Hildegard Knef
Hildegard Knef: legendary German film diva. An actress whose personality is as complex as the characters she has played. She is by turns irritable, impatient, charming, humorous, fascinating and enchanting. But behind the many masks is the temperamental woman, the Hildegard Knef who has weathered many of life′s blows: failure in Hollywood, cancer, lost loves, the enmity of the press and, finally, the horror of aging. A Woman and a Half - Hildegard Knef is the portrait of a Knef who has become cynical and unpredictable in order to protect herself, but also a Knef full of warmth, humor and spirit.
The films, affairs and struggles of the iconic star of The Blue Angel as told by Rosemary Clooney, Roger Corman, Deanna Durbin and many more.
A documentary about the 75th birhday of the UFA film studios directed by Hans-Christoph Blumenberg.
The deserted island hotel hides a dark and sinister secret. Hundreds of years ago a witch held sway there, dominating her coven and spreading an evil that has seeped deep into the earth. Two centuries later, a photographer and his virginal fiance sneak onto the island to research its gruesome history. Soon all will find themselves falling victim to a horror that has survived the ages....
Emily, a child, stays with her bourgeois grandparents during frequent periods when her mother makes films. Isabelle wraps a picture, flies to her childhood home to pick up Emily, and plans to leave for her place in France. Old wounds between Isabelle and her parents open around Isabelle's life style. It's also apparent that Isabelle's mother, Paula, is unhappy - with her husband and with her youthful hopes dashed when she became pregnant with Isabelle. Unbeknownst to Isabelle, the co-star of the film she's just made has followed her, checked into a nearby hotel, and wants to begin an affair, even though he's married. Can Isabelle sort it out? What's best for Emily?
When they start losing family members and neighbors due to WWII and the Nazi government's policies, a quiet married couple becomes disillusioned and begins spreading leaflets against the government - a crime punishable by death.
An eclectic group of characters set sail on Captain Lansen’s leaky cargo ship in an attempt to escape their various troubles. When a violent storm strikes, the ship is swept into the Sargasso Sea and the passengers find themselves trapped on an island populated by man-eating seaweed, giant crabs and Spanish conquistadors who believe it’s still the 16th century.
12 American military prisoners in World War II are ordered to infiltrate a well-guarded enemy château and kill the Nazi officers vacationing there. The soldiers, most of whom are facing death sentences for a variety of violent crimes, agree to the mission and the possible commuting of their sentences.
English millionaire Sir Cyrus Bradley is being blackmailed by “The Tortoise” Crime Syndicate. He is to pay £ 100,000.00 Pounds to stay alive and not be murdered. After his refusal to pay the money, he is quickly killed. Cyrus‘ nephew, Don Micklem, plans to avenge the death of his uncle and sets out on a quest to expose “The Tortoise“…
An American pilot assists the Portuguese colonial police who are battling a gang of criminals involved in drug smuggling from Lisbon to Mozambique to Zanzibar.
After World War II, a lot of people, who lived in the eastern parts of the Third Reich had to be relocated. One of them is Hugo starosta (Martin Held) with his family. They live in a fortress. Hugo is unemployed, his children don't seem to like school, but somehow they managa to get through.
The Gangster Macheath secretly marries the daughter of beggar king Peachum. When Peachum finds out, he instructs the police chief Brown to arrest and hang Macheath. If not, all the beggars of Soho will disturb the upcoming coronation.
Caterina finds out that her husband Peter Tzar of Russia, is plotting to kill her. She sets Count Orlov free from prison, Peter's sworn enemy, becomes empress of Russia and leads the Cossacks army against him.
1860, the great Duchess of Parma, Maria Luisa, wants to provide her little state with train tracks, in spite of the opposition she gets from certain noble people.
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.
Berlin provides the backdrop for this crime drama that centers on a military doctor falsely accused of dealing illegal drugs. Determined to prove his innocence, he escapes from the MPs and ends up holing up in the apartment his wife rented. He doesn't know that she has sublet the flat to a nightclub singer. When he finds out, he begs the singer to assist him. She is attracted to him and agrees. The doctor believes that his wife is behind the black-market dealings, but in the end, they find the real culprit.
While perusing a police photo, Hilde - an investigative reporter - recognizes a bracelet that she once owned while living in her native Romania. She seeks out the current owner of the bracelet, hoping that he can provide information concerning her long-lost father. Thus begins a curious chain of events...
"The Man Between" is a 1953 British thriller film directed by Carol Reed and starring James Mason, Claire Bloom, Hildegard Knef and Geoffrey Toone. A British woman on a visit to post-war Berlin is caught up in an espionage ring smuggling secrets into and out of the Eastern Bloc.
An aging truck driver finds smuggled money and becomes involved with a hijacking crowd.
Writer Harry Street reflects on his life as he lies dying from an infection while on safari in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro.
Two scriptwriters argue about the fate of Henrietta, a charming and gamine shopgirl. One favors a comical path for their heroine, who is overcome with sentimental love for a young photographer on Bastille Day. The other has a more thrilling and dastardly fate in mind for her. Among the film's irresistible conceits is Hildegarde Neff as an oversexed circus bareback rider.
Cold War yarn about a US State Department courier who tangles with Soviet agents and seductive women in post WW2 Europe.
Upon awaking in the morning, a man finds his thoughts clouded by the possibility that he committed a murder.
WWII is entering its last phase: Germany is in ruins, but does not yield. The US army lacks crucial knowledge about the German units operating on the opposite side of the Rhine, and decides to send two German prisoners to gather information. The scheme is risky: the Gestapo retains a terribly efficient network to identify and capture spies and deserters. Moreover, it is not clear that "Tiger", who does not mind any dirty work as long as the price is right, and war-weary "Happy", who might be easily betrayed by his feelings, are dependable agents. After Tiger and another American agent are successfully infiltrated, Happy is parachuted in Bavaria. His duty: find out the whereabouts of a powerful German armored unit moving towards the western front.
It is a love story between a prostitute and an artist. It was one of the first German films to break several taboos: nudity, suicide and euthanasia. In the Germany of the '50s, this caused a lot of negative reactions by the politicians and the Roman Catholic Church. The opposition reached the degree of banning the film and scandalizing it which paradoxically made it one of the landmarks in the history of film
A screenwriter comes up with a story about an affair between a maid and her employer.
A group of people gathers back in the post-war ruins of a luxurious Munich hotel they inhabited at one point or another years before; each trying to cope with the tragic consequences of the war and their own actions.
After returning from a concentration camp, Susanne finds an ex-soldier living in her apartment. Together the two try to move past their experiences during WWII.
Wolf Noltenius is a real globetrotter. Early on, this talented young man travelled far and wide, where he earned fame as a construction planner. He moved to Brazil; but one day, homesickness got the best of him. He spontaneously travelled back to his hometown to visit his brother Werner and his family. Wolf and Werner, who both went into the same profession, couldn't be any more different: the one is worldly and an experienced man-about-town; the other a small bourgeois.
