Sonja Ziemann talks about her career.
Vienna, 1956. After Soviet tanks crush the Hungarian uprising, soldier-of-fortune Michael Reynolds is hired to help a threatened Hungarian scientist escape from Budapest.
The film depicts the first month of 1945 when the Russian Red Army broke into the eastern part of Germany and forced millions of civilians to flee in the coldest of winter. While the Russians invaded Ostpreussen hundred of thousands of civilians were evacuated by ships. Gotenhafen was the last open port and ships left the town almost by the minute, overloaded by refugees. One of the last ships to leave Gotenhafen was the 'Wilhelm Gustloff', a former 'Kraft durch Freude' pleasure cruiser designed for 1000 passengers. Until today it is unknown how many people were on board but it is said to be around 10.000. The ship sunk without a trace and only a handful of people survived this hellish nightmare.
In the winter of 1943, against the background of battle scenes, a young German Lieutenant who increasingly distrusts the inhuman Nazi ideology struggles with the concept of war.
The film focuses on life in a World War II German penal battalion camp somewhere in Russia. The convicts include a heroic doctor unjustly convicted of avoiding military service, an officer who retreated against orders, and common criminals. It shows their life in the camp, clearing mines, living in trenches on the front line.
After the end of World War II Lüder Lüdersen, the former owner of a feudal estate in the East, and his daughter Helga arrive as refugees in the Lüneburg Heath. While living a seemingly happy life on the estate of his cousin, Lüdersen hides a dark secret: he is a poacher.
Juliane Thomas is an ambitious but unemployed young writer. After breaking up with her lover she works at a dentist friend to make ends meet. One day she instantly falls in love with one of the patients (Jean Berner) and promptly writes a movie script about the encounter in which she projects her own fantasies about how things will turn out eventually. By coincidence this movie script is picked up by a film director who happens to be Berner's closest friend and from then on things become very complicated...
The painter Hans Hauser falls head over heels in love with the "Black Forest girl" Bärbele Riederle. He travels to her home village and soon the two realize that they are made for each other.
On his journey through the Flemish province, Don Fernando, the king's stadtholder, passes through the small, bourgeois community of Terbrügg. There, he meets Antje, the mayor's wife. To impress the beautiful lady, he gives her his bathtub. It's a sensation in the small town, which has never seen such a tub before. Out of envy and resentment, Antje is pilloried for her "immoral" passion for bathing and becomes the laughingstock of the town...
Based on a book by Vicki Baum, all of the action takes place in one day in a luxury hotel in Berlin. Grusinkaya is a ballerina staying at the hotel, other guests include Baron von Gaigern a sophisticated thief, Otto Klingelein a dying man, Preysing a businessman, and a stenographer. Events intertwine the lives of these strangers, bringing them together for some dramatic moments.
Music seller and singer on occasion, Jacques Gardel learns from master Jérôme Quilleboeuf that he inherits oil fields located in Big Bend in Texas.
Health officials from the World Health Organization link a smallpox outbreak in Europe to oil drilling in the Middle East.
Fatme has quite the talent for getting herself into trouble and escaping with her head intact. But when she's caught rifling through Caliph Omar's possessions, she finds herself in serious trouble. News of a theft makes the rounds and now the caliph's men are after her. Fortunately, she's able to find refuge with a sheikh, who isn't quite so thorough in checking his possessions. And it's thanks to him, that Fatme is able to get away with her newly acquired goods.
While working as an accountant in his uncle's factory, talented young pianist Peter dreams of becoming a famous composer. When he shows his work to a producer, he manages to convince him to give him a chance. From time to time he gets bigger contracts that keep him more and more away from home and his young wife Elisa. When he "discovers" and supports a pretty ballerina in Munich, a rumor starts that he's having an affair. He fails to realize that his marriage is threatened.
Lieschen Müller is in her mid-20s, works a dull office job and fancies the handsome waiter from the diner down the street, wishing for a more exciting life. In a vivid, lucid dream she happens upon a gigantic fortune, allowing her to live out her wildest fantasies. Quickly, however, she realizes that that's not what makes her happy.
Peter escapes a firing squad and leaves the island of San Quinto on a commercial flight to Bermuda. The plane is hijacked by a Nazi and San Quinto's Ex-General Cordobas who shoot pilot Pink and damage the landing gear of the plane.
A biographical drama is based on the 1929 autobiography of Swedish doctor Axel Martin Fredrik, The Story of San Michele. It follows the physician, psychiatrist, and adventurer as he travels the distances from Lapland to his Villa San Michele on Capri, with special stops in Paris and Rome. Personal physician to Queen Victoria, also physician to the Swedish royal family (he spent his last years living in the Royal Palace in Sweden), "Axel Munthe" knew everyone from the poorest clients to the most well-endowed. His love of animals, his support of bird sanctuaries, his involvement with architecture as he constructs his impressive villa throughout five summers, and his interests in archaeology and hypnotism are all explored.
The action is relocated to occupied Athens after the Peloponnesian War (404 BC), where Mr. S. (= Socrates, played by Paul Hörbiger) proposes double marriage for men to the Athenian parliament and the four occupying powers for hidden personal reasons. Outwardly, he is concerned with providing for the many war widows. His deeper intention is to free the beautiful slave Euritrite as a concubine alongside the quarrelsome Xanthippe. The four occupying powers of the Macedonians (= US Americans), Persians (= Russians), Cretans (= English) and Corinthians (= French) are gently teased. On Socrates' advice, the law is adopted with an anonymous dissenting vote so that everyone at home can claim that it was him. Socrates can marry Euritrite. Xanthippe, however, favors the mutual infatuation of Euritrite and Socrates' student Plato (who had already invented Platonic love out of sheer desperation), and the other women also know how to spoil their husbands' pleasure in the new law.
After an accident, Princess Maria Christine ends up stranded in Rothenburg, where she falls in love with engineer Rudi Becker, but pretends to be a shoe saleswoman. Misunderstandings, mix-ups and intrigues lead to turmoil surrounding her planned wedding to the King of Slovenia.
After drinking too much alcohol, King Michael XXXVII promptly forgets his own wedding date! To avoid a scandal, his police minister asks the writer Peter Petroni, who looks deceptively like the king, to stand in for the alcoholic Michael at the ceremony. The only trouble is that the game quickly turns serious - because when Peter catches sight of "his" bride at the altar, it's love at first sight...
Ted Talbot is a prosecutor in Newtonville. In the course of his work, he accuses Jim Conley of robbing a bank and killing the cashier. Ted's wife Jane takes over Conley's defense. When the court sentences the defendant to death, she files for divorce. Beth Conley, the wife, goes to see the prosecutor and asks him to postpone the execution of the sentence for thirty days. When he refuses, she threatens him with revelations. Deputy District Attorney Hal Young witnesses this confrontation...
In March of 1945, as the War in Europe is coming to a close, fighting erupts between German and American troops at the last remaining bridgehead across the Rhine.
Austria, Bad Ischl: The young Princess Christine and the Imperial Count of Hohenegg are supposed to meet at the annual Imperial Ball before their planned engagement. But things turn out differently than expected: Christine falls in love with Count Baranyi, and her future husband falls in love with the seamstress Franzi, who is mistaken for a countess at the wrong moment...
Helga, a stewardess, meet a passenger, Eric, during a flight to Athens. They fall in love, but he is married. Later Helga is involved in a flight crash. One of the severely injured passengers is Eric's wife Maria.
Boys are usually busy playing "Indians", but when their uncle decides to rent part of their home to a Doctor Höflin, they took an oath to cast him out with a series of pranks.
For the corpulent nobleman Sir John Falstaff, the inn in the small English town of Windsor is the best of all places. Here he can indulge in excessive dining and intemperate drinking, as well as swagger and boast about his adventures, particularly those of an amorous nature. At present, he has designs on the two young women, Mistress Reich and Fluth, who, in turn, lead the paunchy protagonist mightily by the nose.
Three homeless youths commit petty crimes to get by in the difficult time just after the end of WW2 in Germany. When they become suspects in a murder case, a witness of the events comes forward with evidence that they are innocent of the crime. He offers them a chance to break with their ways and make a new beginning in his village, not knowing what this will ultimately cost him.
The respected lawyer Jolly Gebhardt is in debt because of his lavish lifestyle and is therefore blackmailed by dubious criminals for embezzlement.
In the antique shop J.M. Mauritius, there’s astonishment when a young, beautiful woman, Gabriele Euler, inquires about an old fortress crest, which can be seen in the background on an old tapestry --- it’s, in fact, the same crest engraved on an old, silver jar belonging to Gabriele: a family heirloom. She discovers, that the crest is the landmark for Burg Uhlenfels. Determined to find out more about her allegedly noble roots, Gabriele takes off to explore Castle Uhlenfels … unaware it’s haunted.
The beginning of the 20th century. The main character is the young, charming Count Pierre de Sauterne. There have been several conflicts between him and his aristocratic uncle, who, due to his fanatical interest in cars, is called Tøf-Tøf. The authoritative older gentleman also has a pronounced weakness for the female sex, and it irritates him that his nephew far surpasses him in this regard. Uncle Tøf-Tøf decides that Pierre must spend his summer vacation in a secluded family villa on the North Sea coast as punishment, but not long into his stay, two charming girls seek shelter from a thunderstorm.
The unsuccessful composer Daniel Mogge meets the photographer Eva through his runaway dog Blasius. He falls in love with her and a romance begins between the two. The envious neighbor Grusius, who is feverishly waiting for submissions for musical works, finds them through the open window: Mogge composes and Grusius steals. When Mogge hears his piece on the radio, the events come thick and fast.
Ricky and Maria, desperate for money, undertake an insurance fraud. After getting involved with a thug, it ends in tragedy.
Sonja, a little ballerina at the Grand Theater, is secretly in love with the handsome tenor Luis Mariano. One night, she hurts her feet while dancing and under the influence of a sedative falls asleep and starts dreaming. She is Sonja Ilyanova now, a young gypsy dancer who dreams of performing before Alexei, the son of the Czar.
The 18th-century French marquis recalls his sadomasochistic experiments and goes to jail for lewd behavior.
Overly proper family man Walter Brinkmann is coaxed to a cabaret by free‐spirited friend Bernd. After a spoof of himself, Walter decides to embrace life’s fun side. With his wife away, he returns to the cabaret, where he harmlessly flirts with singer Fee Freiberg. His children and housekeeper secretly shadow him, and when his wife returns, she finds him surprisingly transformed, and then surprisingly grateful.
1943 German film.
Peter and Paul are old friends who happen to meet again. Both are dentists and both want to get married the next day.
Zbigniew Cybulski and Sonja Ziemann play lovers struggling to find happiness and privacy in overcrowded Warsaw. The movie shows an honest picture of life in a war-damaged city, contrasting the characters' difficulties with their dreams of a better life. It was banned in Poland in 1958 and would not be seen anywhere until its European release one year later.
Serge, alias Count Fornari, is hired by a mysterious employer to try to steal the Nabob, an exceptionally valuable diamond that Jeannette, alias Aménita (Perrette Pradier), the companion of a billionaire, wears as a locket. She covets the diamond and steals it from the safe. About to be caught in the act, she keeps it hidden in a handkerchief in her hand and manages to conceal it in Serge's pocket during the hotel ball. When she rejoins the billionaire, he asks her to open her hand, but the diamond is gone. The result is a chase full of misunderstandings and twists and turns between the three protagonists.
In a German prison camp, some Italian prisoners bet with the commander that they will be able to build a church in two hours.
The wife of a conductor with a stormy past agrees to meet a blackmailer in a small hotel.
Jacques Forestier, also a choreographer, an art decorator and a stage producer, is the very competent manager of "Tabarin", a renowned Parisian music-hall. A hard worker, he always wants the best for the public, at the expense of his health. He is assisted in his task by his wife Rosine and his lively secretary Mimi. Chance has it that one of the dancers he auditions for a new show is Florence, his former lover. He doesn't want her in the show but the spiteful belle has a rich influential protector who imposes her anyway. Some time later, Jacques falls victim of a heart attack.