Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972), Beware of a Holy Whore (1971), Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974), Alice in the Cities (1974), Kings of the Road (1976), The Marriage of Maria Braun (1978), The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974), Fox and His Friends (1975) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best New German Cinema movies.
Storyline: Power-mad Aguirre (Klaus Kinski) leads an ill-fated raft party from Pizarro's 16th-century Amazon expedition.
Plot Keywords: epic, adventure, historical, drama, psychological, exploration, madness ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Members of a troubled German film crew spend most of their time drinking, talking and waiting in a hotel.
Plot Keywords: movie, drama, black comedy, postmodern, absurd, satire, art film ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Emmi, a German woman in her mid-sixties, falls in love with Ali, a Moroccan immigrant worker around twenty-five years younger. When they abruptly decide to marry, everyone around them seems appalled. When the folks calm down a bit, Emmi and Ali's relationship grows uncertain.
Plot Keywords: drama, romance, social issues, racism, immigration, loneliness, marriage ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: German journalist Philip Winter has a case of writer's block when trying to write an article about the United States. He decides to return to Germany, and while trying to book a flight, encounters a German woman and her nine year old daughter Alice doing the same. The three become friends (almost out of necessity) and while the mother asks Winter to mind Alice temporarily, it quickly becomes apparent that Alice will be his responsibility for longer than he expected. After returning to Europe, the innocent friendship between Winter and Alice grows as they travel together through various European cities on a quest for Alice's grandmother.—Karl Engel <cassiel@ix.netcom.com>
Plot Keywords: road movie, loneliness, travel, alienation, father-daughter relationship, american culture, childhood ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Near the Eastern borders with West Germany, Bruno, a solitary, permanent citizen of the road and film projection equipment repairman, witnesses the sad sight of a VW beetle car storming straight into the River Elbe. After a while, however, the depressed driver, Robert, instinctively accepts an offer for a lift in Bruno's repair van, and just like that, an impromptu relationship begins. Now, against the backdrop of the German countryside, the new companions find themselves sharing the same need for freedom, visiting dilapidated movie theatres for maintenance, and getting to know each other one small town after another. But, no one knows, or cares, how long is the road that stretches out ahead of them. After all, the only thing that matters is one's commitment to a precious ideal. Have the kings of the road found life's true meaning?—Nick Riganas
Plot Keywords: road movie, black and white, existentialism, loneliness, male friendship, self-discovery, journey ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: This movie follows the life of a young German woman, married to a soldier in the waning days of WWII. Fassbinder has tried to show the gritty life after the end of WWII and the turmoil of the people trapped in its wake.—Neel V Kumar <neelvk@iname.com>
Plot Keywords: feminism, social critique, moral dilemmas, personal sacrifice, capitalism, social change, emotional alienation ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Herzog's film is based upon the true and mysterious story of Kaspar Hauser, a young man who suddenly appeared in Nuremberg in 1828, barely able to talk or walk, and bearing a strange note; he later explained that he had been held captive in a dungeon of some sort for his entire life that he could remember, and only recently was he released, for reasons unknown. His benefactor attempts to integrate him into society, with intriguing results.
Plot Keywords: drama, biography, history, mystery, psychological, social, human nature ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Working class and middle-upper class worlds come together in this interesting look at class conflict within the gay world from the German director Reiner Werner Fassbinder. Fassbinder plays Fox, he is working class, a former circus performer who wins the lottery of DM 500,000. His life starts to look up and doesn't have to struggle financially. Fox can now have the life and things that he has always wanted. He begins a new relationship with Eugen, creates a business partnership, and his life is looking bright. While he wants to climb up the social ladder, it isn't without turmoil, and being torn between his old working class roots, and the shiny new facade of middle class consciousness.—Nathan Niessen
Plot Keywords: social critique, class conflict, exploitation, love story, tragedy, 1970s cinema, realism ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Frau Kusters is preparing dinner late one seemingly ordinary afternoon in her seemingly ordinary kitchen in Frankfurt, Germany. Mrs. Kusters wants to add canned sausages to the stew, her annoying daughter-in-law thinks otherwise. The point, we soon find out, is moot: Mr. Kusters has murdered the personnel director at the soap factory where he works before committing suicide.—Tim Horrigan <horrigan@aol.com>
Plot Keywords: drama, family, social criticism, working class, tragedy, political, german cinema ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Danzig in the 1920s/1930s. Oskar Matzerath, son of a local dealer, is a most unusual boy. Equipped with full intellect right from his birth he decides at his third birthday not to grow up as he sees the crazy world around him at the eve of World War II. So he refuses the society and his tin drum symbolizes his protest against the middle-class mentality of his family and neighborhood, which stand for all passive people in Nazi Germany at that time. However, (almost) nobody listens to him, so the catastrophe goes on...
Plot Keywords: war, world war ii, germany, nazi, coming of age, rebellion, child's perspective ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Fruit vendor Hans cannot please his family. His mother harps on his failures. His wife is openly discontent. He must peddle produce to his beloved ex-girlfriend, and he is mocked by his customers for being shorter and fatter than his wife. He is withdrawn, crushed, and humiliated. He can not meet the high standards of his mother, he has to give up his job as a police officer when he gets involved with a prostitute in the office. He turns to drinking and violence, but his rage causes his wife and daughter to leave him. While desperately begging for their return, he suffers a debilitating heart attack. His family comes back, but Hans is unable to work and must hire help for his fruit stand. Hans' first employee is his wife's ex-lover, whom he fires for embezzling. He then hires a friend and hero from his legionnaire days, Harry, out of pity. Harry is hardworking, diligent, and clever. He turns Hans' business around and enlivens his home life. Harry's success also begins to displace Hans -- with his fruit stand, with his wife, and even with his child. Hans becomes useless, a nothing -- exactly what his mother, his wife, and those around him set him up to be.
Plot Keywords: drama, family, marriage, social class, germany, 1970s, tragedy ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: A young German (Rudiger Vogler) and his companions (Hanna Schygulla, Hans Christian Blech) discuss dreams, poetry and politics.
Plot Keywords: road movie, drama, 1970s, existentialism, self-discovery, loneliness, identity ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: A small village is renowned for its "Ruby Glass" glass blowing works. When the foreman of the works dies suddenly without revealing the secret of the Ruby Glass, the town slides into a deep depression, and the owner of the glassworks becomes obssessed with the lost secret.—Anonymous
Plot Keywords: fantasy, allegory, surrealism, prophecy, medieval, visual poetry, mysticism ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Elvira, once a working-class butcher named Erwin, has made an enormous sacrifice for love. She has undergone a sex change for a romantic interest who has abandoned her, and she now struggles to reconcile her past life with her present identity.
Plot Keywords: german film, 1970s, drama, tragedy, loneliness, social marginalization, love ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Peter (Vitus Zeplicha) is a hardworking bricklayer who lives a lonesome life. His parents are cruel and unloving and his wife (Elke Aberle) is distant. In an attempt to finally win their affection, Peter builds his parents a home. But when that fails to yield the desired result, he instead moves his wife to Munich and showers her with lavish gifts. And though he cannot afford this lifestyle, he keeps at it. The pressure ultimately proves too great and he loses control, succumbing to alcoholism.
Plot Keywords: drama, romance, family, marriage, emotion, psychological, social ...
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