Best German Movies
by rose-taylor | created - 02 Dec 2010 | updated - 09 Sep 2012 | PublicIn this list are only movies I have seen. I know some great ones are missing, I havent seen yet.
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1. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
Not Rated | 67 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Hypnotist Dr. Caligari uses a somnambulist, Cesare, to commit murders.
Director: Robert Wiene | Stars: Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Friedrich Feher, Lil Dagover
Votes: 70,018
2. Nosferatu (1922)
Not Rated | 94 min | Fantasy, Horror
Vampire Count Orlok expresses interest in a new residence and real estate agent Hutter's wife.
Director: F.W. Murnau | Stars: Max Schreck, Alexander Granach, Gustav von Wangenheim, Greta Schröder
Votes: 105,364
3. Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (1922)
Not Rated | 242 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Arch-criminal Dr. Mabuse sets out to make a fortune and run Berlin. Detective Wenk sets out to stop him.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Aud Egede-Nissen, Gertrude Welcker, Alfred Abel
Votes: 9,172
4. Metropolis (1927)
Not Rated | 153 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
In a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city's mastermind falls in love with a working-class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge
Votes: 185,421 | Gross: $1.24M
5. Woman in the Moon (1929)
Not Rated | 95 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
A tenacious scientist blasts off for the moon in hopes of riches that may be found there.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Willy Fritsch, Gerda Maurus, Klaus Pohl, Fritz Rasp
Votes: 3,857
6. M (1931)
Passed | 99 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
When the police in a German city are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Peter Lorre, Ellen Widmann, Inge Landgut, Otto Wernicke
Votes: 168,358 | Gross: $0.03M
7. Mädchen in Uniform (1958)
91 min | Drama
In a strict Prussian boarding school for girls, sensitive student Manuela von Meinhardis develops a forbidden love to one of her teachers, the compassionate Elisabeth von Bernburg.
Director: Géza von Radványi | Stars: Lilli Palmer, Romy Schneider, Therese Giehse, Blandine Ebinger
Votes: 1,759
8. World on a Wire (1973)
Not Rated | 212 min | Crime, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Somewhere in the future there is a computer project called Simulacron one of which is able to simulate a full featured reality, when suddenly project leader Henry Vollmer dies. His ... See full summary »
Stars: Klaus Löwitsch, Barbara Valentin, Mascha Rabben, Karl Heinz Vosgerau
Votes: 6,773
9. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
Not Rated | 92 min | Drama, Romance
A lonely widow meets a much younger Moroccan worker in a bar during a rainstorm. They fall in love, to their own surprise and to the outright shock of their families, colleagues, and drinking buddies.
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Stars: Brigitte Mira, El Hedi ben Salem, Barbara Valentin, Irm Hermann
Votes: 23,839
10. Heimat: A Chronicle of Germany (1984)
924 min | Drama, History, War
The village of Schabbach experiences the shifting fortunes of Germany from 1919 to 1982.
Stars: Marita Breuer, Rüdiger Weigang, Kurt Wagner, Gertrud Bredel
Votes: 3,332
11. Wings of Desire (1987)
PG-13 | 128 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
An angel tires of his purely ethereal life of merely overseeing the human activity of Berlin's residents, and longs for the tangible joys of physical existence when he falls in love with a mortal.
Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander, Curt Bois
Votes: 76,932 | Gross: $3.33M
12. Bagdad Cafe (1987)
PG | 95 min | Comedy, Drama
A lonely German woman ends up in the most desolate motel on Earth and decides to make it brighter.
Director: Percy Adlon | Stars: Marianne Sägebrecht, CCH Pounder, Jack Palance, Christine Kaufmann
Votes: 15,191 | Gross: $3.59M
13. Ödipussi (1988)
88 min | Comedy, Romance
Gray-haired furniture retailer Paul Winkelmann still has his dinner cooked and his laundry done by his mother. He spends his evenings playing Scrabble with Mama's friends and discussing the... See full summary »
Director: Vicco von Bülow | Stars: Vicco von Bülow, Katharina Brauren, Evelyn Hamann, Edda Seippel
Votes: 4,345
14. Attention, Papa Arrives! (1991)
89 min | Comedy, Family
After ordering enough typewriting paper for 40 years, just to get discount, Heinrich Lohse is forced to retire. The former manager has plenty of time now to spend with his wife and their 16... See full summary »
Directors: Vicco von Bülow, Renate Westphal-Lorenz | Stars: Evelyn Hamann, Vicco von Bülow, Irm Hermann, Hans-Peter Korff
Votes: 5,937
15. No More Mr. Nice Guy (1993)
92 min | Comedy
Two brothers both of which can neither read nor write making their way across Germany in order to claim to their inheritance. On their way they meet Viktor, a deserted soldier of the sowjet... See full summary »
Director: Detlev Buck | Stars: Joachim Król, Horst Krause, Konstantin Kotljarov, Sophie Rois
Votes: 1,325
16. Nach Fünf im Urwald (1995)
99 min | Comedy, Romance
Anna, 17 years old, is happy to throw her first big birthday party without her parents, but some of her guests are so stoned that they leave a big chaos and, even worse, destroy the ... See full summary »
Director: Hans-Christian Schmid | Stars: Franka Potente, Axel Milberg, Dagmar Manzel, Farina Brock
Votes: 1,567
17. Beyond Silence (1996)
PG-13 | 109 min | Drama, Music
Since the earliest days in her childhood Lara has had a difficult but important task. Both her parents are deaf-mute and Lara has to translate from sign-language to the spoken word and vice... See full summary »
Director: Caroline Link | Stars: Sylvie Testud, Tatjana Trieb, Howie Seago, Emmanuelle Laborit
Votes: 4,585 | Gross: $0.17M
18. Life is All You Get (1997)
115 min | Comedy, Drama
After he loses his job, his father, and his girlfriend, Jan's life is a shambles. Then suddenly he meets freakish street musician Vera, and a bittersweet romance unfolds...
Director: Wolfgang Becker | Stars: Jürgen Vogel, Christiane Paul, Ricky Tomlinson, Hristina Papamihou
Votes: 1,968
19. 23 (1998)
99 min | Drama, Thriller
When the orphaned Karl Koch and his friend David start breaking into government and military computers, an acquaintance senses that there is money in computer cracking - and travels to east Berlin to try to contact the KGB.
Director: Hans-Christian Schmid | Stars: August Diehl, Fabian Busch, Dieter Landuris, Jan-Gregor Kremp
Votes: 7,285
20. Run Lola Run (1998)
R | 80 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
After a botched money delivery, Lola has 20 minutes to come up with 100,000 Deutschmarks.
Director: Tom Tykwer | Stars: Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu, Herbert Knaup, Nina Petri
Votes: 206,915 | Gross: $7.27M
21. Aimee & Jaguar (1999)
Not Rated | 125 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
In 1943 Berlin, a Nazi officer's wife meets and starts a passionate affair with a Jewish woman.
Director: Max Färberböck | Stars: Maria Schrader, Juliane Köhler, Johanna Wokalek, Heike Makatsch
Votes: 6,993 | Gross: $0.93M
22. In July (2000)
99 min | Adventure, Comedy, Romance
A young, insecure teacher embarks on a journey through Europe to Turkey, where he wants to see a woman again whom he believes to be his fate.
Director: Fatih Akin | Stars: Moritz Bleibtreu, Christiane Paul, Mehmet Kurtulus, Idil Üner
Votes: 22,836
23. The Legend of Rita (2000)
103 min | Drama, History, Romance
The riveting true story of Rita Vogt, a 1970s West German terrorist who escapes to the East with the help of the Stasi. She lives in constant fear of having her cover blown, until it unavoidably happens after the German re-unification.
Director: Volker Schlöndorff | Stars: Bibiana Beglau, Richard Kropf, Martin Wuttke, Nadja Uhl
Votes: 2,469 | Gross: $0.67M
24. The State I Am In (2000)
Not Rated | 106 min | Drama
Clara and Hans are left-wing terrorists who have been sought by police for almost fifteen years. Their increasingly rebellious daughter begins to pose a threat to their security when she falls in love with a boy she meets on the beach.
Director: Christian Petzold | Stars: Julia Hummer, Barbara Auer, Richy Müller, Bilge Bingül
Votes: 2,761
25. Paul Is Dead (2000)
75 min | Drama
A pupil finds out that Paul McCartney died early and the public had not been informed at all.
Directors: Henk Handloegten, Wolfgang Becker | Stars: Sebastian Urzendowsky, Martin Reinhold, Vasko Scholz, Myriam Abeillon
Votes: 354
26. Mostly Martha (2001)
PG | 109 min | Comedy, Romance, Drama
When a headstrong chef takes charge of her equally stubborn 8-year-old niece, the tensions between them mount... until an Italian sous-chef arrives to lighten the mood.
Director: Sandra Nettelbeck | Stars: Martina Gedeck, Maxime Foerste, Sergio Castellitto, August Zirner
Votes: 8,566 | Gross: $4.16M
27. Das weiße Rauschen (2001)
103 min | Drama
Kati, Jochen and Lukas take a trip on magic mushrooms. Lukas is not coming back.
Directors: Hans Weingartner, Tobias Amann | Stars: Daniel Brühl, Anabelle Lachatte, Patrick Joswig, Karl Danguillier
Votes: 3,549
28. Good Bye Lenin! (2003)
R | 121 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
In 1990, to protect his fragile mother from a fatal shock after a long coma, a young man must keep her from learning that her beloved nation of East Germany as she knew it has disappeared.
Director: Wolfgang Becker | Stars: Daniel Brühl, Katrin Sass, Chulpan Khamatova, Florian Lukas
Votes: 152,599 | Gross: $4.06M
29. The Edukators (2004)
R | 127 min | Drama, Romance
Three activists cobble together a kidnapping plot after they encounter a businessman in his home.
Director: Hans Weingartner | Stars: Daniel Brühl, Julia Jentsch, Stipe Erceg, Burghart Klaußner
Votes: 32,374 | Gross: $0.18M
30. Love in Thoughts (2004)
89 min | Drama, Romance
A posthumous look at the last days of Guenther's life as he, his best friend, and his sister let loose on a four-day binge of alcohol, drugs, and sex.
Director: Achim von Borries | Stars: Daniel Brühl, August Diehl, Anna Maria Mühe, Jana Pallaske
Votes: 4,281
31. Kammerflimmern (2004)
100 min | Drama, Romance
Traumatised paramedic looks for the woman of his dreams.
Director: Hendrik Hölzemann | Stars: Matthias Schweighöfer, Jessica Schwarz, Jan-Gregor Kremp, Florian Lukas
Votes: 2,022
32. Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (2005)
Not Rated | 120 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
A dramatization of the final days of Sophie Scholl, one of the most famous members of the German World War II anti-Nazi resistance movement, The White Rose.
Director: Marc Rothemund | Stars: Julia Jentsch, Fabian Hinrichs, Alexander Held, Johanna Gastdorf
Votes: 28,658 | Gross: $0.68M
33. Sommer vorm Balkon (2005)
107 min | Drama
A tragicomic movie which focuses on two women and their daily struggle for survival during a summer in Berlin. Katrin, a jobless single mom, and Nike, a nurse, live in the same house and ... See full summary »
Director: Andreas Dresen | Stars: Inka Friedrich, Nadja Uhl, Andreas Schmidt, Stephanie Schönfeld
Votes: 2,948
34. The Lives of Others (2006)
R | 137 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
In 1984 East Berlin, an agent of the secret police conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives.
Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck | Stars: Ulrich Mühe, Martina Gedeck, Sebastian Koch, Ulrich Tukur
Votes: 410,268 | Gross: $11.29M
35. Requiem (2006)
93 min | Drama, Horror
An epileptic girl suffers a breakdown during her first year at university, then decides to seek help from a priest in battling the troubles associated with her strict upbringing.
Director: Hans-Christian Schmid | Stars: Sandra Hüller, Burghart Klaußner, Imogen Kogge, Anna Blomeier
Votes: 6,344 | Gross: $0.01M
36. Cherry Blossoms (2008)
Unrated | 127 min | Drama, Romance
After Rudi's wife Trudi suddenly dies, he travels to Japan to fulfill her dream of being a Butoh dancer.
Director: Doris Dörrie | Stars: Elmar Wepper, Hannelore Elsner, Aya Irizuki, Maximilian Brückner
Votes: 6,114 | Gross: $0.10M
37. Novemberkind (2008)
95 min | Drama
Novemberkind a film by Christian Schwochow with Anna Maria Mühe, Ulrich Matthes from the year 2008.
Director: Christian Schwochow | Stars: Anna Maria Mühe, Ulrich Matthes, Christine Schorn, Hermann Beyer
Votes: 494
38. Storm (I) (2009)
Not Rated | 105 min | Drama
Hannah Maynard, a prosecutor of Hague's Tribunal for war crimes in former Yugoslavia, charges a Serbian commander for killing Bosnians. However, her main witness might be lying, so the court sends a team to Bosnia to investigate.
Director: Hans-Christian Schmid | Stars: Kerry Fox, Anamaria Marinca, Stephen Dillane, Rolf Lassgård
Votes: 1,389 | Gross: $0.02M
39. The White Ribbon (2009)
R | 144 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Strange events happen in a small village in the north of Germany during the years before World War I, which seem to be ritual punishment. Who is responsible?
Director: Michael Haneke | Stars: Christian Friedel, Ernst Jacobi, Leonie Benesch, Ulrich Tukur
Votes: 77,604 | Gross: $2.22M
40. The Coming Days (2010)
PG-13 | 125 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
In the near future, the dreams of three adult siblings living in Germany are fractured by difficult romantic relationships and their unwitting involvement with an underground organization ... See full summary »
Director: Lars Kraume | Stars: Bernadette Heerwagen, Daniel Brühl, August Diehl, Johanna Wokalek
Votes: 1,309
41. If Not Us, Who? (2011)
124 min | Biography, Drama
West Germany, early 1960s. Star crossed lovers Bern and Gudrun begin a life long affair in the stifling atmosphere of provincial Germany. Setting out to challenge the establishment they ... See full summary »
Director: Andres Veiel | Stars: August Diehl, Lena Lauzemis, Alexander Fehling, Thomas Thieme
Votes: 1,306
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