Salzburg. A few weeks before Christmas. Franz, in his late forties, secretly dreams of a career as a rock guitarist, but in real life he ekes out an unsuccessful existence as a music teacher. In addition, his marriage to Linn is in deep crisis and the pubescent daughter Julie hardly speaks to her parents.
Christoph Waltz, the villain with the friendly face, has become an integral part of the international cinema landscape. His breakthrough came with his roles as an SS standard bearer and bounty hunter in films by Quentin Tarantino. His charming portrayal of evil breaks with all clichés and won him two Oscars.
Goalkeeper Josef Bloch is sent off after committing a foul during an away game. This causes him to lose his bearings, and he wanders aimlessly through the city streets and spends the night with the box-office attendant of a movie theatre.
Germany in the early 19th century. "Die Vermessung der Welt" follows the two brilliant and eccentric scientists Alexander von Humboldt and Carl Friedrich Gauss on their life paths.
Austria in the mid-1950s. Seamstress Elfi Redlich and her two children are about to emigrate to America with occupation officer Hal when her husband, missing for eleven years, returns home from Siberia. Factory owner Ulmendorff is deported to Russia on his way to his niece Valerie's wedding as a result of an intrigue by his employee Hasak. Hasak's joy is short-lived, as the Jewish owner of the factory asserts his ownership.
The true life story of Margaret Rutherford (1892-1972) is in fact much more eccentric than the most famous fictional role she ever played: Miss Jane Marple, Agatha Christie's amateur sleuth. Rutherford's version was the very first appearance of Miss Marple on the big screen and it was far removed though from the petite, upper middle-class lady in the detective novels.
Anna, an attractive woman of 40 years, lives with her husband Johann and his small daughter. Both have managed to succeed economically and lead a helpless life. Suddenly appears a dark character, associated with the underworld, who begins to blackmail Anna, threatening to reveal his past.
After his father is murdered by the Nazis in 1938, a young Viennese Jew named Ferry Tobler flees to Prague, where he joins forces with another expatriate and a sympathetic Czech relief worker. Together with other Jewish refugees, the three make their way to Paris, and, after spending time in a French prison camp, eventually escape to Marseille, from where they hope to sail to a safe port.
Paul Silberstein, youngest son of an urbane but deeply strange old Austrian dynasty of confectionery millionaires, discovers the power of love and humor - and also his own extraordinary ability to shape his realities. Based on the motives of the short story with the same name by André Heller.
The young fashion designer Laura floats in the seventh heaven: After she has found an engagement ring with her friend Alexander, she is sure that he wants to use the joint visit to his parents to officially stop her hand. However, the family weekend is not a good star. Alexander's self-confident mother makes Laura feel that she is not good enough for her son. To make matters worse, even his ex-girlfriend Susanne appears, who leaves no stone unturned to win Alexander back.
Agathe von Trapp, the eldest daughter of a well-known musical family, overcomes many obstacles to pursue her musical career and move to the United States.
Travelling salesman Gregor Samsa wakes to find that he's been transformed into a giant insect. This particular Franz Kafka adaptation is seen from Gregor's point of view, continuing to explore themes of alienation, family duty, and the absurdity of modern life as the Samsa clan cope with how to go on with the situation at hand.
Otto is the proud father of his three children, David, Julia, and Pius. This requires considerable logistical skill, as the three mothers must not know anything about each other. The game of hide-and-seek is about to be exposed when the nanny, Maria, has to go to the hospital. Otto hopes for help from the loner Josef, a bar acquaintance. It's only a matter of time before the house of cards collapses and the mothers discover the well-kept secret.
A strange family: 17-year-old Phil lives with his mother and twin sister in an old mansion on the outskirts of town. When he returns from summer camp, the mood in the mansion has soured somehow. Phil doesn’t worry about it, hanging out with his best friend Kat instead. When he starts to feel attracted to a mysterious new student at school, Phil is plunged into emotional turmoil only exacerbated by the trouble at home.
Necessity is the mother of invention. After their stock portfolios slide into the cellar, the two friends Roderik and Fabian have set up another profitable business: the "Marriage Swindler Company". Roderik is the brilliant strategist who directs the amorous scams with a great deal of foresight. Fabian is the front man whose charm melts the hearts of the proudest women like butter in the Koh Samui sun. Fabian also tries to win the heart of Miriam Berger, the rich heiress of the famous "Siam Residence" resort, with his well-rehearsed charm charades. But then Roderik's ingenious strategy gets out of hand: Fabian actually falls in love with Miriam and stops thinking about business...
It is the world’s most mysterious manuscript. A book, written by an unknown author, illustrated with pictures that are as bizarre as they are puzzling — and written in a language that even the best cryptographers have been unable to decode. No wonder that this script even has a part in Dan Brown’s latest bestseller “The Lost Symbol”.
Lower Austria in the 80s. Anna helps out in her uncle's tavern to fund her studies and meets handsome Kurt who casts an eye on her. But when the local factory closes, life in the valley changes. Anna learns that Kurt is going to marry. Then a terrible accident occurs. The film conveys the rural society's changing self-conception and outlines the conflict between staying or leaving for the city.
My mother googles the film hero of her youth: Helmut Berger. She is shocked: only an addicted shadow of the former icon seems to be left. She decides to halt the obvious catastrophic decline of the once “most handsome man in the world”. As a consequence, this one-time god of the screen is suddenly sitting on my mother’s sofa in Nordsehl in Lower Saxony. And he stays put - for several months. While he trustingly rolls out his whole life before us, the dividing lines between film team, world star and family intermingle. This is a film about ageing, rising and falling - and about the fact that it is sometimes possible to regain an element of dignity in life.
This bizarre comedy demonstrates - as a convincing example - how TV-commercials may be produced, sacrificing extensive amounts of money, bottomless creativity and even human life without any respect right to the finish.
