Rolf Hoppe Movies

A man gets in touch with his spiritual side for a very material reason in this comedy from Germany. Jacob Zuckermann was a young man living in Eastern Germany when the Berlin Wall divided the nation in 1961. Jacob's mother escaped to West Berlin with her other son, Samuel, in tow, but Jacob was left behind. Putting himself though school, Jacob became a lawyer, albeit one with a less than prestigious practice, and changed his name to Jaeckie Zucker. However, after Germany was reunified, Jaeckie's (Henry Huebchen) practice collapsed, and he began making a living hustling pool. Luck has not been kind to Jaeckie lately, and he owes 60,000 dollars to the bank. Jaeckie thinks he could win enough money to pay his debts in an upcoming high-stakes pool tournament, but he doesn't have the 5,000 dollars needed to enter. Bad news has a silver lining for Jaeckie when he gets word that his mother has passed on, and he and Samuel stand to inherit a fortune from her estate. However, there's a catch -- she has specified she must have an Orthodox Jewish funeral if her sons are to receive the money, and while Samuel (Udo Samel) is a strict follower of the faith, Jaeckie's religious education stopped not long after his mother left. Jaeckie and his conspicuously gentile wife, Marlene (Hannelore Elsner), head to West Berlin, where they have a less-than-joyous reunion with Samuel and attempt to help with the details of the funeral while giving themselves an overnight education in Judaism. Meanwhile, Jaeckie schemes to find a way to sit shivah and play in the pool tournament at the same time. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

When new evidence confirms that he was framed, reporter Harry Barber (Woody Harrelson) is released from prison after serving two years. He then goes on to demonstrate repeatedly that he is the dumbest, most masochistic noir hero since Adam ate the apple. His original plan, to leave Palmetto, is foiled when he runs into his girlfriend Nina (Gina Gershon), a successful sculptor who truly loves him. Unfortunately, he also runs into Rhea Malroux (Elisabeth Shue), a conniving femme fatale and wife of a dying millionaire, who offers him $50,000 for a small part in a phony kidnapping of her stepdaughter Odette (Chloe Sevigny. Feeling that he is owed something for his lost two years, and blinded by Rhea's sexuality, Harry agrees to participate even after he realizes he was set up from the very beginning. Complicating matters for himself, he also accepts an offer from the DA to serve as press liaison on the case. As the kidnapping careens out of control, Harry's involvement follows the same trajectory. His downfall is that he thinks he's clever, but his ability to think rationally is compromised from the start and worsens from there. ~ Steve Press, All Movie Guide

A super straight-arrow Swiss-German town becomes obsessed with upholding the law in this grim drama set in 1964. The cop is Sergeant Zumbuhl who cares nothing for political delicacy when doing his job. Recently the town has been plagued by drunk drivers so Zumbuhl has taken to standing outside the local pub to catch the drunks before they cause trouble. One night he arrests the mayor, who later retaliates by having Zumbuhl's misanthropic, stuttering son, who is an excellent motocross rider, thrown off the town team. Meanwhile Zumbuhl is given a choice, demotion or unemployment. He chooses the latter and next finds a dull job working at a railroad station. One night he finds a young woman who has been brutally raped, lying upon the railroad tracks. When Zumbuhl discovers that his own son harmed the girl he knows he has no choice but to see that justice is done. But his idea of justice is a little twisted and most unexpected. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Carl Hamilton is in one sense a peculiar sort of secret agent in that he has a license to kill but applies his conscience to that license far more often than is comfortable for him. In another sense, since he is Swedish, it makes sense that this would be so. In this story, one of a series of successful films based on this character from the novels of Jan Guillou, he has been given the task of infiltrating a group of terrorists operating out of Hamburg, who reportedly intend to attack the U.S. Embassy in Stockholm. After falling in love with one beautiful terrorist, he attempts to get her to change her ways by the force of moral persuasion rather than arms. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this slapstick satire, Fritz is a life-long forger of Nazi memorabilia. He got his start as a boy, selling items of clothing as something Hitler wore. His current income-generating scam is to sell "original" portraits by Hitler of his mistress Eva Braun to connoisseurs of Nazi art. He runs into an ambitious journalist who works for a tabloid-style magazine (a thinly disguised "Der Stern"), and the two of them concoct a scam which will garner headlines for the journalist and plenty of cash for the forger. With some care, Fritz creates "Hitler's Diaries," and his creations become a household word before the scam is uncovered. Film buffs may recognize the title of this film as a term Charlie Chaplin used in The Great Dictator to refer to Hitler. This satire hews pretty closely to the actual news story it is based on, but the movie plays it strictly for laughs, a tactic which won great popularity for it in Germany. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A few years ago, when he was on the police force, Georg Walz accidentally shot and injured a woman while chasing a Middle-Eastern bad guy. The woman was brain-damaged for life, and Georg was overcome with guilt at this and was also forced into early retirement. To occupy his time, he has been keeping tabs on a neighbor of his who closely resembles the woman he shot. In addition, she has a Middle-Eastern boyfriend, so maybe she can help him connect the clues to the bad guy he failed to catch earlier. When the ex-policeman and the pretty girl become good (but platonic) friends, a number of incidents occur which make their bond even closer. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

No more than a two-hour dialogue between three disparate foreigners held for investigation in a Paris cell block in 1939, this drama about war and its consequences focuses primarily on the three men. Lodek (Jorg Godzuhn) is a German sailor who is very much against Hitler and his tactics (Lodek tells this tale, which emerges in flashbacks), Grunstein (Fred Duren) is a Jewish butcher who happens to be in France because of an inheritance he needs to collect, and the third man is a Greek cook (Klaus Schwarzkopf) whose main distinction is a fleeting encounter with Kaiser Wilhelm, the high point of his life. In order to wile away the time, the men drum up a chessboard and chess pieces from materials at hand, and start long chess sessions in which their attitudes and thoughts about life are exchanged. When Grunstein cleverly develops a move that "trumps" and stumps his opponents, he wins three games in a row, and even now Lodek cannot figure out how he did it.
~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This propaganda film from East Germany about a corrupt society in West Germany goes to such extremes that it may offend many viewers -- especially doctors. Essentially, the film, by director Horst Seemann who also wrote the script, focuses on the evils lurking in West German hospitals. When a (female) surgeon has a patient die during an operation, she nonchalantly dismisses the death as yet another step in advancing scientific knowledge. Drugs are bandied about for profit only, whether tainted or not, whether they kill the patients or not -- they only exist to bring money into the hands of the doctors and the manufacturers. Not only are these elite hospital staff corrupt in handling patients and drugs, they also lead dissolute lives of no moral standards whatsoever. Viewers may wonder if some West German director will soon be filming a "reply" in a kind of cinematic showdown. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Based on Klaus Mann's novel, Mephisto details the rise of a Faustian character who figuratively sells his soul in exchange for greatness. Hendrik Hofgen (Klaus Maria Brandauer, offering an electric performance) is the star of a state-funded theater department who tires of his job. Like his friends, he pays lip service to socialist ideals fashionable for artists of his time -- that is, until the Nazis rise to power. He then sees an opportunity to achieve his objective of fame: he will perform propaganda plays and thereby use the Nazis as a vehicle to spread his name across the country -- only too late does he realize his mistake. This well-adapted version of the book featured the first teaming of Brandauer with director Istvan Szabo; they would later reunite to make Colonel Redl and Hanussen. Brandauer first gained attention in the U.S. after the film's release and would be cast as the villain in Never Say Never Again as a result. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide

The painter Joerge Ratgeb was a contemporary of Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528). Based on the evidence in paintings discovered to be Ratgeb's work, and on fragments of the historical record, he is believed to have been one of the rare craftsmen who supported the Peasant's War (1524-26). This East German film recounts his efforts as an ancient ally in struggles prefiguring the rise of communism and workers' movements. In the film, set in 1517, Ratgeb (a resident of Herrenberg) has been asked by the peasant's group to paint a flag for them for their coming protests, but he refuses, claiming he is an artist, not a politician. During a trip to visit Albrecht Dürer, who is his artistic hero, he has occasion to see the oppression of the peasants and serfs and comes to believe that something must be done. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Uwe is a microbiologist and geneticist, a doctoral candidate, whose focus is completely on his work, as his wife and children's focus is on him. Everything works for him and sustains his vast intellectual effort, until he is confronted by his dissatisfied wife, who is asking for a divorce. He is forced to choose whether to continue as before, or to somehow give more weight to his personal life. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide