Monika Hansen Movies
- 2001
Two people who are little more than strangers prepare to marry, and find themselves torn over their cultural identity in the debut feature from director Filippos Tsitos. Bruce (Harvey Friedman) is a footloose American traveling through Berlin when he meets Anke (Nadja Uhl), a single mother who supports herself giving guided tours of the city. For Bruce, it's love at first sight, and while Anke is initially reluctant about pursuing a relationship (especially given the earlier fling that left her with a daughter), eventually she is persuaded to marry him after he pledges to stay with her in Germany. But it isn't long before Bruce is wondering if he might be better off moving back to California instead, and when Anke asks for a traditional pre-wedding get-together, Bruce realizes he doesn't know enough people to throw one. Improvising, Bruce gathers together the patrons of a bar where he and Anke are sharing a few drinks, and soon nine people are sharing stories about where they're from and where they would like to be -- a man from East Germany looking for work (Petar Lewan), two buskers from Russia (Irakli Kemertelidze and Maxim Kovalevski), a student who is about to be sent back to Brazil (David Monteiro), a woman from Korea (Moonsuk Kang) now trapped in a loveless marriage to a German man, a laborer from Morocco (Mehdi Nebbou) and the Greek woman he has his eye on (Eleftheria Sapountzis), a Pakistani gentleman (Neil D'Souza), and the owner of the tavern (Mario Monteiro) who would like to emigrate to America. My Sweet Home was nominated for the Golden Bear award at the 2001 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harvey Friedman, Monika Hansen, (more)
- 1994
- R
Two star-crossed lovers, separated by the Berlin wall for thirty years are reunited. The major events in their separate lives become the focus in this German political drama. The story begins in August 1961 as the Wall is being built. In Eastern Berlin a group of young adults plans their escape. Included in the group are Konrad and Sophie who has an aunt on the other side. It is the aunt who will sponsor the escapees. Escape will be the only way Konrad and Sophie will be able to stay together. Konrad is involved in a mishap en route and must remain in East Berlin. In 1968, the lovers at last get a chance to briefly meet in Prague. There they express their frustration and pain. At least there, in Prague they can find occasional happiness. Suddenly Russian tanks appear and destroy their new dream. 1980 comes. Sophie and Konrad have since married other people. Their next meeting is bittersweet as they look back upon their promise which was broken by circumstance, and by the decisions each lover had to make. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Corinna Harfouch, Meret Becker, (more)
Wim Wenders revisits his masterpiece Der Himmel Uber Berlin in this film which picks up several years after the original left off. Cassiel (Otto Sander) is an angel who watches over the lives of the people of recently reunified Berlin with Raphaella (Nastassja Kinski). Damiel (Bruno Ganz), Cassiel's former partner who opted to return to the land of the living in the first film, now lives happily as a pizza chef with the woman he loved and married, circus performer Marion (Solveig Dommartin). While angels are forbidden to directly intervene in the lives of humans, Cassiel impulsively breaks this rule when a little girl falls from the balcony of an apartment block, and he swoops down to catch her. Suddenly made flesh and blood, Cassiel has earned the enmity of Emit Flesti (Willem Dafoe), a sort of overseer of the angels on the physical plane. Emit makes it his business to make things difficult for Cassiel now that he's living among the humans, and after a period of alcoholism and imprisonment, Cassiel finds himself working for gangster Tony Baker (Horst Buchholz), who distributes weapons and pornography on the black market. However, Cassiel has a change of heart and decides to destroy Tony's stockpile in a bid to make the world a better place. Peter Falk, who played himself in Der Himmel Uber Berlin, makes a return appearance when a gallery shows the sketches that he was making in the first film; rock singer Lou Reed and former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev also appear as themselves. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Otto Sander, Peter Falk, (more)
- 1983
This excellent three-part documentary focuses on the art and techniques of filmmaking as found first, in the editing of US Westerns, next in the editing of German documentaries, and finally, in the interpretations of experimental filmmakers. American directors in the first segment include Edwin S. Porter (The Great Train Robbery) and D.W. Griffith (The Battle at Elderbrush Gulch). In focus is the method for showing duels between gunslingers, and the technology of editing in the first half of the 20th century. In part II, German documentarians include Nicholas Kaufmann and Wilhelm Prager (Ways to Strength and Beauty, 1925) and Ella Bergmann-Michel (Street Salesman, 1920) and later directors like Peter Nestler (A Worker's Club in Sheffield, 1965) and Klaus Wildenhahn (In der Fremde, 1967). An interview with Joris Ivens and clips from his Spanish Earth (1937) end this segment. In the last part, there are interviews with Werner Nekes, Jean-Marie Straub, Daniele Huillet, and others on the nature and art of experimental filmmaking. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- 1971
This dark, futuristic exploration of the German film genre known as the Heimat, or village, movie marks Uwe Brandner's critically well-received first foray into filmmaking. For this film, he served as producer, screenwriter and director. In the heimat genre, the extreme goodness, orderliness and timeless simplicity of life in rural Bavarian villages is highlighted. The genre generally lends itself to melodramatic bathos, and was extraordinarily popular in Germany for many decades. This film faithfully uses the elements of those movies to make a quite different statement. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
