Thomas Kretschmann Movies

This German battlefield drama, released on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the climactic 1943 defeat of the Nazi forces at Stalingrad in Russia, does not paint a pretty picture either of war itself or of the Germans fighting in that war. Out of hundreds of thousands of previously victorious German soldiers who took part in this most crucial battle of WWII, a mere six thousand ruined men survived. Today, the word "Stalingrad" is used by Germans to signify any particularly ruinous reversal or defeat. In the story, the lives of several German soldiers are followed as they are transformed from arrogant and victorious killers into demoralized cowards who will do anything at all in order to survive, usually without success. Due to a political climate of resurgent sympathy for the fascists at the time this film was made, is was particularly important to the filmmakers to show the soldiers as lacking any shred of military dignity or real courage. Thus, though this big budget, well-made film did well in Germany, its lack of any truly sympathetic characters made it less popular elsewhere. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The historical novel by Alexandre Dumas was adapted for the screen with this lavish French epic, winner of 5 Césars and a pair of awards at the Cannes Film Festival. Isabelle Adjani stars as Marguerite de Valois, better known as Margot, daughter of scheming Catholic power player Catherine de Medici (Virna Lisi). Margot is an heiress to the throne during the late 16th century reign of the neurotic, hypochondriac King Charles IX (Jean-Hugues Anglade), a time when Protestants and Catholics are vying for political control of France. Catherine decides to make an overture of good will by offering up Margot in marriage to prominent Protestant Huguenot Henri of Navarre (Daniel Auteuil), although she also schemes to bring about the notorious St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572, when tens of thousands of Protestants are slaughtered. The marriage goes forward but Margot doesn't love Henri and takes a lover, the soldier La Mole (Vincent Perez), also a Protestant from a well-to-do family. Murders by poisoning follow, as court intrigues multiply and Catherine's villainous plotting to place her son Anjou (Pascal Greggory) on the throne threatens the lives of La Mole, Margot and Henri. The American release version was cut to 145 minutes. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

A young soldier is brutally raped and attempts to bring the culprit to justice in this Italian drama. The victim is 20-year-old Saro, a naïve young man who has left his tiny mountain village to join the Airborne Assault force. His first real friend is sergeant Tricarico who shows Saro around the local dance clubs. At first Saro doesn't realize that his sergeant is a homosexual, but when he figures it out he takes off and gets a ride back to the base with Scarpa, the owner of the town car dealership. Poor Saro doesn't realize that he is no safer with Scarpa who is in cahoots with the sadistic, bisexual Capt. Roatta who is concealed in the back of Scarpa's car. Sure enough it is during the ride that Saro is attacked and raped. He doesn't see the attacker's face, but he does recognize the man's watch. Roatta is slated to marry the town mayor's daughter so when Saro attempts to get him convicted of rape, he orders Tricarico to do all he can to break the young man's spirit. Saro's life becomes a living hell, but this does not stop him from pursuing the justice he deserves. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Claudio Fragasso directed this Italian thriller in which a former French secret service agent (top Israeli male model Raz Degan) recruits newlyweds to become assassins. After Carla (Laura Morante), married to Domenico (Thomas Kretschmann), kills several people, neighbor Dario (TV-star Raoul Bova) recognizes her, taps the couple's phone, and secretly videotapes their crimes. When Dario's wife Luciana (Francesca Schiavo) helps him collect evidence on the killer couple, the excitement jolts their sex life up a few notches. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

This series for the Showtime premium cable network was based on the hit 1990 film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sharon Stone. In the year 2070, David Hume (played by Michael Easton) is a futuristic law enforcement officer who discovers that the death of his partner was not accident -- that it was the work of powerful men with a hidden agenda. Hume and his android partner, Ian Farve (Karl Pruner) are determined to find the truth, no matter the risk. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The tenth in a series of made-for-TV movies based on stories from the Bible, this drama stars Louise Lombard as Esther, a common Jewish woman who rose to wealth and power when she captured the heart of the King of Persia. Eventually, Esther opted to use her influence to win freedom and a better life for her people. Esther also stars F. Murray Abraham as Mordecai, Jurgen Prochnow as Haman, Ornella Muti as Queen Vashti, and Thomas Kretschmann as King Ahasuerus. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

An upwardly mobile CCT executive finds his life and career suddenly spinning out of control after he uncovers a vast corporate conspiracy in this thriller starring Marcus Graham, Thomas Kretschmann, and Alexandra Paul. Will Patterson (Graham) was set to become a powerful executive at the time he stumbled into a far-reaching corporate cover-up, but now his life has completely fallen apart. Thankfully, despite his bleak outlook, Will has a lovely and dedicated crusader (Paul) on his side who's willing to help him navigate the treacherous waters on the horizon. When Will travels to the jungles of Indonesia to locate a tribe that has been forced off of their land by CCT, the stage is finally set for a deadly confrontation. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Filmmaker Roman Polanski, who as a boy growing up in Poland watched while the Nazis devastated his country during World War II, directed this downbeat drama based on the true story of a privileged musician who spent five years struggling against the Nazi occupation of Warsaw. Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody) is a gifted classical pianist born to a wealthy Jewish family in Poland. The Szpilmans have a large and comfortable flat in Warsaw which Wladyslaw shares with his mother and father (Maureen Lipman and Frank Finlay), his sisters Halina and Regina (Jessica Kate Meyer and Julia Rayner), and his brother, Henryk (Ed Stoppard). While Wladyslaw and his family are aware of the looming presence of German forces and Hitler's designs on Poland, they're convinced that the Nazis are a menace which will pass, and that England and France will step forward to aid Poland in the event of a real crisis. Wladyslaw's naïveté is shattered when a German bomb rips through a radio studio while he performs a recital for broadcast. During the early stages of the Nazi occupation, as a respected artist, he still imagines himself above the danger, using his pull to obtain employment papers for his father and landing a supposedly safe job playing piano in a restaurant. But as the German grip tightens upon Poland, Wladyslaw and his family are selected for deportation to a Nazi concentration camp. Refusing to face a certain death, Wladyslaw goes into hiding in a comfortable apartment provided by a friend. However, when his benefactor goes missing, Wladyslaw is left to fend for himself and he spends the next several years dashing from one abandoned home to another, desperate to avoid capture by German occupation troops. The Pianist was based on the memoir of the same name by the real-life Wladyslaw Szpilman; the book was first published in 1946 as Death of a City, but was banned by Polish Communist officials and went out of print until 1998, when a new edition was issued as The Pianist. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

As Hitler's grip of fear continues to tighten during World War II, the capture of the U.S.S. Swordfish by a German U-boat leads to a brutal struggle for survival between axis and allies deep beneath the ocean surface. Following the capture of the U.S.S. Swordfish, the German crew soon begins to fall ill to a particularly powerful strain of meningitis, leaving the American prisoners-of-war obligated to work with the remaining German crew to keep the vessel from descending to the bottom of the ocean. Though they are able to cast aside their differences in the name of survival, the discovery that the ship has been located by a U.S. carrier forces the prisoners into a harrowing struggle for survival. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Following in the footsteps of The Weight of Water and other recent films, Hans W. Geissendorfer's arthouse drama Snowland (AKA Schneeland, 2004) juxtaposes stories set in two different time frames. In contemporary Sweden, Elisabeth (Maria Schrader), a young wife and mother, learns that her husband was just killed in an automobile accident. Grief-stricken beyond the point of consolation, she shuttles the kids off to a relative's house, climbs into the car with plans to end her life, and drives headfirst into a blinding snowstorm, where her car breaks down and she makes her way to a nearby cabin for help. Upon discovering that the building's only resident has frozen to death, Elisabeth then uses various items located in the house to reconstruct the story of the woman's life. The film then flashes back to 1937, when Ina (Julia Jentsch), a young woman, found herself entrapped by the incestuous domination of her bastard father, Knovel (Ulrich Muhe). When a handsome and slightly enigmatic young stranger named Aron (Thomas Kretschmann) arrived and moved into the home of a neighboring couple, Salomon and Helga (Oliver Stokowski and Ina Weisse), Elisabeth fell hopelessly for him - little realizing that Helga also had romantic designs on the new arrival. Step by step, piece by piece, Elisabeth gains insights from the story into the problems plaguing her own life, and much-needed wisdom that will ultimately help her survive. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

This made-for-cable Frankenstein was originally intended as the pilot for a weekly series based on Frankenstein: The Prodigal Son, a novel by Dean Koontz and Kevin J. Anderson. The story is set in modern-day New Orleans, the home of demented scientist Dr. Victor Helios (Thomas Kretschmann). Helios is in fact the original Dr. Victor Frankenstein, who has kept himself alive these past 200 years by a series of diabolical genetic experiments. During the same two centuries, Frankenstein has managed to keep alive the original Frankenstein's monster, and has also created dozens of other synthetic humans capable of reinvigorating themselves whenever they are "killed." Of course, the doctor's experiments require that a number of innocent people unwillingly give up their own lives -- and when the bodies start piling up in the Big Easy, detective Carson O'Connor (Parker Posey) and Michael Sloane (Adam Goldberg) start putting the clues together. Ironically, in this story it is Frankenstein who is the villain (in standard serial-killer fashion he tantalizes the cops by planting cryptic clues), while the doctor's main monster is the nominal hero, and a good-looking one at that. Dissatisfied with the finished product, Koontz and Anderson took their names off Frankenstein, as did the project's original executive producer, Martin Scorsese. The unsold pilot film made its USA network bow on October 10, 2004. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When his Zen master is mysteriously murdered and a biochemical maniac sets into motion a devious plan to control the entire world, it's up to one karate-chopping canine to leap into action in a hilarious tale of man versus man's best friend from A Christmas Story director Bob Clark. His master may be gone, but Cho Cho is determined to find out who the culprit behind the killing really is. In order to carry out his daring mission he'll need a little human help though, and when Cho Cho teams with a brilliant but bumbling computer wizard, there's no mystery that this unlikely pair can't solve. Starring Jon Voight, Simon Rex, and Jaime Pressley. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide