Jürgen Tarrach
Actor Daniel Craig assumes the role formerly occupied by such screen greats as Sean Connery, Roger Moore, and Timothy Dalton to set out on the character's very first 007 mission. James Bond has earned his "00" status by masterfully executing a pair of death-defying professional assassinations. Now assigned the task of traveling to Madagascar to spy on notorious terrorist Mollaka (Sebastien Foucan) for his maiden voyage as a 007 agent, Bond boldly goes against MI6 policy to launch an independent investigation that finds him traversing the Bahamas in search of Mollaka's notoriously elusive terror cell. Subsequently led into the company of the mysterious Dimitrios (Simon Abkarian) and his exotic girlfriend, Solange (Caterina Murino), Bond soon realizes that he is closer than ever to locating well-guarded terrorist financier Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), the man who has personally bankrolled some of the most prevalent terrorist organizations on the planet. When Bond learns that Le Chiffre is planning to partake in an upcoming high-stakes poker game to be played at Montenegro's Le Casino Royale and use the winnings to establish his financial grip on the globe, M (Judi Dench) assigns beguiling agent Vesper (Eva Green) the task of watching over the fledgling agent as he plays against Le Chiffre in a covert attempt to destroy the nefarious gambler's well-established monetary stronghold in the underworld once and for all. Bond will need more than his legendary gambling skills in order to win this dangerous game, though, and after allying himself with local MI6 field agent Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini) and CIA operative Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), the endlessly suave super-spy puts on his poker face for a high-stakes game of cards in which the stakes are not measured in dollars, but human lives. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Craig, Eva Green, (more)
In an era when at-sea disasters have grown increasingly rare thanks to "foolproof" naval technology, the September 28, 1994 wreck of the ferry boat M/S Estonia raised more than a few eyebrows. En route from Talinn to Stockholm, via the Baltic Sea, the craft capsized and 852 civilians never reached their destination. In recounting this tale cinematically, writer-director Reuben Leder (brother of Mimi "Deep Impact" Leder) adapted German reporter Jutta Rabe's conspiracy thriller about the event. The picture - like its source - suggests that classified weapons were being smuggled on board the vessel, and that Russia - after learning of this secret - deliberately torpedoed the craft. The picture recalls Costa-Gavras's Z, Alan Pakula's The Parallax View, and other conspiracy thrillers by unfurling most of its story after the fatalistic event; in the vein of those earlier films, it has a suspicious character (here Jurgen Prochnow, as accident survivor and Swedish attorney Erik Westermark) teaming up with investigative reporter Julia Reuter (Greta Scacchi) to determine the truth behind the inferred political cover-ups. Screen vet Donald Sutherland co-stars. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Greta Scacchi, Jürgen Prochnow, (more)
- 2001
A man has to make the body of his late girlfriend disappear, which he finds is not especially easy in this black comedy from Germany. Paul (Boris Aljinovic) is a straight-laced architect who lands a lucrative design contract and treats himself to a night on the town with his friend Max (Jurgen Tarrach), a pathologist, and his business partner Rike (Claudia Michelsen). During the course of the evening, however, someone doses Paul's drink with a heavy-duty hallucinogen, and the severely stoned Paul arrives at his flat entirely unaware that his girlfriend is dead on the floor of his living room, her neck having been broken during a sexual escapade gone wrong with her boss. The next morning, Paul, who has no memories of the previous night's activities, discovers the dead woman in his apartment; realizing he has no way to explain his innocence to the police, he calls on Max, who warily agrees to help him get rid of the body. But when a neighbor sees Paul and Max trying to drag a corpse out of the flat, they decide that some subterfuge is in order; thus, they try to reduce the bulk of the body in a variety of ways, using an array of household appliances (including a blender and a food processor), with a suitably disgusted Rike eventually called in to help. 3 Chinesen Mit Dem Kontrabass was the debut feature from writer and director Klaus Kraemer. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Boris Aljinovic, Jürgen Tarrach, (more)
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
- Starring:
- Franka Potente, Benno Fürmann, (more)
- 2000
Thosten Schmidt directs this over-the-top Teutonic spectacular consisting of pregnant Russians, bales of cocaine and a drunken bear. Right before the big millennial new year, hefty loser Toto (Jurgen Tarrach) gets released from the joint after a three year stint for drug possession. He simply wants to get his life in order and start working in his old job as a Berlin bus driver. His recently released cellmate Frank (Dieter Landuris), however, is looking for one last score -- toting a wad of blow for hot-head drug lord Henry (Andre Hennicke) -- so he and his girlfriend Nora (Nadja Uhl) can live the big life. Little does Frank know, but a crippled DJ named Commander Zippo (Hannes Jaencike) is actively wooing Nora on his radio show and voyeuristically spying on her from a secret window in his apartment. Meanwhile, a pregnant, desperately poor Russian woman, Natalia (Tamara Simunovic), throws herself in front of Toto's bus. In his attempt to avoiding flattening her, he manages to kill Henry's drug courier (Royal Atakpa). With an injured though beautiful woman, a corpse, and ten kilos of snow on his bus, he gets talked into holding the stash for ransom by Natalia, who hopes to earn enough to bankroll her child's life. Somewhere in all this wackiness, a black bear gets released from the zoo by an animal rights activist, gets drunk, boards the bus and causes one of those impressive movie accidents where no one gets hurt. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jürgen Tarrach, Tamara Simunovic, (more)
- 1999
Two top German television personalities star in this comedy in which they parody the entertainment industry, as well as their own on-air personalities. In Cologne, Germany, the Tele-C network is in deep trouble -- they're stuck in the ratings cellar, the star of their most popular show has just quit, and the moneymen are not at all happy. Program director Conrad Scheffer (Harald Schmidt) thinks he sees a light at the end of the tunnel when he meets the partner of his assistant, Carla Sperling (Jasmin Tabatabai). Hannes Engel (Thomas Gottschalk) is a handsome and personable disc jockey working at a small radio station in the country, and Conrad is convinced he'd be perfect for television. All Conrad has to do is (a) convince Hannes to take the job, (b) get Carla over her belief that Hannes would be making a horrible mistake by going into television, and (c) get the network's current talk show host out of the way. Schmidt and Gottschalk have been called the Jay Leno and David Letterman of German TV, and their presence together made this comedy something of an event in its home country. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Thomas Gottschalk, Harald Schmidt, (more)
