This early Max Ophüls melodrama became his first big success. A young philandering army officer, trapped in a loveless affair with the wife of a strutting baron, falls in love with a shy young seamstress but cannot escape repercussions of his past. As the giddy lovers frolic through an idyllic romance (a lovely sleigh ride through the snow-covered forest becomes a swooning expression of their emotional innocence), the suspicious baron demands honor be served. Based on a play by Arthur Schnitzler (whose Reigen Ophüls later adapted for La Ronde), Liebelei contrasts the obsession with appearances and social decorum of high society with the rash sincerity and energy of youth in a style more visual than verbal. The restless camera of Ophüls's later work is only hinted at here, but the handsome photography and lush décor create a constrictive world where tradition rules. The opening opera house scene is especially striking, where character and class become defined simultaneously, and the haunting climax is so effective that Ophüls revived and refined it for The Earrings of Madame de. The 1933 production was subsequently suppressed by the Nazis for its jaundiced view of honor and Prussian authoritarianism, and they attempted to destroy all copies of the film. [+]

Amateur movies shot with small handheld cameras by six German infantrymen on the Eastern Front during World War II form the core of this documentary. The men who took the movies appear on camera as old men to provide narration (in German, with subtitles), and they provide a perspective not often heard. As might be expected, they distance themselves from atrocities, and as they were foot soldiers in the Wehrmacht, their denials of involvement are probably true. One of the men still owns the camera he carried in the war, and he demonstrates how its small size made it perfect for impromptu filming in the field. Clips of smiling troops on the move is accompanied by an old man talking about how happy they were to be going to an unknown destination, likening it to "the joy one feels when on a journey. " It turns out the gleeful trip he recalls was actually the beginning of the invasion of Poland and thus the beginning of the war in Europe. Later footage shows combat conditions in Russia, and the grisly aftermath of vicious combat. The rarity of the film footage, some of which was shot in color, makes this documentary worth watching. But the recollections of the amateur cameramen also provide an unusual insight into the German war machine, such as when one of the old veterans mentions how he eventually realized, "This was no defensive war forced upon us, it was an idiotic war of aggression. " -Robert J. [+]

Rainer Werner Fassbinder paid tribute to his mentor, Douglas Sirk, with this loose adaptation of All That Heaven Allows, the classic American soaper of a widow falling for younger man to the disapproval of family and friends. Fassbinder combines the Sirk melodrama with the story told in his own The American Soldier. An aging, lonely charwoman (sweet old Brigitte Mira) befriends a Moroccan guest worker (El Hedi ben Salem) at least 20 years her junior. Finding comfort and happiness in one another's company, they suddenly marry. Her kids are aghast, his friends appalled, and the neighborhood turns its back, so the two pull together for support. Their relationship ironically begins to unravel when the pressure of community prejudice eases and they must confront the gulf between them. Combining melodrama with social commentary, Fassbinder offers a sharp, incisive portrait of prejudice in modern Germany grounded in contemporary social conditions. Mira delivers a tender, vulnerable performance and Fassbinder molds Salem's stiffness into a distinctive character trait of a man ill at ease in German society. It's an assured and beautiful film, full of gliding camerawork and evocative images, and invested with intimacy and gentleness. Even Fassbinder's characteristically grim conclusion defies tragedy for a glimmer of hope, a welcome and affecting rarity in his career. [+]

Margarethe von Trotta, the most audible female voice of the New German Cinema, had acted for film, written screenplays, and even codirected (The Lost Honor of Katrina Blum with her former husband Volker Schlondorff) before finally embarking on her first solo project in 1977. The Second Awakening of Christa Klages, based on the true story of a social worker who robs a bank to fund a failing day-care center, is an uncompromising work that tackles politics and social issues with a radical fervor and feminist perspective unseen in the work of her contemporaries. Tina Engel plays Christina, a militant revolutionary who becomes a fugitive hunted as much for her politics as her crime, while the young woman she held hostage tries to track her down for her own personal reasons. Von Trotta brings an impassioned intensity to Christina's voyage of self-discovery, which pulls the film through slow passages, blunt political messages, and an occasionally clumsy style, creating a dramatically powerful work that builds to a climactic epiphany at the film's mesmerizing conclusion. After this remarkable debut, von Trotta built on her work in her stylistically assured second film, Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness. Be forewarned that the poor print source results in a muddy-looking tape well below the quality of most commercial tapes. -Sean Axmaker.

A young and fearless chief, Tokei-itho, tries valiantly to protect his Dakota tribe's ancestral land from greedy white invaders in search of gold. The struggle proves hopeless. Tormented by their inhuman living conditions, the Indians resolve to flee form the reservation and journey to more fertile lands beyond the Missouri into Canada. This production began the most successful series of films at the box office in the history of East German cinema.