Lars Rudolph Movies

A few skirmishes from the ongoing battle between men and women are documented in this romantic comedy from Germany. Jan (Benno Fuermann) and Katrin (Jessica Schwarz) are a couple who literally met by accident -- attorney Jan was on a date with a woman he'd just met, Melanie (Annika Kuhl), when publisher Katrin bumped her car into Jan's, scraping the paint and sending him into a rage. While Melanie soon found herself infatuated with Jan's friend Ruediger (Matthias Matschke), Jan and Katrin's argument was the first step in a relationship that finds them living together two years later. While Melanie and Ruediger are happily married, things aren't quite so rosy for Jan and Katrin -- his head has been turned by Angie (Nadja Becker), a sexy if intellectually challenged woman working at his office, while Katrin has struck up a cozy friendship with handsome writer Jonathan Armbruster (Uwe Ochsenknecht). As Katrin ponders an offer from Jonathan to join him on a business trip to the United States, Jan wonders if he should act on his desires for Angie and Ruediger begins getting cold feet as Melanie discovers she's pregnant with the couple's first child. Warum maenner nicht zuhoeren und frauen schlect Einparken (aka Why Men Don't Listen And Women Can't Park) was inspired by a successful series of self-help books by Allan & Barbara Pease; an American film also drawn from their books is expected to be released in 2008. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The life of one of the controversial figures in the history of modern religion is brought to the screen in this historical biography. Born in 1483, Martin Luther (Joseph Fiennes) was an intelligent and principled young man who was studying law in early 16th century Germany when a close brush with death led him to follow a spiritual path and join a Catholic monastery. Under the guidance of Johann von Staupitz (Bruno Ganz), Luther became a valued member of the monastery's hierarchy, and as a sign of his trust, von Staupitz asked Luther to join him for a voyage to Rome as part of church business. Luther was appalled by the corrupt practices of the leading church officials, in particular the sale of "indulgences," in which the wealthy could purchase forgiveness for a wide variety of sins. Luther left the monastery to study theology in Wittenberg; a keen student, he later became a professor and won the support of Frederick the Wise (Peter Ustinov), who also recognized the potential controversy of Luther's iron principles. When a new pope, Leo X, assumes the throne at the Vatican, he orders the construction of St. Peter's Basilica. To pay the costs, an ambitious monk, Johann Tetzel (Alfred Molina), was sent out to sell indulgences to both the wealthy and the poor, leaving his audiences with little doubt of the eternal consequences that awaited those who did not empty their purses. An infuriated Luther wrote an angry essay on the corruption of the church entitled "95 Theses," and thanks to the recent invention of the printing press, Luther's words were soon circulated throughout Europe, leading to an angry conflict with Catholic officials which threatened to tear the church in two. Luther also features supporting performances from Claire Cox as Katharina von Bora and Jonathan Firth as Girolamo Aleandro. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Albanian writer/director Fatmir Koci examines the current troubles of his country in his second dramatic feature, Tirana Year Zero. While it has certain similarities to Roberto Rossellini's neo-realist classic Germany Year Zero -- taking place in what's basically a war zone -- Koci's film is a dark comedy. Koci used a cast of non-actors (including some playing characters based on themselves) and veterans of the Albanian theater. His episodic film follows Niku (Nevin Mecaj), a friendly but rather feckless young man, through a few tumultuous days in 1997. Koci's focus is on the odd ways the Albanians attempt to earn a living, and on the common dream of leaving Albania to achieve fantastic success in other European countries or in America. Koci has, in fact, referred to his film as "a call to the Albanian people not to abandon their native land." Niku is perhaps the only character in the film who willingly chooses to stay in Albania, despite pressure from his pretty girlfriend, Klara (Ermela Teli) to move away with her. When a sculptor offers to take Klara to Paris, where he's having an exhibit, she can't convince Niku to leave, so she goes without him. Niku finds whatever work he can amid the chaos in the country. This usually involves the use of a rickety Chinese truck his father has given to him. At one point, he drives an eccentric German man, Gunter (Lars Rudolph) to the lovely Southern coast of Albania, where Gunter hires him to help him transport one of the thousands of bunkers that line the coast (built by former dictator Enver Hoxha) back to Germany as a souvenir. Niku also drives around a French journalist (Laura Pelerins) who photographs a man chopping down a tree only to find herself threatened by his axe. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Bela Tarr follows up on his seven-hour epic Satantango, considered by some critics as one of the finest films of the 1990s, with this elegant, haunting work about the cycles of violence that have dogged Eastern European history. Jancos (Lars Rudolph) is a wide-eyed innocent who works as an occasional postal worker and as a caretaker for Mr. Ezster (Peter Fitz). An outsider and a visionary, he marvels at the miracles of creation, from the planets rotating in the heavens to the sundry animals on earth. One day, a circus featuring jars full of medical anomalies and a massive dead whale entombed in a corrugated metal trailer visits Jancos' economically depressed village. Another more sinister attraction is a shadowy figure dubbed "The Prince," whose nihilist rants incite the town's disaffected to riot. Not long afterwards, Mrs. Ezster (Hanna Schygulla) cajoles her estranged husband to join a citizen's action group against the circus, threatening to move back into his house if he doesn't play along. Tension in the town builds until, after one of The Prince's hate-filled speeches, throngs of angry men with blunt instruments ransack and brutalize a men's hospital ward. When the dust clears, lives are irrevocably changed. This film was screened at the 2000 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Director Tom Tykwer followed up his international hit Lola Rennt (Run Lola Run) with this drama, which also examines young people living on the edges of the law. Sisi (Franka Potente) is an attractive but withdrawn woman who works in a psychiatric clinic, while Bodo (Benno Fürmann) is looking to make some quick money after his recent release from the army. Bodo robs a gas station and is fleeing on foot when he accidentally causes Sisi to be hit by a truck. Realizing she's seriously injured, Bodo comes to Sisi's rescue and performs an emergency tracheotomy on her before he escapes again. Sisi, who is often pursued by men but shies away from their advances, finds that she longs to meet the mysterious Bodo again, and eventually tracks him down to a hideout he shares with his brother, Walter (Joachim Krol). Bodo and Walter angrily send Sisi away, but she unexpectedly encounters them when they pull a robbery at a bank where she's running an errand. Bodo and Walter are caught in a shoot-out with police, and Sisi helps to spirit Bodo away to the clinic where she works, trying to spare him the grim news that Walter was killed in the melee. In addition to serving as writer and director, Tom Tykwer also composed the musical score for The Princess and the Warrior in collaboration with Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Oskar Roehler directs this bleak look at a down-and-out writer's alcohol-drenched final days. Though the central character is named Hanna Flander, the film basically tells the real-life story of noted author Gisela Elsner, who threw herself out of a fourth story window in 1992. Elsner is also the filmmaker's mother. Given the film's highly personal subject matter, Roehler lends the film a remarkable emotional remoteness along with a breathtaking visual style, shot in stark black and white. It opens with unrepentant Leninist Hanna (Hannelore Elsner, no relation) drunken, depressed, and chain-smoking as she watches the Berlin Wall collapse while in her Munich abode. She sells most of her belongings and moves to Berlin, hooking up with old flame Jaochim Rau (Michael Gwisdek) in the process. She suffers one setback after another, ultimately ending up in a scuzzy tenement in East Berlin, which she gives to a kind Eastern German woman (Claudia Geisler). A long admirer of Communism and East Germany, she has difficult time believing the realities of that repressive police state. This film was screened at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Lukas, a piano teacher in his mid-twenties, is hoping to meet the love of his life. One day, he meets the woman of his dreams, but promptly loses her telephone number. What he knows about her very limited: her name is Nathalie, she travels about the world working as a DJ, and has just bought herself a guide book for Normandy in a mall at the other end of the state. Lukas meets all sorts of people who offer to help him, including a butcher who asks him to work in the butcher shop -- after all, most of his customers are women. Then there is Alice, who is not so easy to get rid off. Just as he is getting ready to go to the beach at Trouville with Alice, Nathalie appears. Der Strand von Trouville is a light comedy about the affairs of the heart and was screened as part of the 49th International Berlin Film Festival, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide

Tom Tykwer directed this German thriller in which Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu) handled a smuggling job, delivered the loot, collected the payment, left the bag on the subway, and now has 20 minutes to gather 100,000 deutsche marks or confront the wrath of his boss, local criminal Ronnie (Heino Ferch). Desperate, Manni phones his girlfriend Lola (Franka Potente) who immediately runs downstairs and through Berlin streets to the bank run by her father (Herbert Knaup). However, she's rejected and leaves minus money. When she goes to meet Manni, he's holding up a supermarket, and she's shot by the cops. In a destiny device familiar to readers of Ken Grimwood's acclaimed novel Replay, the story begins anew with different outcomes. In one version, Lola robs the bank and takes her father hostage; in another, there's casino cash to be won. All Lola-Manni scenes were in 35mm, while scenes without them were shot in video. Other cinematic techniques on display here include whip pans, jump cuts, slow and fast motion, split-screen, intercut color and black and white, segment titles, and animation. Shown at 1998 film fests (Venice, Montreal, Toronto). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

A lover, an ultimatum, a phone call, and a gun: these elements are found in each segment of Hal Hartley's Flirt, an experimental comedy-drama that essentially repeats the same story three times. But while the basic narrative remains the same -- a congenital flirt must decide whether or not to commit to a current lover, who otherwise will marry someone else -- the details differ greatly, from the location of the film to the gender of the participants. The initial segment, set in New York, tells the tale with a male flirt in turmoil over his relationship with a woman. The film then moves to Berlin, where the same drama is played out amongst a gay male couple, with an added touch of self-reflexive humor. The third and final episode takes place in Tokyo, with a female flirt and a more abstract cinematic approach, including several sequences in traditional Japanese pantomime. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide