Rolf Ludwig Movies

No more than a two-hour dialogue between three disparate foreigners held for investigation in a Paris cell block in 1939, this drama about war and its consequences focuses primarily on the three men. Lodek (Jorg Godzuhn) is a German sailor who is very much against Hitler and his tactics (Lodek tells this tale, which emerges in flashbacks), Grunstein (Fred Duren) is a Jewish butcher who happens to be in France because of an inheritance he needs to collect, and the third man is a Greek cook (Klaus Schwarzkopf) whose main distinction is a fleeting encounter with Kaiser Wilhelm, the high point of his life. In order to wile away the time, the men drum up a chessboard and chess pieces from materials at hand, and start long chess sessions in which their attitudes and thoughts about life are exchanged. When Grunstein cleverly develops a move that "trumps" and stumps his opponents, he wins three games in a row, and even now Lodek cannot figure out how he did it.
~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Based on the last novel written by Johannes Bobrowski (1917-1965), Levin's Mill dramatizes the cultural and ethnic tensions in western Prussia during the 1870s, a place where not only Germans and Poles were mixed together, but within those larger groups, Jews and Gypsies as well. The mix does not mean that prejudice was blessedly absent, and as the story unfolds, Johannes, a German miller (Erwin Geschonneck) has intentionally opened up the dam on a river one night, raising the water to flood levels downstream to destroy the boat-mill of his rival, a Jewish Pole named Levin (Christian Grashoff). Johannes is dead-sure his fellow Germans will never convict him of this treachery; after all, wasn't he just trying to rid the town of a prosperous Jew? And that is almost what happened. The ruined Jewish miller leaves for the Russian-dominated sector of (the future) Poland, but his misfortune was not so easily shrugged off by the townspeople. There were witnesses to what Johannes did that night, and their testimony leads to the disintegration of his reputation and as a consequence, affects him in the pocketbook as well. He bears the burden of what he has done until it becomes so heavy he is forced to pack up his misplaced nationalism and leave. The effects of this incident were felt not only by the protagonists on each side, but by the ordinary citizens as well. This film caused an upheaval when it was refused by the selection committee of the 1981 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this tragic melodrama, set in Germany at the end of World War II, a schoolteacher's son who has been thoroughly indoctrinated by the Hitler Youth thinks of nothing but enlisting in the army and serving gloriously on the Eastern Front. His father has seen how things stand in Germany, and not only is he no longer a true believer, but he wants to keep his son out of the fighting until the Russians arrive. On the evening before his son is to join his fellow Hitler Youth in a group headed toward the front lines, he kidnaps his son and while living in hiding in the woods he forces the boy to understand something about what is really happening. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this East German film, the third one in The Third is Margit's third lover. After her mother's death, Margit (Jutte Hoffman) has two affairs which don't work out, and one lesbian friendship which she retains. She is looking for a husband, though, and thinks she has spotted a candidate in her fellow factory worker (Rolf Ludwig). As she contemplates marrying him, her story is told in a series of flashbacks. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This pro-Soviet propaganda drama should not be confused with the 1966 U.S. hit comedy The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming! by Norman Jewison. In this film, the end of World War II is fast approaching, and a sixteen-year-old boy who was a member of the Hitler Youth is taking part in the last-ditch effort to resist the approach of the Russian Army. Captured in the last days of the war, he must now answer for his part in the shooting death of a Soviet prisoner. Despite having every reason to believe he will be treated severely, he is surprised to discover that the invaders are scrupulously fair. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide