"New German Cinema" Treasures at SFPLLike this list

15 items

• Wings of Desire

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  Actor Bruno Ganz plays an angel who falls in love with a lonely trapeze artist in this poetic, soulful romance by director Wim Wenders. The film features beautiful cinematography of West Berlin, a charming subplot with Peter Falk, and a live…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle

  Every man for himself and God against all

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  Director Werner Herzog’s masterpiece brings to life the true story of Kaspar Hauser, a young man abandoned in Nuremburg in 1828 after years of imprisonment in a cellar. At first unable to walk or speak, Kaspar learns rapidly and soon amazes and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Vision

  aus dem Leben der Hildegard von Bingen = from the life of Hildegard von Bingen

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  Feminist director Margarethe von Trotta here dramatizes the life of Hildegard von Bingen, a famous 12th-century German mystic, theologian, artist, abbess, and composer. Actress Barbara Sukowa stirringly portrays this powerful woman who inspired both…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Welt am Draht

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  World on a Wire (Welt am Draht), is a stylish science fiction film by director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. The film’s convoluted storyline about virtual reality resembles that of The Matrix, but its cinematography, acting, and social critique are more…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Aguirre, Der Zorn Gottes

  Aguirre, the Wrath of God

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  Klaus Kinski brings demonic intensity to his role as Aguirre, a crazed Spanish conquistador who leads a band of explorers down the Amazon river in search of gold. Director Herzog’s 1972 film features fantastic jungle photography as well as hypnotic…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The American Friend

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  Bruno Ganz and Dennis Hopper star in this tense, enigmatic thriller about a quiet picture framer who gets sucked into a criminal underworld and fears revealing his predicament to family members or the police. The framer’s agony plays out against a…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The tin drum

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  In director Volker Schlondorff's faithful film version of the famous Gunther Grass novel, a violent and diminutive Oskar Matzerath recounts the story of his bizarre adventures in Danzig during World War II. The Tin Drum won the Palme D'Or at Cannes…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Angst essen Seele auf

  Ali: Fear eats the soul

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  Director Fassbinder’s poignant, award-winning drama portrays a romance that develops between an elderly woman and a Moroccan immigrant. Their relationship dismays their friends and also causes problems between themselves.

• Paris, Texas

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  Harry Dean Stanton and Nastassja Kinski star in this heart-breaking drama about an amnesiac drifter in the South Texas desert who slowly and gradually reconnects with his long lost family. This award winning German-French coproduction features…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Deutschland bleiche Mutter

  Germany, pale mother

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  This famous anti-war film by director Helma Sanders-Brahms tells the story of Lena and Hans, a young couple who marry on the eve of World War II, but are soon separated when Hans is drafted and sent to Poland. Traumatized by the war’s events, both…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant

  Bitter tears of Petra von Kant

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  Fassbinder’s searing all-female melodrama chronicles a destructive unrequited romance between a rich, domineering fashion designer, Petra, and young aspiring model. While Petra rants and rages, the camera remains a prisoner of the designer’s gaudy…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Artisten in der Zirkuskuppel, ratlos

  Artists under the big top, perplexed

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  Renowned author, filmmaker, and philosopher Alexander Kluge created some of the most radical and intellectually demanding films of the New German Cinema movement. Simultaneously Brechtian and dreamlike, Artists under the Big Top, Perplexed collages…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Die Faelschung

  Circle of deceit

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  Director Volker Schlondorff’s brilliant, harrowing film about the Lebanese Civil War, was shot on location in Beirut in 1980. The film follows a self-absorbed German journalist, played by Bruno Ganz, as he interacts with civilians and belligerents.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Deutschland im Herbst

  Germany in autumn

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  Directors Fassbinder, Kluge, Schlondorff, and Edgar Reitz all contributed to this documentary-like omnibus film about the anxious state of German society in 1977, a time when violence by The Red Army Faction and West Germany’s police response were…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The road trilogy

  Alice in the cities ; Wrong move ; Kings of the road

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  These brilliant early films by Wim Wenders explore both physical and emotional landscapes. In Alice in the Cities a traveling journalist accidentally gains custody of a young girl and is charged with returning her to her home. Kings of the Road,…Read moreRead more of this annotation