed away in the truck, and has been left comatose by the accident, he determines to track down the other driver. Meanwhile, not long after beginning his affair with Laura, Rene triggers Marco's jealousy when it seems Rebecca has feelings for him, prompting several tempestuous exchanges. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide