Circle of Deceit 1981  R, 108 min.
Genre: Drama
aka: False Witness
Director: Volker Schlondorff
Cast: Bruno Ganz, Hanna Schygulla, Jean Carmet, Jerzy Skolimowski, Gila von Weitershausen, Peter Martin Urtel, John Munro, Fouad Naim, Josette Khalil, Khaled El Sayed, Sarah Salem, Tafic Najem
The Lebanon War, as seen through the eyes of German journalist Georg Laschen (Bruno Ganz), is the subject of this film. Laschen stays long after other journalists pull out because of danger as he tries to understand the violence between Christians and Palestinians and report it to the world.
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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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Death of a Salesman 1985 TV, 150 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: Volker Schlondorff
Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Kate Reid, John Malkovich, Stephen Lang, Charles Durning, Louis Zorich, Jon Polito, Tom Signorelli
Dustin Hoffman and John Malkovich were both winners of Emmys for their performances in Arthur Miller's classic drama about the traveling salesman who spends his life on the road and, only when it is too late, realizes that he has sacrificed his family for his profession.
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A Gathering of Old Men 1987 TV, 100 min.
Genre: Drama
aka: Murder on the Bayou
Director: Volker Schlondorff
Cast: Louis Gossett Jr., Richard Widmark, Holly Hunter, Joe Seneca, Woody Strode, Julius Harris, Will Patton, Adam Storke, Dave Petitjean, Rosanna Carter, Tiger Haynes, Papa John Creach, Walter Breaux, Joe "Flash" Riley, Danny Barker
This is an excellent drama depicting social mores of rural Louisiana. When a White racist is shot, plantation manager Candy Marshall (Holly Hunter) gathers together a group of 18 elderly Black men to keep vigilantes away from the chief suspect, Black sharecropper Mathu (Louis Gossett Jr.). Sheriff Mapes (Richard Widmark) does confront them, and the men courageously step forward as a unit and claim responsibility for the act.
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The Handmaid's Tale 1990 R, 109 min.
Genre: Drama / Sci-Fi
Director: Volker Schlondorff
Cast: Natasha Richardson, Robert Duvall, Faye Dunaway, Aidan Quinn, Elizabeth McGovern, Victoria Tennant, Blanche Baker, David Dukes, Traci Lind, Zoey Wilson, Kathryn Doby, Reiner Schone, Lucia Hartpeng, Karma Ibsen Riley, Lucile McIntyre
Based on Margaret Atwood's novel, this is a morality tale about the future in America when ecological disasters have left most of the women infertile. Those who are still fertile are kept in camps and are the "handmaidens" to the men who make up the wealthy, powerful elite. Kate (Natasha Richardson) is a handmaid who is forced to lie between infertile Serena Joy (Faye Dunaway) and her husband, the Commander (Robert Duvall), while he impregnates her. Following the ceremony, Serena Joy is angry, the Commander is unfulfilled, and Kate dreams of freedom for herself and her unborn child.
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The Legend of Rita 1999 N/R, 101 min.
Genre: Foreign / Drama
Director: Volker Schlondorff
Cast: Bibiana Beglau, Martin Wuttke, Nadja Uhl, Harald Schrott, Alexander Beyer, Jenny Schilly, Mario Irrek, Thomas Arnold, Franca Kastein, Deitrich Korner
West German terrorist Rita (Bibiana Beglau) seeks a new identity in East Germany where secret police officer Erwin Hull (Martin Wuttke) transforms her into Susanne Schmidt and finds work for her in a textile factory. Her cover works for awhile, but what will happen after the German re-unification?
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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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The Ninth Day 2004  N/R, 90 min.
Genre: Foreign / Drama
Director: Volker Schlondorff
Cast: Ulrich Matthes, August Diehl, Hilmar Thate, Bibiana Beglau, Germain Wagner, Jean-Paul Raths, Ivan Jirik, Karel Hromadka, Miroslav Sichmann, Adolf Filip
Catholic priest Abbe Henri Kremer (Ulrich Matthes) is imprisoned by the Gestapo at Dachau concentration camp when, out of the blue, he is handed money for a one-way ticket to Luxenburg where, it is hoped, he will convince Bischof Philippe (Hilmar Thate) to align the Catholic Church with Hitler. Kremer has nine days to perform his task. If he fails, he will be sent back to Dachau.
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The Ogre 1996 N/R, 118 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: Volker Schlondorff
Cast: John Malkovich, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Gottfried John, Marianne Sagebrecht, Volker Spengler, Heino Ferch, Dieter Laser, Agnes Soral, Sasha Hanau, Vernon Dobtcheff
An introverted, almost-childlike Abel Tiffauges (John Malkovich) was a French soldier captured during World War II and sent to a POW camp. From there he serves in a Nazi training camp where his "vocation" is kidnapping young boys for training in the camp.
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Palmetto 1998 R, 114 min.
Genre: Mystery
Director: Volker Schlondorff
Cast: Woody Harrelson, Elisabeth Shue, Gina Gershon, Michael Rapaport, Chloe Sevigny, Rolf Hoppe, Angela Featherstone, Tom Wright, Marc Macaulay, Joe Hickey
This film misses the boat on editing as well as casting (Woody Harrelson is wrong, wrong, wrong for his role). But the story is good–newly released from prison, Harry Barber (Woody Harrelson) eagerly accepts the chance for a quick buck when Rhea Malroux (Elisabeth Shue) offers him $50,000 to participate in a trumped-up kidnapping. But events don't go according to plan.
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Swann in Love 1984 R, 110 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: Volker Schlondorff
Cast: Jeremy Irons, Ornella Muti, Alain Delon, Fanny Ardant, Marie-Christine Barrault, Anne Bennent, Nathalie Juvet, Charlotte Kerr, Humbert Balsan, Catherine Lachens, Philippine Pascal, Charlotte de Turckheim
During the 1890s, when Jewish aristocrat Charles Swann (Jeremy Irons) pursues and marries French courtesan Odette de Crecy (Ornella Muti), he suffers the loss of any standing he has in French society.
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The Tin Drum 1979 R, 144 min.
Genre: Foreign / Drama
Director: Volker Schlondorff
Cast: Mario Adorf, Angela Winkler, David Bennent, Daniel Olbrychski, Katharina Thalbach, Charles Aznavour, Andrea Ferreol, Tina Engel, Berta Drews, Roland Teubner
Based on Gunter Grass' novel, this movie won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. The story is about a little boy who refuses to grow up as a protest to the rise of Nazism and destruction of his world.
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Young Torless 1966 N/R, 90 min.
Genre: Foreign / Drama
Director: Volker Schlondorff
Cast: Mathieu Carriere, Marian Seidowsky, Bernd Tischer, Barbara Steele, Fred Dietz, Jean Launay, Lotte Ledl, Hanna Axmann-Rezzori, Herbert Asmodi, Fritz Gehlen
In Austria at the beginning of the 20th century, two classmates–Bineberg and Reiting (Bernd Tischer and Fred Dietz)–catch fellow student Anselm von Basini (Marian Seidowsky) stealing. Instead of reporting Basini to school authorities, Bineberg and Reiting turn him into their victim by humiliating and abusing him both physicially and psychologically. Another student, Thomas Torless (Mathieu Carriere), witnesses the cruelty and, when he has had enough, reports his classmates. But in the end, it is Torless, not the perpetrators, who is told to leave the school.
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| 1. Circle of Deceit (1981)
aka: False Witness
2. Coup de Grace (1976)
3. Death of a Salesman (1985)
4. A Gathering of Old Men (1987)
aka: Murder on the Bayou
5. The Handmaid's Tale (1990)
6. The Legend of Rita (1999)
7. The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1975)
8. The Ninth Day (2004)
9. The Ogre (1996)
10. Palmetto (1998)
11. Swann in Love (1984)
12. The Tin Drum (1979)
13. Young Torless (1966)
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