Michael Bittins Movies

Noted Austrian actor Klaus-Maria Brandauer stepped into the director's chair for this drama about the rise of fascism in Europe, based on a story by Thomas Mann. In the 1920s, Bernhard Fuhrmann (Julian Sands), a German author and outspoken leftist, takes his family to Torre di Venere, a resort community in Italy, where they are not welcomed warmly by all of the residents, especially after an incident in which Fuhrmann's daughter is caught swimming nude by the seashore. While several of the guests at the hotel where the Fuhrmanns are staying voice their opposition to the family's presence, the concierge defends their right to stay there -- until she is killed and replaced by a member of the local fascist brigade. As the village is enveloped in chaos, a magician named Cipola (Brandauer) appears, who has a profound effect on the lives of those around him. Mario und der Zauberer was shown in competition at the 1994 Moscow Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Concocted with a flair for the kind of mystery once captured in the best silent films, this engaging suspense story concerns a German samurai who mastered his art while growing up in Japan. The flaxen-haired samurai is Wilcke (Hans Peter Hallwachs), who has his dander up because an ancient and highly valuable sword has been stolen from its rightful owners. Wojciech Pzoniak plays Gerhard Krall, a cringing, super-rich thief who defends himself with huge castle walls, a moat, a surveillance system, and one talented ninja bodyguard. To complicate matters between these enemies, a female journalist is on the trail of the samurai and the story behind his actions. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Das Boot is one of the most gripping and authentic war movies ever made. Based on an autobiographical novel by German World War II photographer Lothar-Guenther Buchheim, the film follows the lives of a fearless U-Boat captain (Jurgen Prochnow) and his inexperienced crew as they patrol the Atlantic and Mediterranean in search of Allied vessels, taking turns as hunter and prey. There's very little plot, so the movie's power comes from both its riveting, epic battle scenes and its details of the boring hours spent waiting for orders or signs of the enemy. With the exception of one staunch Hitler Youth lieutenant, none of the crew is particularly loyal to the Nazis, and some are openly hostile toward their Fuhrer; this allows viewer sympathy with the men as they perform their laborious, monotonous duties in cramped, filthy quarters, or await death as depth charges explode all around the sub. Prochnow is excellent as the nerves-of-steel commander, and many of the supporting actors -- all German -- are solid as well, although the characterizations border on war movie clichés (the young crewman who has left behind his pregnant girlfriend, the Chief Engineer whose wife is seriously ill). The real star, however, is cinematographer Jost Vacano, who makes the sub's grimy, claustrophobic interior come to vivid life, as his camera follows the crew through hatches, up ladders, into bunks, and under pipes, creating a palpable sense of claustrophobia while injecting it with movement. Originally edited by writer/director Wolfgang Petersen as both a two-and-a-half hour theatrical release and a six-hour German miniseries, Das Boot was re-released in a restored version in 1997 with nearly one hour of added footage which made it even more suspenseful than before. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

A pair of American Allied fliers (Michael Connor and Robert Redford in his second feature film appearance) are shot down in a small German village near the end of WW II and end up captured and held prisoner in the wine cellar of a lonely old man (Alec Guiness). The old man likes having the two around and so endeavors to keep them in his cellar even though the war is over. The two remain there for seven years and while they wait, the old man regales them with tales of a wonderful Nazi world. The strange plot of this comedy is based on a novel by Robert Shaw. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide