The German Film Series
Fall 2011
Thursdays at 4:00 and 7:30 pm, Stirn Auditorium, Amherst College
(in German with English subtitles)
Admission is free
September 15: Vision – Aus dem Leben der Hildegard von Bingen (Vision – From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen; Margarethe von Trotta, 2009; 111 min.)
Barbara Sukowa stars as the legendary 12th century pioneering woman – scientist, author, composer, physician, nun, and mystic – in this visually stunning award-winning bio-pic by acclaimed filmmaker Margarethe von Trotta.
September 29: KeinOhrHasen (No-Ear-Rabbits; Til Schweiger, 2007; 90 min.)
Smash comedy hit directed by German superstar Til Schweiger, who also stars as a ruthless tabloid journalist who is sentenced to do community service in a day-care-center, where he meets his match in the feisty Anna (Nora Tschirner) and where the kids teach him a lesson or two.
October 20: Mahler auf der Couch (Mahler on the Couch; Percy and Felix Adlon, 2010; 105 min.)
Experimental drama that imaginatively reconstructs a real encounter between two giants of fin-de-siècle Viennese culture: in the summer of 1910, composer Gustav Mahler traveled to Leyden in the Netherlands, to seek help with his troubled marriage to Alma – from none other than Sigmund Freud.
November 10: Crazy (Hans-Christian Schmid, 2000; 97 min.)
Based on Benjamin Lebert’s best-selling coming-of-age novel, this comedy drama chronicles the trials and tribulations of a handicapped adolescent boy as he struggles to hold his own in an elite boarding school while discovering girls, sex, alcohol and other challenges.
December 1: Achterbahn (Roller Coaster; Peter Dörfler, 2009; 89 min.)
Riveting documentary about a real-life German carnival worker, callous yet charismatic, whose shady business deals, including drug trafficking, landed his – innocent – son in a Latin American prison, while he is determined to start a new life at home.