Beware of a Holy Whore 1971  N/R, 117 min.
Genre: Foreign / Comedy
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Cast: Lou Castel, Eddie Constantine, Marquard Bohm, Hanna Schygulla, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Margarethe von Trotta, Hannes Fuchs, Ulli Lommel, Marcella Michelangeli, Kurt Raab, Karl Scheydt
The cast and crew of a German film company are on location awaiting materials (due to lack of funds) and the director, Jeff (Lou Castel). While they wait, the time is spent drinking, fighting, and sleeping around. When Jeff arrives, the funding has still not shown, and so more of the same antics continue as insights are gained on the filmmakers' lives.
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Coup de Grace 1976 N/R, 96 min.
Genre: Foreign / Drama
Director: Volker Schlondorff
Cast: Margarethe von Trotta, Matthias Habich, Rudiger Kirschstein, Mathieu Carriere, Marc Eyraud, Valeska Gert, Bruno Thost, Frederik von Zichy, Henry van Lyck, Franz Morek
World War I has just ended and the Soviet Civil War is in full swing in 1919 Latvia where three aristocrats have lived out the war on their estate–despite bombings and fighting around them. One of the aristocrats, Sophie (Margarethe von Trotta), is a Communist sympathizer and continuously falls in love with men who do not love her. An eerie film with abundant symbolism (much of which only a historian can pick up on).
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Gods of the Plague 1970 N/R, 92 min.
Genre: Foreign / Drama
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Cast: Hanna Schygulla, Margarethe von Trotta, Harry Baer, Gunther Kaufmann, Ingrid Caven, Carla Egerer, Katrin Schaake, Irm Hermann, Jan George, Lilo Pempeit, Peter Moland
Fresh out of prison, Franz (Harry Baer) attempts to start a new life, but it becomes too hard and he reverts to his old ways. An early Fassbinder effort that displays his original thinking.
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The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum 1975  R, 104 min.
Genre: Foreign / Drama
Director: Volker Schlondorff, Margarethe von Trotta
Cast: Angela Winkler, Mario Adorf, Dieter Laser, Jurgen Prochnow, Heinz Bennent, Hannelore Hoger, Harald Kuhlmann, Rolf Becker, Herbert Fux, Regine Lutz, Werner Eichhorn, Karl Heinz Vosgerau, Angelika Hellebrecht, Horatius Haberle, Henry van Lyck
Based on Heinrich Boll's novel, this is a film denouncing the German press and police as the story appeals for respect for human rights. The story evolves around Katharina Blum (Angela Winkler) who falls in love and, naively, lets her new lover, Ludwig (Jurgen Prochnow) spend the night. The next morning, he has disappeared, the police are at her door, and she is arrested. Too late, Katharina learns that her lover is a terrorist and traitor, and she will be the victim of persecution.
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Marianne and Juliane 1981  N/R, 106 min.
Genre: Foreign / Drama
Director: Margarethe von Trotta
Cast: Jutta Lampe, Barbara Sukowa, Rudiger Vogler, Doris Schade, Franz Rudnick, Verenice Rudolph, Luc Bondy, Julia Biedermann, Ina Robinski, Patrick Estrada-Pox
Two sisters, Juliane (Jutta Lampe) and Marianne (Barbara Sukowa), become embroiled in West Germany's political turmoil during the 1960s and 1970s, but they employ very different methods to obtain their goals. Exceptionally well acted.
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Rosenstrasse 2003  PG-13, 136 min.
Genre: Foreign / Drama
Director: Margarethe von Trotta
Cast: Katja Riemann, Maria Schrader, Doris Schade, Jutta Lampe, Svea Lohde, Jurgen Vogel, Martin Feifel, Fedja van Huet, Carola Regnier, Plien van Bennekom, Jan Decleir, Thekla Reuten
Marriages involving Jewish men and non-Jewish women are the subject of this film in which newly widowed Ruth Weinstein (Jutta Lampe) travels to Germany to uncover facts behind the 1943 events when Aryan women tried to save their Jewish husbands by participating in a stand-off against Nazis at their detention camp.
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The Second Awakening of Christa Klages 1978 N/R, 90 min.
Genre: Foreign / Drama
Director: Margarethe von Trotta
Cast: Tina Engel, Silvia Reize, Katharina Thalbach, Marius Muller-Westernhagen, Peter Schneider, Ulrich von Dobschutz, Erika Wackernagel, Fredrich Kaiser, Achim Krausz, Fritz Ley
When Christa (Tina Engel) cannot pay her day-care center's rent, she robs a bank, is suspected by the police, and attempts to launder the money. When that fails, matters go from bad to worse, and Christina, now a fugitive, escapes to Portugal–only for awhile. She returns to Germany where she is arrested, but her spirit remains undaunted.
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Sheer Madness 1983 N/R, 105 min.
Genre: Foreign / Drama
aka: Friends and Husbands
Director: Margarethe von Trotta
Cast: Hanna Schygulla, Angela Winkler, Peter Striebeck, Christine Fersen, Franz Buchrieser, Jochen Striebeck, Wladimir Yordanoff, Therese Affolter, Agnes Fink, Werner Eichhorn
Pianist and feminist literature teacher Olga (Hanna Schygulla) enjoys a relationship with an artist harboring suicidal tendencies, Ruth (Angela Winkler). The friendship is encouraged by Ruth's husband, Franz (Peter Striebeck). However, as the women rely more and more on each other, Franz feels left out, and problems ensue.
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Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness 1979 N/R, 92 min.
Genre: Foreign / Drama
Director: Margarethe von Trotta
Cast: Jutta Lampe, Gudrun Gabriel, Jessica Fruh, Konstantin Wecker, Rainer Delventhal, Agnes Fink, Heinz Bennent, Fritz Lichtenhahn, Gunther Schutz, Ilse Bahrs
Executive secretary Maria (Jutta Lampe) and biology student Anna (Gudrun Gabriel) are sisters who share a complex dysfunctional relationship that ends when Anna commits suicide. Marcia then takes young typist Miriam (Jessica Fruh) under her wing, but will this relationship succeed where the one with Anna failed?
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| 1. Beware of a Holy Whore (1971)
2. Coup de Grace (1976)
3. Gods of the Plague (1970)
4. The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1975)
5. Marianne and Juliane (1981)
6. Rosenstrasse (2003)
7. The Second Awakening of Christa Klages (1978)
8. Sheer Madness (1983)
aka: Friends and Husbands
9. Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness (1979)
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