Christian Ulmen
- 2006
With his bittersweet, German-language tragicomedy The Elementary Particles, writer-director Oskar Roehler brings to the screen Michel Houellebecq's popular seriocomic novel of two ill-adjusted siblings. Christian Ullmen and Moritz Bleibtreu portray, respectively, Michael and Bruno, half brothers who have each adjusted poorly to adult life, thanks in no small part to a cracked upbringing by their eccentric, social dropout mother. As the story opens, each brother experiences a personal crisis. Geneticist Michael returns to his work in cloning after an extended period away from his Irish laboratory, but suffers in quiet desperation from his intense inner loneliness; he must soon leave the lab once again and head back to his hometown, where his grandmother's corpse is being disinterred from a cemetery. Upon arrival, he reencounters Annabelle (Franka Potente of Run Lola Run), an adolescent crush to whom he was never before able to express his romantic yearnings; they consummate an intense erotic affair, and remain together, but a troubled pregnancy renders her infertile and makes family conception an utter impossibility. Meanwhile, high school teacher Bruno (a married husband and father) is driven completely around the bend by sexual yearnings for his female students, and consequently suffers from a nervous breakdown; he checks himself into a sanitarium, then heads off on a bender at a swingers' retreat with a new lover, Christiane (Martina Gedeck} - but their pleasure is all too short-lived. Nina Hoss and Uwe Ochsenknecht co-star. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Moritz Bleibtreu, Christian Ulmen, (more)
- 2006
There's a new battleground in the war between men and women in this comedy from Germany. Paul (Christian Ulmen) has persuaded his fiancée Anna (Nora Tschirner) to pull up stakes and move with him to the town where he grew up, but it's not until they've settled in that Anna learns Paul had an ulterior motive -- he used to play in the town's semi-pro soccer team, and his main reason for moving back was to be able to take the field with his buddies again. Anna, who expresses little interest in football, ends up spending a lot of her time with the wives and girlfriends of the other guys on the team, all of whom seem weary of taking a back seat to their men's obsession with the game. When matters come to a head, Anna offers a challenge to Paul -- she'll put together a team of local women, and if they can defeat Paul and his pals, the men will give up soccer for good. Paul agrees to what seems to be an easy bet, but what he doesn't know is that Anna was a junior league soccer champ in college, and that she's brought along Kim (Anneke Kim Sarnau), an old friend who is now a goalie with a top women's professional team, as a ringer. Anna also considers bringing along her father (Heinz Hoenig), once a respected big league soccer coach, to help, but given the bad blood between them, Anna isn't sure if his skills are worth the trouble. Venus FC was a remake of a Finnish film of the same title, which was released the same year as the German picture. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nora Tschirner, Christian Ulmen, (more)
- 2005
A shared love of fish leads to a variety of romantic predicaments in this offbeat comedy from writer and director Doris Dörrie. Otto (Christian Ulmen) and Leo (Simon Verhoeven) are two men from Germany who have launched a successful business in which they import koi, the beautiful Japanese fish, for collectors in their native land. While on a business trip to Japan, Otto and Leo meet Ida (Alexandra Maria Lara), a German tourist who is studying fashion design. Ida begins traveling with the two men, and surprisingly develops an infatuation with the rumpled Otto instead of the handsome Leo. When Ida discovers she's pregnant with Otto's child, the two marry, and upon their return to Germany, Ida attempts to join in the business by creating a line of scarves decorated with koi patterns. However, the honeymoon proves short-lived, and Ida's presence creates a rift between Otto and Leo, as the latter sets up his own concern, raising koi with his new bride, Yoko (Young-Shin Kim). Meanwhile, Ida's desire to make good in the business begins to irritate Otto when she becomes chummy with the wife of his most important investor; as he grows apart from Ida, he's uncertain of what to do when Yoko boldly makes it known that she's attracted to him. Der Fischer und Seine Frau (aka The Fisherman and His Wife) received its North American premiere at the 2005 New Montreal Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alexandra Maria Lara, Christian Ulmen, (more)
- 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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christian Ulmen, Katja Danowski, (more)
