Thomas Mauch Movies

In an unusual move for a major West German production, this film was not scripted but improvised as the actors went along. It chronicles a limited time period from the life of a schizophrenic woman whose activities are divided between the bed and trying to commit suicide. The woman comes from a wealthy family and for unknown reasons, is never given a real chance at psychotherapy or medical care, let alone medication. Instead she drifts from a Jesus commune, to hotels, to the marriage registration office, all the while looking for a lover who is Jesus incarnate. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

An impoverished young man from Sicily travels to Wolfsburg, West Germany to find work. He takes a job in the Volkswagen factory after he travels through Northern Italy by train. The young man is arrested after he kills two Germans with his knife when they question his honor. The third part of the film follows his subsequent trial and deals with justice denied and the attitude of many Germans who resent the influx of foreign labor. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

A brother and sister, both of whom grew up in the slums of Naples, communicate with one another periodically over the years from 1944 to 1976 as they go their separate ways. Through flashbacks, and as they grow reacquainted during their meetings, the story of each is told. The girl struggles to study her way out of poverty, learns English well enough to become an airline stewardess, and discovers the limitations of her success. The boy joins the communist party early on, ardently serving as another body in the movement on the picket lines and at demonstrations. Despite his dedication, the best job the party can deliver to him is a menial one, and he too feels betrayed. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

After Goethe, Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811) is the playwright and writer who did the most to fuel the Romantic movement in German literature. A troubled and brilliant man, he committed suicide at age 34, and his life was the paradigm for that of a tragic romantic artist. Penthesilea was among his better known works. This biographical film explores the circumstances leading up to and immediately following his suicide. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

While chaos and the impending doom of World War II are just over the horizon, the members of an impoverished French family are occupied with their own concerns. Most notable among them are the romance of the teenaged girl with a young socialist and the boy's friendship with a German boy. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Student rebellions and demonstrations were a potent force in 1968 and helped bring about sweeping government changes in France and Germany during subsequent years. This movie follows a group of young actors for whom 1968 was their heyday, so that everything they have experienced since then has been a letdown. The two leads in a prize-winning play spend the whole night after a performance discussing their lives and what they plan to do. The man intends just to drift along; the woman is filming interviews with "ordinary" women on the street to bolster her women's liberation agenda. A couple offstage as well as on, their commitment to bringing about a new German abortion law is challenged when she becomes pregnant. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Acclaimed German New Wave director Alexander Kluge helmed this groundbreaking feminist drama starring his sister Alexandra, which later became the filmmaker's best-known work. She plays Rosewitha Bronski, a mother and housewife-cum-factory worker, who moonlights as an abortionist. Her world is a veritable maelstrom of chaos, marked by screaming children; an obnoxious, demanding, ne'er-do-well husband; and tumult at a factory caught up in the throes of corporate relocation. Meanwhile, at the abortion clinic, doctors have begun refusing to pay referral fees, which puts Rosewitha in an extraordinarily challenging position. Kluge's innovation relies in handling this emotionally-charged material in a cool, detached and matter-of-fact style that interpolates extensive voiceover to critique and reflect on the central character's life-choices and attitudes. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Just as rapacious seacoast villagers with no other source of income used to lure ships onto the rocks in order to salvage them or steal their cargo, so do the two spacemen in this film seek to wreck spaceships in Earth's orbit to benefit from an elaborate insurance scam. Meanwhile, back on the planet, the rich and poor nations are locked in battle. This German political comedy with science fiction overtones is based on The Monopole Capitalism, by Baran and Sweezy. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A soldier is assigned to guard a fortress on a remote Greek island and finds himself unable to cope with the crushing boredom of the task in this interesting drama, an early film by renowned-director Werner Herzog. The story is set during WWII and concerns a soldier who was wounded and stationed on the Nazi-controlled island. He is accompanied by his wife and two other guards. It is a very quiet island and soon the men begin looking for constructive things to do. First they paint houses. Then they try raising goats. One of them finds a small stockpile of explosives, so the men begin making bombs. Another of the men can read Greek and so begins translating some of the ancient inscriptions on the castle walls. He discovers that pirates once controlled the island. Meanwhile, the other guard invents a little machine that systematically captures and kills roaches. Eventually the lead soldier finds himself beginning to crack up, suffering a minor breakdown when he hears someone playing Chopin on the piano. When, to escape their tedium, the guards are assigned a detail on a ridgetop, the lead soldier begins shooting at windmills. Further agitated by his perceived betrayal by his comrades, he then attacks the local village and threatens to use his bombs to destroy it. In the end, the insane renegade is stopped. Herzog is said to have based the story on an article describing similar events that occurred during the Seven Years' War. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This film combines both black-and-white and color photography to tell the story of a circus beset with financial woes. Leni (Hannelore Hoger), the director of a circus, has just lost her father in a trapeze accident. She tries to keep the circus out of debt and vows to continue the performances under the big top. Helped by a small and unexpected inheritance, Leni has high hopes of keeping the circus operating. She must decide if her dedication to the show is realistic or merely wishful thinking. Curt Jurgens appears as the animal trainer Mackensen in this symbolic but slow-moving feature. The film took the Gold Lion award at the 1968 Venice Film Festival. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Anita Alexandra Kluge is a young East German woman who comes to West Germany in hopes of a better life in this social drama. She has trouble with the law when she steals and has more trouble adjusting to life in a new society. Anita becomes her employer's mistress, but she leaves when she is wrongly accused of an unrelated theft. She becomes a wandering gypsy, confused and unable to deal with either the communist regime or a free-market economy. This feature was the official German entry at the 1966 Venice Film Festival. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide