Otto Sander Movies

A young mother of two begins the slow transformation into a Medea-like figure after discovering that her husband is leading a secret life with another family. Marie was bringing her husband his violin when she found out that he was moonlighting as a husband for another family. Devastated by the sight of her beloved husband with another woman and child, the emotionally shattered mother begins a painful descent into psychological despair from which she will never emerge until achieving her grim revenge. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Based on the exploits of two criminal brothers who eluded the authorities as they embarked on an ever more daring series of complex robberies, director Carlo Rola's tense crime drama follows the brothers as they steal their way through the Berlin of the 1920s. As burglars and safecrackers, Franz and Erich Sass (Ben Becker and Jürgen Vogel) embark on a series of small robberies in order to elude the all-seeing eye of the taxman. As their crimes escalate to include a bank where the Nazi's keep their substantial funds, the authorities quickly begin closing in while Franz and Erich plan their final heist and grand getaway. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Victor Hugo's classic story of one man's struggle to redeem himself -- and another man's efforts to bring him down -- is brought to the screen again (there have been at least 18 previous screen adaptations) in this epic-scale television production with a distinguished international cast. Jean Valjean (Gerard Depardieu) is a man forced by circumstance into a life of crime when he steals bread to ease his hunger, ending up behind bars for 19 years. Upon his release, the destitute Valjean attempts to rob the home of a bishop, but the bishop takes pity on him, and Valjean turns over a new leaf, becoming an honest and upright businessman and civic leader. But Javert (John Malkovich), a former guard at the prison where Valjean served time, is now the Chief of Police, and he's determined not to let Valjean live down his criminal past. Les Miserables also features Jeanne Moreau, Virginie Ledoyen, Christian Clavier, and Asia Argento; the miniseries was produced in two versions, a French-language version for European television that ran eight hours, and a four-hour English-language adaptation that was broadcast in a pair of two-hour installments on January 7 and 8, 2001, on the Fox Family Channel. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Joseph Vilsmaier (Stalingrad and Brother of Sleep) directed this fact-based German musical drama about a popular barbershop sextet in Nazi Germany of the '30s. In 1927, musician Harry Frommermann (Ulrich Noethen), attracted to music-shop assistant Erna (Meret Becker), joins ambitious vocalist Robert Biberti (Ben Becker) in forming a vocal group with arranger Erwin (Kai Wiesinger) and Bulgarian cafe-singer Ari (Max Tidof). As their fame increases, the authorities, who object to the Jews in the group, pressure them to perform National Socialist material. Traveling to New York, they eventually must decide whether to remain in the U.S. or return to Germany. The musical numbers use digitally remastered recordings by the real-life group, and computer graphics were employed to re-create a 1934 concert aboard an aircraft carrier in New York harbor. Barry Manilow's stage musical Harmony is based on this same music group. Shown at the 1998 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

In this film, director Sergei Solovyov provides a unique presentation of Chekhov's famous play. Rather than presenting the whole work, he opts to present only highlights from each scene. The photography, set designs, and sound-track of the film are notable. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Two star-crossed lovers, separated by the Berlin wall for thirty years are reunited. The major events in their separate lives become the focus in this German political drama. The story begins in August 1961 as the Wall is being built. In Eastern Berlin a group of young adults plans their escape. Included in the group are Konrad and Sophie who has an aunt on the other side. It is the aunt who will sponsor the escapees. Escape will be the only way Konrad and Sophie will be able to stay together. Konrad is involved in a mishap en route and must remain in East Berlin. In 1968, the lovers at last get a chance to briefly meet in Prague. There they express their frustration and pain. At least there, in Prague they can find occasional happiness. Suddenly Russian tanks appear and destroy their new dream. 1980 comes. Sophie and Konrad have since married other people. Their next meeting is bittersweet as they look back upon their promise which was broken by circumstance, and by the decisions each lover had to make. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Olga is a "serpentine dancer" for a traveling vaudeville show in Germany. She is surrounded by people with all sorts of attitudes about what effect the advent of motion pictures will have on live theatricals. In the story, the son of a photographer, is hired to travel with the little troupe, falls in love with the mute young dancer, and leaves the troupe along with her. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The technical aspects of this unusual black and white film are perhaps as significant as its story. In order to tell a story set in Germany in the mid-1930s, the filmmaker chose to film it in black and white using a camera made in 1926 in order to recapture the look and feel of films actually made during that time. Archival footage from that period is seamlessly welded with new footage in the telling of this story of an innocent butcher's apprentice (Jost Gerstein) and the erosion of his innocence as he becomes increasingly involved in the world around him. This is a somewhat difficult film, and most of the story is told through the narration provided by Otto Sander. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In the Turkish village he lives in, Orhan, who is a shepherd boy, watches his father killed by a hit-and-run driver whose car has Austrian plates. He hides away in a truck bound for those parts and tracks down the killer. He has somehow gotten hold of a gun, and manages to frighten his father's killer with it. Meanwhile, he has made friends with an Austrian boy, and made a hangout of the kitchen of the night club which his father's killer frequents. After he exacts his nonlethal revenge, he finds another truck headed back to Turkey, and returns to his flocks. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Evoking the complexities of life in 1946 postwar Berlin, this detective drama focuses on the efforts of a small group of bank robbers to bring off their heist and avoid punishment for it. Due to the need throughout society to replace active Nazis with politically untainted officials, a large part of the police force working on solving the robbery is composed of amateurs and "civilians." In one ironic scene, the detective interrogating the safecracker reveals that during the war, he was interrogated in the same building by the Nazis for his activities -- as a safecracker. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Damiel (Bruno Ganz) and Cassiel (Otto Sander) are angels who watch over the city of Berlin. They don't have harps or wings (well, they usually don't have wings) and they prefer overcoats to gossamer gowns. But they can travel unseen through the city, listening to people's thoughts, watching their actions and studying their lives. While they can make their presence felt in small ways, only children and other angels can see them. They spend their days serenely observing, unable to interact with people, and they feel neither pain nor joy. One day, Damiel finds his way into a circus and sees Marion (Solveig Dommartin), a high-wire artist, practicing her act; he is immediately smitten. After the owners of the circus tell the company that the show is out of money and must disband, Marion sinks into a funk, shuffling back to her trailer to ponder what to do next. As he watches her, Damiel makes a decision: he wants to be human, and he wants to be with Marion, to lift her spirits and, if need be, to share her pain. Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire is a remarkable modern fairy tale about the nature of being alive. The angels witness the gamut of human emotions, and they experience the luxury of simple pleasures (even a cup of coffee and a cigarette) as ones who've never known them. From the angels' viewpoint, Berlin is seen in gorgeous black-and-white -- strikingly beautiful but unreal; when they join the humans, the image shifts to rough but natural-looking color, and the waltz-like grace of the angels' drift through the city changes to a harsher rhythm. Peter Falk appears as himself, revealing a secret that we may not have known about the man who played Columbo, and there's also a brief but powerful appearance by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. Wings of Desire hinges on the intangible and elusive, and it builds something beautiful from those qualities. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this informative and measured docudrama, director Margarethe von Trotta (who inherited the project from the late Rainer Werner Fassbinder) relates the life and times of Rosa Luxemburg. Von Trotta based her film on historical research and some of the more than 2,000 letters Rosa Luxemburg wrote during her active life. Luxemburg was a leader of both the German and Polish Socialist parties who advocated an anti-colonialist and pacifist stance on the issues of her day. This drama opens with a shocking prison scene: Rosa is set up for a mock execution while other prisoners are murdered around her. She is eventually released from prison to continue writing, talking, traveling, and exhorting others to join in the Socialist movement. Her lovers, her friends, and historical VIPs wend their way through her life year by year as she fulfills her destiny. Imprisoned on more than one occasion, Rosa did not escape her political enemies; she was assassinated on a January night in 1919 while walking with her friend Karl Liebknecht, who was also murdered. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide