Manfred Durniok Movies
A prolific producer/director/writer whose 45-year career spawned such features as the Oscar-winning Mephisto (1981) and Moments (1989), Manfred Durniok proved himself a versatile international filmmaker who also became a successful photographer and author. Born in Berlin, Germany, in May of 1934, Durniok frequently worked in China, Japan, Poland, and Hungary as he produced over 400 films. Developing a strong connection with China, Durniok's detailed writings regarding the country gave him success outside the world of film, as well as making him an honorary citizen of Beijing. Also instrumental in forming the sister-city relationship between Berlin and Beijing, later in life Durniok was awarded the Freedom Film award by the American Cinema Foundation. In early March of 2003, Manfred Durniok died of a heart attack in Berlin. He was 68. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide- 1999
Veteran Hungarian director Marta Meszaros has added a sexual subtext to her traditional feminist-oriented themes in this erotically charged drama about Russian women working as prostitutes in Poland. Olga Drozdowa stars as Natasha, a Russian schoolteacher and mother who decides to tag along when her best friend Vera (Ewa Telega) takes a vacation in Warsaw which would enable them to sell goods on the black market. When Natashia and Vera arrive in Warsaw, things quickly take a turn for the worst -- they make very little money, Vera is killed, and the floating hotel where Natasha was staying literally drifts away. A local ne'er-do-well named Janek (Olaf Lubashenko) offers to "help" Natasha, but his idea of assistance is to force Natasha into a career as a high-priced prostitute for upscale pimp Mr. Robert (Jan Nowicki), who sells her services to a ready market of foreign clients. Cory Szczescie/Daughters Of Luck combines socio-political commentary about the notions of exploitation inherent in both prostitution and the relationship between Russia and Poland with steamy soft-core sex sequences featuring the beautiful Olga Drozdowa. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Olga Drozdowa, Jan Nowicki, (more)
- 1997
Based on the sprawling novel by Vicki Baum, this convoluted melodrama follows nine people whose lives converge during the days leading up to the tragic August 14, 1937 "Bloody Sunday" bombing in which a major downtown Shanghai hotel was demolished by the Japanese, an event that launched the Sino-Japanese War. The guests include Helen Russell, an enigmatic Russian noblewoman, her alcoholic British spouse Bobbie and Sir Kingsdale Smith, a royal emissary. Other guests are Hutchinson, a wheelchair-bound travel writer and the gossipy Mme. Tissaud. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Agnieszka Wagner, Annie Girardot, (more)
- 1990
After Commodore Perry forcibly opened Japan to trade in 1853, the Japanese responded as if they had been waiting for this event, and sent sons from prominent families to study abroad and learn how, for instance, a navy, an army, or an international trading company might be set up. European models were adopted for everything from education and shipbuilding to the organization of the military - even the nation's constitution. In this German/Japanese co-production, set in 1885, a young Japanese man has come to Germany for just that purpose. However, he gets involved with a dancer and neglects his studies. His mother (who is the person a Japanese boy must answer to) learns of this, and attempts suicide. He must now return home to Japan in some disgrace, and leave his now pregnant lady-love behind. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brigitte Grothum
- 1990
For many years, asian elephants were used in the relatively simple, low-intensity logging operations in Thailand and elsewhere in the region. As the move to scythe down whole forests progresses, there is less and less use for these elephants: heavy machinery works more efficiently in a clear-cutting situation. In this story, a young elephant keeper (Sorapong Chatri) manages to save the life of a forest ranger, dedicated to keeping the (very few) national forest preserves safe from poaching. The elephant-keeper, on the other hand, is economically compelled to work for the poachers in order to keep his family fed, and to preserve the family lands from sale by a greedy businessman who once loaned them money. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sorapong Chatri
The second film in the trilogy made by director Istvan Szabo and actor Klaus Maria Brandauer -- hammocked between Mephisto and Hanussen -- Colonel Redl continues Mephisto's fascination with a man overwhelmed by history. In that film, Brandauer played an actor who tried to ignore the rise of the Third Reich, and here he's an ambitious military officer in pre-World War I Austria whose career path is set early on. In military school, he's forced to inform on a student who's the source of a practical joke; though he beats himself up for being a Judas, he soon realizes that to rise in the ranks he must overcome his peasant background and hide his homosexuality by ingratiating himself with his superiors. In time, he becomes Chief of Military Intelligence for the Austro-Hungarian empire.
Though he professes to hate politics and politicians, Redl also can't avoid them. When the leader for whom Redl is supposedly spying among the officer corps, draws up a list of who can't be exposed for traitorous activities (including Austrian nobles, Hungarians, Czechs, Serbs, Croatians, and even the usual scapegoats, Jews -- the aftershocks of the Dreyfuss affair are still rumbling), he tells Redl that he must find a double of himself, a Ukrainian. Now certain that he will be exposed, Redl surrenders to fate, quoting to his wife from Montaigne: "It's no sin to be involved. It's a sin to remain involved." Brandauer is a wonder as the self-loathing Redl, and Szabo's camera picks up every nuance on his expressive face. The film eschews music except for several party scenes, and the absence of a score is most effective in the final shots of Redl's fellow officers awaiting his fate. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
Though he professes to hate politics and politicians, Redl also can't avoid them. When the leader for whom Redl is supposedly spying among the officer corps, draws up a list of who can't be exposed for traitorous activities (including Austrian nobles, Hungarians, Czechs, Serbs, Croatians, and even the usual scapegoats, Jews -- the aftershocks of the Dreyfuss affair are still rumbling), he tells Redl that he must find a double of himself, a Ukrainian. Now certain that he will be exposed, Redl surrenders to fate, quoting to his wife from Montaigne: "It's no sin to be involved. It's a sin to remain involved." Brandauer is a wonder as the self-loathing Redl, and Szabo's camera picks up every nuance on his expressive face. The film eschews music except for several party scenes, and the absence of a score is most effective in the final shots of Redl's fellow officers awaiting his fate. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Klaus Maria Brandauer, Hans-Christian Blech, (more)
Based on Klaus Mann's novel, Mephisto details the rise of a Faustian character who figuratively sells his soul in exchange for greatness. Hendrik Hofgen (Klaus Maria Brandauer, offering an electric performance) is the star of a state-funded theater department who tires of his job. Like his friends, he pays lip service to socialist ideals fashionable for artists of his time -- that is, until the Nazis rise to power. He then sees an opportunity to achieve his objective of fame: he will perform propaganda plays and thereby use the Nazis as a vehicle to spread his name across the country -- only too late does he realize his mistake. This well-adapted version of the book featured the first teaming of Brandauer with director Istvan Szabo; they would later reunite to make Colonel Redl and Hanussen. Brandauer first gained attention in the U.S. after the film's release and would be cast as the villain in Never Say Never Again as a result. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Klaus Maria Brandauer, Krystyna Janda, (more)
- 1974
- R
Feeling like losers, the bank manager and a boardinghouse manager in a small Vermont town discover a common bond and together plan a heinous crime. They intend to rob the bank of a large payroll which is due, at the same time killing another manager's girlfriend in order to frame him for the murder and the robbery. Things don't work out quite the way they plan, and the consequences are horrible. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1970
Enrico Malatesta (Eddie Constantine) leads a group of Latvian dissidents in the siege of Sidney Street. Chief of police Winston Churchill organizes against the anarchist who threaten to disturb the peace to make their demands known to the British aristocracy. Authorities break up the volatile gang and Malatesta is deported to Italy. Constantine gives a sympathetic portrayal of the agitator that organizes the revolt that shocked the Edwardian sensibilities of London in this historical drama. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Constantine, Christine Noonan, (more)
- 1964
After directing several short features, Manfred Dunkirk made his first full-length documentary. Chicken eaters in the Philippines, Borneo head hunters, Berlin nightlife, and lovers in London's Hyde Park contrast with the dawn in Paris, a Mexican whorehouse, and exotic restaurants in the Far East. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
