Katharina Thalbach Movies

Movie-making cliches are parodied in this German comedy which features to warring actresses, meddling producers, indulgent directors, and an ignored writer. Not only must they contend with each other, they must also deal with the bankers who have the power to shut them down at any moment. The story begins at the premier of director Viktor Rote's newest film "The Tin Cat," which stars his popular wife Riki Rote. The film's writer and Viktor's brother Richard is miffed when he is not allowed into the screening. Viktor's ambitious mistress and aspiring star the Nina is also not invited in. The film is a hit so Rote is allowed to begin his new film by producer George Kuballa. George is also head of the studio. His rich and frequently rejected wife is Lore, a major financial studio backer who prefers spending her time consorting with her handsome young chauffeur. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this medical science fiction thriller, Vera Pukall (Katherna Thalbach) is a reporter. She is going to a meeting requested by someone who wouldn't identify themselves, but who indicated that it was urgent. When she gets there, she finds a dead, very famous scientist. The police rule it a suicide, but she has doubts. When she looks into it, she discovers a sinister human cloning plot; even the dead man's wife is bearing a fetus made from her own father's cells. Vera is getting a bit too close to the truth for comfort, and the bad guys attempt to do her in. However, she's a resourceful type, and manages an amazing escape. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Nina Hoss stars in this adaptation of a novel by Klaus Mann as Marion von Kammer, a singer who leaves Germany for Zurich as the Nazis rise to power. However, she finds life in Switzerland dull and suffocating, so she journeys to Paris, where she works at a pirate radio station broadcasting anti-fascist messages. She becomes friendly with a group of fellow Germans living in the city of lights, including nightclub owner Mother Schwalbe (Katharina Thalbach); Professor Abel (Udo Samel), the unofficial leader of the group; Martin Korella (Christian Nickel), a dissatisfied young author; and Kikjou (Boris Terral), Martin's lover. Nina Hoss was named Best Actress at the 1999 Montreal Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The subject of this historical drama is a splintering Berlin in the years of 1948 and 1949. Played against the backdrop of social upheaval, the characters in the drama come to epitomize the best and worst of each pole of the political sphere. A 17-year-old hoodlum by the name of Gladow (Ullrich Wesselmann) works hand-in-glove with a local white-collar criminal to rob and pillage every day and night, defying capture. While he and his gang of thugs are terrorizing the people of Berlin, the Soviets are trying to make the blockade of their region of control impermeable. The future casts long shadows over the drama, as Berlin's problems take the shape of times to come. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Follow Me takes place just after the Russian suppression of Czechoslovakian freedom of expression in the spring of 1968. Pavel Landovsky plays a liberal philosophy professor who continues teaching forbidden classes in his apartment. When things get too hot for him in Prague, the professor decides to head for Western Europe. Alas, he is detained indefinitely at a German airport, where he takes a job as baggage handler in order to survive. While in these reduced circumstances, the professor befriends several other political exiles, whose individual stories are related for our benefit. Follow Me was the second directorial effort of Maria (Lieber Karl) Knilli, who co-wrote the perceptive screenplay with Vera Has. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Even in war, the life of a rich family is different, according to this fictional story about Francois Korb (Armin Müller-Stahl) an arms manufacturer who sold both to the Germans and the Allied forces. Korb's home life is less than ideal, since his wife is having an affair with his brother, and his young son is inseparable from a teddy bear. To remedy the son's situation, the parents take in a little refugee girl as a temporary companion and playmate, and the two children become fast friends -- and when they meet again long after the war, the influence of family is all the more apparent. Meanwhile, the arms dealer will learn the hard way that weapons kill. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Alex (Kari Vaananen) is a Finnish cabbie working in Berlin with plenty of problems in this comedy with film noir touches. With two dead men and a suitcase filled with hundred dollar bills, he has difficulty disposing of the bodies. He is chased by the top crime boss (Samuel Fuller) and his crony (Eddie Constantine). Alex's wife is allergic to the money, so the cabbie endures more than he can handle trying to rid himself of the cash and the corpses. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

A destitute child from an impoverished Ukrainian village finds that the world can be a cold and cruel place after being lured from his home by a nefarious huckster under the guise of working in the circus. Barbu is a ten-year-old boy whose dreams of a brighter future find him slowly falling for the hollow promises made by shady promoter Caruso. Though Caruso regularly descends upon the town to seduce gullible children with promises of fame and fortune in the West, the truth about what actually happens to Caruso's children couldn't be more tragic. When Barbu is lured to Berlin and sold to a gang that uses children for stealing, the strong-headed youngster soon determines to make the best of his situation and become the best thief in the bunch. His quest to become the King of Thieves is sidetracked, however, when after learning that Caruso has sold his older sister Mimma to a Berlin brothel, Barbu determines to rescue his sister from a grim future of forced prostitution. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The point in this message movie is the same as in several others from West Germany that look with a jaundiced eye at the post-World War II years: alienation kills more than just the spirit. Arno (Marius Mueller-Westernhagen) has inherited a decrepit soap factory from his grandfather, along with a large set of problems. First and foremost in the set is Mosch (Valter Taub) who currently runs the operation. Mosch is of the old school, so old that Arno has never heard of it. Unable to open up his tight fist to cover even the most obvious repairs and renovations, Mosch cannot see that he may one day be the agent of his own destruction. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The pull between Eastern Europe and the West is symbolized in a story of love and difficult choices brought to the screen by filmmaker Didi Danquart. Nicu (Razvan Vasilescu) is a man well into middle age who runs a successful print shop in Bucharest. Brindusa (Alexandra Maria Lara) is a beautiful younger woman who works at the shop with Nicu -- she's his receptionist and does translating for him when necessary, but their working relationship is sometimes complicated by the fact they used to be lovers. Stefan (Felix Klare) is a printing engineers who has come from Germany to install a new printing press at Nicu's shop. While working with Stefan, Brindusa finds herself becoming attracted to the handsome German, and Stefan is deeply infatuated with her. Nicu, however, finds anger and jealousy growing inside himself as he sees sparks fly between them, and when he learns that Stefan has asked Brindusa to marry him and leave Romania for Germany, he begins to lose control of his emotions. Offset was screened as part of the 2006 Rome Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A burnt-out Berlin cop investigating his 652nd case slowly loses the ability to discern the differences between the grim realities of the job and a decaying personal life as his mental instability grows progressively worse. His latest case is particularly nasty and puzzling, but Detective Bernie Kominka (Gotz George) finds himself strangely pleased, for it distracts him from his tumultuous home life wherein his wife grows fussy and distant, and his nearly lunatic son proclaims his undying hatred for him. The mystery involves the apparently sexually-motivated mutilation, beating death, and robbery of a young man. During his initial investigation of the crime scene, Kominka notes a yellow umbrella that is surreptitiously picked up by a young woman. While vainly searching for clues, Kominka's marriage finally crumbles, but not before he is suspended by his boss/brother-in-law Hecht (Christian Redl) during a heated argument. With no work and no family, Kominka, who seems to be teetering on the brink of a breakdown without realizing it himself, starts looking for the woman and the missing umbrella. During his search, he learns that the victim's ex-wife has become a suspect and that the deceased had been selling his son to pedophiles. Kominka finds the woman, Anna Weller (Corinna Harfouch) soon enough. A recent divorcée, she is as vulnerable and fragile as he is. Without identifying himself as a cop, Kominka picks Anna up at a singles bar and the two embark upon a decidedly sexual and unhealthy relationship that only worsens the situation. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide