Hape Kerkeling – Total Normal

Hape Kerkeling – Total Normal 2024

1

To mark the 60th birthday of the multi-talented comedian, singer and author Hape Kerkeling, the two documentary filmmakers André Schäfer and Eric Friedler have created a quiet, thoughtful and entertaining portrait of this often anarchic humorist. The film tells of his rapid rise as a teenager, his time and the blows of fate during the AIDS epidemic, the controversial forced outing, his confident exit from the show business and his new beginning. The film is a sensitive insight into the family history and a fast-paced journey through the career stages of a formative figure in German TV entertainment.

2024

Agatha Christie, the Queen of Crime

Agatha Christie, the Queen of Crime 2018

7.50

British author Agatha Christie (1890-1976) is the world's most translated author: her heroes, private detective Hercule Poirot and amateur sleuth Miss Marple, are known the world over. But who is the woman behind her bestsellers? A biographical search for clues, the unraveling of an iridescent personality whose existence and works were shaped by the tragic history of the 20th century: the eventful life of the Queen of Crime.

2018

The Romanovs: Glory and Fall of the Czars

The Romanovs: Glory and Fall of the Czars 2013

6.20

Yekaterinburg, Russia, July 17th, 1917. Czar Nicholas II Romanov and his entire family are brutally murdered by the Bolsheviks. This tragic event puts an end to the long dynasty that had ruled the country with an iron hand since the coronation of Michael I Romanov in 1613.

2013

The Kennedy Dynasty

The Kennedy Dynasty 2023

7.50

The story of a powerful political and economic dynasty, fundamental to understanding the turbulent destiny of the United States of America throughout the 20th century; of nine brothers who had truly extraordinary lives, marked by both greatness and tragedy: the story of the Kennedy family.

2023

Omar Sharif: Citizen of the World

Omar Sharif: Citizen of the World 2020

7.00

Several high-budget epic films became Omar Sharif (1932-2015) a film star. He was an actor, but also a bridge player, a womanizer, a bon vivant; he was a man full of contradictions, who enjoyed card games more than movies; he was an eternal nomad who spent half his life in a hotel.

2020

Rasputin: Murder in the Tsar's Court

Rasputin: Murder in the Tsar's Court 2016

5.80

St. Petersburg, Russia, December 30th, 1916. Grigori Rasputin is assassinated. The story of the humble peasant who became the most influential adviser to czarina Alexandra Feodorovna, wife of the last czar, Nicholas II Romanov.

2016

Hollywood's Second World War

Hollywood's Second World War 2019

8.00

For the USA, World War 2 was an all-out war - to mobilize the masses, the US government launched a huge propaganda campaign and cinema, the medium of the masses, was quite simply their most important weapon. Government authorities monitored the production of feature films and the military itself produced documentaries aimed at rallying the American people to support the troops. This film tells the story of four Hollywood directors of European origin, who returned to the "Old World" during the Second World War to make propaganda documentaries for the US Army at the front: William Wyler from Alsace, Frank Capra from Italy, Anatole Litvak from Ukraine and - in post-war Germany - Billy Wilder from Austria.

2019

My Name Is Fleming, Ian Fleming

My Name Is Fleming, Ian Fleming 2015

6.00

The man who invented James Bond: The story of Ian Fleming, real-life spy, ladies' man and sportsman, who was there at the birth of MI-5 and the CIA, and gave the world one of its most enduring and iconic heroes: Bond. James Bond.

2015

Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Thomas Mann

Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Thomas Mann 2024

1

Thomas Mann worked for almost 50 years on his novel „Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull“. In no other work has the writer incorporated so many of his personal desires and fears. The film takes a look behind the façade of the celebrated narrator and at the same time into the dazzling world of his literary alter ego Felix Krull. While Krull magnetizes, deceives, seduces and presents himself as a successful imposter, Thomas Mann struggles with his inner conflicts. The intertwined lives of Mann and Krull combine to form a captivating journey through exile, self-dramatization, and the bittersweet art of feigning. From a kaleidoscope of exclusively original quotes and fictional scenes, a cinematic tribute is created with subtle irony to the person behind the myth of Thomas Mann and the trickster in each of us.

2024

The Wikipedia Promise

The Wikipedia Promise 2021

6.60

In 2001, Jimmy Wales published the first article on Wikipedia, a collaborative effort that began with a promise: to democratize the spreading of knowledge, monopolized by the elites for centuries. But is Wikipedia really a utopia come true?

2021

Rock Hudson: Dark and Handsome Stranger

Rock Hudson: Dark and Handsome Stranger 2010

5.00

Rock Hudson was a virile screen idol who was the epitome of clean-cut masculinity. He was one of the first Hollywood celebrities to die of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, providing the killer virus with a famous face amidst the American AIDS paranoia of 1985. 2010 is not only the 25th anniversary of his death but would also have been his 85 birthday. The film investigates the many film roles Rock Hudson played, against the more intimate and private world of Roy Fitzgerald.

2010

You'll Never Walk Alone

You'll Never Walk Alone 2017

7.00

Documentary about the song “You'll Never Walk Alone,” the most famous sports anthem of the world.

2017

Never Be Boring: Billy Wilder

Never Be Boring: Billy Wilder 2017

7.30

A funny walk through the life story of Billy Wilder (1906-2002), a cinematic genius; a portrait of a filmmaker who never was a boring man, a superb mind who had ten commandments, of which the first nine were: “Thou shalt not bore.”

2017

James Dean: Little Prince, Little Bastard

James Dean: Little Prince, Little Bastard 2005

6.50

The collar of his coat turned up in New York: Images which have collaborated on building a myth – the image of eternal and misunderstood youth. Unlike Marlon Brando, the proletarian rebel with identifiable goals, James Dean was the timeless and androgynous youthful rebel. His death on the Interstate 46 leads us back to 1950s America, a time when youth was re-interpreted all anew.

2005

Bugatti: A Thirst for Speed

Bugatti: A Thirst for Speed 2018

6.70

The story of the Bugattis of Milan and Molsheim, the eccentric family behind the brand: Carlo, the patriarch and furniture designer; Rembrandt, the troubled sculptor; Ettore, the gifted engineer; Jean, the unfortunate heir. Art and design. Beauty and luxury. The fastest cars. Races. The need for speed.

2018

Let's Play, Boy

Let's Play, Boy 2008

5.30

The history of Playboy magazine as told by Hugh Hefner.

2008