Bertolt Brecht Movies
Bertolt Brecht was also one of the preeminent playwrights of the 20th-century. He was also a poet and occasional screenwriter who penned a few screenplays. One of his most famous musical plays, Three Penny Opera, was adapted into a film by Pabst in 1931. Brecht worked as a screenwriter in the U.S. during the early '40s and worked with Fritz Lang and John Wexley. He left Hollywood in 1947 so he wouldn't have to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. He lived briefly in Switzerland before settling down permanently in East Germany. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 2005
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This release features performances of songs from different Brecht/Weill collaborations from the 1950s throught the '70s as sung by Lotte Lenya, Gisela May, Martha Schlamme, and Will Holt . Some of the songs performed include "Pirate Jenny," "Mack the Knife," "Alabama Song," and "Ballad of the Drowned Girl." ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lotte Lenya, Gisela May, (more)
- 1996
This Russian film is an updated version of Bertold Brecht's stage play. Brecht's plays always highlight the intersection between politics and life as it is lived, and his play, The Career of Arturo Ui is no exception. The story is about Arturo Ui (Aleksandr Filipenko) and his progress from being a penniless unknown to becoming someone with totalitarian power. The model for Arturo was originally Hitler, but in this film parallels are also drawn to the rise of Stalin, and to the new socialists seeking power in post-Soviet Russia. Slogans from Russian political campaigns are used for this purpose to chilling effect. Often, as in this play, Brecht collaborated with Kurt Weill to bring music to his stylized dramas, and as a result many of his plays occupy an ill-defined territory somewhere between classical Greek drama and the contemporary stage musical. Here, that music is supplemented by contemporary Russian folk music. The film retains many stage values; most actors appear in very stylized makeup, and the film's settings are very limited and contained. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alexander Filippenko, Vyacheslav Nevinny, (more)
- 1992
After the death of her crane-driving husband in Germany in the 1930s, Ella must find some way to earn a living. Donning her husband's clothes, she takes up his old profession, which she learned by watching him at it. Taken for a man, she is completely enthralled by the way men behave when away from women, particularly the rough, working-class men she is impersonating. She keeps the disguise, serves as a (male) soldier during the war, and works on a farm and then a factory afterwards -- all the while as a man. She even falls in love as a man. Eventually, she retires to a tiny apartment and more or less returns to her original persona but tells her story with gusto. Derek Jarman fans will be particularly pleased to see his favorite actress Tilda Swinton in this robust and interesting role. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tilda Swinton
- 1989
- PG13
This film adaptation of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's musical play The Threepenny Opera portrays the engagement of a gangster (Raul Julia) to an innocent girl (Rachel Robertson) in Victorian-era London. The girl's family attempts to thwart the marriage by catching the thief in the act. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Raul Julia, Richard Harris, (more)
Johnny Walker (Anthony Michael Hall) is a hot-shot high-school quarterback who receives intoxicating offers from spirited college recruiters in this adolescent teen comedy. Bathroom humor and sight gags are strung together in a story involving booze, broads, and other benefits for the coveted quarterback. Robert Downey Jr., Uma Thurman, and Paul Gleason co-star. Even cameos from Jim McMahon and Howard Cosell can't save this feature from itself, though it isn't the fault of the cast. Originally rated PG-13, it was reedited to R (with scenes added) for a home video release. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Michael Hall, Robert Downey, Jr., (more)
The Big Town is Chicago, circa 1957. Matt Dillon stars as a small-town crapshooter who heads to the Windy City to seek his fortune. There he becomes the pawn of two high-rolling professional gamblers, played by Lee Grant and Bruce Dern. He later gets mixed up in a revenge scheme cooked up by Diane Lane, the embittered wife of strip-joint owner Tommy Lee Jones. Before he knows what's happened, Dillon is embroiled in two torrid romances, one with Lane and the other with "nice" girl Suzy Amis; he also nearly loses his life by ending up in the middle of a deadly feud between Dern and Jones. Based on The Arm, a novel by Clark Howard, Big Town tends towards uneveness, a result perhaps of the defection of its first director, Harold Becker. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matt Dillon, Diane Lane, (more)
Filmed in England, Galileo is based on Charles Laughton's 1947 adaptation of the play by Bertolt Brecht, which, like this 1975 film, was directed by Joseph Losey. Israeli film-star Topol plays the 17th century Italian astronomer, whose theories run contrary to the edicts of the Catholic Church. Forced to renounce his ideas about planetary movement, Galileo nonetheless holds fast to those beliefs to the end of his days, certain that time will vindicate him. Brecht's trademarked "alienation" technique, wherein the audience is constantly reminded that it is watching a play, is muted by Losey's cerebral direction. Galileo was one of producer Ely Landau's American Film Theatre presentations. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Topol, Colin Blakely, (more)
- 1972
In this very intellectual German film, a young man drives around Rome. When he is not driving around, he sits on a park bench and is lectured by toga-wearing notables about the dictatorship of Julius Caesar. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1965
The Shameless Old Lady should have been a wry French satire of society's misconceptions about the elderly; alas, the film is defeated by its own preciousness. That irreplaceable Gallic character actress Sylvie was honored with her first starring film role as a newly widowed 70-year-old woman (the actress was 81 at the time). Having lived in sequestered squalor most of her life, Sylvie suddenly decides to venture into the modern world--and she loves it! She determines to have as much fun as possible in the few years left her, while those around her (those younger, that is), cluck their tongues at how this once miserly woman is squandering her life's savings. Sylvie alone makes The Shameless Old Lady worth watching; the screenplay, which rudely patronizes and stereotypes the elderly, is far more "shameless" than any old lady. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sylvie, Victor Lanoux, (more)
- 1962
Hampered by over-orchestrated music, smeary color photography and (in the English version at least) poor dubbing, this 1963 French/German adaptation of the Kurt Weill-Bertolt Brecht piece The Three Penny Opera nonetheless has its attractions. Not least of these is the central performance of Curt Jurgens as robber captain MacHeath, whose romance with Polly Peachum (June Ritchie), daughter of beggar king J. J. Peachum (Gert Frobe), puts his life in jeopardy. Hildegarde Neff has an effective cameo as whore-ish Pirate Jenny. For the film's American release, distributor Joseph E. Levine hired Sammy Davis Jr. to play the Ballad Singer, who narrates the story, introduces the scenes, and sings the opera's most famous song "Moritat (The Ballad of Mack the Knife)." Unlike the music in the rest of the film, Davis' rendition of "Mack the Knife" is rearranged in Bobby Darin "pop" fashion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sammy Davis, Jr., Curd Jürgens, (more)
- 1960
Based on the noted play by Bertolt Brecht, this tragic drama is set in 17th-century Europe and tells of Mutter Courage (Helene Weigel), who follows a variety of armies in the many battles fought during that era. She earns a living by selling goods to the soldiers but she also forms more than one type of liaison with her customers, the result of which is several progeny. Her children come along with her as she trails after the armies, yet they are fragile and Mutter Courage is hard-pressed to keep them alive and healthy. Since this drama was filmed in a studio with large sets after the original design, the film is one part theatrical and one part cinematic. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- 1955
Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti (aka Herr Puntila and his Chauffeur Matti and Puntilla and His Hired Man) is based on the same-named play by Bertoldt Brecht. Curt Bois, best remembered as the oily pickpocket in Casablanca, stars as Puntila, a nasty Finnish landlord who turns into a nice guy whenever he's drunk (shades of Chaplin's City Lights). Puntila's chauffeur Matti (Heinz Engelman) shares several ribald adventures with his master, and at one point finds himself engaged to Puntila's nubile daughter Eva (Maria Emo). Brecht's merciless satire of class distinctions isn't quite as pungent as in the original, but audiences will get the point. Herr Puntila und sein Knect Matti was adapted for the screen by Vladimir Pozner (yes, that Vladimir Pozner!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Curt Bois, Heinz Engelmann, (more)
Hangmen Also Die is set in Czechoslovakia during the Nazi occupation. Czech loyalist Brian Donlevy assassinates the vicious Gestapo leader Heydrich, then goes into hiding. The wounded patriot is sheltered by history professor Walter Brennan, who is already under surveillance by the Nazis thanks to his veiled classroom attacks on the Third Reich. Fifth columnist Gene Lockhart arranges for the professor and 400 other Prague citizens to be rounded up as hostages, to be killed if Heydrich's assassin is not revealed. Ultimately Lockhart himself is framed by the citizenry, giving the actor full scope to cringe and cower as only he could. Persuasively directed by Fritz Lang, Hangmen Also Die was based on a story by Lang and expatriate German playwright Bertold Brecht. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brian Donlevy, Walter Brennan, (more)
- 1932
A relocation camp for itinerant, deeply-depressed workers provides the setting for this provocative drama. Most of the camp residents have been so beaten down by cruel circumstance that they are unable to help themselves. Fortunately, a young woman comes to the camp and helps the youths. This marked the first film of celebrated actor Erwin Geschonnek. Bertolt Brecht wrote the script. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hertha Thiele, Ernst Busch, (more)
Filmmaker G.W. Pabst's adaptation of Bertoldt Brecht and Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera (Die Dreisgoschenoper) is every bit as good as the stage original, and sometimes even better. Filmed in both German and French versions with different casts (a planned English-language version was abandoned), Threepenny is most readily available today in its German incarnation. Rudolf Forster stars as robber captain MacHeath -- aka Mackie Messer, or Mack the Knife -- who falls in love with Polly (Carola Neher), daughter of beggar king Peachum (Fritz Rasp). Despising MacHeath, Peachum plots the thief's downfall with his best friend, corrupt police official Tiger Brown (Reinhold Schunzel). The satirical "happy ending" of the original -- MacHeath, en route to the gallows, suddenly and without motivation promoted to knighthood! -- is altered somewhat by Pabst and his scenarists to accommodate a swipe against Depression-era bankers. Lotte Lenya, Weill's wife, brilliantly repeats her stage role as Pirate Jenny. Stylistically, Threepenny Opera is a Georg Grosz drawing come to life; despite its 1890s London setting, the film's calculatedly tawdry veneer is clearly meant to represent the wide-open Berlin of the 1930s. For the record: the French version of Threepenny Opera starred Albert Prejean as MacHeath. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rudolf Forster, Carola Neher, (more)
