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Berlin International Film Festival · 2012

Berlin International Film Festival 2012

Happy Birthday, Studio Babelsberg

Programme

11 films · 5 reviews

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The Blue Angel (Der Blaue Engel)

Review preview for The Blue Angel

The Blue Angel has all the ingredients of a classic moral tragedy.

Angus Wolfe Murray · 4 out of 5
A middle-aged professor becomes infatuated with a night club dancer.

(Country: Germany; Year: 1930; Director: Josef Von Sternberg; Writer: Robert Liebmann, Karl Zuckmayer, Karl Volloeller, based on the novel, Professor Unrath, by Heinrich Mann; Stars: Emil Jannings, Marlene Dietrich, Kurt Gerron, Hans Albers, Edward Von Winterstein)

Full review

The Dance To The Death (Der Totentanz)

A factory explosion sparks a series of tragic events for a man and wife.

(Country: Germany; Year: 1912; Director: Urban Gad; Writer: Urban Gad; Stars: Asta Nielsen, Oskar Fuchs, Fritz Weidemann)

The Film Primadonna (Die Filmprimadonna)

Asta Nielsen portrays a film star who, from script writing to print duplication, oversees every step to assure the quality of the feature film. An exhausting task that is hard to live up to! The prima donna, while fatally in love with a philandering imposter, and at the same time desired by a young writer, falls ill. Her final performance will also become her own finale.

(Country: Germany; Year: 1913; Director: Urban Gad; Writer: Urban Gad; Stars: Asta Nielsen, Paul Otto, Fritz Weidemann)

The House On The River (Das Haus am Fluss)

A story about a German family during the war set in the winter of 1941-42 which centres on four women living in a remote house by the river: Mother Voß, her daughters Agnes and Lisbeth and daughter-in-law Emmi.

(Country: German Democratic Republic; Year: 1985; Director: Roland Gräf; Stars: Katrin Saß, Manfred Gorr, Rolf Hoppe, Corinna Harfouch, Sylvester Groth)

The Last Laugh (Der Letzte Mann)

Review preview for The Last Laugh

Technically impressive, indeed ground-breaking.

Keith Dudhnath · 3.5 out of 5
A hotel doorman suffers the ignominy of being demoted to lavatory attendant.

(Country: Germany; Year: 1924; Director: FW Murnau; Writer: Carl Meyer; Stars: Emil Jannings, Maly Delschaft, Max Hiller, Emilie Kurz, Hans Unterkircher, Hermann Vallentin, Olaf Storm, Georg John, Emmy Wyda)

Full review

Münchhausen

Baron von Münchhausen magically absurd, adventurous and exciting life story.

(Country: Germany; Year: 1943; Director: Josef von Báky; Writer: Gottfried August Bürger, Erich Kästner, Rudolph Erich Raspe; Stars: Hans Albers, Michael Bohnen, Brigitte Horney, Wilhelm Bendow)

The Murderers Are Among Us (Die Mörder sind unter uns)

A self-pitying surgeon on the verge of alcoholism, embarks on a relationship with the original tenant of the apartment where he is living when she returns from a concentration camp.

(Country: Germany/Soviet Occupation Zone; Year: 1946; Director: Wolfgang Staudte; Writer: Eberhard Keindorff, Johanna Sibelius, Fritz Staudte, Wolfgang Staudte; Stars: E. W. Borchert, Hildegard Knef, Erna Sellmer, Arno Paulsen)

The Pianist

Review preview for The Pianist

Polanski makes a familiar story of persecution and inhumanity utterly fresh.

Angus Wolfe Murray · 5 out of 5
True story of how a jewish concert pianist escaped the holocaust by hiding out in the Warsaw ghetto.

(Country: UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Poland; Year: 2002; Director: Roman Polanski; Writer: Ronald Harwood, based on the autobiography by Wladyslaw Szpilman; Stars: Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Frank Finlay, Maureen Lipman, Emilia Fox, Michal Zebrowski, Ed Stoppard, Julia Rayner, Jessica Kate Meyer, Ruth Platt)

Full review

The Rabbit Is Me (Das Kaninchen bin ich)

At the tender age of 19Maria Morzeck has already given up on her dreams. Instead of studying she is obliged to earn her living as a waitress on account of her brother’s conviction for ‘seditious agitation’. She falls in love for the first time but this puts her in a moral conflict, for the object of her affections is none other than Paul Deister, the judge who convicted her brother.

(Country: German Democratic Republic; Year: 1965; Director: Kurt Maetzig; Writer: Manfred Bieler, Manfred Bieler, Kurt Maetzig; Stars: Angelika Waller, Alfred Müller, Ilse Voigt, Wolfgang Winkler)

The Reader

Review preview for The Reader

Thought-provoking rather than yielding insight.

Chris · 3.5 out of 5
A law student re-encounters an old lover as she faces a war-crimes trial.

(Country: US, Germany; Year: 2008; Director: Stephen Daldry; Writer: David Hare, Bernhard Schlink; Stars: Ralph Fiennes, Jeanette Hain, David Kross, Kate Winslet, Susanne Lothar, Alissa Wilms, Florian Bartholomäi, Friederike Becht, Matthias Habich, Frieder Venus)

Full review See: Berlin Diary: Day Two

Sun Alley (Sonnenallee)

Review preview for Sun Alley

Attacking the communist regime with minimal reverence, Sun Alley is entertaining and at times very funny.

Nicola Osborne · 3.5 out of 5
East meets West in Seventies Berlin.

(Country: Germany; Year: 1999; Director: Leander Haussmann; Writer: Thomas Brussig, Leander Haussman; Stars: Alexander Scheer, Alexander Beyer, Katharina Thalbach, Teresa Weissbach, Detlev Buck)

Full review