Eleonore Adlon Movies

This biographical documentary covers the last 23 years in the life of Robert Walser (Rolf Illig), the pre-WW II Swiss writer who easily rivalled the better-known Hermann Hesse. The 23 years in question were spent at Herisau, a clinic for the mentally disturbed in central Switzerland. It had always been assumed, logically enough, that Walser was in the clinic to be treated for mental illness, reputed to be schizophrenia according to published reports. But director and writer Percy Adlon researched the records of the clinic itself, filmed there to illustrate the environment around Walser during those years - and came up with doubts about that diagnosis. His efforts indicate that many of the myths about Walser should be laid to rest, and that it is possible the man was not at all schizophrenic. In 1936, three years after he was admitted to Herisau, Walser's publisher and eventual legal guardian, Carl Seelig (Horst Raspe), started visiting him two and three times a year until Walser's death in 1956. Questions are raised as to Seelig's motivation for those multiple visits, usually spent in long and energetic walks in the woods and fields. This documentary is divided into a series of chronological segments that take the viewer through the years of Walser's confinement, and into the personality of this inspired poet and writer. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

In this period film about the life of an aristocratic family in Munich just before World War I and the end of the aristocracy as such, there are a series of garden parties for the royalty and nobility, Christmas celebrations, an appearance by Eleanora Duse at the local theater, music recitals, and majestic ballroom dances. No strong dramatic content or major story line holds the events in a thematic scheme, but the Lautenschlag family serves as the axis around which events come and go. This fictional family unit and the story, come from the partly autobiographical novel titled The Swing, written in 1934 by Annette Kolb. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Larger-than-life German actress Marianne Sagebrecht stars as Rosalie Greenspace, a German bride raising a wonderful family in Stuttgart, Arkansas who she delights in providing gift after gift of goodies that are procured by her newly acquired talent of buying via "ze vonderful credit card." The more she spends, the more clever she becomes at spending; the only problem is that she has virtually no money - the credit cards are all linked to fake names, accounts, addresses, et cetera. This spoof is a playful comment on America's consumerist frenzy. ~ Rovi

Two legendary Austrians come face to face under less than ideal circumstances in this comedy-drama from the father and son directing team of Percy Adlon and Felix Adlon. Gustav Mahler (Johannes Silberschneider) is one of Europe's best-respected composers and he's married to Alma (Barbara Romaner), a woman who is beautiful, talented and intelligent. However, Mahler is not a happy man; his work has not been progressing well, and his marriage is in sad shape, in part because Alma is having an affair with another man. Headstrong Alma is twenty years younger than Mahler, and when he has trouble finding time for her, she retreats to the arms of Walter Gropius (Friedrich Mucke), a handsome and well-regarded architect. Sinking into a depression, Mahler decides he needs some help sorting out his problems, so he starts seeing a therapist. And who better to turn to than Sigmund Freud (Karl Markovics), the father of modern psychoanalysis, who is willing to meet with the composer at his new office in Amsterdam? Mahler aur der Couch (aka Mahler On The Couch) received its American premiere are the 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi