Oskar Matzerath is a very unusual boy. Refusing to leave the womb until promised a tin drum by his mother, Agnes, Oskar is reluctant to enter a world he sees as filled with hypocrisy and injustice, and vows on his third birthday to never grow up. Miraculously, he gets his wish. As the Nazis rise to...
Hans Castorp, fresh from university and about to become a civil engineer, comes to the Sanatorium Berghof in the Swiss Alps to visit his cousin Joachim, an army officer, who is recovering there from tuberculosis. Intending to remain at the Berghof for three weeks, Hans is gradually contaminated by...
At an Austrian boys' boarding school in the early 1900s, shy, intelligent Törless observes the sadistic behavior of his fellow students, doing nothing to help a victimized classmate—until the torture goes too far. Adapted from Robert Musil's acclaimed novel, Young Törless launched the New...
Pepe Nietnagel and his fellow students of the Mommsen school come up with all kinds of ideas to get out of doing any actual school work. This includes simulating suicides, setting off the air-raid sirens and abusing the school director's new broadcasting system. They succeed in sending their...
Bernhard "Big Mäc" Maurer, an ex-motorcycle freak and bored piano teacher, is voted the "perfect motorcyclist" by the trade magazine Motorrad after quitting his job as a music teacher at a Munich high school. He is promised a bonus of $50,000 if he manages to beat a Japanese team in an adventure...
A new teacher, Dr. Dr. Bach, is transferred from his quiet village elementary school to the Mommsen Gymnasium, bringing along his nephew Jan. Bach's lackadaisical methods raise the suspicions of the other teachers.
Berlin Film Fest 1984. The best place for every cinema fan. Everyone wants to be in on the festival, but that may be really difficult, if one has no accreditation. Also Journalist Matthies gets to know the rules of being in or out when he wants to see a screening and is not welcome. Thus he watches...
Sometime during the 19th century in Switzerland: After a delirious night of drinking, three herdsmen who are all alone in the alps with their kettle, create a female doll from cloth and a strangely formed wooden root. When their creation comes to life in form of an evil and beautiful female demon,...
Mommsen Gymnasium director Taft secretly places his nephew as a spy with the difficult class of Pepe Nietnagel. During the celebration for the 100th anniversary, a simulated fire forces the school to shut down for a week. The director's attempt to get a tough teacher assigned by the department of...
Pepe Notnagel (who inexplicably had his name changed from the first movie's Nietnagel) and his classmates scheme to get around doing any actual school work by cheating or sending their teachers to the sanatorium. A Swiss documentary film maker disguises himself as his brother in law, who got a...
For fans of history, this glimpse of Munich society in the 1920s will be a much-treasured event. The story revolves around an art-gallery manager who puts on a show featuring the scandalous works of a woman artist who committed suicide. He is unjustly accused of having committed adultery with her,...
The 13-year-old Ludwig is to have for every joke. At boarding school he cuts his stern teacher, Captain a. D. Semmelmaier, during the nap from the beard. The angry pedagogue then sends the spoiled flail back to his beloved Bavarian village. The long-suffering mother persuades the rector to resume...
