Film Series
Monday, September 10, 7:30pm
Hodges Library Auditorium
The life of a tightly wound and highly successful professional chef begins to unravel when she has to take charge of her eight-year-old niece. Enter the charming Italian sous chef. Germany's leading film actress Martina Gedeck stars in this film written and directed by Sandra Nettelbeck. See the original German version and compare it with the American remake with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Abigail Breslin, released this July. 109 mins. With subtitles.
Monday, October 8, 7:30pm
Hodges Library Auditorium
This was director Tom Tykwer's next release after Run Lola Run. Fate and contingency weave their unbreakable threads through the life of a nurse (Franka Potente) and a petty criminal. 135 mins. With subtitles.
Thursday, November 8, 7:30pm
Hodges Library Auditorium
Sophie Scholl, her brother, and other members of a small resistance group among university students in Munich were captured and put to death by the Gestapo in 1943. The Scholls and the moral imperative that motivated them have continued to inspire postwar writers and film makers. This highly acclaimed film by director Marc Roethemund concentrates on the final days of Sophie Scholl's life. 120 mins. With subtitles
Monday, January 22, 7:30pm
Hodges Library Auditorium
Director Max Färberbock bases his story of stubborn opposition and courage on a true tale, the life of a Jewish woman living underground in war-torn Berlin in 1943/44 and her love affair with the wife of an army officer. The film explores the theme of people leading threatened lives that are at once clandestine and in full view. Starring Maria Schräder and Juliane Köhler. 125 mins. With subtitles.
Monday, February 19, 7:30pm
Hodges Library Auditorium
Angelina Macaronne and former UT German faculty member Fatima El-Tayib combined to create this delightful comedy set in present day Hamburg. A workaholic Afro-German woman trying to make it in the professional world dumps her slacker girlfriend. 88 mins. With subtitles.
Thursday, March 22, 7:00pm
Hodges Library Auditorium
This sequel to Wim Wenders' beautiful film Wings of Desire follows another angel as he tries – with less success – to move from the heavenly to the human sphere. Berlin is an international city and a blank slate on which art, crime, and love can inscribe new definitions. Bruno Ganz, Otto Sander, Solveig Dommartin, and Peter Falk repeat their roles, Lou Reed sings, and Mikhail Gorbachev recites poetry. 140 mins. With subtitles.
Monday, February 26, 8:00pm
Hodges Library Auditorium
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's movie debut focuses on the horrifying, sometimes unintentionally funny system of observation in the former East German Republic. In the early 1980's, the successful dramatist Georg Dreyman and his longtime companion Christa-Maria Sieland, a popular actress, are big intellectual stars in the socialist state. One day, the Minister of Culture becomes interested in Christa, so the secret service agent Wiesler is instructed to observe and sound out the couple, but their life fascinates him more and more...137 mins. Without subtitles. Nominated for a Golden Globe.
Thursday, March 29, 8:00pm
Hodges Library Auditorium
Until October 1989, the part of the West Berlin borough of Kreuzberg, largely shut off by the Wall from the rest of the city for 28 years. A sub-culture of lethargic students, artists, bohemians and barflies has flourished among crumbling buildings. Part of that microcosm is barkeeper Frank, semi-formally called 'Herr Lehmann' by his friends and patrons. He hangs out drinking, utter disregard for anything beyond Kreuzberg and lazily pursues an affair with cook Katrin. His lifestyle is gradually disturbed, when his parents surprisingly show up for a visit. 105 mins. With subtitles.
Sommer vorm Balkon, 2005
Wednesday, April 11, 8:00pm
Hodges Library Auditorium
In his warm hearted film, Andreas Dresen shows current-day Berlin and life in Germany. Nike and Katrin are two friends living in an old house. Nike has a balcony, Katrin has a son, Ronald drives a truck, Tina works in a bar, and Oskar and Helene are old and lonely. But everybody asks the same question: will love outlive the seasons? 105 mins. With subtitles. “Silver Hugo Award” for best Actresses at the Internationl Filmfestival Chicago.
Monday, September 11, 7:30pm
Hodges Library Auditorium
In 1985 Doris Dörrie directed one of the most successful postwar comedies – Männer. Her crime story Happy Birthday, Türke! borrows from American film noir and uses the figure of the hard-bitten detective to explore the relations between Germans and Turks. Kemal Kazankaya works as a private detective. Raised by German parents, he cannot speak Turkish, but his name and appearance automatically cause people to treat him as a foreigner. A clever mix of genres by one of Germany's premier directors. No subtitles.
Monday, October 16, 7:00pm
Hodges Library Auditorium
Caroline Link's adaptation of an autobiographical novel by Stefanie Zweig won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2002. A Jewish family leaves their comfortable life in Germany in 1938 to start a new life on an isolated farm in Kenya. With subtitles.
Monday, November 20, 7:30pm
Hodges Library Auditorium
A secular Jew raised in East Germany – an inveterate gambler and owner of a small bordello – is forced by the terms of his mother's will to spend time with and reconcile with his brother, who is strict orthodox and was raised and lives in Israel. The brothers and their families interact in this very successful and popular comedy. Directed by Dani Lévy. With subtitles.
