Erika Dannhoff Movies
In an unusual move for a major West German production, this film was not scripted but improvised as the actors went along. It chronicles a limited time period from the life of a schizophrenic woman whose activities are divided between the bed and trying to commit suicide. The woman comes from a wealthy family and for unknown reasons, is never given a real chance at psychotherapy or medical care, let alone medication. Instead she drifts from a Jesus commune, to hotels, to the marriage registration office, all the while looking for a lover who is Jesus incarnate. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elisabeth Stepanek
In this tragic true story based on the novel by Arnold Zweig, a butcher was called upon to execute four communists with a meat axe in 1938 because the normal executioner was ill. When author Zweig read about the execution, and then later read about the suicide of a butcher later in the same year, he came to the realization that both butchers were the same person, and he wrote this story. In the film Erwin Geschonneck plays the butcher who suffers miserably from his act and he is not alone in his misery -- his wife commits suicide while in deep despair. Unable to function properly, the butcher loses his customers and soon he himself cannot face living any longer. This 1951 East German movie was banned in West Germany and West Berlin until its well-attended 1983 premier at a retrospective for its director Falk Harnack. A 1982 documentary by the same title provides the background and the story of the butcher. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Erwin Geschonneck, Kaethe Braun, (more)
- 1933
In this costume drama, a courageous Tyrolean fights to keep Napoleon from conquering his German homeland. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1929
Lillian Harvey's second film for Ufa Productions was 1929's Adieu Mascotte. Based on a story by Michael Linsky, the story revolves around an artist's model named Mascotte (Harvey) who ekes out a hand-to-mouth existence in the Parisian art colony. In dire need of money to finance a friend's operation, Mascotte auctions herself off at an artist's ball. She is "bought" by a novelist named Jean (Harry Halm), who merely wants to teach his flirtatious wife a lesson. Discreetly keeping his distance, Jean persuades Mascotte to pose as his mistress so that his wife will become jealous and return to his arms. Of course, things don't go as planned, and before long Jean and Mascotte have fallen in love. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
