Armin Mueller-Stahl Movies
A musical prodigy, East Prussian-born Armin Mueller-Stahl was a noted concert violinist while still in his teens. Mueller-Stahl turned to film acting in East Berlin in 1950, later launching a 25-year stint as a repertory performer at Theater aum Schiffbaurdamm. The winner of the GDR State Prize for his film work, Mueller-Stahl became persona non grata with the communist regime in 1977, due to his activism in protesting government suppression of performing artists. He relocated to the West in 1980, where he recouped his film stardom in such productions as Fassbinder's Lola (1981) and Veronika Voss (1982) and Agnieszka Holland's Angry Harvest (1985), winning the Montreal Festival "Best Actor" prize for his performance in the latter. Most American viewers first became aware of Mueller-Stahl through his portrayal of Russian general Samanov in the controversial miniseries Amerika (1987). He then gained perhaps his greatest recognition to date by U.S. film fans for two radically different characterizations: aging Nazi war criminal Mike Laszlo in Costa-Gavras' The Music Box (1989) and Jewish grandpa Sam Krischinsky in Barry Levinson's Avalon (1990). He spent the rest of the decade working steadily in Hollywood and abroad, appearing in such films as Jim Jarmusch's Night on Earth (1991), The X-Files (1998), and Jakob the Liar (1999). In 1996, he earned particular acclaim and a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his portrayal of pianist David Helfgott's domineering father in Scott Hicks' Shine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1962
Three childhood friends each walk down a separate path in life in this standard East German wartime drama by director Frank Beyer about conflicting politics. When the three friends reach adulthood, the two men are diametrically opposed on philosophical and political grounds. One is a Communist who also happens to be in love with the third member of the trio, a young woman who later opts to go for training in Russia. The other is a Nazi. But in spite of their differences, the two men end up in the same German battalion on the Russian front as they risk their lives -- one of them fighting for a cause he opposes. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Armin Mueller-Stahl, Ulrich Thein, (more)
Prisoners in a Nazi concentration camp risk their lives by taking in a young Jewish boy rescued from a Polish ghetto. The camp commander hears about the boy and tightens up on the already cruelly treated prisoners. They whisk the boy away from being discovered, always staying one step ahead of the Nazi guards and the livid commandant. The boy is eventually discovered and both he and the prisoners now face certain death. Only the Allied invasion and subsequent tank patrols can save the prisoners and their young friend from doom. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred Delmare, Erwin Geschonneck, (more)
- 1972
This documentary covers the Democratic National Convention of 1972. ~ All Movie Guide
In this East German film, the third one in The Third is Margit's third lover. After her mother's death, Margit (Jutte Hoffman) has two affairs which don't work out, and one lesbian friendship which she retains. She is looking for a husband, though, and thinks she has spotted a candidate in her fellow factory worker (Rolf Ludwig). As she contemplates marrying him, her story is told in a series of flashbacks. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
The screenplay for this wartime tragi-comedy was written by Jurek Becker, a Jewish survivor of the concentration camps and the Warsaw Ghetto. When he could not get the script produced, he transformed it into a worldwide best-selling novel. This movie was produced about ten years after the screenplay was originally written. The story concerns a ghetto character, Jacob (Vlastimil Brodsky) who tells the others huddled there that the Russians are winning the war against the Germans and are advancing on Warsaw. How does he know? He says he has a radio hidden away, which, if true, could earn him immediate execution. In fact, there is no such radio, and his prediction (for such it is) is years ahead of events. When the Germans begin executing residents and shipping the rest to concentration camps, his lie is shown for what it is. Indeed, his best friend commits suicide as soon as he learns the truth. However, for a little while, Jacob the Liar kept hope alive in a hopeless situation. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vlastimil Brodský, Erwin Geschonneck, (more)
- 1978
The theme of escaping to West Germany from East Germany is the theme of this melodramatic East German movie. In the story, a doctor is tempted to self-exile by the possibility of conducting well-supported research in a center of his own. After all, he has an offer of a contract from a West German businessman who will also arrange for his escape. However, a number of factors conspire to send the doctor into a tail-spin of doubt about the good sense of making such a move. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Armin Mueller-Stahl
- 1981
- R
Part of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's The Entire History of the German Federal Republic trilogy, Lola stars Barbara Sukowa in the title role, a seductive cabaret singer and dancer in the 1950s who is romantically involved with Von Bohm (Armin Mueller-Stahl), a straight-as-an-arrow building inspector. Recently appointed Building Commissioner, Von Bohm is committed to eradicating corruption. Consequently, he's given quite a shock when he is called into inspect the brothel where Lola works and discovers her dancing there. With that, Von Bohm is left to question whether he is more loyal to the woman he loves so passionately or the career he believes in so strongly. The other entries in the trilogy are Veronika Voss and The Marriage of Maria Braun. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Sukowa, Armin Mueller-Stahl, (more)
- 1982
- R
Originally Die Sehnsucht de Veronika Voss, this Rainer Werner Fassbinder spin on Sunset Boulevard stars Rosel Zech as film actress Veronika Voss. Once the toast of Germany, Veronika had allegedly been an intimate of Joseph Gobbels. But the Third Reich is dead...and Veronika may as well be. Playing to an increasingly diminishing fan following, Veronika turns to drugs to cushion her against the cruelties of life. Her self-destruction is accelerated by her "Doctor Feelgood" Annemaire Duringer, who plys Veronika with morphine in order to gain control of the actress's money and property. Well-meaning sportswriter Hilmar Thate tries to save Veronika from herself, sacrificing his own personal happiness -- and the life of his girlfriend Cornelia Froeboess -- in the process. Allegedly an amalgam of several true stories, Veronika Voss is the last of Fassbinder's "postwar trilogy" (the first two were The Marriage of Maria Braun and Lola). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rosel Zech, Hilmar Thate, (more)
- 1982
Rosa (Christine Boisson) and Elser (Michael Koenig) get off a passenger ship on the German Baltic coast, steal a car, and then try to dodge their pursuer in a long and verbose chase across Germany. The man is in search of a new utopia, but the woman seems only interested in a good time, and apparently the couple find both objectives more or less compatible. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christine Boisson, Michael König, (more)
- 1982
The year is 1931. Someone is trying to permanently derail the Orient Express. This drama, based on a true story, explains who and why. The mad bomber is Sylvester Matushka, a Hungarian businessman. He has destroyed the train and many have died. Now Dr. Epstein is called in to investigate and find Matushka before he strikes again. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Sarrazin, Towje Kleiner, (more)
- 1982
In a Germany still divided between East and West, the glow of western gilt-edged security, and the pizzazz of fashion, cars, and computers create a "light trap" that lures East Germans into fantasizing about a better life. When a spy from East Germany goes through the motions of picking up his contact in Munich, he is led into her double life in an opulent villa, with an attractive and lusty daughter. As detectives and the police come in and out of the scenario, it becomes difficult to know who has been caught in the "light trap" and who might be a double agent -- or not. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Armin Mueller-Stahl, Beatrice Kessler, (more)
- 1983
In this slightly garbled mystery story, Anna (Birgit Doll) works in a Munich detective agency as an assistant to Sam Schwarz (Armin Müller-Stahl) -- an inept private investigator and aspiring author -- and one day she decides to unravel a missing persons case herself. She travels to the Brittany seacoast and settles into the abandoned cottage that had been occupied by the now-missing Maria. After a short while in the cottage, Anna begins to suspect someone malevolent is out to murder her, and she deteriorates emotionally, even contemplating suicide. A friendly neighbor helps her out more than once, but the mystery of Anna's response to the cottage and of the missing Maria is not resolved until Sam Schwarz arrives from Munich and starts working on both cases. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Birgit Doll, Lou Castel, (more)
- 1983
This sometimes confusing yet predictable thriller is about two policemen who bust a heroin deal and, after dumping the white powder, take off with the money, but they cannot escape the mob boss hot on their trail -- he wants his money back. After a detective friend is murdered, one of the two policemen (Franck, played by Victor Lannoux) returns the money but the other (Rupert, played by Jean Rochefort) insists on keeping the loot and makes a run for it. In the meantime, Rupert abandons his wife for a new lover, giving an opportunity for Franck to go after the wife -- someone he has always loved. With his marriage in tatters and the police chasing him, Rupert is faced with challenges he is ill-equipped to handle. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Victor Lanoux, Jean Rochefort, (more)
- 1983
Based on a non-fiction bestseller of the same name by Rolf Hochhuth, Eine Liebe In Deutschland is about a tragic and forbidden love affair between Stanislaw, a Polish POW (Piotr Lysak) and Paulina (Hanna Schygulla) a fruit-and-vegetable vendor in a small town in Germany along the border with Switzerland. Their affair would have gone undetected except for the busybody women of the village, and when Stanislaw is picked up by a German stormtrooper (Armin Müller-Stahl) and brought in for a mock trial, he is given a chance to prove his racial purity and so perhaps escape execution. As for Paulina, she is ostracized by the villagers and imprisoned for consorting with someone who was not of the same high Aryan caste as herself. Depressing, yet politically relevant to Poland of the early 1980s, this film by acclaimed director Andrzej Wajda) is an effective and emotional statement on the nature of oppression. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hanna Schygulla, Marie-Christine Barrault, (more)
- 1983
Even in war, the life of a rich family is different, according to this fictional story about Francois Korb (Armin Müller-Stahl) an arms manufacturer who sold both to the Germans and the Allied forces. Korb's home life is less than ideal, since his wife is having an affair with his brother, and his young son is inseparable from a teddy bear. To remedy the son's situation, the parents take in a little refugee girl as a temporary companion and playmate, and the two children become fast friends -- and when they meet again long after the war, the influence of family is all the more apparent. Meanwhile, the arms dealer will learn the hard way that weapons kill. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Armin Mueller-Stahl, Katharina Thalbach, (more)
- 1983
L'Homme Blesse is known in English-speaking countries as The Wounded Man. Jean-Hughes Anglade is a lonely, isolated young man who lets no one get close to him. He meets a street hustler and comes out of his shell, going 180 degrees into gay Obsession. Though he has yet to physically approach the object of his affection, Anglade builds up so much unrequited lust that it explodes with horrible results. L'Homme Blesse isn't rated, but viewership should definitely be confined to those older than 21--and even some of them may not be ready for it. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Hugues Anglade, Vittorio Mezzogiorno, (more)
- 1983
This West German film chronicles the trials of a group of people fleeing the invading Russian army in 1944-45 in the area of Pomerania in eastern Germany. Caught in the dead of winter, several men, women and children load themselves and their belongings onto horse-drawn wagons to start their journey to safety. At one point, the group reaches a farm where everyone in the family has committed suicide, and at another juncture they are hiding in the basement of a house when some Soviet soldiers come to the door looking for refugees. The French POWs who were in the house try to send the soldiers away, but they fail -- the soldiers discover the refugees and are about to rape the women when the Soviet officer in charge prevents that atrocity. These and other stories of a fictional group of refugees were taken from real accounts at this time. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Armin Mueller-Stahl, Marie-Charlotte Schüler, (more)
- 1984
In one of his wittiest films since the 1977 Bye Bye Bavaria, writer and director Herbert Achternbusch focuses on a couple who have separated, but they meet again in Paris, find they are still in love, and go out to enjoy the city. The hitch is that one of them has had a sex change in the meantime, so they are now a lesbian couple. The former male, a bored and frustrated writer in more than one sense, adopted the name of the woman he loved, Rita, after he became female. It is Rita whom he/she discovers on the stage in Paris, culminating in a happy reunion between one old Rita and another newly created. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Annamirl Bierbichler, Christiane Cohendy, (more)
- 1984
In this curiously irresolute drama, Gabriele (Barbara Rudnik) is a young woman who lives at home in her wealthy parents' apartment, but dreams of returning to Australia to join her Aussie boyfriend. He keeps in touch by mailing her taped messages and a video of their good times together on the beach. She, in turn, is studying marine biology and working at a peep show at night so she can save some money to join him. Her nighttime job introduces new people into her life -- everyone from her manager who lusts after her, to the women who work in the peep shows, and the taxi driver who takes her to work each night. An uneasy sense of foreboding slowly takes over, raising the question of whether she may finally return to Australia or not. All this might be more compelling if the acting were less stylized and the script a little more convincing. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Rudnik
