Margit Bendokat Movies
- 2004
One of the key political events of the late 20th century fails to distract a man who is having a row with his parents in this comedy from Germany. The film takes place in the fall of 1989 in SO36, a neighborhood in West Berlin adjacent to the Berlin Wall, shunted into a corner and largely ignored. It is home to an oddball community of Bohemians and outsiders who pay little mind to the world around them. Frank Lehmann (Christian Ulmen) is a bartender who serves beer at nights to the motley citizens of SO36 and is oblivious to most everything except his lackadaisical pal Karl (Detlev Buck) and his ill-tempered girlfriend Katrin (Katja Danowski). A visit from Frank's parents throws his simple life into disarray, especially since his letters home led them to expect a far grander life than he's leading, and with this sudden chaos in his life, Frank barely notices that big things are happening on the other side of the wall. Herr Lehmann, also titled Berlin Blues, was screened as part of the "German Cinema" series at the 2004 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Christian Ulmen, Katja Danowski, (more)
The opening film of the 49th International Berlin Film Festival in 1999, Aimée & Jaguar drew attention not only for the lesbian love story that it narrates, but equally for the political position of the lovers -- Aimée, the wife of a Nazi officer, and Jaguar, a Jewish journalist. The story is based on the memoirs of Lilly Wust (the Aimée character), who is 85 and still living in Germany. In 1943, as Allied bombers leave Berlin in ruins, Lilly Wust Juliane Köhler earns a Cross of Motherhood for bringing up four children while husband Günther Detlev Buck is away fighting on the eastern front. She leads a bourgeois existence, with occasional love affairs on the side, and the bust of Hitler is a prominent decoration in their flat. When Lilly receives a love letter signed 'Jaguar,' she suspects a male admirer. But it is the self-confident Felice Schragenheim Maria Schrader who initiates this forbidden romance. A passionate love affair begins amidst the bombing raids and the threat of persecution. Madly in love, Lilly wants to divorce her husband, which causes a terrible storm, not just because her lover is a woman, but because she is Jewish and fighting for the Resistance. But nothing stops the love-blind Lilly. The two women make a pact of love and marriage and try to block out the reality of war and persecution; however, the Gestapo soon catches up with them. Aimée & Jaguar is based on Erica Fischer's best-selling book, published in 1994 and translated into eleven languages; the real life Lilly Wust was 80 years old when she told Erica Fischer her story. Maria Schrader and Juliane Köhler shared the Silver Bear for the Best Actress at the 49th Berlin International Film Festival, for their roles in Aimée & Jaguar, while the film received the Teddy Award, given to films dealing with gay and lesbian issues. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi
- Starring:
- Maria Schrader, Juliane Köhler, (more)
- 1990
Ernst Stein (Rolf Ludwig) used to be a classical actor in the East German stage, but he was so disgusted by the use of his country's soldiers to help put down the 1968 freedom movement in Czechoslovakia that he walked off the stage in the middle of a performance of King Lear. Since then, he has been living in seclusion in his country house, surrounded by young admirers. Nothing, it seems, will deter him from living as he pleases now, certainly not the tanks that rumble past his door; mere soldiers attempting to break into his home present almost no challenge to him. He continues entertaining his young friends with impromptu performances in the grand style, and they engage in lively banter in a difficult to understand Berlin dialect. Like this film's leading character, director Egon Gunther walked away from his career in disgust, and emigrated to West Germany and freedom. The reunification of Germany allowed him to work with old colleagues for the first time in ten years, and this film was received with great appreciation when it was shown at the 1991 Munich Film Festival. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Rolf Ludwig
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