Paul Verhoeven
The rich and jung American Susanne falls in love with the Student Hans-Joachim. Set in the romantic Heidelberg.
Lavish adaptation of Wilhelm Hauff′s fairy tale: Young charburner Peter Munk dreams of joining the upper class. He makes a deal with the sinister Holländer-Michel, who offers to trade Peter′s human heart for one made of stone. Once he has the "cold heart" in his body, Peter eventually strikes a fortune and enjoys great wealth, but at the same time, he becomes a bitter and emotionless man – and, having lost all traces of humanity, even murders his wife Lisbeth. Only then does Peter Munk finally realize what has become of him, and he decides to regain his real heart from Holländer-Michel.
Germany in the fall of 1918: Accompanied by the Archduke Karl Maria, Princess Henriette von Battenstein makes an inspection tour of hospitals. During these inspections, she meets Lieutenant Rainer, the former conductor of the State Opera. When she later makes music with him in the Archduke's castle, she becomes the unwilling witness to a secret cease fire negotiation.
The marriage of the celebrated operetta diva Vilma and the chamber singer Peter has come to an end. Peter, however, is intent on winning back his now ex-wife. So he’s come up with the idea of a guest performance in Venice, where the two will both appear. Vilma, however, has already found a new man – Niki. He’s a salesman and she wants to marry him. With the help of Annemarie, a friend, who has won a trip to Venice, Peter succeeds in diverting Niki, for he falls in love with Annemarie. Now the way is free for Peter to win back the ex-wife, who couldn’t care if he lived in a hole six feet underground.
In a transport museum, the items on display begin to tell their stories. Most interesting is the history of the Pullman car. In the beginning, it served as transport for a princely family; then became the headquarters car for the military high command; and then, most adventurous of all, it ended up with a circus. Converted to a bar, it finally had its day and was supposed to serve as a placard carrier. Luckily, the museum saved it from this sad fate.
The delightful Johann Strauss comic opera Die Fledermaus was mercilessly lampooned in this truly bizarre production. For starters, a framing device has been added: After appearing in 300 consecutive appearances of Fledermaus (which translates as The Bat) the lead tenor (Georg Alexander) imagines that he's seeing bats everywhere. Driven a bit over the edge by all this, he falls asleep and has a nightmare about the opera, with a group of non-singers cast in the leading roles. The original libretto about romantic assignations, political imprisonments and mistaken identity is burlesqued to the hilt: at one point, the hero finds out that his prison cell is surrounded by rubber tubes!
Before he became cult director Douglas Sirk, Detlef Sierck cut his teeth on such lavish European star vehicles as Das Hofkonzert (The Court Concert). Marta Eggerth is cast as Christine, a young singer who aspires to find out who her father was. Her odyssey brings her to the court of a mythical kingdom, where she is romanced by handsome lieutenant Walter (Johannes Heesters). He is warned not to lose his heart to a "commoner," but all turns out all right when King Serenissimus (Otto Tressler) turns out to be Christine's long-lost daddy. Hofkonzert was designed as a comeback for Marta Eggerth, whose star had eclipsed by the mid-1930s.
The film follows the life story of Johann Augustus Suter, the owner of Sutter's Mill, famous as the birthplace of the great California Gold Rush of 1848.
