Toni Berger Movies
- 1985
- R
With a storyline that is stretched thin over its 87-minute running time, Zuckerbaby is about an overweight woman (Marianne Sagebrecht) who works in a mortuary, develops a crush on a married subway engineer (Eisi Gulp), and then does something about it. At first, the love-struck woman is content with just seeing the object of her infatuation. Then she seeks out the train driven by her "sugarbaby" so she will always ride on that particular subway. Next, she goes through a complex series of subterfuges to discover more about him and finds out that his wife will be out of town for a few weeks -- which in her mind, makes him "free." Eventually, she does get together with him -- but then what? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marianne Sägebrecht, Eisi Gulp, (more)
- 1982
Doktor Faustus was adapted from Thomas Mann's epic novel of the same name about a composer, Adrian Leverkuehn (Jon Finch), who sells his soul to the devil for the acquisition of genius in his lifetime. Leverkuehn intentionally contracts syphilis from an infected prostitute because he believes that a side-effect of the disease is intense, sustained creativity; no matter that death from syphilis as it enters the brain is extremely unpleasant -- the composer wants his moment of greatness. That is where Satan comes into the picture, and Leverkuehn agrees to Satan's terms in exchange for creative genius: he is not to have any close human contacts. Being only too human, the composer violates the terms only to see his two closest friends, a cellist and his little nephew, die as a consequence. At this point, after extensive philosophizing and rumination, the Satanic deal just does not have the same allure, and Leverkuehn's own life is quickly deteriorating, much faster than he can handle. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jon Finch, Hanns Zischler, (more)
- 1980
- R
Produced and directed for German television, Ingmar Bergman's From the Life of the Marionettes starts out in color and switches almost immediately to black-and-white. This cinematic self-indulgence is ideally suited to the subject matter: the horrible consequences of a rapidly disintegrating marriage. The husband, Peter Egerman (Robert Atzorn) is unable to articulate his frustration through normal channels. Warped by his repression, Egerman ends up raping and murdering a prostitute. This outrage occurs at the very beginning of the film; the rest of the footage is devoted to a semi-documentary study of the failed marriage, the police investigation, and the husband's twisted psyche. Once again, Bergman's vision is superbly realized by the camerawork of Sven Nykvist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christine Buchegger, Martin Benrath, (more)
- 1978
Things run steadily downhill for Maxmilian (Towje Kleiner), a divorced journalist who is trying to sell a novel he has written. On the very day his divorce is finalized, he meets a divorced woman and begins an affair with her. At the same time he learns that he is about to be fired from his newspaper job, he discovers that the one publisher expressing interest in his novel wants him to write some sex scenes for it. Meanwhile, his new girlfriend has moved into his two-room apartment with all her furniture, practically crowding them out of it, and she is urging him to move to the countryside with her. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Towje Kleiner, Helmut Fischer, (more)
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
- Starring:
- Liv Ullmann, David Carradine, (more)
