Fritz Schmiedel
Alternating between early-1970's interviews with his wife, priest, and other villagers and re-enactments of his final months, the film follows Austrian peasant farmer Franz Jaegerstaetter's path to martyrdom under the Nazis. The first scene shows his execution, followed by a graveyard tableau in which Franz objects to his priest's praise for a fallen soldier's patriotism. Arguments between Franz and his priest and then with a bishop follow, with the clerics both insisting that he owes military service to his country and that he has no right to choose defiance and certain death. His wife Franziska, the priest, and other townspeople comment on his life.....
First part of two of the saga of the troubled Buddenbrook family and their business in mid 19th century Germany.
Meant to be a diatribe against yellow journalism and current social ills, this weakly limned drama by Josef von Baky features a reporter who works for one of the tabloid papers. The reporter digs up dirt on the past life of a local hotel owner, and wanting to take full advantage of the muck, he strings out his revelations in a series of perjorative, damning articles on the man. The result of this campaign turns out to be much worse than simply ruining the hotel owner's reputation.
Second part of two of the saga of the troubled Buddenbrook family and their business in 19th century Germany.
In a small town in occupied France in 1941, the German officer, Werner Von Ebrennac is billeted in the house of the uncle and his niece. The uncle and niece refuse to speak to him, but each evening the officer warms himself by the fire and talks of his country, his music, and his idealistic views of the relationship between France and Germany. That is, until he visits Paris and discovers what is really going on...
