Ulrich Wildgruber Movies

The historical novel by Alexandre Dumas was adapted for the screen with this lavish French epic, winner of 5 Césars and a pair of awards at the Cannes Film Festival. Isabelle Adjani stars as Marguerite de Valois, better known as Margot, daughter of scheming Catholic power player Catherine de Medici (Virna Lisi). Margot is an heiress to the throne during the late 16th century reign of the neurotic, hypochondriac King Charles IX (Jean-Hugues Anglade), a time when Protestants and Catholics are vying for political control of France. Catherine decides to make an overture of good will by offering up Margot in marriage to prominent Protestant Huguenot Henri of Navarre (Daniel Auteuil), although she also schemes to bring about the notorious St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572, when tens of thousands of Protestants are slaughtered. The marriage goes forward but Margot doesn't love Henri and takes a lover, the soldier La Mole (Vincent Perez), also a Protestant from a well-to-do family. Murders by poisoning follow, as court intrigues multiply and Catherine's villainous plotting to place her son Anjou (Pascal Greggory) on the throne threatens the lives of La Mole, Margot and Henri. The American release version was cut to 145 minutes. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Melancholia is a British suspenser, filmed and financed in Germany. Jeroen Krabbe plays a German art critic who in more turbulent times had been a radical activist. Krabbe's past collides with his present when a London political figure is marked for assassination. With only the slightest tinge of conscience, Krabbe agrees to pull off the killing. It is always a pleasure to see leading lady Susannah York, even in the morally ambivalent circumstances of Melancholia. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A Teutonic thespian becomes interested in the South Sea after reading of an Englishman's adventures in the tropical paradise. He travels to the region and soon retraces the steps of the dashing sailor Fletcher. Although he is told Fletcher died in the 1920s, the actor learns that Fletcher had in fact survived and moved back to England. The actor returns to England where he learns Fletcher lived until well into the 1960s. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This is an emotionally wrenching drama about a woman dying of a brain tumor. The single mother (Eva Mattes) does not tell her young son or anyone else about her condition. Instead, she travels to Hamburg and leaves her son in their hotel room while she goes off for a tryst with his father, the man she truly loves. Since she does not let the child's father know why she has come back into his life, he does not follow up on their momentary meeting. After all, he has his own girlfriend and his own life to live. The inevitable moment comes when the dying mother must tell her son about his father, and the son's pursuit of his dad begins. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This somewhat superficial historical drama is about the 1525 Peasants' War in Germany when the lower classes rebelled against oppressive conditions imposed by the clergy and nobility and then committed many acts (including atrocities) that did not morally set them far apart from the people they were fighting. It was a time of upheaval: Martin Luther (1483-1556) had broken away from the Catholic Church, calling for reform, and Anabaptists in Germany, like Thomas Munzer fought on the side of the peasants (opposed by Luther). This complex age and its political and religious turmoil are summed up in a story about an attack on a small monastery whose monks used a forged document to confiscate some land from the peasants. When their wrong-doing is revealed by the monk who forged the document in the first place, the peasants attack. While the peasants wait for the heralded arrival of their warrior-savior on a white horse to bring justice to their cause, their fortunes go from bad to worse as the nobility gear up for revenge. This epic story might have been better served if director Christian Ziewer's budget had not been cut, forcing economic measures that have an effect on both depth and continuity.
~ Eleanor Mannikka, 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

Based on a very successful play of the same name by Tankred Dorst, this film tells a story about Norwegian author Knut Hamsun (here played by O.E. Hasse), a Nobel prizewinner for literature who was notorious for having collaborated with the Nazi regime. After the war, rather than hand him over for prosecution, he was sent to a retirement home. A young man, bitter about the war, tracks him down and begins to harass him in various ways. The author handles everything that comes to him with remarkable dignity, which eventually removes some of the taint from his actions. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide