All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

Directed by Lewis Milestone

Runtime: 103

One of the most powerful anti-war statements ever put on film, this gut-wrenching story concerns a group of friends who join the Army during World War I and are assigned to the Western Front, where their fiery patriotism is quickly turned to horror and misery by the harsh realities of combat. Director Lewis Milestone pioneered the use of the sweeping crane shot to capture a ghastly battlefield panorama of death and mud, and the cast, led by Lew Ayres, is terrific. It's hard to pick a favorite scene, but the finale, as Ayres stretches from his trench to catch a butterfly, is one of the most devastating sequences of the decade. The film won Oscars for Best Picture and for Milestone's direction — and trivia buffs should note that the actors were coached by future luminary George Cukor, while Ayres became a conscientious objector in World War II. The Road Back (1937) followed, and the film was remade for television in 1979. — Robert Firsching [AMG]

Don't watch the 1979 version unless you can accept John Boy (Richard Thomas) as a hard-bitten German soldier.

IMDB

Ashes and Diamonds (1958)

Battleship Potemkin (1925)

Bronenosets Potyomkin (1925)

Directed by Grigori Aleksandrov, Sergei M. Eisenstein

Runtime: 66

Thanks to the success of his earlier Strike, director Sergei Eisenstein was commissioned by the Soviet government to make a film commemorating the Uprising of 1905. Eisenstein's scenario, boiled down from what was to have been a multipart epic of the occasion, focussed on the crew of the Battleship Potemkin. Fed up with the extreme cruelties of their officers-and their maggot -- ridden meat rations -- the sailors stage a violent mutiny. This, in turn, sparks an abortive citizen revolt against the Czarist regime. The film's centerpiece is stage upon the Odessa Steps, where in 1905 the Czar's Cossacks methodically shot down and hacked up rioters and innocent bystanders alike. To Eisenstein, this single bloody incident was the chrysalis of the successful 1917 Bolshevik revolution; thus, he poured his heart and soul into the Odessa Steps episode. The result was what many film historians consider the most famous sequence ever filmed; it is certainly one of the most imitated, as witness Brian DePalma's The Untouchables (1987). This triumph of Eisenstein's "rhythmical editing" technique is in the middle of film; it is not the climax, as many who've never seen Potemkin automatically assume. Incredibly, the sequence is actually topped by Eisenstein's jubilant finale, wherein the sailors of Imperial Navy, in solidarity with their comrades, disregard orders to fire upon the Potemkin. Their pivotal decision is symbolized by the legendary "waking lions" montage (Eisenstein isn't too subtle, but boy was he effective!) The two major sequences in Battleship Potemkin can still bring an audience to its feet even when taken out of context. Considering the intensity of their performances, it is astonishing to learn that all the actors in the film were amateurs, selected by Eisenstein because of "rightness" for roles. Pictorial quality varies from print to print, but even in a duped-down version, Battleship Potemkin is must-see cinema. - Hal Erickson [AMG] 74 min.

UC Berkeley bibliography of works on Battleship Potemkin

Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (1927)

Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Großstadt

Directed by WalterRuttman

Runtime: 70

A cross section of life in 1927 Berlin from dawn to midnight on a late spring day. Uses montage, cutting, and editing to capture the pulse and tempo of this city.

AMG

Border Street (1950)

Ulica Graniczna (1949), That Others May Live (1949)

Directed by Aleksander Ford

Runtime: n/a

IMDB

AMG

Brücke, Die (1959)

Runtime: Germany:105 / USA:102

Bernhard Wicki's directorial debut, this is an excellent little film with little plot and no known names on the roster. In the final days of World War II, German teenagers join the Nazi army in a futile attempt to stop the enemy invasion. A sympathetic officer places the boys as guards of a seemingly unimportant bridge. The seven youths are thrown into battle when American tanks unexpectedly appear and try to cross the bridge. The film has a definite anti-war message. — Dan Pavlides [AMG]

IMDB

Canal (1957)

Kanal (1957) They Loved Life (1957)

Directed by Andrzej Wajda

Runtime: 96

Set during the final days of the tragic Warsaw Uprising of Sept. 1944, a detachment of the Home Army is forced into the sewers, where tension and conflict arise from the claustrophobic atmosphere below and the pressures of the German persecution above. [UCB]

UC Berkeley bibliography of works on Kanal

AMG

Ostre sledované vlaky (1966)

Directed by Jirí Menzel

Runtime: 92

Comedy-drama about a young trainmaster employed in a tiny station during World War II. He becomes involved in a plot to blow up a German ammunition train, but when the plan backfires, he is forced to commit the ultimate act of courage. Based on the novel by Bohumil Hrabal. [UCB]

UC Berkeley bibliography of works on Closely Watched Trains

AMG

Constant Factor, The (1980)

Constans (1980), Constancy (1980)

Directed by Krzysztof Zanussi

Runtime: 96

The main character in this effective, convincing drama is Witold (Tadeusz Bradecki) who is high in what later would be termed the "emotional quotient" or the ability to bounce back from adverse, tragic circumstances. Witold has been nursing both his sick mother and a deeply rooted desire to climb the Himalayas. His father had died climbing in those mountains, and they have an allure for Witold as well. But his dreams begin to crumble when his mother succumbs to her illness and trouble brews at work. The situation becomes bad enough to scramble Witold's life with no indication of future improvement. - Eleanor Mannikka [AMG]

Director: George Stevens

Teenaged Anne Frank, a Dutch Jew, perished along with most of the rest of her family in a Nazi concentration camp, but her hopes, dreams, and optimistic outlook have endured thanks to the publication of her diary in 1952. After intense negotiations with Anne's father, the sole survivor of the Frank family, The Diary of Anne Frank was dramatized in 1954 in a Pulitzer Prize-winning version by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. In the 1959 film version, director George Stevens could stage many dialogue sequences in furtive whispers, conveying the precariousness of the Franks' existence, and that of their fellow exiles, the Van Daan family and fussy dentist Mr. Dussel, during the two years they spent hiding from the Gestapo in a tiny Amsterdam attic. Yet, while the Franks' attic is appropriately confining, the decision to film in CinemaScope robs the situation of its inherent claustrophobia. Stevens was criticized for casting unknown Millie Perkins as Anne, but her awkwardness and naivete add to the credibility of her character, much more so than the movie-starrish turn by young Richard Beymer as Peter Van Daan. The movie also features such veterans as Joseph Schildkraut as Otto Frank, Shelley Winters as Mrs. Van Daan, Lou Jacobi as Mr. Van Daan, and Ed Wynn as Dussel. Despite its nearly three-hour length, The Diary of Anne Frank sustains its suspense and poignancy throughout, and is capped by one of the most heartwrenching climaxes of any film—albeit one handled with taste and decorum. Oscars went to supporting actress Shelley Winters and cinematographer William C. Mellor. — Hal Erickson [AMG]

IMDB

Forty-First , The (1956)

Sorok pervyj (1956)

Directed by Grigori Chukhraj

Runtime: 90

Sorok Pervy was a typically patriotic Soviet entry in the 1957 Cannes Film Festival. The story focuses in on Isolda Izvitskaya, cast as a courageous Revolution-era female sharpshooter. While escorting a male White Russian prisoner back to her own lines, Isolda and her captive are marooned on a desert island. Predictably, a romance blossoms between the two former enemies. Unpredictably, Isolda is forced to make a daunting sacrifice to rescue her lover from punishment at the hands of the Czarists. The film is based on a novel by Boris Lavrenyov, previously filmed in 1928 by Yakov Protazanov.. — Hal Erickson [AMG]

Generation, A (1955)

Pokolenie (1955)

Directed by Andrzej Wajda

Runtime: 90

Directed by Andrzej Wajda. The story of a cocky Polish youth who decides to fight the Nazis after he falls for a pretty resistance leader. As he and his friends help excapees during the Warsaw ghetto uprising, the innocence of a generation is lost under the grueling conditions of war. [UCB]

UC Berkeley bibliography of works on A Generation

AMG

Girls in Uniform (1931)

Mädchen in Uniform (1931) , Maidens in Uniform (1931)

Director, Leotine Sagan

Runtime: 89

A girl at a strict boarding school for the daughters of Prussian army officers falls in love with one of the [female] teachers. She is isolated from the rest of the students by the headmistress and is driven from her unhappiness to attempt suicide. [UCB]

There is also a less-important 1958 remake starring Romy Schneider.

UC Berkeley Bibliography of works on Mädchen in Uniform

IMDB

AMG

Grand Illusion (1938)

Grande illusion, La (1937)

Directed by Jean Renoir

Runtime: 111

Jean Renoir's classic anti-war film. A non-inflammatory World War I film set on the front in 1916, before American involvement. It is a study of a prisoner of war camp and the disillusionment of captors and prisoners alike. [UCB]

UC Berkeley bibliography of works on The Grand Illusion

IMDB

AMG

Director John Boorman

Runtime: 97

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Paris brûle-t-il? (1966)

Directed by René Clément

IMDB

Runtime: 173

In 1944, with Paris on the verge of Liberation by the allies, Adolph Hitler ordered that the City of Light be blown up and burned to the ground. General Dietrich Von Choltitz, after much rumination, decided that he didn't want to go down in history as the man who destroyed Paris. His refusal to follow Hitler's orders would make him a pariah in Germany for the rest of his life; nor was his gesture ever rewarded by the allies. From this very human story in the midst of one of the most inhuman conflicts in history grew the screenplay (by Gore Vidal and Francis Ford Coppola) of the all-star, internationally produced Is Paris Burning? Whereas the earlier The Longest Day was able to support a castful of celebrities and brief subplot vignettes, Is Paris Burning? seems more weighted down than weighty. Still, a modern audience will have fun playing "spot the star" throughout the film, especially when those spotted stars include the likes of Gert Frobe (as Choltitz), Jean-Paul Belmondo, Alain Delon, Kirk Douglas (as Patton), Glenn Ford (as Bradley), Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, Robert Stack, and even Anthony Perkins as a wide-eyed GI. Filmed on a gargantuan scale, Is Paris Burning? was based on a book by Larry Collins and Dominique LaPierre. The film was lensed in black and white, save for the Technicolor finale (in the original road-show prints). — Hal Erickson [AMG]

Ivan the Terrible, Pts. 1 & II (1946, 1958)

Ivan Groznyj I & II (1945, 1958)

Directed by Sergei M. Eisenstein

Runtime: 96/84

Writer and director, Sergei Eisenstein. Part 1 opens with the coronation of Ivan, Grand Duke of Moscow, depicting his goal to unify all Russian lands, his successive battles, ending with his self-imposed exile to await the call of the Russian people. Part 2 begins with his return to Moscow to find that his dream of reuniting all of Russia is all but impossible. He discovers an assassination plot and devises a scheme to turn the tables on the plotters. Director Eisenstein died before completing part 3.[UCB]

UC Berkeley bibliography of works on Ivan the Terrible

AMG (Part One), (Part Two)

J'Accuse (1919, 1937)

Directed by Abel Gance

Runtime: 150 (1919), 125 (1937)

J'Accuse was first released in 1919 as a silent film, but during the late thirties, appalled at the prospect of a second World War, Gance retold his story in a vastly different version to challenge the awful onslaught of history. Jean Diaz is a research scientist who survived the carnage of WWI and swears to dedicate his life to ending war, a burden which drives him to madness. When he discovers his work is being exploited by the military-industrial establishment, he summons up the millions of dead soldiers from World War I to rise from their graves, to bring the world to its senses. Gance's monumental work anticipated the terrible destructive capability of modern weapons and remains a powerful statement for today. [UCB]

UC Berkeley bibliography of works on J'Accuse

AMG (1919), (1937)

Directed by Stanley Kramer

Runtime: 178

A total of thirteen Nuremberg trials were held after World War II, and this courtroom drama — one of the best on the silver screen — deals with the third trial, that of four Nazi judges. Three Americans sit on the bench, headed by Judge Dan Haywood (Spencer Tracy). Of the four Nazis on trial, three are war criminals but the fourth, Ernst Janning (Burt Lancaster) was anti-Hitler and anti-Nazi. As the top-flight cast go through their paces the stirring controversies over legal jurisdiction, the choice of these four men, the issue of Janning's staying in his position to ward off worse evils, and even more highly relevant points of jurisprudence versus politics are brought forward. Award-winning Maximillian Schell is the defense attorney, Montgomery Clift is a victim of the sterilization program carried out by the judges, and Richard Widmark is the prosecutor under pressure to let up because Germany is now an ally in the Cold War. Marlene Dietrich and Judy Garland also appear, one as the widow of a German war criminal and the other as a German woman accused of consorting with a Jew. — Eleanor Mannikka [AMG]

Knife in the Water (1962)

< /font>Noz w wodzie (1962)

Last Stage, The (1948)

Ostatni etap (1948), Last Stop, The (1948)

Directed by Wanda Jakubowska, M. Wainberger

Runtime: 81

The Last Stop (original Polish title: Ostatni Etap) explores in excruciating detail the treatment of women inmates in the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. The film is nearly impossible to watch at times; surely, you'll try (but fail) to tell yourself, no civilized nation was capable of such bestiality. Most of the story is told from the point of view of Michelle (Huguette Faget), who finally escapes the camp, more dead than alive. The fact that the film was produced only a few years after Auschwitz was liberated adds to the gruesome immediacy of the tale. The Last Stop was written by Wanda Jakubowska and Gerda Schneider—both of whom were Auschwitz survivors. — Hal Erickson [AMG]

Little Vera (1988)

Malenkaya Vera (1988)

Directed by Vasili Pichul

Runtime: 130

The title character of the Russian Little Vera is a headstrong teenage girl, played by Natalya Negoda. To the dismay of her parents, Vera lives only for the moment, making no provision for her future. She'd rather hang out at local cafes in garish makeup and provocative clothing. A chance meeting with handsome student Sergei (Andrei Sokolov) develops into a sexual relationship. Her parents send out Vera's brother (Alexander Alexeyev-Negreba) to talk some sense into her. This proves doubly dicey when it turns out that the brother is an old acquaintance of the rebellious Sergei. Vera lies that she's gotten pregnant by Sergei, so he obligingly marries her and moves in with her family, which serves only to make matters worse. Vera's drunken father (Yuri Nazarov) ends up stabbing his son-in-law. Persuaded to lie about the incident to keep her father out of jail, Vera takes her family's side. A last-minute tragedy is barely averted, but we get the distinct feeling that Vera's problems with her family in particular and her life in general are far from over [AMG]

Directed by Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Gerd Oswald, Bernhard Wicki, Darryl F. Zanuck

Runtime: 179

< /font>The Longest Day is a mammoth, all-star re-creation of the D-Day invasion, personally orchestrated by Darryl F. Zanuck. Whenever possible, the original locations were utilized, and an all-star international cast impersonates the people involved, from high-ranking officials to ordinary GIs. Each actor speaks in his or her native language with subtitles translating for the benefit of the audience (alternate "takes" were made of each scene with the foreign actors speaking English, but these were seen only during the first network telecast of the film in 1972). The stars are listed alphabetically, with the exception of John Wayne, who as Lt. Colonel Vandervoort gets separate billing. Others in the huge cast include Eddie Albert, Jean-Louis Barrault, Richard Burton, Red Buttons, Sean Connery, Henry Fonda, Gert Frobe, Curt Jurgens, Peter Lawford, Robert Mitchum, Kenneth More, Edmond O'Brien, Robert Ryan, Jean Servais, Rod Steiger and Robert Wagner. Paul Anka, who wrote the film's title song, shows up as an Army private. The most unforgettable scenes include the Allies parachuting into Ste. Mere Englise, where the paratroopers were mowed down by German bullets; a real-life sequence wherein the German and Allied troops unwittingly march side by side in the dark of night; and a spectacular three-minute overhead shot of the troops fighting and dying in the streets of Quistreham. The last major black-and-white road-show attraction, The Longest Day made millions, enough to recoup some of the cost of 20th Century Fox's concurrently produced Cleopatra. — Hal Erickson [AMG]

Man of Iron (1981)

Czlowiek z zelaza (1981)

Directed by Andrzej Wajda

Runtime: 140

At the time of the original release of Andrzej Wajda's Czlowiek z Zelaza in 1981, with the strikes by the Solidarity Movement in Poland, the film looked to be more of a documentary than a dramatic narrative. But its moment of incendiary importance has now been extinguished with the intervening years. Still, the film still holds a rabble-rousing intensity. A sequel to Wajda's Man of Marble, which dealt with the making of a film-student documentary about a fabled Polish bricklayer, Birkut (Jerzy Radziwilowicz) who uncovered Birkut's hidden imprisonment by Stalinists, Czlowiek z Zelaza also deals with a documentary being made that is operating on a hidden agenda. Winkel (Marian Opania), once a radical but now a tired, alcoholic television journalist, is assigned to cover the Gdansk strikers for a program that will be put together to discredit the Solidarity movement. As Winkiel is told by a party functionary, "We don't share power. It's counter-revolutionary." Winkiel is ordered to investigate the second tier organizers, concentrating on Tomczyk, who turns out to be Birkut's son and is also played by Jerzy Radziwilowicz. But instead of finding evidence against Tomczyk, Winkiel finds himself re-politicized as he finds himself supporting the independent trade-union movement. - Paul Brenner [AMG]

UC Berkeley bibliography of works on Man of Iron

Man of Marble (1977)

Czlowiek z marmuru (1976)

Directed by Andrzej Wajda

Runtime: 161

The first of Polish director Andrzej Wajda's two "Solidarity" films, Man of Marble (originally Czlowiek Z Marmuru) concerns bricklayer Mateusz Birkut (Jerzy Radziwilowicz). Lauded as a national hero in the 1950s due to his skills at his trade, Birkut has inexplicably fallen into obscurity. In making a film of the bricklayer's life, documentary director Krystyna Janda discovers that the bricklayer used his sudden fame to become involved in labor politics—whereupon the repressive government did its best to wipe out all traces of his accomplishments. This climactic revelation was, ironically, excised by the Polish censors when Man of Marble was first released. Director Wajda followed this film with Man of Iron, which traced the further political exploits of director Janda and her husband, the son of the unfortunate bricklayer — also played by Jerzy Radziwilowicz. — Hal Erickson [AMG]

Ehe der Maria Braun, Die (1979)

Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

Runtime: 120

Fassbinder's allegorical story of post-war Germany revolves around a young woman as she strives for material wealth while ignoring human values. [UCB]

The film that elevated German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder from domestic approbation to international acclaim, The Marriage of Maria Braun stars the director's on-and-off favorite actress Hanna Schygulla in the title role. During the allied siege of Germany in the last year of the war, Maria's new husband (Klaus Lowitsch) is shipped off to the Russian front before the marriage is consummated. As she struggles to survive wartime deprivations, Maria haunts the local train station, seeking out information concerning her husband. When it appears that she's a widow, Maria takes a job as a barmaid and befriends a black soldier (George Byrd) from the occupying allied troops, who sees to it that Maria's family receives vital food and supplies. The opportunistic Maria eventually takes a job with a wealthy importer (Ivan Desny), building herself up to a position of power and indispensability. Though she sleeps with her employer, Maria still carries a torch for her husband. The Marriage of Maria Braun is regarded by some as merely a Teutonic Joan Crawford picture, but the brilliance of director Fassbinder and star Schygulla shines through every frame. — Hal Erickson [AMG]

UC Berkeley Bibliography of works on Marriage of Maria Braun

Metropolis (1926)

Directed by Fritz Lang

Runtime: varies 87-107

An originally silent motion picture with English intertitles and a newly produced electronic music soundtrack. Elaborately fantasizes a subterranean factory, which is ruled by titans, betrayed by robots, and saved by love. Shows the struggle between management and labor in a city of the future. [UCB]

IMDB

AMG

UC Berkeley bibliography of works on Metropolis

Related Links

• http://www.paulist.org/doug/metro.ssi
• http://www.persocom.com.br/brasilia/metropo.htm

Mörder sind unter uns, Die (1946)

Directed by Wolfgang Staudte

Runtime: 84

In the aftermath of World War II, Susanne Wallner returns from a concentration camp to find that her apartment is occupied by Dr. Martens, a former officer in the German army who has been severely traumatized by the atrocities perpetrated by his superiors. The unlikely pair form a delicate friendship as they struggle to restore some normalcy to their hellishly bleak existence. By chance Martens one day encounters Bruckner, his former Nazi commander who has not only readjusted to civilian life but seems to have economically benefited from his wartime command. [UCB]

IMDB

AMG

Nasty Girl, The (1991)

Schreckliche Mädchen, Das (1990)

Directed by Michael Verhoeven

Runtime: 94

Sonja undertakes a school project to investigate her town's past entitled "My home town during the Third Reich." She begins to search for facts, but those people who have personal experiences of that time are unwilling to provide her with information. The local archives produce contradictory evidence and she is denied access to local newspaper files. She quickly becomes the object of scorn and threats from the townspeople who have a surprising lot to conceal. Based on the true story of Anja Rosmus who still lives in her home town in Germany where the story is based. [UCB]

IMDB

AMG

One, Two, Three (1961)

Directed by Billy Wilder

Runtime: 110

In his last starring film (it was supposed to be his last film, but Ragtime came along in 1981), James Cagney plays Coca-Cola executive C. P. MacNamara. Assigned to manage Coke's West Berlin office, MacNamara dreams of being transferred to London, and to do this he must curry favor with his Atlanta-based boss Hazeltine (Howard St. John). Thus, MacNamara agrees to look after Hazeltine's dizzy, impulsive daughter Scarlett (Pamela Tiffin) during her visit to Germany. Weeks pass: On the eve of Hazeltine's visit to West Berlin, Scarlett announces that she's gotten married. Even worse: her husband is a hygienically challenged East Berlin Communist named Otto Piffl (Horst Buchholz). The crafty McNamara arranges for Piffl to be arrested by the East Berlin police and to have the marriage annulled, only to discover that Scarlett is pregnant. In rapid-fire "one, two, three" fashion, McNamara must: (a) arrange for Piffl to be released by the Communists; and (b) successfully pass off the scrungy, doggedly anti-capitalist Piffl as an acceptable husband for Scarlett. McNamara must accomplish this in less than twelve hours, all the while trying to mollify his wife (Arlene Francis), who has learned of his affair with busty secretary Ingeborg (Lilo Pulver). Seldom pausing for breath, Billy Wilder's film is a crackling, mile-a-minute farce, taking satiric scattershots at Coca-Cola, the Cold War (the film is set in the months just before the erection of the Berlin Wall), Russian red tape, Communist and capitalist hypocrisy, Southern bigotry, the German "war guilt," rock music, and even Cagney's own movie image. Not all the gags are in the best of taste, and most of the one-liners have dated rather badly, but Cagney's mesmerizing performance holds the whole affair together. Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond adapted their screenplay from an obscure play by Ferenc Molnar. Watch for Red Buttons in an unbilled cameo as a military policeman, and listen for the voice of Sig Ruman, emanating from the mouth of actor Hubert Van Meyerinck (The Count von Droste-Schattenburg). — Hal Erickson [AMG]

Repentance (1987)

Confession (1987), Pokayaniye (1987), Monanieba (1987)

Directed by Tengiz Abuladze

Runtime: 153

In a small, somewhat surreal Russian village, a mysterious woman is put on trial for repeatedly digging up the body of Varlam, the town's recently deceased ruler. The trial progresses and the townspeople learn that the woman's parents perished under Varlam's vicious reign of terror along with other innocents. As her ghastly revelations gradually reveal the truth about Varlam's monstrous inhumanity, the film is transformed into a searing expose of the brutal repressions and heroic sacrifices of the Soviet Union's Stalinist era. In Georgian with English subtitles. 151 min. 999:2738 [UCB]

AMG

Directed by Steven Spielberg

Runtime: 197

Based on a true story, Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List stars Liam Neeson as Oskar Schindler, a German businessman in Poland who sees an opportunity to make money from the Nazis' rise to power. He starts a company to make cookware and utensils, using flattery and bribes to win military contracts, and brings in accountant and financier Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley) to help run the factory. By staffing his plant with Jews who've been herded into Krakow's ghetto by Nazi troops, Schindler has a dependable unpaid labor force. For Stern, a job in a war-related plant could mean survival for himself and the other Jews working for Schindler. However, in 1942, all of Krakow's Jews are assigned to the Plaszow Forced Labor Camp, overseen by Commandant Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes), an embittered alcoholic who occasionally shoots prisoners from his balcony. Schindler arranges to continue using Polish Jews in his plant, but, as he sees what is happening to his employees, he begins to develop a conscience. He realizes that his factory (now refitted to manufacture ammunition) is the only thing preventing his staff from being shipped to the death camps. Soon Schindler demands more workers and starts bribing Nazi leaders to keep Jews on his employee lists and out of the camps. By the time Germany falls to the allies, Schindler has lost his entire fortune — and saved 1100 people from likely death. Schindler's List was nominated for twelve Academy Awards and won seven, including Best Picture and a long-coveted Best Director for Spielberg, and it quickly gained praise as one of the finest American movies about the Holocaust. — Mark Deming [AMG]

IMDB

Shop on Main Street, The (1965)

Obchod na korze (1965)

Directed by Ján Kadár, Elmar Klos

Runtime: 128

In 1942, Tono and his wife are struggling because of his antipathy towards the fascist regime. His brother-in-law, the local fuehrer, chooses Tono to oversee a button shop owned by a sweet, harmless Jewish widow, Mrs. Lautman. When the Jews are ordered deported, the well-meaning Tono decides to shield her from the Nazis. [UCB]

Grosman, Ladislav. The Shop on Main Street. Translated from the Czech by Iris Urwin. Illustrated by Victor Ambrus. [1st ed.] Garden City, Doubleday [1970] (Main Stack PG5039.17.Gr6.O22; NRLF #: $B 444 555)

AMG

Triumph of the Will (1934)

IMDB

Producer, director, and editor, Leni Riefenstahl.

Triumph des Willens (1934)

Runtime: varies 110, 122

UC Berkeley bibliography of works on Riefenstahl

A pictorial record of the sixth Nazi congress - the infamous 1934 rallies of the Nazi party - at Nuremberg, and a propaganda film on Nazi Germany commissioned by Adolf Hitler. [UCB]

AMG

Unbearable Lightness of Being, The (1988)

Directed by Philip Kaufman

Runti me: 171

Tomas, a Czech doctor, deeply loves his wife, Tereza, but he only find true understanding with his lover Sabina. Sabina shares his desire for sex without the "heavy" commitment of love. Tomas struggles with the decision of whether to give up his freedom and commit to the love of one woman or to remain faithful to his promiscuous ways. Based on the novel by Milan Kundera. [UCB]

AMG

Wannsee Conference (1984)

Wannseekonferenz (1984)

Directed by Heinz Schirk

Runtime: 87

< /font>When Nazi "exterminator" Adolph Eichmann was tried for war crimes in 1961, more than one observer, taking into consideration Eichmann's "normal" veneer, commented upon "the banality of evil." Much the same can be said of the quietly chilling docudrama The Wannsee Conference. This re-creation of a January, 1942 meeting of several Nazi officials is based on the actual minutes of the conference. In calm, measured tones, the various Nazi higher-ups discuss the extermination of Europe's Jewish population. The film is shot in "real time": it runs 87 minutes, precisely the same amount of time consumed by the actual event. Don't let anyone ever tell you that a film consisting of an hour and a half of conversation is dull: The Wannsee Conference is one of the most disturbing pictures ever committed to celluloid. — Hal Erickson [AMG]

Westfront 1918 (1930)

Directed by G.W. Pabst.

Runtime: 90

A German account of life on the Westfront during the first World War. Based on the novel "Vier von der Infanterie" by Ernst Johannsen [UCB]

Geisler, Michael. "The Battleground of Modernity: Westfront." In: The Films of G. W. Pabst: An Extraterritorial Cinema / edited by Eric Rentschler. pp: 91-102. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, c1990. (Main Stack PN1998.3.P34.F5 1990; Moffitt PN1998.3.P34.F5 1990)

IMDB

AMG