Friedhelm Lehmann Movies
- 1989
- PG13
The US/German co-production The Rose Garden is based on an actual court case. Cast against type, Maximillian Schell plays a shabby old man who, without warning, attacks well-to-do Kurt Hubner at the Frankfurt airport. Hubner presses charges, and it looks like an open-and-shut case. But public-defender Liv Ullmann, who has witnessed the incident, is urged by her daughter to defend the poverty-stricken Schell in court. During her investigation, Ullman learns that Schell is a concentration-camp survivor who lost his sister to a hideous Nazi medical experiment, and that Hubner was commandant at the camp where this and other atrocities occurred. Hubner has been able to legally maneuver his way out of Germany, and was en route to parts unknown when Schell recognized him and attacked him. Even though she is armed with this information, Ullmann cannot be certain that justice will be served to the correct man. The Rose Garden is a provocative, compelling piece, deliberately and methodically raising more questions than can possibly be answered within its 112 minute running time. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Liv Ullmann, Maximilian Schell, (more)
- 1985
- PG13
Forbidden represented not only the TV-movie bow of Jacqueline Bisset, but also the American debut of German film favorite Jurgen Prochnow. Filmed in Berlin by a British production crew, this fact-based story concerns German countess Nina von Halder (Bissett). Despite the anti-Semitic edicts of the Hitler regime, Nina becomes romantically involved with Jewish Fritz Friedlander (Jurgen Prochnow). Complicating matters is the fact that Fritz is already married. The infidelity angle is put on hold as Nina hides her lover from the Nazis, all the while remaining active with the Resistance. Based on the Leonard Gross novel The Last Jews of Berlin, Forbidden originally aired March 24, 1985, over the HBO cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1983
A gay couple living in Berlin has a fairly bourgeois lifestyle: one is a high school teacher who defends the "squatters" in districts like Chamissoplatz, the other is a bookseller who admires Klaus Mann's novel Mephisto, a story about an actor who sold his soul to the Nazis and suffered the consequences. Through all their conversations; the death of the bookseller's father and subsequent inheritance (used to buy a better apartment rather than his own bookstore); and through the emotional upheavals of neighbors such as Christa, who cannot seem to find the right relationship; life seems to veer between the comic and the tragic -- without much forewarning. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- 1981
- R
In this drama, a young wife leaves her German home to discover the identity of her mysterious late mother who married a Jewish German during WW II. Her mother was French, and soon after she married her aristocratic husband, Hitler came to power, causing the couple to flee to Argentina. Later he abandons the woman. Much of the complex tale is told via flashback, and in learning about her mother's past, the daughter begins to experience an emerging sense of identity and the knowledge of what she must do to avoid the same mistakes her mother made. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ingrid Caven, Grischa Huber, (more)
- 1979
The social spectrum of unemployed youths in Germany is explored in this film, along with the army of social workers, priests, public officials and others who make the condition of these unemployed their business. The main drama takes place at an endangered Catholic youth club and focuses on Wolle (Ernest Hannawald), a painter's apprentice without any painting to do. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ursula Monn, Manfred Krug, (more)
- 1979
- R
The West German Just a Gigolo has little to do with the popular song of the same name. Its central character, played by David Bowie, is a World War I-era Prussian aristocrat. Living by his wits throughout Europe, Bowie uses his sexual prowess with beautiful women (and powerful men) to advance himself. The leering lothario eventually comes to grief in the decadent Berlin of the 1920s. We don't know how he did it, but director David Hemmings managed to corral some of the most stellar sex goddesses in film history to play cameos in Just a Gigolo: Kim Novak, Maria Schell, and even Marlene Dietrich. The film was originally released as Schoner Gigolo, Armer Gigolo. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- David Bowie, Sydne Rome, (more)
- 1977
The protagonist in this film is a surgeon whose wife is running around with his young partner, and whose medical career is hampered by his need to find a way to perform a heart-valve replacement operation. His wife's lover plans to move to Hong Kong, with her in tow, to learn something of acupuncture (which might help with the operation). The wife is involved in an auto accident before their trip, and he goes on without her. On the way there, he meets a mysterious Russian-refugee doctor who has a set of wonder-working acupuncture needles. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- 1977
All sorts of schemes have been used in West Germany by developers anxious to move people out of old apartment houses so that new and more profitable developments can be put in their places. This sincere drama follows the work of "evictors," those whose job it is to get people who have been tricked into signing away their apartment leases out of their apartments and (sometimes) into other housing. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- 1973
This German sex comedy deals with the comeuppance of a young girl's philandering surgeon father who assigns his three best friends to chaperon her while he travels the Mediterranean on a business trip. Each of the best friends has at least one liaison with the girl before the film ends; on his business trip, the father is amorously engaged with a number of handsome women. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
Director Ken Annakin and an international cast including Charlton Heston and George Eastman try to breath life into Jack London's often-filmed wilderness adventure. The story follows the adventures of John Thornton (Heston) and Pete (Raimund Harmstorf) as they brawl their way through the Alaskan wilderness mushing around in dog sleds and hunting for gold. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Charlton Heston, Raimund Harmstorf, (more)
- 1972
Gelobt Sei Was Hart Macht is a sex film which spoofs the Olympic movement and athletics. The story concerns the rivalry between the Spartans and Athenians of ancient Greece at an Olympic competition. Willing Athenian girls succeed in doing their best to diminish the athletic edge of the Spartans. This is especially important in a climactic footrace, which is won by inches. This humorous film, in which the entire cast is nude, makes satirical comparisons to the 1972 Munich Olympics. It is also noted for its imaginative camera work. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
