Rüdiger Vogler Movies

Alice in the Cities (Alice in den Städten) was the first of German director Wim Wenders' films to be lensed in part in the United States. Phillip (Rüdiger Vogler) is a roving German reporter who, after a chance encounter with an elusive American woman, reluctantly accepts temporary custody of little Alice (Yella Rottländer). Phillip takes Alice in hand on a trek across Germany to locate the girl's grandmother. The plot takes second place to Wenders' fascination with the contrast between the neon-and-billboard ambience of the U.S. and the rolling hills and industrial pockets of Deutschland. Alice in the Cities was the first of Wenders' "road trilogy"; the follow-ups were Wrong Move (1975) and Kings of the Road (1976), both also starring Rüdiger Vogler. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A determined medical student uncovers shady goings on during a prestigious summer anatomy course in this German thriller. When Paula Henning (Run Lola Run's Franka Potente) learns that she's been accepted to a highly competitive internship at a Heidelberg research institution, she's ecstatic. The daughter of a simple family doctor, she prefers to model herself after her terminally ill grandfather, who was once dean of the same Heidelberg university. Stern lecturer Prof. Grombek (Traugott Buhre) promises that half the students won't be around when the course ends; his prediction turns out to be true, but it's not because of the brutal exams. It seems that a group of renegade doctors is performing dissections on unwilling, still-living victims, which helps explain the artful laboratory in which plasticized human remains are lovingly displayed. Paula stumbles onto this plot when a recent acquaintance turns up on her dissection table, his blood the consistency of rubber. Studious to the extreme, Paula investigates his death with scientific determination -- despite the flirtations of handsome fellow student Caspar (Sebastian Blomberg) and the feel-good urgings of Gretchen (Anna Loos), her sexually promiscuous but utterly brilliant roommate. Just as Paula is preparing to expose the existence of the Anti-Hippocratic Society, a Nazi-affiliated group of medical malcontents, Gretchen falls prey to their extreme methods. Soon Paula, too, is in danger of becoming just another addition to the display case. Extremely popular in its native country, Anatomie was dubbed into English for American release under the title Anatomy. A sequel was in production as of 2002. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

Samira Gloor-Fadel debuts with this strikingly unorthodox documentary featuring two of cinema's greatest intellectuals (Wim Wenders and Jean Luc Godard) bouncing a flurry of illuminating thoughts and half-formed ideas about time, space, and the nature of cinema. The conversation is never depicted, and indeed Godard is never actually seen. Instead the visuals are largely comprised of Wenders' editing, directing, and lecture. A second element in this untraditional documentary is about the city of Berlin. We hear Wenders muse about his favorite German city accompanied by shots of its architecture. Meanwhile, a third portion shows a youth visiting the sites used in Wings of Desire (1986) while grieving the untimely death of Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Berlin-Cinema (Titre Provisoire) was screened at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

An author recites from his novel about the economic conditions in Germany before the end of World War II in this boring drama. As the man reads, another actor performs to the spoken words. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Director Wolf-Eckart Bühler follows up his earlier, lengthy interview with Sterling Hayden in this three-part chronicle of the traumas in the actor's life. Based on Hayden's autobiography Wanderer, Bühler has three different actors deliver segments of the book in a detached way -- focusing on the problems created by sudden national media attention, the nature of intense pressure from high-ranking authorities, and the gradual formation of a betrayal of both ethics and friends. (Hayden was brought before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1951 and named Hollywood colleagues as fellow leftists -- much to his lifelong regret). The literary readings, even when interesting in their own right, do not lend themselves to dramatic cinema, limiting this film to viewers with an avid interest in politics. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

A loose adaptation of a novelette by author Peter Handke, this early effort from acclaimed director Wim Wenders follows penalized goalie Joseph Bloch (Arthur Brauss) as he makes his way through the city after missing penalty kick and getting suspended from a game. Wandering by a local cinema, Joseph picks up the pretty cashier and the two spend the night together. Inexplicably strangling the girl in the light of the morning, the seemingly unaffected Joseph makes his way through the city streets as emotion begins to boil under the surface of his stony gaze. Making his way to an old girlfriends house in the country, the emotionally shattered goalie has little to do but wait for the police to close in on him. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Mourning for a lost relationship can be every bit as devastating as mourning for someone who has died. In this drama based on the director's own novel, a couple with an unhappy marriage agree to a trial separation. They try to patch things up, and at the same time other relationships begin to develop for them. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Theodor Fontane's seminal, tragic 1894 novel Effi Briest received numerous screen adaptations up through the early 21st century, including (most prominently) a 1974 feature from Rainer Werner Fassbinder that emerged as one of the hallmarks of the New German Cinema. The 2009 version emerged at the hands of director Hermine Huntgeburth, and stars Julia Jentsch as Effi von Briest, a Prussian adolescent swept up in the throes of high society during the late 19th century. At the outset of the tale, Effi's mother, Luise (Juliane Koehler) sets her up with a romantic suitor decades older than she, Baron von Instetten (Sebastian Koch), with whom Luise herself has a history of romantic involvement. In truth, Effi passionately loves her cousin Dagobert (Mirko Lang), and has promised to dance with him, but she bows to social conventions by dancing instead with the Baron, and before long the nobleman gamely asks for her hand in marriage, which she obliges - again, solely out of respect for societal norms. They move to a port village together and Effi falls into a miserably unhappy lifestyle - until she experiences physical satisfaction via an affair with a handsome militaryman, Major Crampass (Misel Maticevic). Alas, their limited relationship ultimately leaves Effi with even greater feelings of emptiness. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Wim Wenders revisits his masterpiece Der Himmel Uber Berlin in this film which picks up several years after the original left off. Cassiel (Otto Sander) is an angel who watches over the lives of the people of recently reunified Berlin with Raphaella (Nastassja Kinski). Damiel (Bruno Ganz), Cassiel's former partner who opted to return to the land of the living in the first film, now lives happily as a pizza chef with the woman he loved and married, circus performer Marion (Solveig Dommartin). While angels are forbidden to directly intervene in the lives of humans, Cassiel impulsively breaks this rule when a little girl falls from the balcony of an apartment block, and he swoops down to catch her. Suddenly made flesh and blood, Cassiel has earned the enmity of Emit Flesti (Willem Dafoe), a sort of overseer of the angels on the physical plane. Emit makes it his business to make things difficult for Cassiel now that he's living among the humans, and after a period of alcoholism and imprisonment, Cassiel finds himself working for gangster Tony Baker (Horst Buchholz), who distributes weapons and pornography on the black market. However, Cassiel has a change of heart and decides to destroy Tony's stockpile in a bid to make the world a better place. Peter Falk, who played himself in Der Himmel Uber Berlin, makes a return appearance when a gallery shows the sketches that he was making in the first film; rock singer Lou Reed and former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev also appear as themselves. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The West German/French Group Portrait with Lady (Gluppenbild mit Dame) is based on a bestselling novel by Heinrich Böll. The film is a string of anecdotes, some longer than others, related to the topic of German war guilt. The main plotline involves German woman Romy Schneider's affair with Russian prisoner of war Brad Dourif. Through an occasionally confusing series of flashbacks, we discover Schneider's ultimate fate, and also solve the mystery of the Jewish girl buried in a convent cemetery. Romy Schneider won several German film awards for her participation in this 100-minute elegy. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi