Sunnyi Melles Movies

Theodor Fontane's seminal, tragic 1894 novel Effi Briest received numerous screen adaptations up through the early 21st century, including (most prominently) a 1974 feature from Rainer Werner Fassbinder that emerged as one of the hallmarks of the New German Cinema. The 2009 version emerged at the hands of director Hermine Huntgeburth, and stars Julia Jentsch as Effi von Briest, a Prussian adolescent swept up in the throes of high society during the late 19th century. At the outset of the tale, Effi's mother, Luise (Juliane Koehler) sets her up with a romantic suitor decades older than she, Baron von Instetten (Sebastian Koch), with whom Luise herself has a history of romantic involvement. In truth, Effi passionately loves her cousin Dagobert (Mirko Lang), and has promised to dance with him, but she bows to social conventions by dancing instead with the Baron, and before long the nobleman gamely asks for her hand in marriage, which she obliges - again, solely out of respect for societal norms. They move to a port village together and Effi falls into a miserably unhappy lifestyle - until she experiences physical satisfaction via an affair with a handsome militaryman, Major Crampass (Misel Maticevic). Alas, their limited relationship ultimately leaves Effi with even greater feelings of emptiness. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

The question is just who's setting up whom in this stylish crime drama from Germany. A woman named Melody (Nicolette Krebitz) is making a drug buy when to the surprise of the dealers, she pulls a gun and police burst into the room. Despite outward appearances, Melody is not a cop -- she's being blackmailed by Kahnitz (Dietrich Hollinderbaumer), a police chief who uses her as a decoy for various assignments. Ben (Marc Hosemann), a safecracker, is about to be released from jail, and Kahnitz wants to tie him to another crime involving Ben and his partner Dennis (Martin Gladde), who was in on the job that sent Ben to prison but managed to avoid capture. Claiming to be a friend of Dennis, Melody (under Kahnitz's instructions) meets Ben shortly after he hits the street and tries to encourage him to pull another job. She also seduces Ben and introduces him to Percy (Axel Milberg) and Aurelia (Sunnyi Melles), a couple who have their own ties to the crimes. Long Hello and Short Goodbye was adapted from a screenplay by American writer Jeff Vintar -- perhaps appropriate, given the frequent comparisons made between director Rainer Kaufmann's work and that of American filmmaker Brian DePalma. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A tough black comedy that reaches into the absurd to bring its message across, this effort by director Josef Roedl is a true original. Jacob (Sigi Zimmerschied) comes from a small village in Bavaria that has disappeared, eaten up by a sprawling U.S. military base. When he gets a job with a greedy capitalist known only as the Boss (Peter Kern) he does not know it is a ruse; his new employer wants Jacob's aunt's house and land. The Boss hires Janis (Sunnyi Melles) to seduce Jacob into a trap that would force him to hand over his aunt's property (his aunt is in a mental institution and legally incapacitated). When he catches on to these plots, Jacob puts on Army fatigues and goes to live in an abandoned barn in his old village, which just happens to be smack dab on the military base's firing range. To Jacob, he is now in the U.S. and can launch attacks against the Boss. From this point onward, other characters come in and out of his barn, including Janis, who must decide whether or not she can take the dive bombers and artillery fire in order to stay with Jacob. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This uneven thriller starts with a young pianist barely catching a train, and then since she is without money, a friendly woman buys her ticket for her. Inge (Sabina Trooger) is an enterprising journalist for the tabloids, and after she buys the ticket to Munich for Claudia (Sunnyi Melles), the two share a drink of cognac in their compartment. Claudia rips away a section of the day's paper which mentions that a pianist is being sought in connection with her husband's murder, and Inge starts to doze off without yet realizing that her cognac was laced with a barbiturate. When she comes to, Inge eventually gets Claudia to tell her story -- that she is innocent of any wrongdoing -- and is convinced enough to start helping Claudia out of her dilemma. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This film picks up the story of how Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) came to write The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774), and then how the character Werther himself seemed to affect the life of his equally young, 25-year-old creator. After arriving in Frankfurt having just obtained his law degree, Goethe fell in love with Charlotte Buff, a 20-year-old woman who chose to marry a notary, Georg Christian Kestner. Goethe's suffering from his loss was channeled into the novel about young Werther, who like Goethe, not only loses his love but commits suicide in the bargain. That latter tragedy was inspired by the suicide of a friend of Goethe's, Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem, despondent because the woman he loved was married to another and any relationship between them was impossible. Goethe's novel soon became one of the most popular books of its time and set a model for future writers to follow. And as the character of Werther exorcised Goethe's own miseries over his first tragic love affair, the playwright, scientist, lawyer, and poet was ready for his next move to Weimar -- though he did not write very much for the next ten years. The last part of the documentary is a scene between Napoleon Bonaparte and Goethe, when the great French military strategist took time away from his campaigns to converse with the aging Goethe about the character of young Werther. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Abstract images produced with an electronic video mix -- as well as the surrealist paintings of artist Mati Klarwein -- highlight this adaptation of the literary classic by Herman Hesse. Max von Sydow stars as Harry Haller, a self-absorbed, misanthropic writer contemplating the duality of his nature as both a social outsider disenchanted with the chaos and disorder of the everyday world and an inner "steppenwolf." Planning to commit suicide by the age of 50, Haller seeks a reconciliation of these different aspects of the self, while encountering a mysterious woman who leads him into a magical realm where his efforts to achieve redemption may be realized through a metaphysical transcendence. Whether it is mental illness, narcotics, or an authentically supernatural experience that overtakes Haller remains unclear. Essentially as plotless as Hesse's source novel, Steppenwolf (1974) was mostly memorable for its avant garde visuals, which made it a favorite of youthful audiences seeking hallucinogenic cinematic experiences such as those in the final half hour of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide