Maria Singer
Set in an old suburb of Vienna traversed by the local railway line and full of old dilapidated houses. In this district, and old man lives and when his neighbour dies and new tenants move in his existence is transformed.
In this tragic melodrama, a man who has been hiding his Nazi past has it come back to haunt him when his hippie daughter, whom he disapproves of, comes back to bond with her daughter, whom he's been raising. Meanwhile, he and his drinking buddy, a beer-truck driver, go on a jaunt to Poland to recover some gold fillings he had hidden years ago during the time when he worked in a concentration camp. The truck driver inadvertently leaves a filling lying around at home, and his mother immediately recognizes it for what it is. When she confronts him, he claims that "Jews don't mean anything to me" and she must then reveal his Jewish heritage to him: she was a housekeeper in a Jewish household and he was a child there whom she adopted during the Holocaust in order to save his life. The driver then confronts the wily old Nazi, who conceives a brutal scheme which will save his cozy life at the expense of the reputations of the driver and his granddaughter.
The film presents the political events surrounding the Anschluss in March of 1938 through the lives of Carola Hell, a popular young actress at the prestigious Theater in der Josefstadt, and Martin Hofmann, the Jewish journalist she plans to marry. When we encounter the couple in the lovely springtime weather their future is full of promise. They are determined to stay clear of politics. Yet in the climate of the time, nobody of her prominence or his religion can remain apolitical. Although Martin's journalist friend, Drechsler, calls to inform them that the Nazis plan to take over Austria soon, they concentrate on their work and their private happiness and dismiss the warnings.
August 1914. In the village of Öd, the maid Rumplhanni has a love affair with Simon, son of the farmer Hauser. Before he goes to war, she dizzy to him, she expects a child from him. Simon can persuade his parents to say goodbye to Hanni as a daughter-in-law. Thus she has achieved what she wanted: to come out of the state of an illegitimate maid and to become peasant woman with house and farm. Since the old farmer wants to give her but nothing written, Hanni sets out another plan ...
The lackluster and plodding Bolweiser has the (mis)fortune to be married to the town's siren; his trusting nature leads him into serious trouble when she beds nearly every available guy.
An inexplicable showdown between two men and the downfall of a family that has moved from the prairies to the jungle of the big city.
An old librarian, Professor Columbus, wants to go to the sea once in his lifetime. So he buys a big ship and takes a boat trip across the North Sea to London, accompanied by a bunch of stoned hippies, and chased by the police. (IMDb)
Five film directors were given the task of making short films based on titles of drawings by Paul Klee.
