Felix Mitterer Movies
- 1990
- R
This Austro-German film is based on a true story of the horrors of Communist Romania. Felix Mitterer plays Romanian exile Paul Weiss, who returns to the city of Timisoara to investigate the disappearance of his childhood friend Dominic Paraschiv (August Schmlzer) Weiss is informed by the authorities that Paraschiv, a chemical plant worker, has been imprisoned for the terrorist murder of eighty coworkers. The charge is a baldfaced lie, created to "excuse" the brutal prison treatment of the mildly militant Dominic, whose "crime" was to criticize the government and to lead his beleagured coworkers in prayers. Grainy videotaped footage of the real-life Dominic Paraschiv on his deathbed (after being "liberated" by the new Romanian government) brings the film to a numbing conclusion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Felix Mitterer, Viktoria Schubert, (more)
- 1986
This slice-of-life drama follows the changes in a journalist as he temporarily leaves his own profession and takes up work as a farm laborer in a remote, rural community. Based on the novel by Peter Rosegger, the tale keeps its poetic aspects in this cinematic translation. Hans (Dietrich Siegl) is a Viennese reporter who walks into the farming community in the Stiria region of Austria dressed in his professional garb, looking for manual labor. Once the villagers realize that he is serious, he gets a job with a local family and digs in, for one year. What he learns in the process is a growing appreciation of village life. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alexander Wagner, Barbara Petritsch, (more)
- 1982
Doktor Faustus was adapted from Thomas Mann's epic novel of the same name about a composer, Adrian Leverkuehn (Jon Finch), who sells his soul to the devil for the acquisition of genius in his lifetime. Leverkuehn intentionally contracts syphilis from an infected prostitute because he believes that a side-effect of the disease is intense, sustained creativity; no matter that death from syphilis as it enters the brain is extremely unpleasant -- the composer wants his moment of greatness. That is where Satan comes into the picture, and Leverkuehn agrees to Satan's terms in exchange for creative genius: he is not to have any close human contacts. Being only too human, the composer violates the terms only to see his two closest friends, a cellist and his little nephew, die as a consequence. At this point, after extensive philosophizing and rumination, the Satanic deal just does not have the same allure, and Leverkuehn's own life is quickly deteriorating, much faster than he can handle. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jon Finch, Hanns Zischler, (more)
