Black Book 2006  R, 145 min.
Genre: Drama / Thriller
aka: Zwartboek
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Cast: Carice van Houten, Sebastian Koch, Thom Hoffman, Halina Reijn, Waldemar Kobus, Derek de Lint, Christian Berkel, Dolf de Vries, Peter Blok, Michiel Huisman, Ronald Armbrust, Frank Lammers, Xander Straat, Johnny de Mol, Matthias Schoenaerts
Rachel Stein (Carice van Houten) seeks help from the Dutch Resistance in Holland during World War II and manages to contact Mr. Smaal (Dolf de Vries) who helps Rachel, her family, and other refugees get access to a ferry heading to Belgium. But, Nazis take over the boat, and Rachel is the sole survivor. Alone in the world, she joins the Dutch Resistance and becomes the girlfriend of Gestapo chief Ludwig Muntze (Sebastian Koch). Leading this double life allows her to get an inside look into Gestapo headquarters where she learns that people and things are not always the way they seem to be.
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Das Experiment 2001  R, 115 min.
Genre: Foreign / Drama
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Cast: Moritz Bleibtreu, Christian Berkel, Oliver Stokowski, Wotan Wilke Mohring, Stephan Szasz, Polat Dal, Danny Richter, Ralf Muller, Markus Rudolf, Peter Fieseler
This story is based on the infamous "Stanford Prison Experiment" in which students were assigned to play either prisoners or guards in a lab prison. Almost from the beginning, prisoners became defiant, and guards employed humiliation tactics. An interesting study of how absolute power corrupts.
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Downfall 2004 R, 150 min.
Genre: Foreign / Drama
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Cast: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Corinna Harfouch, Ulrich Matthes, Juliane Kohler, Heino Ferch, Christian Berkel, Matthias Habich, Thomas Kretschmann, Michael Mendl, Ulrich Noethen, Birgit Minichmayr, Andre Hennicke, Rolf Kanies, Justus von Dohnanyi
Adolf Hitler's (Bruno Ganz) secretary Traudl Junge (Alexandra Maria Lara) narrates this story of Hitler's last ten days, which he spent in a Berlin bunker before his suicide in 1945. Hitler's Reich is crumbling, and his mistress Eva Braun (Juliane Kohler) throws parties. Meanwhile, Joseph Goebbels (Ulrich Matthes) and his wife Magda (Corinna Harfouch) contemplate murdering their six children and then killing themselves. Meanwhile, Hitler refuses to leave and, like the others in the bunker, will choose suicide rather than facing the Allies after Germany is defeated.
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Safe Conduct 2002  N/R, 163 min.
Genre: Foreign / Drama
Director: Bertrand Tavernier
Cast: Jacques Gamblin, Denis Podalydes, Charlotte Kady, Marie Desgranges, Ged Marlon, Philippe Morier-Genoud, Laurent Schilling, Maria Pitarresi, Christian Berkel, Richard Sammel
This semi-biographical story is based on the lives of two, real-life filmmakers who found ways to practice their craft when the Germans occupied France during World War II. Jean Devaivre (Jacques Gamblin) wrote screenplays for French films while Jean Aurenche (Denis Podalydes) worked for the Germans as an assistant director for propaganda films. Both lives are celebrated for the creativity exerted under the circumstances.
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The Serpent's Egg 1977  R, 120 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Cast: Liv Ullmann, David Carradine, Gert Frobe, Heinz Bennent, James Whitmore, Glynn Turman, Toni Berger, Christian Berkel, Paula Braend, Erna Bruenell
An American Jewish couple, Manuela (Liv Ullmann) and Abel Rosenberg (David Carradine), are trapeze artists caught in Berlin as Hitler rises to power. A rare Bergman misfire.
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Valkrie 2008  PG-13, 120 min.
Genre: Drama / Thriller
Director: Bryan Singer
Cast: Tom Cruise, Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Carice van Houten, Thomas Kretschmann, Terence Stamp, Eddie Izzard, Kevin McNally, Tom Hollander, David Schofield, Kenneth Cranham, Christian Berkel, David Bamber, Ian McNeice
During World War II, Col. Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise) was serving in the German army in Tunisia where he lost his left eye, right hand, and fingers of his left hand as a result of the Allied bombing. Claus has had enough of the Nazi regime and joins a movement plotting to kill Hitler (David Bamber) but still win the war. Now, he conspires with the military and government bigwigs (Kenneth Branagh, Terence Stamp, Bill Nighy, and Eddie Izzard) in smoke filled rooms to plot Hitler's demise.
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| 1. Black Book (2006)
aka: Zwartboek
2. Das Experiment (2001)
3. Downfall (2004)
4. Safe Conduct (2002)
5. The Serpent's Egg (1977)
6. Valkrie (2008)
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