Wolfgang Becker

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, Adolph 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 Fuehrer 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 Gruenbaum (Ulrich Muehe), one of Germany's most respected thespians, and asks him if he'd be willing to help Hitler prepare for his address; since Gruenbaum 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 Gruenbaum's latter request, they are willing to free his loved ones, and soon Gruenbaum 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 back-up plan, in which they'll kill the Fuhrer 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

The political and social upheaval of the reunification of Germany provides the backdrop for this romantic comedy-drama. Jan Nebel (Jurgen Vogel), a young slaughterhouse worker who doesn't like to work much more than is necessary in order to keep his job, is walking home through Berlin one evening when he finds himself strolling into the middle of a riot. He sees a woman named Vera (Christiane Paul) trying to get away from a pair of cops; Jan trips the police officers, which earns him Vera's gratitude and a night behind bars. Jan's unexpected detainment causes him to lose his job, which doesn't bother him very much except that he'll be short on money. Jan decides to pay his father a visit only to discover that the old man has died; Jan takes over his apartment, and his friend Buddy (Ricky Tomlinson) joins him as a flatmate and pays him rent. Death pays a visit of its own to Jan when he learns that one of his former girlfriends has tested positive for the HIV virus; while Jan is understandably upset, he's too frightened of the possible results to be tested himself. While Jan is dealing with his many anxieties, he runs into Vera for the first time since the riot; they get to know each other better, and they are soon engaged in a passionate romance, though they take many twists down the bumpy road of love. Das Leben Ist Eine Baustelle was a prize winner at several major festivals in its native Germany, including a special award at the 1997 Berlin International Film Festival for writer and director Wolfgang Becker "for the humorous and ironic portrayal of the changes taking place in present-day Berlin." ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Some people are born mean, some achieve meanness, and others have meanness thrust upon them. It is difficult to discern which of these three options applies to Micha, who is not yet an adolescent. His response to the unremitting sternness and harshness of his father, and the consistent lack of support he receives from his family, is to join together with other bullies at school and terrorize, for instance, the irritatingly vulnerable grandmother of one of the youths. He also delights in setting his brother up for punishment. About the only time something resembling tenderness enters his life is when he escapes into his fantasies. This hard-hitting drama won its director an award at the 1992 Munich Film Festival. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide