Susanne Lothar Movies

Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes star in The Hours director Stephen Daldry's haunting period drama concerning the relationship between a 15-year-old German boy and a mysterious woman twice his age, and the way that it grows doubly complex when the man reencounters the woman years later and discovers a shocking truth about her past. Based on author Bernhard Schlink's best-selling novel of the same name, the film opens on the character of Michael Berg (Ralph Fiennes) in middle age -- cold, remote, and emotionally withdrawn. It then moves back in time to 1950s Berlin, where ailing teenager Michael (now played by David Kross) has fallen ill with fever, and is discovered in the street by Hanna, a woman in her thirties. After Michael recovers, the two immediately lapse into a torrid affair and Michael falls prey to the confusion of his own burgeoning sexuality. Their liaisons are often marked by Hanna's request that Michael read to her (hence the title). Later, when Michael returns to Hanna's flat and finds it deserted, her absence becomes an emotional blow for which he is completely unprepared, and indeed, scarred for life. The film then moves forward in time by eight years. Michael -- now a law student -- walks into a courtroom and comes across Hanna, one of a series of Nazi prison guards being tried for murderous war crimes during World War II. As he watches her on the witness stand, memories of their past experiences together bring him to the point of realization concerning a startling, long-buried truth about Hanna -- and Michael knows that if he divulges this information, it could modify the prison sentence handed out and dramatically alter her fate. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

When the willful son of a bourgeois German couple commits a horrifying act of murder, the desperate attempts made by his mother to cover-up the crime soon finds the family unit crumbling beneath the weight of the child's undeniable psychosis in director Aelrun Goette's visually arresting psychological thriller. Jenny (Bibiana Beglau) and Michael (Dirk Borchardt) have all the amenities of a happy modern couple - including a beautiful house in an affluent suburb of Berlin and a seemingly-angelic six-year-old boy named Timmy (Adrian Wahlen) - but a closer inspection reveals that things aren't quite as perfect as surface appearances would suggest. With a promotion within his grasp, policeman Michael spends long hours on the job as wife Jenny tends to raising young Timmy. But Timmy seems to possess something of a sadistic streak, and when the unstable boy kills his young playmate Luzi and mother does her best to protect her son despite the horrific nature of his crime, simmering secrets gradually begin to erupt into a violent boil. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

How far is a man willing to go to be with the woman he wants? Erika (Isabelle Huppert) is a veteran piano instructor at a famous music conservatory in Vienna. Erika is highly respected for her remarkable talent and strong discipline, but she's also known to be a harsh taskmistress and does not suffer fools gladly; among her students, Erika's class is considered a highly rewarding challenge, but difficult to weather. Erika seems to get her stern and unforgiving nature from her mother (Annie Girardot), with whom she still lives, and without a husband or a lover, Erika satisfies her strong but frequently perverse sexual appetites through extreme porn videos, voyeurism, and masturbatory practices that sometimes involve pain and self-mutilation. Erika discovers she has attracted the attentions of one of her students, Walter (Benoit Maginel), a gifted and good-looking young man who does not seem at all put off by her icy personality. She refuses to acknowledge Walter's romantic overtures, but when he rises to the defense of a fellow student after a recital, Erika is enraged, and Walter pursues her, finally following her as she storms off to the women's room. Erika abruptly approaches Walter in a rough sexual fashion, but refuses to fully satisfy him until he is willing to allow her to control the relationship. When Walter becomes aware of just how much pain and humiliation is involved in Erika's erotic bill of fare, he refuses to participate, but in time his attraction to her causes him to weaken, and he begins to accede to her sexual demands. La Pianiste was shown in competition at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, where Isabelle Huppert and Benoit Maginel were named Best Actress and Best Actor, and writer/director Michael Haneke received the Jury's Grand Prize. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this exploration of our violent society, writer and director Michael Haneke takes a disturbing look at how depictions of violence at once reflect and shape our culture. A well-to-do German family -- father Georg (Ulrich Mühe), mother Anna (Susanne Lothar), and son Georgie (Stefan Clapczynski) -- are settling in for the weekend at their vacation retreat near the lake. While Georg and his son head out for some sailing, a courteous young gentleman named Peter (Frank Giering) appears at the door, asking if he can borrow some eggs. When he breaks them, Anna offers him some more, but the conversation soon takes an odd turn; Peter goes from pleasant to sniveling to confrontational, and he's soon joined by his friend Paul (Arno Frisch). When Georg returns, he demands that Paul and Peter leave, but the two strangers refuse; Paul and Peter react with violence against Georg and his family, and they soon have the family tied up and begin torturing them. Peter and Paul occasionally refer to the camera in a manner recalling Bertolt Brecht, and near the end of the film, they even demand the opportunity to replay a scene so that they may mete out more punishment against their victims. The score includes classical selections by Mozart and Handel as well as performances by avant-garde composer John Zorn. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) has received short shrift in the history books, and his pitiful later career and the disastrous alliance he made with Hitler certainly qualify him to be vilified as a sinister buffoon. However, earlier in his life, many feel that his virtues far outweighed his flaws; he was responsible for what was at the time an internationally recognized era of good, stable government in Italy. This biographical drama (in which the future dictator is played by Antonio Banderas) covers a period in his life when he was a schoolteacher and a budding figure in Italy's Socialist Party. A romantic debacle sent him into exile in Switzerland, where he took a job in a stone quarry and learned first-hand how workers can be oppressed. Later, he comes back to Italy, and gets better acquainted with the woman who was to become his wife. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In 1984, the director of this extraordinarily long film (25+ hours) released a similarly long film, Heimat, which was a mere 15 hours long. Both of them are essentially television miniseries that have been edited for festival viewing into one enormously long film. In this sequel, Die Zweite Heimat follows the lives of a group of young people in Munich in the 1960s and '70s. The main character is a musician from the first film who has been forced to leave his small hometown in order to study music composition in Munich. The circumstances of his move have made him somewhat bitter. He gradually becomes involved in his new life among the musicians and budding filmmakers of the city, and the stories spin out from there, as each character ages and adapts to life's changes. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In 1922, a weather observer and his wife (Mathias Gnädinger and Susanne Lothar) lived in a remote cabin high in the Swiss Alps. As this drama begins, they are being joined by a third person, an Austrian (Peter Simonischek) who coveted the job the Swiss man had won in this bleak location. Not only that, but he also has his eyes on the Swiss man's lovely wife. The Austrian has charm, so he wins some hospitality from the couple. The three live together for a little while, but the rivalry between the two men soon erupts with tragic consequences. This drama is based on a true story. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide