An Insider’s Guide to German Cinema

You’ve probably heard of ‘Sauerkraut’, the Oktoberfest and German efficiency. As you can probably imagine, this is what we portray to the outside. But if you’re interested in what the Berliner, Hamburger or Münchner secretly watches in his living room on a Blockbuster night, look no further. When Germans make movies for Germans, you will feel the atmosphere during the fall of the Berlin Wall, the giggles of Germany’s own Star Wars Parody and the thrill of raising 100,000 German Marks in 20 minutes. Here are 5 comedies, historical dramas and thrillers by German directors for a German audience.

Instead of watching the next episode of Game of Thrones, take a look at (T)raumschiff Surprise. Made in 2004 by the famous director Michael ‘Bully’ Herbig, this sci-fi gem mocks Star Wars and Star Trek whilst travelling through time. It’s 2304 and the crew of Dreamship Surprise (three middle aged men dressed in tight trousers and matching hairstyles) welcome you aboard the dubiously shaped spaceship. The catchy tune ‘Spacetaxi to the sky’ is guaranteed to be stuck firmly in your head. If you’re wondering how you’ll be able to understand any of the jokes without speaking German, have no fear! Either grab the next German you’ll encounter and simply approach them by singing the soundtrack of Traumschiff Surprise. They’ll know. If that’s not an option just grab some subtitles and you can stay in bed for another eternity.

You’ve probably studied some part of the German Nazi Period and asked yourself how the Germans at that time could allow it to happen. Many Germans today ask themselves the same and Dennis Gansel’s Die Welle (2008) shows that this phenomenon could happen anywhere, anytime. Based on the North American novel ‘The Third Wave’, this film depicts the implementation of a social experiment in a German school class. Being forced to teach adolescents about autocracy, the teacher Rainer Wenger soon creates a system of oppression, starting with a white shirt uniform to distinguish the rulers from the ruled. This thriller is a brilliant analysis of human behaviour with a shocking climax. ‘How could the Nazi regime happen?’ is still a valid question but maybe you will look at it differently after watching Die Welle.

The thriller Lola rennt (‘Run Lola Run’) will mess with your mind in a completely different way. Whereas Die Welle will make you question the human morality, Lola rennt takes you through a maze of scenarios and coincidences. Filmed in 1998 by the German director Tom Tykwer, Lola will take you through the hectic city of Berlin on a hunt for 100,000 German Marks in 20 minutes. She has to raise the money that belongs to a malicious drug dealer because her boyfriend Manni left it on the subway. So begins the hunt and Lola shows no qualms: Lie, Cheat, Steal, Kill. Borrowing a bit from Hitchcock’s Vertigo and touching on the role of chance, this masterpiece was definitely a success for German cinema. At least enough for it to be featured in the Simpsons.

For those of you who haven’t heard of the East-West divide particularly in Germany after the Second World War, here is a little bit of context. Neither of the two sides were innocent, yet the majority would describe the West of Germany as liberal and democratic and the East as socialist, restrictive and dictating. The Lives of Others is arguably the first movie to openly criticise the Stasi regime on screen but its popularity outside of Germany give it a different twist among German speakers. It’s worth going to the Hohenschönhausen prison if you’re in Berlin and seeing the atrocities committed by the Stasi regime. But of course there’s not only one side to the story and you’ll hear of ‘Ostalgie’, a wordplay of the German word for East and nostalgia.

That’s exactly what Goodbye Lenin! is about. It depicts the Stasi period through the Tragicomedy, a mixture between tragedy and comedy. This 2003 film is about the reconstruction of the GDR in a 79m² apartment in Berlin. The plot is as follows, right before the fall of the Berlin Wall Alex Kerner’s patriotic mum falls into a coma and doesn’t wake up until after the fuss is over. But since his mum was practically married to the GDR, Alex Kerner has to turn back time to avoid shocking his mother with the news. And so begins the hunt for old East-German pickles, TV shows and clothes. This movie will make you laugh, cry and it will definitely make you understand how bizarre it is to change a political system and society from socialism to capitalism (and turn it back again).

This little insight into German cinema does not mean say that every movie is sophisticated and revealing. There’s a whole genre of Romantic Comedies with Til Schweiger rescuing a self-conscious woman with glasses to reveal his soft spot. And there’s a variety of German movies who were made for an international audience, for example the Lives of Others, the Downfall, The Perfume, Bad Lieutenant, The Baader-Meinhof-Complex, the list goes on. Nevertheless, if some day you decide you’re bored by the latest exploits of Tom Cruise or Adam Sandler, take a look at some German cinema instead.