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December 2025
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Faust meets Munchhausen in this fantasy film about a nobleman who makes a pact with Satan to possess a faithless woman destined to marry another.
On his way to Africa, Don Pietro, a young missionary priest, has his suitcase stolen at the train station in Naples. While making every effort to retrieve his baggage, he finds out how devastated and miserable the city of Naples is. Learning that he's been the victim of a gang of local street urchins, he decides that his mission is here in Naples, not in another land. He creates a home for poor kids, assisted by Maddalena, the cook, with a view to putting the "scugnizzi" back on the right track. He's very successful with Peppinello, who shows gratitude for what the priest is doing and feels good in his new, secure home. But some other kids don't play by the rules and find the home a convenient place for hiding the loot of their thefts.
Der Kongress tanzt takes place during the Congress of Vienna, which took place in 1814/1815 after the Napoleonic Wars. It was a meeting between the powers that be to set the frontiers of the world. Russia's Tsar Alexander is traveling incognito among the people in the tradition of his ancestor Peter the Great, coming across a witty and charming Viennese glove seller, the young Christel Weinzinger. She announces her business by throwing a flowers with a visiting card into each carriage that drives past. As the story unfolds, Christel is accused of an assassination attempt and finally condemned. The punishment is however waived and Christel is again free. The Tsar, having fallen in love with Christel, uses the visiting card, in order to visit her in her business. A romance develops, with Prince Metternich and his army of spies intending to use the situation to further his own agenda. This however clashes with Pepi, his secretary, who is also in love with Christel. Christel tells her friends about the romance, which is naturally not believed. Only as the Tsar arrives with a splendid carriage to fetch her, does astonishment set in.
Einer der gr ten Publikumserfolge des fr hen deutschen Tonfilms mit dem "Traumpaar" Lilian Harvey und Willy Fritsch: W hrend des Wiener Kongresses, auf dem die europ ischen Regenten 1814 die Neuordnung des Kontinent aushandeln, erlebt die Handschuhmacherin Christel ihr ganz privates Abenteuer. Zun chst wird sie als vermeintliche Attent terin verhaftet, dann verdreht sie dem russischen Zaren Alexander geh rig den Kopf. Doch als die Nachricht von Napoleons Landung in Frankreich eintrifft, m ssen die Herrscher wieder ans Herrschen denken. Der Kongress ist vorbei, und Christel bleibt ohne ihren Alexander in Wien zur ck.
Four teenagers in civil war Russia find their way to heroism: Danka is the orphaned son of a Red agent, whose father was tortured and executed by the warlord Lyuty before his very eyes; his sister, Ksanka; former schoolboy Valerka; and Yashka, a Gypsy with a Devil-may-care attitude. They pledge loyalty to each other and decide to exact revenge on the bandits who bring so much suffering to peaceful villagers. That leads them on a series of daring adventures in true "Western" style.
In Spain, in the Sixteenth Century, an elderly gentleman named Don Quixote has gone mad from reading too many books on chivalry. Proclaiming himself a knight, he sets out with his squire, Sancho Panza, to reform the world and revive the age of chivalry, choosing a slut to be his noble lady Dulcinea. He mistakes inns for castles, a play about chivalry for the real thing, flocks of sheep for armies, convicts for wronged prisoners, and windmills for giants. While he and Sancho are off on their adventures, his niece, her fiancee, and the local priest think up a strategy to get him back home.
Was aus einem braven B rger und Untertanen, einem kritiklosen Befehlsempf nger, einem Mitl ufer, einem Durchschnittsmenschen, wie wir alle es sind, werden kann - Theodor Kotulla demonstriert es am Beispiel von Rudolf H (im Film Franz Lang, gespielt von G tz George), der von 1940 bis zum Ende KZ-Kommandant in Auschwitz war und 1947 eben dort von den Polen hingerichlet wurde. Dem Film, der auf Robert Merles Roman ,,Der Tod ist mein Metier" basiert, gelingt der vom Regisseur angestrebte Ausgleich zwischen Dokument und ,,fiction", der ihn glaubw rdig und zu einem St ck noch l ngst nicht unaktuellen Anschauungsunterrichts macht.
What a good citizen and subject, an unquestioning follower of orders, and an average man like all of us can turn into is demonstrated by Theodor Kotulla's portrayal of Rudolf Hoess (called "Fritz Lang" in the film and played by Goetz George), commandant of Auschwitz Concentration Camp from 1940 til the end and who ended up being hanged there by the Poles in 1947. The film, based on Robert Merle's novel, "Death is My Trade", successfully balances fact and fiction, making the whole thing seem historically factual and providing a valuable lesson to the viewer. In line with the times, just a short time before the TV-series Holocaust made its appearance, the violence associated with the subject is "sanatized" and only barely hinted at. Nevertheless, the monologue at film's end, detailing the "special handling" of the transports which arrived at Birkenau's ramps up to and including the eventual gassing of the majority of the deported, is as catastrophic in its graphic nature as it is distressing in its monotone delivery.
Wer ist "der Zinker"? fragt sich nicht nur Scotland Yard, sondern auch die Londoner Unterwelt. Der geheimnisvolle Hehler zwingt Gauner dazu, ihm ihre Beute f r einen Spottpreis zu berlassen. Wer nicht mitspielt, den verr t ("verzinkt") er an die Polizei. Und wer ihm im Wege steht, den bringt er skrupellos um, bevorzugt durch das t dliche Gift der schwarzen Mamba. Inspektor Elford von Scotland Yard muss aufpassen, dass er nicht den berblick verliert, denn fast jeder ist verd chtig.
Who s The Squeaker ? Not only is Scotland Yard asking this, but rather the entire London underworld. The mysterious fence forces crooks to sell him their misgotten gains for a ridiculously low price. And he who doesn t play along is betrayed to the police. And when someone stands in his way, he s knocked off without a second thought, preferably by the poison of the deadly Mamba. Inspector Elford from Scotland Yard has to be careful not to overlook anything, for almost everyone is a suspect.
FRANZ SCHUBERT (1953) * with switchable English subtitles *
Franz Schubert, a talented composer, struggles to receive the recognition which many great artists fail to get in their lifetime. Supported by friends, he gives up his job as a teacher, and composes songs, symphonies, and operas. Exploited by publishers who grow rich off of him and rejected by critics as being too new and his works too "bizarre', he nevertheless does not give up the fight, even though crippling headaches and dizziness confront him at every turn. His love for the singer Therese Grob and his works like Der Erlkoenig and Winterreise mark his musical path through life.
Franz Schubert, ein talentierter Komponist, k mpft um Anerkennung. Unterst tzt von Freunden verl sst er den Lehrerberuf, komponiert Lieder, Sinfonien und Opern. Trotz R ckschl gen und Ablehnung durch Verleger und Theater gibt er nicht auf. Seine Liebe zur S ngerin Therese Grob und Werke wie Der Erlk nig" und die Winterreise" pr gen seinen musikalischen Weg.
It's 1940 and Iskra Polyako is a self-assured Komsomolka being brought up by a mother who is fanatically devoted to the Communist Party. At the birthday party for one of her classmates, Iskra hears the verses of the poet Sergei Yesenin. She enjoys his poetry, but considers him alien to Soviet culture. She was taught this; and Iskra's ideals are inviolable and clear-cut. However, it doesn't take the girl long to discover that the reality of repressions, which had reached their peak four years before, are very much still the norm.
A newsreel sets the scene for summer 1940, showing Nazi advances in Europe with England facing invasion and aerial attacks on the island increasing. On 15 September 1940, during the Battle of Britain, RAF Squadron Leader Geoffrey Crisp (David Niven), the station commander of a Spitfire squadron, recounts the story of how his friend, R.J. Mitchell (Leslie Howard) designed the Spitfire fighter. His pilots listen as Crisp begins with the 1922 Schneider Trophy competition, where Mitchell began his most important work, designing high speed aircraft. While watching seagulls with his binoculars, he envisions a new shape for aircraft in the future. Crisp, an ex-First World War pilot seeking work, captivates Mitchell with his enthusiasm and the designer promises to hire him as test pilot should his design ever go into production. Facing opposition from official sources, Mitchell succeeds in creating a series of highly successful seaplane racers, eventually winning the Schneider Trophy outright for Great Britain.
Lika, Croatia, shortly after the end of the Second World War: A young boy, Ranko, finds a German Shepherd in the mountains, which was abandoned there after the War. Caught in a trap, Ranko frees and befriends him. For some reason, the villagers think the dog resembles a wolf (guess they don't see much of either in that part of Croatia) and think he's a dangerous lone wolf, which is killing local sheep. The boy fears for his new pet and secretly brings him food up in the mountains. At one point, his new friend actually saves the boy from a real wolf (which, apparently, Ranko tells no one about, because everyone still thinks Rin Tin Tin is a wolf and a hunt is organized to exterminate him).
KOMODIANTEN (1941) * with switchable English subtitles *
Germany, around 1750: Karoline Neuber, director of the first German theater groups, lived at a time, when the clown was the most popular figure in German theatre. Neuber now wants to use his traveling troupe to establish a new theatre culture on German soil. When the clown in the troupe once more ruins the gig with his ribald jokes, Karoline wants to throw him out of the group. But the fresh mouthed clown is under the protection of a member of the Leipzig city council and Karoline's hands are thusly tied. This same councilman, however, also has an eye on Philine, the daughter of the innkeeper Schroder; and the innkeeper would be more than happy to marry his child off to this creep. Philine ends up finding shelter with the theatre group; but when Count Armin falls in love with her, Duchess Amalia hatches a plot against the couple, because she wants the Count to marry the daughter of the Duke of Coburg. As if all that weren't trouble enough, the clown, whom Karoline finally managed to fire, has put together his own theatre troupe and is trying hard to steal away all the members of Karoline's Deutschland, um 1750: Karoline Neuber, Leiterin einer der ersten deutschen Theatergruppen, lebte zu einer Zeit, in der der Hanswurst die popul rste Figur des deutschen Theaters war. Neuber hingegen will mit ihrer fahrenden Truppe eine gepflegte Theaterkultur auf den B hnen des Landes etablieren. Als sich ihr Hanswurst bei einem Auftritt in Merseburg mal wieder zu viel herausnimmt bei seinen zotigen Scherzen, will sie ihn aus der Truppe werfen. Doch der freche Kerl bekommt Sch tzenhilfe von einem Leipziger Stadtrat, weshalb Karoline die H nde gebunden sind. Dieser Stadtrat hat auch ein Auge auf Philine geworfen, die h bsche Tochter des Gastwirtes Schr der, und der ist nur zu gerne bereit, sein Kind mit dem Widerling zu verkuppeln. Philine findet bei der Neuberschen Truppe Zuflucht, doch als Graf Armin sich in Philine verliebt, spinnt die Herzogin Amalia eine Intrige gegen das Paar, da sie den Grafen mit der Tochter des Herzogs von Coburg verheiraten m chte. Als w re das nicht rger genug, stellt der Hanswurst, den Karoline nun endg ltig gefeuert hat, seine eigene Theatergruppe zusammen und versucht, s mtliche Mitglieder der Neuberschen Truppe abzuwerben.
Country doctor Lohnefink is a dye-in-the-wool bachelor. His landlady Fita is a widow with a tribe of kids, who's looking to get married again and will do anything and everything to get her hands on the doctor. Lohnefink resists bravely, but when beautiful Gretl shows up (the niece of a friend and secretary in a marriage registrar's), then the good doctor has to admit defeat ... as she ends up marrying him. Landarzt L hnefink ist ein eingefleischter Junggeselle, und seine Wirtin Fita eine heiratslustige und kinderreiche Witwe, die hartn ckig zahlreiche Versuche unternimmt, ihn zum Standesamt zu bringen. L hnefink wehrt sich tapfer, doch als sich die h bsche Gretl einschaltet, Nichte eines Freundes und Sekret rin in einem Eheanbahnungsinstitut, da muss L hnefink sich dann doch geschlagen geben weil Gretl ihn gleich selbst heiratet.
Spaghetti Western with action a-plenty about the attempted frame up of a boy by locals, so that the ranch and fortune he inherited from his dad could be stolen and the kid sent away to jail for a very long time.
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In the face of rebellion in Russia, Czar Alexander II sends soldier Michael Strogoff 2,000 miles away with a critical message for Grand Duke Vladimir. On the train journey, Michael befriends a traveler and comes into contact with a mysterious spy, who both unexpectedly aid him in his quest. Once behind enemy lines, Michael is near his hometown and his mother, whom he must avoid in order to fulfill his mission.
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Wealthy London businessman Trayne has worked out a brilliant plan to steal the royal crown jewels from the Tower of London. First, he organizes the breakout of the prisoner Graham, who looks astonishingly like Dick Lee-Carnaby, a guard at the Tower. Trayne's secretary, Hope, who's Carnaby's main squeeze, knows nothing of this devilish scheme and ends up unwittingly helping it to take place. The project seems flawless and ready to execute; but Trayne is clueless about the intrigues of his accomplice Dinah Pawling and the interfering appearance of a moronic tourist on the scene. The unwelcome visitor notices Hope being abducted by a gang of bad guys. So, they take him prisoner, too. At first, the robbery takes place exactly as planned: Hope is forced to lure her lover Dick out of the Tower and he's overpowered. After that, the jewels are grabbed with little more than a how-do-you-do. Der wohlhabende Londoner Gesch ftsmann Trayne hat einen raffinierten Plan ausgearbeitet, um die ber hmten Kronjuwelen aus dem Tower zu rauben. Er organisiert den Ausbruch des Str flings Graham, der dem Tower-W chter Dick Lee-Carnaby verbl ffend hnlich sieht. Traynes Sekret rin Hope, mit Carnaby befreundet, ahnt nichts von dem teuflischen Plan, soll aber unfreiwillige Helferin bei der Durchf hrung des Raubes werden. Das Vorhaben scheint einwandfrei und l ckenlos vorbereitet, aber Trayne hat nicht mit den Intrigen seiner Komplizin Dinah Pawling und mit dem Erscheinen eines trotteligen Touristen gerechnet. Dieser sieht, wie Hope von Bandenmitgliedern weggebracht wird. Daraufhin nimmt man ihn ebenfalls gefangen. Der Raub klappt zun chst genau nach Plan: Man zwingt Hope, ihren Freund Dick aus dem Tower zu locken, worauf dieser berw ltigt wird. M helos werden daraufhin die Juwelen erbeutet.
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SPAIN (Ispanija) (1939) * with hard-encoded Italian and switchable English subtitles * . Bolshevik propaganda at its finest: The film was released three months after the Spanish Civil War ended; and it was not the Popular Front supported by the Soviets who won. The documentary largely relies on excerpts from newsreels shot by Soviet cinamatographers, and is far from sparing in showing the war's brutality in Spain. The film crows about the accomplishments of the Left during the upheaval and one would think watching it that the Left was going to have a great victory in the war-torn country (spoiler: the film's conclusion showing the march of the Nationalists into Madrid after their victory doesn't quite provide the Communist Happy Ending you might have been hoping for).
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In a working-class district of Paris, Albert, an impecunious street singer, lives in an attic room. He meets a beautiful Romanian girl, Pola, and falls in love with her; but he is not the only one, since his best friend Louis and the gangster Fred are also under her spell. One evening Pola dares not return home, because Fred has stolen her key and she does not feel safe. She spends the night with Albert who, reluctantly remaining the gentleman, sleeps on the floor and gives his bed to Pola.
LIMITE (1931): The theme of Limite is stated in its title: the limits faced by man in the struggle for existence. The narrative concerns three shipwrecked people, two women and a man, adrift in a small boat on the open sea. In a series of flashbacks, they reveal to each other their stories and what they were trying to escape from when they took flight on the ship. LAS HURDES (1927): Land Without Bread or Unpromised Land) is a 27-minute-long documentary film directed by Luis Bu uel and co-produced by Bu uel and Ramon Acin. The narration was written by Bu uel, Rafael Sanchez Ventura, and Pierre Unik, with cinematography by Eli Lotar. The film focuses on the Las Hurdes region of Spain, the mountainous area around the town La Alberca, and the intense poverty of its occupants. Bu uel, who made the film after reading the ethnographic study Las Jurdes: tude de g ographie humaine (1927) by Maurice Legendre, took a Surrealist approach to the notion of the anthropological expedition. The result was a travelogue in which the narrator s extreme (indeed, exaggerated) descriptions of human misery of Las Hurdes contrasts with his flat and disinterested manner. The film was originally silent, though Bu uel himself narrated when it was first shown. A French narration by actor Abel Jacquin was added in Paris in 1935. Bu uel used extracts of Johannes Brahms's Symphony No. 4 for the music. Bu uel slaughtered at least two animals to make Las Hurdes. He ordered an ailing donkey to be covered with honey so he could film it being stung to death by bees. Similarly, his crew shot a mountain goat and threw its carcass from a cliff for another sequence. The film was banned in Spain from 1933 to 1936.
The story of six days of war. In May 1954, during the Indochina War, the 317th Local Auxiliary Platoon, composed of four Frenchmen and forty-one Laotians, receives orders to abandon the small, isolated outpost of Luong Ba in Laos, near the border with Vietnam, to join a column sent to relieve the entrenched camp of Dien Bien Phu as part of Operation D. They have to reach Tao Tsai, one hundred and fifty kilometers further south, and endure the arduous journey, battling the hostile forest, water, harsh weather, fevers, and the communist Viet Minh forces. During the march, the soldiers learn with dismay of the fall of the entrenched camp of Dien Bien Phu. The platoon is commanded by an officer, assisted by three French non-commissioned officers and one Laotian non-commissioned officer. Having arrived fifteen days earlier, the officer, young Second Lieutenant Torrens, had just graduated from Saint-Cyr. He is assisted by Warrant Officer Willsdorff, an Alsatian conscripted against his will into the Wehrmacht, a veteran of the Second World War on the Eastern Front.
LIEBESBRIEFE AUS DEM ENGADIN (1938)
For Luis Trenker fans, it'll come as no surprise that this is another Bergfilm: A movie about the Alps, skiing and the lifestyle of those who were wrapped up in the sports and affairs of mountain life. And, as always, Luis is the scriptwriter, director and, of course, star of his own work. The seemingly self-centered writer-director-star with apparent control issues was pretty much a one-trick-pony, too: In the film, he plays (surprise, surprise) a ski instructor at a Swiss resort named Toni, who (of course) is a hit with the ladies. The hotel director at this resort has come up with an idea to cash in on the unrequited lust of these female tourists all hot to have Toni "teach" them: let's send out spam mail to all of Toni's former pupils, asking them to come back to Switzerland and, while we're at it, to donate $ 5,000 towards a new bobsled track. Of course, while scriptwriter-director-star Luis Trenker thinks he's the 1930s version of woman-slayer Constance, die junge Witwe eines reichen Amerikaners, bekommt einen Liebesbrief aus dem Engadin. Unterschrieben ist er vom ber hmten, beraus feschen und schneidigen Bergf hrer und Skilehrer Toni Anewater, den sie beim Urlaub im vorigen Jahr kennengelernt hatte. Constance und ihre Freundin Dorothy fahren also kurz entschlossen in die winterliche Schweiz. Aber gleichlautende Liebesbriefe waren auch an andere verm gende Damen in London, Paris und Rom gegangen, verfasst von einem gesch ftst chtigen Hotelbesitzer. Bergf hrer Toni wei nichts von dieser Machenschaft. Er wundert sich nur ber die verliebten Blicke, die ihm seine Sch lerinnen im Skilehrgang gleich reihenweise zuwerfen. Ganz ernsthaft aber verguckt sich Dorothy in Toni und er sich in sie. Doch dann kommt die Geschichte mit den Liebesbriefen heraus, es wird gar ein Haftbefehl wegen Heiratsschwindel gegen Toni ausgeschrieben. Emp rt und verzweifelt f hrt Dorothy ob dieses Verrates ab. Aber ein Mann wie Toni l sst sich nicht so leicht absch tteln.
Dolly Haas plays the girl singer in a band of youthful musicians. There are several boys in the band, but handsome Hitler Youth Albert Lieven is the one Dolly has a crush on ... except that she's too shy to let on. The group gets stranded overnight in a spooky, old castle, which turns out to have treasure hidden somewhere in it. The kids spend the night exploring all the secret panels and hidden passages ... inbetween musical numbers, that is, for which they whip out their instruments, seeming to forget there are ghosts in the castle ... or are there? Eine Kriminal-Kom die mit viel Musik, in der eine S ngerin einer Diebesbande nachsp rt.
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Deserted by his father, and dislocated by the Second World War, Paul is a boy who wants affection and attention and cannot find it at home. And so, he seeks love and affection from the occupiers and other men he meets on the streets of Paris. For a while, he becomes the pet of some German soldiers, running errands for them. Later, he helps the Resistance, and when the Americans come to stay, he is really in his element with them.
Mirele Efros, also known as "The Yiddish Queen Lear", is a sophisticated version of Ukrainian-born Jacob Gordin's work about honesty, decency and devotion towards family and community. Mirele, a wealthy and pious widow, whose devotion to her children even goes as far as hand-picking her eldest son's wife, makes a tragic mistake in evaluating her future daughter-in-law as giving and pious. Conflict ensnares the two in short order and a lesson about the value of piety is conveyed in the cautionary tale.
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St Pauli in Hamburg is the "New Orleans" of Germany and Grosse Freiheit Nr. 7 is located on it's "Bourbon Street". It's a party town, but the characters in the film have changed. Hans Albers is a different Hans. He also has another brother, who now owns the the Hippodrome, played by Heinz Ruhmann, co-run by his girlfriend , played by Fita Benkhoff. This different version of the Hans character has come back from the sea to settle in St Pauli. His brother is having problems: no one wants to go to his place anymore; the horse riding is boring to tourists. Hans comes back to help him out with his bar and his accordion. He seems to draw people to Heinz's club. It gets so good, that Heinz seeks a loan from the property owner of St Pauli's night clubs, played by Gustav Knuth, but his associates, one of them played by Fritz Wagner, are a bunch of crooks and he doesn't know this
Als der Seemann Hannes Wedderkamp von langer Fahrt nach Hamburg zur ckkehrt, begegnet er zum ersten Mal seiner inzwischen erwachsenen Tochter Anni. Diese jedoch wuchs in der berzeugung auf, dass Hannes' alter Freund Pitter Breuer, der in Hamburg ein schlecht laufendes Hippodrom betreibt, ihr Vater sei. Einiges also ist grade zu biegen, damit wieder Gl ck und Ordnung in Hannes Wedderkamps und Annis Leben einziehen kann: Mit eine Revue bringen Hannes und Pitter das Hippodrom wieder auf die Erfolgsspur, einer Verbrecherbande wird das Handwerk gelegt, und bevor Anni mit dem Reedersohn J rgen zusammenkommen kann, muss auch noch die Frage nach ihrem wirklichen Vater gekl rt werden.
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