From Caligari to Hitler

May 28, 2015

1h 54m

★ 7.4

What does Cinema know, that we don't?

Overview

Film journalist and critic Rüdiger Suchsland examines German cinema from 1919, when the Republic of Weimar is born, to 1933, when the Nazis come into power. (Followed by Hitler's Hollywood, 2017.)

Genres

Documentary

History

Production Companies

ZDF

LOOKSfilm

Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Stiftung

ARTE

From Caligari to Hitler Trailers

Cast

Self - Narrator (voice)

Rüdiger Suchsland

Self - Narrator (voice)

Hans Henrik Wöhler

Self - Filmmaker

Volker Schlöndorff

Self - Filmmaker

Fatih Akin

Self - Film Historian

Thomas Elsaesser

Self - Historian

Eric D. Weitz

Self - Cultural Critic

Elisabeth Bronfen

Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)

Fritz Lang

Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)

Ernst Lubitsch

Self - Politician (archive footage)

Friedrich Ebert

Self - Politician (archive footage)

Joseph Goebbels

An exploration —manipulated and staged— of life in Las Hurdes, in the province of Cáceres, in Extremadura, Spain, as it was in 1932. Insalubrity, misery and lack of opportunities provoke the emigration of young people and the solitude of those who remain in the desolation of one of the poorest and least developed Spanish regions at that time.

7.8

The Untouchables

Jun 3, 1987

Elliot Ness, an ambitious prohibition agent, is determined to take down Al Capone. In order to achieve this goal, he forms a group given the nickname “The Untouchables”.

8.0

Mirror

Mar 7, 1975

A dying man in his forties recalls his childhood, his mother, the war and personal moments that tell of and juxtapose pivotal moments in Soviet history with daily life.

7.7

Memoirs of a Geisha

Dec 6, 2005

In the years before World War II, a penniless Japanese child is torn from her family to work as a maid in a geisha house.

6.9

Michael Collins

Oct 25, 1996

Michael Collins plays a crucial role in the establishment of the Irish Free State in the 1920s, but becomes vilified by those hoping to create a completely independent Irish republic.

6.7

Mank

Nov 13, 2020

1930s Hollywood is reevaluated through the eyes of scathing social critic and alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz as he races to finish the screenplay of Citizen Kane.

0.0

Bonhoeffer: Holy Traitor

Apr 4, 2025

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor, theologian, spy, anti-Nazi dissident, and key founding member of the Confessing Church. His writings on Christianity's role in the secular world have become widely influential.

6.9

The Tin Drum

May 2, 1979

Oskar Matzerath is a very unusual boy. Refusing to leave the womb until promised a tin drum by his mother, Agnes, Oskar is reluctant to enter a world he sees as filled with hypocrisy and injustice, and vows on his third birthday to never grow up. Miraculously, he gets his wish. As the Nazis rise to power in Danzig, Oskar wills himself to remain a child, beating his tin drum incessantly and screaming in protest at the chaos surrounding him.

7.6

The Last Emperor

Oct 4, 1987

A dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his decline and dissolute lifestyle; his exploitation by the invading Japanese, and finally to his obscure existence as just another peasant worker in the People's Republic.

7.0

Rabbit-Proof Fence

Feb 4, 2002

In 1931, three Aboriginal girls escape after being plucked from their homes to be trained as domestic staff, and set off on a trek across the Outback.

6.9

The Five Obstructions

Nov 7, 2003

Lars von Trier challenges his mentor, filmmaker Jørgen Leth, to remake Leth’s 1967 short film The Perfect Human five times, each with a different set of bizarre and challenging rules.

8.0

Lenin and the Other Story of the Russian Revolution

Jun 10, 2018

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Lenin, is remembered as the instigator of the October Revolution of 1917 and, therefore, as one of the men who changed the shape of the world at that time and forever, but perhaps the actual events happened in a way different from that narrated in the history books…

7.5

1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year

Jul 2, 2009

This documentary focuses on 1939, considered to be Hollywood's greatest year, with film clips and insight into what made the year so special.

7.2

12 Mighty Orphans

Jun 18, 2021

Haunted by his mysterious past, a devoted high school football coach leads a scrawny team of orphans to the state championship during the Great Depression and inspires a broken nation along the way.

6.4

Me and Orson Welles

Sep 5, 2008

New York, 1937. A teenager hired to star in Orson Welles' production of Julius Caesar becomes attracted to a career-driven production assistant.

5.3

The Imperial Lullaby

Mar 21, 2020

The armies of Fascist Italy conquered Addis Ababa, capital of Abyssinia, in May 1936, thus culminating the African colonial adventure of the ruthless dictator Benito Mussolini, by then lord of Libya, Eritrea and Somalia; a bloody and tragic story told through the naive drawings of Pietro Dall'Igna, an Italian schoolboy born in 1925.

7.0

Goodnight, Mister Tom

Oct 25, 1998

A shy and quiet World War II evacuee is housed by a disgruntled old man, and they soon develop a close bond.

6.9

Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story

Jun 6, 2018

The life and career of the hailed Hollywood movie star and underappreciated genius inventor, Hedy Lamarr.

7.0

Lost in La Mancha

Feb 11, 2002

Fulton and Pepe's 2000 documentary captures Terry Gilliam's attempt to get The Man Who Killed Don Quixote off the ground. Back injuries, freakish storms, and more zoom in to sabotage the project.

6.0

The Massie Affair

Apr 18, 2005

In the waning days of summer 1931, Honolulu's tropical tranquility was shattered when a young Navy wife made a drastic allegation of rape against five nonwhite islanders. What unfolded in the following days and weeks was a racially-charged murder case that would make headlines across the nation, enrage Hawai'i's native population, and galvanize the island's law enforcers and the nation's social elite.