Rudolf Thome
In the 1970s, the Munich Group set about revolutionizing German film with low budgets and an excess of creativity. The Bungalow bar next to the Türkendolch theater was their meeting place, who were inspired by the French New Wave and New Hollywood. Munich Group star Iris Berben takes us on a journey back through time, a wild trip full of film clips and interviews with major figures of an unforgettable era.
Rudolf Thome’s idiosyncratic oeuvre was created with a continuity rare in German cinema – he has directed 28 feature-length films over more than four decades since 1968. The writing of the script for film no. 29 and the parallel efforts to secure financing form the thread that runs through this cinematic portrait, which consists wholly of conversations and observations around Thome’s home, a converted farm in Brandenburg. The filmmaker is nothing if not forthcoming, and the viewer has the opportunity to experience him in various other roles: as a gardener, a father, a cyclist, and a performer of his own persona.
A man and two women are trying their luck in the red room in the countryside. The older (but therefore not wiser) Fred, freshly divorced as a kisser who still desires his ex, meets the self-confident Lucy, who feels called to explore the soul of men in her novels. She lives with her intimate friend Sibil in a Vorpommern house in the countryside. Fred decides to move from Berlin to the two women and try a ménage-à-trois. They get to know each other and themselves.
Mary and Marquard are painters and lovers, with a common life. Once Marquard gets a prize of a considerable sum of money, his artistic creativity wanes. While Mary works in a series of paintings, Marquard visits his friend Gregor, a horse breeder and philosopher, sleeps with Angie and visits repeatedly her daughter Lucia. Marquard and Lucia, who have begun a tender and compassionate father-daughter relationship, spend two days in a seaside hotel, deciding not to speak in words. The feelings and communication emerge from a very special way. Mary, who does not know the whereabouts and the reason of the absence of Marquard, realizes it by herself: their love is over. Then, she abruptly interrupts her work so far and starts a new painting entitled "The visible and invisible."
A cheerful, amusing and melancholic look back at the Munich film festival from the perspective of the people who make up the film festival.
A long-separated German mother and her half-Turkish daughter are reconciled in a splendidly serene dramatic comedy.
Novellist Venus lives with her family out of Berlin and moves temporarily to the city where she is starting to write a new book. Her fans can watch her via a webcam. Away from husband and children she begins an affair with Fabrizio...
Lynn (22) lives with her brother in Berlin. There she enjoys the advantages of family life, without really feeling involved in it. She does not have any precise aim in life, but manages to awaken the interest of many people with her direct and spontaneous character. Her boyfriend David is very different: he is entirely engrossed in his very disciplined swimming training for the world championships. David does not intend to allow himself to be distracted by the complicating factors of a relationship with Lynn. When Lynn, working behind the till of restaurant, meets the Japanese student Koji, everything gets more complicated. They can't exchange many words, but it is soon clear that their moments together mean a lot to both of them.
What would happen if you gathered all the lovers you have had in your life in a single room and let them interact for a week? For his 60th birthday, a self-absorbed composer, Adam (Hanns Zischler), does just that: he assembles seven of the most influential women from his life and invites them to his seduced lakeside cabin. The guest list includes Adam's current wife Eva (Cora Frost), along with their two children who live in Berlin; his gorgeous second wife Lulu (Adriana Altaras), who is an actress; and his down-to-earth first wife-turned-nun Berenice (Irm Hermann), with whom Adam has an embittered, estranged son Billy (Guntram Brattia), who shows up along with his wife. Also invited are a quartet of women with whom he had often overlapping trysts, including student Marion (Khyana El Bitar), sexy Jacqueline (Amelie zur Muhlen), opera singer Lucia (Isabel Hindersin), and of course, Lilith (Sabine Bach).
Time traveler Frank is picked up by Luise and Theo while on their way to Berlin. Frank wants to find author Laura Luna and take her to the future with him. Frank finds Laura and they become a couple, but Luise shows up and makes it a menage a trois.
Drama of four friends who spend time together in the country when one of them meets a man who claims to be Jesus Christ who wants to share the love secret of the universe with her and so he impregnates her, dies in her bed, and then totally disappears, leaving the friends unsure if it all happened
An American film-critic flies to Berlin to investigate about the life of German film-maker Murnau. After meeting his former girlfriend and finding a statue near Murnau´s tomb, begins a strange mystic journey through time and space: a romantic unification of ancient and modern world, suspicions and memories, art and life. And the critic is about to learn something new of himself...
After the German reunification: A widowed, unemployed archaeologist with two children and a single futurologist with a little daughter in Berlin fall in love at first sight and persistently and unwaveringly develop a life together. An equally unspectacular and rigorous examination of love as a crucial basis for private and political action.
"Seven Women", Thome's third film in the trilogy "Formen der Liebe" (Forms of Love) is a type of modern fairy tale. Hans Hummel (Johannes Herrschmann) abandons a South Sea paradise and returns to his old homeland to trace his deceased father's path in life. His father has not only bequeathed him a large house and valuable documents, but also a type of treasure map in the form of a computer with the corresponding program. While he is involved in this treasure hunt game, he meets up with seven women - the family in the neighbouring house, who support him both in a business as well as in a personal sense. But instead of delighting in his new found wealth, he trades money, gold and millions for happiness - just like in a fairy tale.
The obscure philosopher Georg Hermes almost withdrew from the world to concentrate on his studies, especially Heraclitus, having no relationship since his mother's death. When he wants a new suit for a lecture (actually very minor) about his new book, he meets the sisters Franziska, Breate and Marthe, who run a boutique, share a house and have a lover each. Those invite Georg to dinner, Franziska even on dates. Falling off a boat he gets naked with her, and they become lovers. The girls all take to Hermes and get him to move in, spoiled by all and offered polygamy.
Computer operator Faber works on securing computers for big companies and banks. His private life is rather dull until he meets a strange women, Juliet and falls in love. Her friend convinces Faber to exploit his knowledge to rob a bank.
An architect is assigned to modernize a squatted house in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin. But then he meets a young student who is member of a grassroots initiative trying to preserve the quarter. He falls in love with her, although this puts him into conflict with his job. Following his heart, the architect soon changes sides and supports the inhabitants in their struggle against the real estate speculators.
This film with a marked ethnographic nature, which was filmed without a pre-established plan and with a script that crosses the lines of documentary and fiction, tells the story of a group of five Germans who arrive on a remote island in the South Pacific called Parapara and belonging to Vanuatu. Their aim is to prepare a publication on the lives of the inhabitants of this remote island. The tasks were personally assigned: one would study the language, another would study the fauna; another the traditions, institutions and family systems; another the plants and another the songs and stories. However, the blind trust in the western scientific objective clashes head-on with the values and customs of the natives. Therefore, from the very beginning, the head of the tribe does not cease to ask and express his surprise regarding some foreigners “who have not come to rob his land”.
A couple (Karin Thome and Eberhard Klasse), whose relationship can't hold up to the pressure of their financial and career problems, only have their child left as the remaining connecting link. But even their child becomes a pawn in their egoistic power games and possessiveness. The crisis reaches a peak first then, when the husband finds out about an affair that the wife is having and sets out to claim the same rights for himself. This takes him to New York, where he settles. The wife gets her hands on all the cash reserves and follows him there. In spite of the new location, they still remain a couple with a disturbed and insensitive miscommunication, that instinctively cling even more to each other in the new and alienating environment.
A former bank clerk conceives a one-man robbery at the bank he works. He had before established an alibi for himself pretending and declaring him legally dead. Further complications ensue when he rejoins his estranged wife.
In this comedy, Iris Berben plays a mysterious, supernaturally beautiful girl from another planet, who confuses and flusters the men on earth, where she has landed. The men follow her wherever she goes. Marquard Bohm is no exception here - he leaves his wife in a lurch and travels with the Supergirl to Spain. The girl doesn't tell much about herself; she reports, though, about an impending threat from outer space.
Andy and Sebastian want to make a lot of money in a quick and easy way. Inspired by the movies, they become private investigators. Their first case happens to be about a beautiful girl called Annabella. But being a private investigator is a more demanding job then Andy and Sebastian had initially thought. Their female acquaintances Annabella, Christa, and Micky also have their share in Andy′s and Sebastian′s problems. The two wannabe detectives become more and more entangled in things that prove to be too much for them.
A young man gets caught up in criminal activities in order to fulfill his desire for an easy life.
A story about the continuity and collapse of history, the power of suppression, and the terror of reconciliation; loyalty, treason and revenge. In a brave cinematic game, Heinrich Böll’s story Billiards at Half-Past Nine is split up into cracks, blocks, breaks and sudden turns, as the life story of a German family, covering numerous generations, is propelled forward.
Documentary by Ulrich Schamoni about the current state of German cinema. Produced for German television.
