Hilmar Thate Movies
Acclaimed filmmaker Volker Schlöndorff directed this story of a war of words between a Nazi soldier and a man of the cloth. In 1942, Henri Kremer (Ulrich Matthes) is a Catholic priest who, like three thousand other Catholic clergymen, has been sent to the Dachau prison camp by Nazi authorities for espousing his faith and speaking out against the Axis leadership. Shortly after Kremer receives word that his mother has passed away, he's pulled from the ranks at the camp and sent to Luxembourg, where he used to live and lead a congregation. While Kremer at first believes his well-connected family has arranged for his release, he soon finds this is not the case -- Untersturmfuehrer Gebhardt (August Diehl), a ranking member of the Gestapo, informs Kremer that he's been given a nine-day respite from the camp for a special assignment. Kremer is well acquainted with Bishop Philipp (Hilmar Thate), leader of Luxembourg's Catholic community, and the Nazis want the bishop to sign a letter pledging full cooperation with German authorities, something he has been unwilling even to discuss. Gebhardt wants Kremer to persuade the bishop to sign the document; if Kremer fails to meet this goal, he's told 18 priests from Luxembourg currently in Dachau will all be killed. What Gebhardt prefers not to mention is that if he can't find a way to secure the bishop's cooperation, he'll be transferred from his comfortable post to a death camp in Eastern Europe. Der Neunte Tag was based on the true story of Luxembourg priest Father Jean Bernard, who wrote of his experiences in the book Pfarrerblock Z4587. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ulrich Matthes, August Diehl, (more)
- 1999
- NR
Wege in Die Nacht/Paths in The Night concerns Walter (Hilmar Thate), a middle-aged man who suddenly finds himself out of a job. While his wife has a job as a waitress and they have no children to support, the loss of his position is still a crushing blow for Walter. He finds himself wandering the city streets at night, trying to find something to do that will give his life some sense of purpose. He strikes up a friendship with a cynical young couple, and later, in hopes of regaining the respect of his wife, he tries to steal an expensive piece of jewelry for her. Shot in black and white and in many ways recalling the German cinema of the 1970s, Wege in Die Nacht/Paths in The Night was shown as part of the Directors Fortnight series at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hilmar Thate, Cornelia Schamus, (more)
- 1982
- R
Originally Die Sehnsucht de Veronika Voss, this Rainer Werner Fassbinder spin on Sunset Boulevard stars Rosel Zech as film actress Veronika Voss. Once the toast of Germany, Veronika had allegedly been an intimate of Joseph Gobbels. But the Third Reich is dead...and Veronika may as well be. Playing to an increasingly diminishing fan following, Veronika turns to drugs to cushion her against the cruelties of life. Her self-destruction is accelerated by her "Doctor Feelgood" Annemaire Duringer, who plys Veronika with morphine in order to gain control of the actress's money and property. Well-meaning sportswriter Hilmar Thate tries to save Veronika from herself, sacrificing his own personal happiness -- and the life of his girlfriend Cornelia Froeboess -- in the process. Allegedly an amalgam of several true stories, Veronika Voss is the last of Fassbinder's "postwar trilogy" (the first two were The Marriage of Maria Braun and Lola). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rosel Zech, Hilmar Thate, (more)
- 1981
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
- Starring:
- Hilmar Thate, Katharina Thalbach, (more)
- 1980
Director and writer Siegfried Kuehn) has created this farce based on the theme of a modern Don Juan, a director (Hilmar Thate) of operas behaving exactly like the protagonist of Mozart's "Don Giovanni," the opera he is currently directing. As the title of this film indicates, the director not only lives on Karl Liebkhnect street (Karl "love-slave" avenue), he also lives up to his address by maintaining a wife at home, a lover in the opera company, and a desire for "Don Giovanni's" lead female singer. Because of the director's love life, the production company starts to come apart at the seams as antagonisms rise, yet like the opera's denouement itself, the company gets its two acts together while the director has his own "tangled web" to somehow unravel, strand by reluctant strand. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hilmar Thate, Beata Tyszkiewicz, (more)
- 1975
This drama retells a story of love, fate, and passion which is based on the novel Die Wahlverwandschaften by the great German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832). In the film, husband and wife Charlotte and Eduard have both been married before, and currently live in the countryside. Charlotte adores the simplicity of that life, Eduard wants a busier and more stimulating life. When they each fall in love with houseguests invited by the other, Eduard seeks another divorce, which Charlotte refuses with tragic consequences. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Beata Tyszkiewicz, Hilmar Thate, (more)
- 1969
This East German propaganda film gives praise to East Germany and the Soviet Union. The story chronicles the preparation of West Germany for World War III and explains that the East Germans are the only ones who have successfully moved out of the shadow of Adolph Hitler. Film footage of student revolts being crushed by the police is shown to espouse the virtues of the East Germans in their pompous and ridiculous claims of political and social superiority. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
