Carl Hoffmann

Shot in 1944, finished and released in 1954.

In a mountain village a deranged alcoholic who routinely beats his wife and kids goes missing. Though everyone in the village is glad to see him gone, an investigation begins. Made at the end of the Nazi era and immediately shelved; not released until 1948.

A German soldier on leave in Berlin goes looking for his pen pal who he has never met called Gisela. He meets instead a woman with the same name and falls in love with her.

After a shady collector of paintings has been murdered, adept Dr. Sebastian Ott discovers a big organised fraud with fake paintings. His twin brother Ludwig is responsible for it, kidnaps him and locks him away in his house. He uses Otts ID and 'replaces' him...

Der Florentiner Hut (The Leghorn Hat), a 1939 German film directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner

Film by Hoffmann.

A well scripted and captivating thriller about the owners of a small private bank in Berlin, squeezing money out of honest business firms, causing their bankruptcies, and then trying to smuggle the cash into Switzerland.

An engineer is hired to plan and oversee the construction of a undersea tunnel between Europe and the US. However, certain interests don't want to see the tunnel built and use every means at their disposal, including sabotage and murder, to stop its construction. French-language version of the 1933 German DER TUNNEL, q.v.

The engineer MacAllan designs a tunnel, which will join America and Europe together on the seabed. A group of American billionaires are financing the gigantic project, but the construction of the tunnel is proving to be as tedious as it is dangerous. MacAllan's worst enemy is the speculator Woolf, who had embezzled the money for the construction and who is attempting to cover up his crime by carrying out acts of sabotage. Also filmed in 1933 in a French-language version, LE TUNNEL, and remade in 1935 in England as TRANSATLATIC TUNNEL.

Comedy with an Egyptian backdrop: Businessman Tobby and the Countess Stafanie wish to take all the fun away from their single parents and make them marry each other. Their parents have the same plan, too ... but with regards to their nosy kids. And so it happens, that Tobby wants to surprise the parents with the announcement of their -- the parents' -- engagement at a party (so nice to let them know), but is one-upped by Stefanie's father, the old Count, who announces the engagement of the kids. To avoid a scandal, they have to get married, but will divorce later.

Released three days after Adolf Hitler became Reichskanzler, it was the first film to have its screening in Nazi Germany. It became a symbol of the new times touted by the Nazi regime. The title (literally "morning-red") is the German term for the reddish coloring of the east sky about a half hour before the sunrise. On patrol Captain Liers and his submarine crew sink an important British ship, but while returning to harbour, they're lured into a trap by a British vessel disguised as a neutral Danish one. They sink it after it attacks them without warning, but while they prepare to rescue survivors, a British destroyer sinks the sub. On the sea bed 60 feet down, with all but the bridge flooded, the 10 surviving crew have only 8 rescue devices. Liers orders the crew to use them, but they disobey - either all escape or nobody does.

The film starts in the fashionable seaside resort on the Baltic, Heringsdorf, where Renate Müller spends a secret weekend away from her husband with her bosom friend Ida Wüst. The husband meanwhile has a flirtation while traveling by night train from Frankfurt to Berlin, nice atmospheric shots of sleeper and dining car in the morning. The action continues in the luxury villas and apartments of Berlin, Renate Müller wears a string of very elegant outfits. Misunderstandings, jealousies, temporary separation of husband and wife, a few songs, wicked humour.

When Albers takes his drug-addicted opera star sister Gerda to a sanitarium, they both become targets of slimy dope peddler Peter Lorre, who fears that Gerda will blow the whistle on him. Lorre kidnaps the woman, leading Albers on a frantic chase.

The story of General Yorck von Wartenburg, a commander in the army of Prussian King Wilhelm, who defied the king's orders for the Prussian army to join Napoleon in his invason of Russia.

Vienna glove-sales-lady Christel falls in love with Russian Czar Alexander. Austrian Prince Metternich tries to use this and other pleasant diversions to keep him out of the negotiation conferences of the 1815 Vienna Congress.

During WWI a German agent receives an order to find out when the Russian army will carry out its expected attack against the German lines.

The story of the rise to power of King Frederick II (aka Frederick the Great) of Prussia and his military campaigns to make Prussia a major power in Europe.

Kitty Kellermann is put on trial for murdering her husband, a failed painter. When her counsel resigns from his mandate, the mysterious Peter Bille steps in, though it becomes apparent that he actually is not an advocate but Kitty's lover and moreover confesses the murder. The widow has to admit that the pictures by her deceased spouse sell much better, only for him to suddenly appear alive.

Hokuspokus is a 1930 German comedy film directed by Gustav Ucicky and starring Lilian Harvey, Willy Fritsch and Oskar Homolka. It was an adaptation of the play Hokuspokus by Curt Goetz.

Prevented from wedding a postman's daughter (her father prefers she marry a farmer) a Tyrol schoolteacher succeeds instead in having an opera of his acceptance in Vienna. But this isn't the happiness he wanted, he becomes a hobo.

George Manolescu (Ivan Mouskojine) plays a confidence man who works his way from Paris to New York, along the way during a train ride to Monte Carlo he meets the voluptuous as always Cleo (Bigitte Helm) where they have a whirl wind romance which becomes short lived after she flees from him.

Botto the Clown is in love with the much younger Blanche but she is in love with the handsome daredevil acrobate Andre.

Directed by Hanns Schwarz.

Mary and Eva are best friends, although they couldn't be more different. Armand, Mary's fiancee, falls in love with the seductive Eva, who is busy becoming a revue star. When Eva fails and loses her money, Armand tries to help her out.

A silent romantic comedy

A silent romantic comedy

늙은 파우스트박사가 인생의 허무함을 비관하고 독약을 마시고 자살하려 한다. 그러자 악마 메피스토펠레스가 나타나 지상에서는 그가 파우스트 박사의 제자가 되지만 저승에서는 자신이 상전이 된다는 조건으로 박사의 소원인 청춘을 그에게 돌려주는데...

〈버라이어티〉는 하층 계급 인물의 개인적인 심리를 주로 다루고 있는 ‘실내극영화’와 남자 주인공이 도시의 유혹에 빠져 가정으로부터 멀어지는 모습을 그린 ‘거리영화’의 특징을 모두 지니고 있다. 널리 알려진 무르나우의 〈마지막 웃음〉(1924)에 비해 덜 알려져 있지만, 삼각관계를 이루는 공중곡예사들의 멜로드라마라는 특이한 소재를 다루었으며, 20년대 독일영화에서 가장 뛰어난 기술적∙미학적 성취를 이룬 영화라고 할 수 있다. 칼 프로인트의 카메라는 인물의 사랑, 질투와 같은 심리를 파고들기 위해 자유로운 움직임과 다양한 앵글을 구사하고, 주관적인 시점과 결합된 움직임은 시.공간적 제약을 뛰어넘어 다양한 영화적 시각을 제공함으로써 현실적인 이야기에 스며든 내면을 시각화한다. 공중곡예 장면은 그 자체로 스펙터클을 경험하게 하는 역동적인 힘이 있으며, 뒤퐁의 섬세한 감정 연출과 정교한 편집도 뛰어난 경지를 보여준다. 이 영화의 성공으로 뒤퐁과 프로인트는 할리우드로 이주했고 이후 누아르 영화에 큰 영향을 미쳤다. (부산시네마센터 2011 - [개관영화제]백화열전)

Silent romantic comedy set on a train.

의 2부로 크림힐트가 훈족의 여왕이 되어 지그프리트의 복수를 하는 과정을 그리고 있다. 크림힐트는 지그프리트를 죽인 하겐과 브룬힐트 일족을 자기 성으로 끌어 들여 피 어린 복수전을 시작한다. 1922년부터 23년까지 9개월간 UFA의 바벨스부르크 스튜디오에서 제작된 이 영화는 당시 1,2부로 나누어 양일에 걸쳐 개봉되어 큰 성공을 거두었다. 이전작품과 다른 대작을 연출해야 했던 프리츠 랑 감독은 아내인 테아 폰 하르보와 촬영감독 칼 호프만, 예술감독 오토 훈테, 칼 폴브레히트와 독일 특유의 감성어린 웅장하고 비극적인 걸작을 만들었다. 상징주의와 독일 표현주의 양식이 드러난 이 영화는 에이젠슈타인의 에 영향을 끼쳤다고 한다.

네덜란드의 왕자 지그프리트는 군터 왕을 만나러 가던 중 거대한 용을 만난다. 용을 무찌른 지그프리트는 용의 피를 뒤집어 쓰고 불사신이 되고, 난쟁이의 도깨비 감투도 손에 넣는다. 이후 군터 왕을 만난 지그프리트는 그의 여동생 크림힐트와의 결혼을 요청하고, 군터는 자신이 아이슬랜드의 여왕 브룬힐트와 결혼할 수 있도록 도와주면 결혼을 허락하겠노라고 한다. 브룬힐트와 결혼하기 위해서는 그녀와의 대결에서 이겨야만 했는데, 군터는 지그프리트의 힘을 이용한 것이다. 대결에서 이긴 군터는 브룬힐트와 결혼하고 지그프리트와 크림힐트도 결혼하지만, 속임수로 자신을 이겼음을 알게 된 브룬힐트는 크게 분노하고 지그프리트를 죽일 음모를 꾸민다.

In a distant Teutonic village, people dance and drink merrily celebrating a wedding feast. However, an elderly man tells the villagers that the valley where they live wasn't always happy but sorrowful. This was due to the tyranny of the master of the mountains who ruled the valley despotically.

As the police intensify their bemusing search on Doctor Mabuse's notorious band of gangsters, the deceptive, elusive hypnotist Mabuse simultaneously begins to close in on himself.

Doctor Mabuse is a criminal mastermind, doctor of psychology, and master of disguise, armed with the powers of hypnosis and mind control, who oversees the counterfeiting and gambling rackets of the Berlin underworld. He visits gambling dens by night under various guises and aliases, using the power of suggestion to win at cards and finance his plans.

Dr. Mabuse and his organization of criminals are in the process of completing their latest scheme, a theft of information that will allow Mabuse to make huge profits on the stock exchange. Afterwards, Mabuse disguises himself and attends the Folies Bergères show, where Cara Carozza, the main attraction of the show, passes him information on Mabuse's next intended victim, the young millionaire Edgar Hull. Mabuse then uses psychic manipulation to lure Hull into a card game where he loses heavily. When Police Commissioner von Wenk begins an investigation of this mysterious crime spree, he has little to go on, and he needs to find someone who can help him.

The married Lady Emma Hamilton has an ill fated romance with Admiral Horatio Nelson.

Ivan, a poor Russian student, lives in Switzerland. He is unexpectedly invited to Russia by a distant relative, Princess Wirsky. To finance the journey, he works as a messenger for revolutionaries who want to depose Grand Duke Wirsky. In Moscow, he delivers the message and falls in love with Marja, the daughter of the revolutionary, but Marja's father loves Princess Wirsky and wants to betray the revolutionaries. The princess falls in love with Ivan, and jealously deports Marja to Siberia. In revenge, Ivan strangles the princess. He spends the rest of his life yearning for Marja, whom he has never kissed. When he receives the news of Marja's death, he commits suicide.

The House on the Moon

The film was an unauthorized adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but the source material went unrecognized by some of the German media due to changes in the characters' names. Released in 1920, this is one of Murnau's lost films. While the film itself does not survive, the scripts and related production notes do. Because the film is lost, its full length is unknown. Dr. Warren is the Dr. Jekyll character who changes into Mr. O'Connor, a parallel of Mr. Hyde. This transformation is brought about, not by experimentation with chemicals as in Stevenson's original, but through the supernatural agency of a bust of Janus (the Roman god of the doorway), which Warren / O'Connor purchases in the opening sequence as a gift for his sweetheart, Jane. When she refuses the gift, horrified, Warren / O'Connor is forced to keep the statuette himself...

The Devil decides to go and visit Kurfürstendamm, where all his clients seem to come from. He settles at "Pension Elvira", where everybody cheats and deceives him. He comes to the conclusion, that Hell is a much better place.

Drama about street walker Elena who marries shop keeper Albert. When her former pimp Peter shows up, her life is ruined. She shoots him and poisons herself.

"Night people". Thomas Bezug, the richest man in the world, is a solitary, domineering and cruel cripple, who hardly can move on his crutches. He dwells a fanatical love for his son, whom he holds like a monkey in a cage. His servants are defaced dwarfs. His secretary is trying to steal Bezugs assets. These are the night people.

A cashier in a bank in a small German town is alerted to the power of money by the visit of a rich Italian lady. He embezzles 60, 000 Marks and leaves for the capital city, where he attempts to find satisfaction in politics, sport, love and religion.

After the old-books shop closes, portraits of the Strumpet, Death, and the Devil come to life and amuse themselves by reading stories--about themselves.

Suddenly appearing in Florence, an evil seductress causes Cesare, the city's ruler, and his son to both fall madly in love with her. The son, killing his father before an order to torture the woman can be carried out, then turns the city's churches into dens of sexual debauchery. Acts of evil and corruption continue unabated until the arrival of Death, who brings with her a horrible plague which she is about to loose upon the city.

A man's devotion for a woman brings about his ruin.

The niece and nephew of an eccentric millionaire try to get a share of the now deceased millionaire's inheritance from his adopted son who delights in squandering it.

A man searches for a cursed emerald belonging to his ancestor.

The story of a man destroyed by love.

Dr. Robert Hart visits his friend Ursula von Hohenau in Saxony in July 1914. There he hears about the Austrian ultimatum to Serbia. He immediately returns to his home town where, just before mobilisation, he meets the Polish count Bransky and his daughter Jadwiga, the French Vicomte Latour and the Russian counsellor of embassy count Bronislaw Krascinsky. Bronislaw is madly in love with Jadwiga and jealous of Dr. Hart. After the outbreak of the war Dr. Hart works close to the Polish frontlines. Bronislaw leads the Russian troops in this area. When Bronislaw is wounded during a battle with the Germans Dr. Hart finds him and takes care of his wounds.

A group of scientists, led by a Professor Ortmann, produce a living human child using scientific processes - a "homunculus." This creature is human in every way, except that he cannot experience love.

For a long time the homunculus had to hide from his pursuers. But now he mingles with humanity again and sows discord, strife and murder. One day, when he meets an orphaned girl, he takes her to the shepherd Rudolf's parents. His goal is to pair the two together in order to breed a new human race from them. To this end, he kidnaps her to a deserted island. But the plan fails because Rudolf tries to kill the homunculus after learning his true identity. In revenge, the homunculus destroys the entire island, including the young couple. His hitherto loyal companion Edgar Rodin is so horrified by this deed that he renounces the homunculus and threatens him with death.

Richard Ortmann the artificial man (Homunculus) has become the head of the corporation that represents the capital and power of the country, but he has stopped believing in human love. All the more clear is his goal now: the annihilation of mankind.

The homunculus and his companion Edgar Rodin make an invention that would allow the hateful homunculus to destroy the world. But first he wants to find out about love. When he observes how young Anna is rejected by her parents, he takes care of her and asks her parents for forgiveness - without success. He brings her to her seducer, who also rejects the girl. The homunculus then takes revenge by ruining the man financially and throwing Anna at his feet. But she still loves the villain and asks Homunculus for mercy. The homunculus cannot understand this feeling of love - he wants to try it out on himself. He puts a young woman who loves him to the hardest test, but she will do anything for him, sacrificing her fiancé and her parents. Only when he reveals his artificial nature to her, she leaves him. This experience confirms the homunculus in his intention to destroy mankind.

A group of scientists, led by a Professor Ortmann, produce a living human child using scientific processes - a "homunculus." This creature is human in every way, except that he cannot experience love.

Part of the artificial-creature series encompassing Der Golem (1914 and 1920), Alraune (1918, 1928, 1930) and Metropolis (1926), 'Homunculus' was the most popular serial in Germany during World War I even influencing the dress of fashionable Berlin. Foenss, a Danish star, is the perfect creature manufactured in a laboratory by Kuehne. Having discovered his origins, that he has no 'soul' and is incapable of love, he revenges himself on mankind, instigating revolutions and becoming a monstrous but beautiful tyrant, relentlessly pursued by his creator-father who seeks to rectify his mistake.

Early drama about alcoholism.

An lost adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth.