Heinz Bennent Movies

Adapted from the novel of celebrated German writer Ingrid Noll, Kalt ist der Abendhauch bounces back and forth over a span of 50 years to tell the darkly comic tale of a destructive love affair between two people. When the film opens, octogenarian Charlotte (Gisela Trowe) has just received a letter from Hugo (Heinz Bennent), an old friend who is coming for a visit. The news of Hugo's impending arrival takes Charlotte back to the year 1936, when she was 16. One of four children born to middle-class parents, young Charlotte (Fritzi Haberlandt) carries a torch for handsome stud Hugo (August Diehl), and is understandably put out when he marries her older sister Ida (Georgia Stahl). An even deeper pall is cast over the couple's union when Charlotte's brother shows up at the wedding dinner wearing a dress, then proceeds to hang himself in the attic. A few years later, Charlotte enters into an unsatisfying marriage with Bernhard (Andre Hennicke), a dull schoolteacher with whom she has two children. Bernhard disappears during the course of World War II and is presumed dead, making it easy for Charlotte to consummate her long-simmering lust with Hugo when he drops by one day after the war. However, on a proverbial dark and stormy night, Bernhard reappears at Charlotte's doorstep, wet, unkempt, and hungry for sex. Hugo's arrival fifty years later exposes -- literally -- five decades of family secrets and dysfunction, thanks in part to the gruesome discovery of a body buried in the cellar. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

This Icelandic biopic looks at a little known Icelandic composer Jon Leifs. He was born in Iceland in 1899, but spent much of his life in Germany just before WWII. The film begins in the 1930s after he has married the daughter of an industrialist, Annie, who is also a concert pianist. This era was frustrating for Leifs because few are performing his works. He is also feeling blackballed for his refusal to join the Nazi's Composer's Council. That Annie is Jewish does not help. As the political heats up, Annie leaves, but Leifs decides to stay. Desperate to have his music performed, he finally joins the Council. Annie calls him a sell-out. Eventually he goes back to Iceland where he is not well-received by other musicians. Leifs then returns to Europe to protect Annie. To get her and the family to safety he must make another dubious bargain with the Nazis causing Annie to leave him for good. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This fluffy French romantic comedy chronicles the love lives of several lovers and relatives. Margeau has just arrived in Paris from New York. Twenty years before, she left her husband, a painter and many years her senior and her daughter Jess, who now sells classic cars with her partner the clumsy Mario. Jess is recovering from an accidental overdose on sleeping pills. Her hospitalization brought Margeau home. Jess has a young boyfriend, a musician not terribly interested in sex, and a 17 year old son from her ex- husband Pierre. A restaurateur Pierre now lives with a very young African student. The hospital shrink helping Jess ends up having an affair with her son. Before the film ends and Margeau returns home, Jess comes close to death three more times. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Flo is just thirteen and is away from home on vacation. Her mother Clo, her sister Jo, and her relative Do, are all very liberated women, very wealthy, and very determined to have their way. When they catch sight of Guillaume de Burlador (Pierre Arditi), a handsome, well-educated and somewhat needy young man, they lure him into their peculiar ménage by offering him the job of becoming Flo's tutor. What they really want is to take him to bed in the crudest possible way. Unfortunately for the young man he is a true romantic and wants to be wooed in addition to having lots of hot sex. Since this feminist bedroom comedy turns many conventions on their ear, it is completely in keeping with the spirit of the piece that all the bedroom scenes, while occasionally quite erotic, take place between people who are fully clothed. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This West German spy drama moves along a fairly predictable course that begins when French industrialist Bernard Corain (Bruno Cremer) is asked to determine whether Heinz Steger (Heinz Bennent), an East German ex-intelligence officer, would be willing to defect. On his next business trip to East Germany, Corain discovers that yes, indeed, Heinz and his wife are willing to leave. After consulting with the authorities in the West, Corain returns to help smuggle Steger and his wife out of the country -- but things get fouled up, and the flight to the West is not going to work as planned. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The Death of Mario Ricci is a Swiss/French/West German coproduction, filmed on location in Switzerland. Gian-Maria Volonte stars as a TV newscaster who journeys to a remote alpine village to interview a famed malnutrition expert. Upon his arrival, Volonte learns that there's an ongoing investigation in the village concerning the mysterious death of an Italian immigrant. Inexorably, the journalist becomes involved in the investigation, and with equal inexorability the chain of evidence leads to the malnutritionist. The Death of Mario Ricci is consistently lovely to look at, though dramatically it's as hollow-centered as a piece of Swiss chocolate. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This two-hour documentary and fiction film was a cooperative writing effort by five different German writers and/or directors, one of the most noted being the 1972 Nobel prize winner Heinrich Böll. Böll was specifically responsible for three fictive episodes at the end of the film that promote an anti-nuclear, pro-peace message ("Space Talk," "Atom Bunker," and "Kill Your Sister"). Documentary footage of Chancellors Helmut Kohl and Helmut Schmidt in action, along with various European and American leaders highlight the urgent issues of the day. At a time when this film partly addresses these issues and partly hedges its bets, religious leaders in Europe were coming out with a very strong anti-war statement. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

When Francesca (Nicole García), a magistrate in a local justice department, starts to investigate the suicide of a young woman she has no idea her own husband was indirectly involved. Once she learns more about the case, her marriage is placed in jeopardy. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Although there are women in the lives of the three main protagonists -- a middle-aged architect, his construction designer, and a journalist -- the women are not as crucial to the men's search for an identity as the title might suggest. When the three men run into a former professor of the architect and designer, they are inspired by his fanfare and expansive nature. Still in search of solutions to their particular problems, the men head out to visit the professor and get to the bottom of their own issues. Unfortunately, the professor turns out to be more "loco" than otherwise, and the three men watch their hopes burst like a popped balloon -- it seems like their ability to assess human character should now be added to their list of problem spots. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Noted political filmmaker Costa-Gavras turned his attention to personal issues in this drama. Michel (Yves Montand) has had to deal with the death of his wife, while Lydia (Romy Schneider) is mourning the loss of her daughter. Both Michel and Lydia are lonely, and they are attempting to start a relationship together, but neither has been able to purge themselves of their sorrows, which makes it difficult for them to live in the moment. Clair de Femme was based on a novel by Romain Gary. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The Serpent's Egg, or Das Schlangenei is director Ingmar Bergman's second English language production (The Touch was his first). It is, however, his first completely non-Swedish production, made after his voluntary self-exile from Sweden over taxation issues. Set in Berlin in the early 1920s, it explores the fear and despair the city evokes in Manuela and Abel Rosenberg (Liv Ullmann and David Carradine), two Jewish trapeze artists. The suicide of Manuela's husband (Abel's brother), has stranded them in Berlin. Berlin is shown to already possess the sinister elements of cruelty and anti-Semitism which laid the groundwork for the later Nazi takeover. A series of misadventures gets them sent to a medical clinic for treatment. However, the clinic is actually a site for Nazi-type "racial" experiments on humans, which generally either madden or kill the subjects. Das Schlangenei was savaged by the critics for its improbable-seeming story and more particularly, for casting David Carradine (best known for his earlier appearances in the Kung Fu U.S. television series) in a crucial role. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

After an auto accident transforms their lively and intelligent boy into a dull-eyed paralytic, the parents in this movie discover how to cope with the changes that have been wrought in their lives and in their son's life. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide