Heidemarie Wenzel Movies

A young boy and his classmates cause a stir when they reject their parents' bellicose and aggressively intolerant philosophies. He finally leaves home when he is kicked out for refusing to fight in what he feels is his father's war. This feature seems to be more reflective of attitudes in 1969 than what really existed in Germany before World War I. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

This film concerns Ernst Barlach, and the tragedy of an artist indirectly destroyed by the growing Nazi hold on Germany. Barlach was a somewhat expressionistic graphic artist and sculptor, as well as a dramaturge, who died in a hospital in Guestrow, Germany, in 1938. This excellent drama, banned for years in Germany, is about one important, imaginary day in his life. Barlach leaves his studio in the morning and goes to the church to look at the angel he sculpted there. The angel's face resembles that of Kaethe Kollwitz, another artist condemned by the Nazis. After some time at the church, Barlach goes out to the countryside and watches brown-shirts in military maneuvers. This world is alien to him, and worse yet, repugnant. That night, the church's angel is stolen by the Nazis and never surfaces again. This much of the story is true, as well as Barlach's imminent death. The rest is a masterful re-creation of the hostile environment the artist had to endure in the last years of his life. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

A sentimental favorite of East German cinema, The Legend of Paul and Paula is a moving and realistic portrait of a couple's struggle to find satisfaction and love in their everyday lives. Paula, a single mother, works long hours at a supermarket and is generally dissatisfied with her life. Approached by an older tire salesman, Herr Saft, she gravitates toward him but their relationship lacks the overriding passion she desires. Paula drifts into a bar one night and meets a most unlikely match, Paul, a respectable but slightly dull, married man. After they fall in love to a wonderful soundtrack of '70s German pop music, Paul must choose between his terminally annoying wife and Paula. Unable to break with his past, Paul wavers and Paula withdraws, seriously hurt. The ending is a classic example of "You don't know what you have until it's gone." ~ Brian Whitener, Rovi

This film examines a romance between a young man and a schoolteacher. The young man is not interested in training to become a middle-class worker, as he prefers to work with his hands, and he argues with his parents over this. Curiously for an officially sanctioned film from East Germany, this film has some nudity and suggests lovemaking in places. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi