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

One of Germany's most important female directors, Doris Dörrie chose the subject of the universal quest for happiness for the film Bin ich Schön?. Set in Spain and Germany, the film interlaces individual stories of broken hearts and broken dreams with aspirations of new beginnings. On a hot afternoon in Spain, Linda is standing beside the road wearing a thin summer dress and carrying a handbag. A car stops and Werner, a robust-looking German, picks her up. She shows him a note which says, "I am deaf-mute and in need of your help." Werner is touched. As they move off together, Linda throws her handbag out of the window. In a near-by motel, Klaus is on the phone to Munich trying to convince his reluctant girlfriend Franziska to come down to Spain. Linda and Werner have checked into the next room where Werner is asking Linda to hit him with his belt. Plots and subplots intertwine until the film reaches a climax during a religious procession. In an ironic way, the film celebrates life with a message that life is here today and then it's gone. No beginning, no end and enjoy it while you can. Bin ich schön? was screened as part of the New German Films at the 49th International Berlin Film Festival, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide

This Icelandic tale, loosely based on the real-life experiences of director Fridrik Fridriksson tells the saga of a boyhood spent in Iceland in the 1960's. Tomas loves the movies and is highly influenced by them. His parents prefer he go to loftier shows such as "King of Kings," but Tomas prefers the Roy Rogers' Saturday matinees. Much of his time is spent reenacting scenes from those Westerns. Tomas world is thrown into chaos after he is sent to a relative's farm for the summer and can no longer go to the movies. There he imagines the scenario for a genre thriller. The fantasy becomes reality as the boy must face a genuine tragedy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this resonant drama, decades after the fact, Paul fondly recalls his grandfather's monomaniacal obsession with his craft of "telling" the stories of silent movies with his violin, occasionally supplementing the violin with his storytelling voice. When talkies newly appear on the scene, his grandfather (Armin Mueller-Stahl) heatedly disdains their evident lack of moviemaking craft, discussing these matters with the proprietor of the little Apollo theater, who is nervous about costs and the possibility of going out of business altogether. Meanwhile, social storms of all sorts rage in Germany around them, from hyperinflation to the political ferment which first saw Hitler appointed to government office. ~ 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

The humor in this film centers around a man in his pajamas and bathrobe who goes out to buy some cigarettes on the corner and encounters a series of events that have him chased by some inept policemen, an angry husband, a taxi driver, and so forth. Things continue to deteriorate from there, and for some viewers, their funny bones will be picked dry after the first few scenes. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In a provincial town in West Germany, the director of the local art society is preparing to put on an exhibit of paintings. The patrons of the society are all upstanding local businessmen and members of the middle class, of not very refined tastes, but they are all a-dither about the painting in the "Capitalist Realism" exhibit which is clearly insulting to a local banker. Nonetheless, in this comedy they all exert themselves to be polite to the painter and his boyfriend. The film is adapted from the play by Botho Strauss. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Based on the play by Maxim Gorky, this film re-creates the goings-on at a dacha in the Russian countryside during a turn-of-the-century summer. The eleven wealthy guests manage their intrigues and affairs in the presence of their hosts Jakov Schalimov (Otto Sander) and Julia (Elke Petri), a close but feuding couple. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide