Rosel Zech Movies
German-born Rosel Zech started her professional acting career in the theater in the 1970s. Her interpretation of Hedda in Ibsen's Hedda Gabler won her recognition in her own country as Best Actress of the Year in 1977. She began her film work in 1973, working with top German directors, such as Peter Zadek and Rainer Werner Fassbinder.In 1973, Rosel made her film debut in Ulli Lommel's chilling story The Tenderness of Wolves. She received high praise for her role in Zadek's Ice Age (1975), with her portrayal of a nurse who befriends former Nazi collaborator Knut Hamsum, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, who lived out his last years in a nursing home.
The excesses of World War II were the subject of a trilogy of films made by Fassbinder. Zech had parts in two of them: a supporting role in Lola (1981), and the title role in Veronika Voss (1982). Veronika Voss is a portrait of a once-celebrated screen actress and intimate of Joseph Goebbels, said to be based on a true story. The audience watches as the aging hetaira grapples with her loss of youth, beauty, and stature in a deadly decline into drugs and degradation, exploitation, and betrayal.
The actress continued to work in the German cinema, in Alexander Kluge's Odds and Ends (1987), The Blind Director (1985), and The Assault of the Present on the Rest of Time, as well as in Peter Beauvais' A Runaway Horse (1986). It was with the Percy Adlon film Salmonberries (1993) that Zech made her biggest impression on American audiences. Set in the great expanse of Alaska, the film features Zech playing opposite k.d. lang, in an offbeat love story, in which the two women find shelter from their lives' many storms in each other's company. Zech is luminescent as the recently widowed German with a new job and a new life in the American frontier.
The subject of Nazi Germany turns up again in her role in the surreal 1995 film Hades, directed by Herbert Achternbusch, in which personal remembrance and guilt recall that dark chapter in human history.
Zech next appeared in Aimee and Jaguar (2000), directed by Max Färberböck. Set during the Holocaust, the story centers on the unlikely love affair between two women caught in the madness of wartime Germany. Zech displays once again her gift for creating complex and sympathetic characters, which has always been the hallmark of her performances. ~ Rose of Sharon Winter, All Movie Guide
An ambitious, working-class medical graduate with dreams of becoming a research physician arrives in Berlin eager to begin his internship at a reputable clinic in director Stefan Ruzowitzky's sequel to his 2000 sleeper Anatomie. Motivated by his desire to provide patients with human warmth often lacking in medical treatment, and driven by his desire to discover a cure for the rare muscle disease that has crippled his brother Willi, Jo (Barnaby Metschurat) eagerly begins his internship as scheduled. When Jo is approached to perform an unauthorized operation on the daughter of a colleague, he initially refuses, only relenting after personally witnessing the graveness of her situation. His successful operation and detailed dissertation drawing the attention of Professor Mueller-LaRousse (Herbert Knaup), the charismatic Mueller-LaRousse subsequently invites Jo to join in weekly gatherings in his "research salon." As Jo becomes a member of Mueller-LaRousse's elite group of talented physicians, the stress of his internship is soon lifted, replaced by a compromising situation that may not only cost Jo his career, but his life as well. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barnaby Metschurat, Herbert Knaup, (more)
- 2002
A hectic young father's family life takes a turn for the worse in Swiss director Dani Levy's 2002 comedy/drama I'm the Father. Architect Marco Krieger (Sebastian Blomberg) has been working hard on a new project that will be the crowning achievement to his short career and will also make his name in the industry -- but his relationships with his son Benny (Ezra Valentin Lenz) and wife Melanie (Maria Schrader) have suffered greatly as a result. Marco has failed to notice how dire the situation is, however, until Melanie leaves with Benny and promptly files for divorce with severe custody limitations. Shattered and distraught, Marco must reevaluate his desires for success in the business world against his desires to be a father and husband, ultimately choosing the latter. The problem now is convincing Melanie to let him back into their lives, which may require extraordinary action on his part. I'm the Father was screened as part of the 2002 Montreal World Film Festival. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sebastian Blomberg, Maria Schrader, (more)
The opening film of the 49th International Berlin Film Festival in 1999, Aimée & Jaguar drew attention not only for the lesbian love story that it narrates, but equally for the political position of the lovers -- Aimée, the wife of a Nazi officer, and Jaguar, a Jewish journalist. The story is based on the memoirs of Lilly Wust (the Aimée character), who is 85 and still living in Germany. In 1943, as Allied bombers leave Berlin in ruins, Lilly Wust Juliane Köhler earns a Cross of Motherhood for bringing up four children while husband Günther Detlev Buck is away fighting on the eastern front. She leads a bourgeois existence, with occasional love affairs on the side, and the bust of Hitler is a prominent decoration in their flat. When Lilly receives a love letter signed 'Jaguar,' she suspects a male admirer. But it is the self-confident Felice Schragenheim Maria Schrader who initiates this forbidden romance. A passionate love affair begins amidst the bombing raids and the threat of persecution. Madly in love, Lilly wants to divorce her husband, which causes a terrible storm, not just because her lover is a woman, but because she is Jewish and fighting for the Resistance. But nothing stops the love-blind Lilly. The two women make a pact of love and marriage and try to block out the reality of war and persecution; however, the Gestapo soon catches up with them. Aimée & Jaguar is based on Erica Fischer's best-selling book, published in 1994 and translated into eleven languages; the real life Lilly Wust was 80 years old when she told Erica Fischer her story. Maria Schrader and Juliane Köhler shared the Silver Bear for the Best Actress at the 49th Berlin International Film Festival, for their roles in Aimée & Jaguar, while the film received the Teddy Award, given to films dealing with gay and lesbian issues. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maria Schrader, Juliane Köhler, (more)
- 1995
This German political drama from iconoclastic filmmaker Herbert Achternbusch takes a slightly askew look at neo-Nazis and the Holocaust. His non-story (a typical trait of Achternbusch films) is divided into three parts. The first introduces Hades, an eccentric half-Jewish coffin maker. Also introduced are the women in his life. The second part depicts different scenes from the city's Jewish ghetto. Included are disturbing film clips from Nazi propaganda footage that shows the naked corpses of starved Jews piled up in the streets with the insinuation that the heartless relatives of the dead would unceremoniously toss them out when they expired. In the third part, Hades is buried at sea. In between, neo-Nazis march unopposed in Munich, Hades battles skinheads, and Hades' shop is repeatedly vandalized. A scene where Hades is fascinated with death is also seen. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Writer/director Percy Adlon's offbeat tale of the friendship between two unusual women: an East German emigre who works as a librarian in Alaska, and a taciturn pipeline worker. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- k.d. lang, Rosel Zech, (more)
- 1986
In this "film essay," director Alexander Kluge handles two different stories with both fictional and documentary aspects. In one story, a foster parent cares for a traumatized young girl who is now an orphan after witnessing a car crash that killed both her parents. After the foster-parent does the right thing and takes the girl to her aunt -- her court-appointed guardian -- she is shocked to see that neither the wealthy aunt nor her servants are very interested in the girl. An unusual decision follows. In the other story, a director goes blind in the middle of a film project but has to be kept on because of his contract. This situation leads to some philosophizing on the nature of film and art in the modern world. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hans Michael Rehberg
- 1986
Already a popular serial in a magazine, a widely-read book, and a drama adapted for both the stage and radio, this story about two school friends running away from their dreams is now brought to the screen by Peter Beauvais. As two men reach adulthood, Helmut (Vadim Glowna) eventually works his way up to becoming a school principal and just wants to spend his available leisure time immersed in reading, even at the expanse of his sexual life. Klaus (Dietmar Mues) goes into journalism and his sexual life is anything but ignored; he is on his second marriage and wears his prowess like a badge of honor. Whenever the two men meet, they go around and around in an endless duel of one-upmanship, lying through their teeth about their accomplishments. This friction gets stronger and stronger until a spark ignites action in the worst possible way. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vadim Glowna, Rosel Zech, (more)
- 1985
Celebrated West German director Alexander Kluge presents this drama that strings together vignettes of events taken from everyday newspaper headlines. Germans are shown in their reactions to World War II, minorities, and the elderly. A side plot follows a meeting between former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and East German leader Erich Honecker. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marita Breuer, Rosel Zech, (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
- R
Part of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's The Entire History of the German Federal Republic trilogy, Lola stars Barbara Sukowa in the title role, a seductive cabaret singer and dancer in the 1950s who is romantically involved with Von Bohm (Armin Mueller-Stahl), a straight-as-an-arrow building inspector. Recently appointed Building Commissioner, Von Bohm is committed to eradicating corruption. Consequently, he's given quite a shock when he is called into inspect the brothel where Lola works and discovers her dancing there. With that, Von Bohm is left to question whether he is more loyal to the woman he loves so passionately or the career he believes in so strongly. The other entries in the trilogy are Veronika Voss and The Marriage of Maria Braun. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Sukowa, Armin Mueller-Stahl, (more)
- 1980
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
- Starring:
- Walter Taub, Katharina Thalbach, (more)
- 1979
An imaginative, symbolic drama with political overtones, Die Hamburger Krankheit postulates an affliction that is attacking the citizenry in Hamburg and threatening to spread like the bubonic plague. By coincidence, there is a medical conference taking place in the city at the time of the outbreak, and one of the doctors (Helmut Griem) does not agree with the others about how to cure the illness. Then this doctor and several others start heading South, presumably to escape the affliction. Along the way, they encounter many strange events, are stopped by "disinfectant" crews, some are gunned down, and others sell out their ideals. In the end, this undefined affliction could be of the moral variety, or philosophical, or political, or not, adding nuances to the unfolding events. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Helmut Griem, Fernando Arrabal, (more)
- 1975
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
- Starring:
- O.E. Hasse, Hannelore Hoger, (more)
This dark horror film from director Ulli Lommel was based on the real-life crimes of Fritz Haarman (Kurt Raab), the so-called "Vampire of Dusseldorf" who murdered over 25 young boys, drank their blood, and sold their flesh as black-market meat. Several German films had depicted Haarman's murderous exploits, most notably Fritz Lang's classic M (1931), but Lommel's version is far more graphic and horrifying. Produced by filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who also appears, the film revels in pseudo-Expressionistic imagery which sears itself into the viewer's mind. Raab's performance is reminiscent of both Peter Lorre in M and Max Schreck in the vampire classic Nosferatu (1922), but is unforgettable in its own right. A deeply disturbing cinematic poem about the face of true evil, this overlooked classic has developed a cult following, but is not recommended for sensitive viewers. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
