Werner Stocker Movies

Made for Canadian television, For Better and for Worse was released to America as Terror Stalks the Class Reunion. The general theme and tone of the film is implicit in its title. Kate Nelligan heads the cast as a retired teacher who attends a reunion in Germany. Here she is kidnapped by former student Anton (Geraint Wyn Davies), who nurses a grudge of long, long standing. The film is based on a suspense novel by Mary Higgins Clark. For Better and for Worse was first seen in the U.S. on June 12, 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

East Berliner Dieter was working at a very low-level factory job when East and West Germany were unified. He has a very ill child to take care of who requires expensive and special treatments that are not covered by the state medical system. When he loses his job in the inevitable downsizing, he is approached by a sinister rich man to perform various off-the-books services for him, including spying on the rich man's wife. Reluctantly, he accepts the role of "friend" to this untrustworthy fellow. His child is becoming steadily worse, so when the requests of his "friend" include violent and unlawful actions, he does not feel able to refuse him outright. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a dauntless woman manages to give birth to two daughters as bombs drop all around her in World War II. She survives with them to rebuild Munich from the ashes and does the same with her own life. This feel-good feature was popular in Germany and featured many speeches in a countrified Bavarian dialect which is nearly incomprehensible even to native speakers. The title Rama Dama is a variation on a local postwar slogan which conveys a brisk "let's get going" sentiment. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In 1984, Anna Wimschneider, a woman who had been a farmgirl in Bavaria during World War Two published an autobiography which focused on her life during that period, and it became a huge bestseller. Her story, Herbstmilch, is brought to the screen by her fellow Bavarian, director Joseph Vilsmaier. At the beginning of the story, Anna (Dana Vavrova) is the oldest daughter of a widowed farmer, and toils ceaselessly looking after her father and her many younger brothers. She abandons her dream of becoming a nurse when she falls in love with and marries her neighbor, Albert (Werner Stucker), who is also a farmer. Before she can get too used to things, her new husband is drafted, and she is left as the only completely able-bodied person on the farm, and must support not only her hostile mother-in-law, but a whole host of new aunts and uncles. Enduring even more incredible and backbreaking labor on this primitive farm than on her father's farm, and pregnant, somehow she survives. Both Anna and her beloved Albert appear in significant cameos in this film. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Homosexual love among the ravages of war would be more convincing in this tale of a lesbian relationship if the war itself were more than just a vague backdrop to the story. November Messing (Gabriele Osburg) is a young Jewish woman forced to flee the growing Nazi menace in Germany in 1933. She finds a safe haven with a family in Paris, but then both the young man in the family and his sister, develop a romantic attachment to November. The relationship between November and the sister wins out, and although November is Jewish, there is no regard for the Gestapo who take over the city or the panic that forces many to leave Paris as soon as possible -- the Jewish woman and her lesbian relationship are oddly isolated. This split with reality influences other aspects of the film and may raise the objections of some viewers. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Loosely based on the colorful, combustible life and career of German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder, A Man Like Eva (Ein Mann Wie Eva) stars actress Eva Mattes in male drag as an obsessive, sadomasochistic movie director. Eva is currently working on a filmization of Dumas' Lady of the Camelias, and in so doing mercilessly uses and abuses everyone in "his" cast and crew. Attempting to sustain a "family" atmosphere on the set, Eva succeeds only in driving everyone crazy--and at least one person to suicide. After a while, A Man Like Eva takes on the dimensions of a genuine Fassbinder film, though one suspects that the late director might have been able to tighten up the sometimes slack plotline. Trivia note: in 1973, star Eva Mattes was the leading lady in Fassbinder's Jail Bait. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Werner Stocker makes his first series appearance as Darius, a 2000-year-old monk and the mentor to Immortal Duncan (Adrian Paul). Darius warns Duncan that he is being stalked by evil Immortal Grayson (James Horan), who has also added celebrated philanthropist and peace activist Victor Paulus (Earl Pastko). This episode is the beginning of a story arc that will take Duncan, Tessa (Alexandra Van Der Noot) and Richie (Stan Kirsch) from Canada to France -- and is also the series swan song for Amanda Wyss as nosy TV reporter Randi MacFarland. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Still in Paris, Duncan (Adrian Paul) squares off against Immortal thief, murderer and hedonist Xavier St. Cloud (Jean-Claude Deret). Having enjoyed considerable success using deadly nerve gas to commit crimes during WWI, St. Cloud intends to revive his modus operandi at an art fundraiser held by Tessa (Alexandra Van Der Noot). Meanwhile, Richie (Stan Kirsch) falls for a gorgeous socialite who happens to be married -- thus forcing Tessa into the role of "rescuer" for a change. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide