A director (Hanns Zischler), his fiancee (Vera Tschechowa), a scriptwriter (Rudiger Vogler) and a student interact and discuss their emotions, at length.
“Death is my Trade” centers on the life of Rudolph Höss, the commandant of Auschwitz II-Birkenau for the majority of its existence. The main character's name in the film is Franz Lang. This name change was deliberate to ensure that the character is not automatically viewed as being some sort of villain or demon. Franz is an average German kid growing up during World War I. The film follows Franz as he grows up and becomes a hard, efficient, organized worker who eventually joins the National Socialist party in Germany. Impressionable young Franz takes orders as one of the utmost points of honor and duty, so when he is eventually asked by Heinrich Himmler to become commandant of the largest extermination camp built during WWII he barely hesitates to consider how heavy such a burden will be.
Astrologe, Speer-Puppenspieler, SS-Mann
Not porno, not underground film, not a good entertainment film, not documentary, not social criticism nor Hollywood boulevard film or horror show: rather a journey into the midst of night, a hell ride to paradise lost, into our inner self. The mystery play of a historical dance of death in the black studio of our phantasy, the ascetic “Trauerarbeit” (toils of mourning) on the end of an epoch, millions of dead. In old times one would have called it an epos, a poem, requiem, oratorio; an attempt to find a new German identity through film. And also about the heritage of Hitler in our present world, something about the infernal victory of quantitative democracy; about the calmness of melancholy and the thesis that Hitler can only be defeated with Richard Wagner.
This ethereal, three-hour biopic is the middle film in Hans-Jürgen Syberberg’s “German Trilogy” on the mythological foundations of the Third Reich. By fusing theater, music, and cinema, Syberberg conjures up Karl May (1842-1912), the immensely popular German author, who set many of his adventure novels in an idealized version of the American Wild West. His tales of the cowboy and the Ubermensch alike were beloved by many, including (Our) Hitler, who supposedly ordered his generals to read May works after defeats in the Russian campaign.
A comedy directed by Ulli Lommel.
Erster Soldat
Two women during WW2 living in a Hunsrück village embark on a trip to Vienna.
Minissterpräsident Lutz
Reflected in an artificial and bombastically staged illusory world with Wagnerian compositions, glossy and satirical time references, 19th century German figures and traditions are stripped of their mythology and interpreted by the Germany of 1972.
Fischer
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.
Detective Phil
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.
Writer
A biochemistry professor finds an old manuscript with structure and formula of immortality drug.
A biochemistry professor finds an old manuscript with structure and formula of immortality drug.
Director
A biochemistry professor finds an old manuscript with structure and formula of immortality drug.
This surrealistic experimental film finds the son of a young nobleman staying with hash-smoking hippies in a seamy section of Munich. He falls for a hippie girl who is involved in shaking down the young man's parents for money. She falls in love with the young man but the group continues to extract money from the parents in return for their wayward son. When he discovers the shakedown, his rage leads to tragedy for the star-crossed lovers.
Eduard
Documentary drama about the Swiss journalist Otto Pünter, who maintained an anti-fascist information office in the 1930s and 1940s.
Wenders
Thomas hitchhikes from Hamburg to Munich where he meets his ex-girlfriend, Peggy. As Thomas doesn't have a bed for the night Peggy takes him home, not knowing that she and her four room mates have all made a strange pact....
Kollege im Büro
Herr Raab is a technical draftsman. His wife pushes him to seek a promotion, which may be a long shot after he gives a dull and tipsy toast at an office dinner. But why would Herr Raab run amok?
Avant-garde adaptation of a Carlo Goldoni play. Well-to-do Venetians congregate in a coffee house and discuss their problems.
Leiter des Syndikatsverhörs
Small-time pimp Franz is torn between his mistress and Bruno, the gangster sent after him by a shady crime syndicate he's refused to join.
Peter
A group of young slackers spend most of their time hanging out in front of a Munich apartment building. When a Greek immigrant named Jorgos moves in, however, their aimless lives are shaken up. Soon new tensions arise both within the group and with Jorgos.
Busse
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.