Films I Must See - 1985

Karl and Richard, two German soldiers captured by the Russians in World War I, become very close friends-so close that Richard shares intimate stories about his wife, Anna. Through these stories, Karl falls in love with her in his thoughts. When Karl escapes and goes to Richard's home, Anna knows he is not her husband. But although she tries to resist Karl's love, she feels a growing response to him. Then, one day, Richard returns... This beautifully shot work was the only East German film ever to win the Golden Bear at the West German Berlin International Film Festival. Shortly after this success, however, the film's distribution was suspended due to problems with the literary rights. After over 20 years, the film is now finally available again.

A police detective cracks down on organized crime in Chinatown after the murders of Triad and Mafia leaders.

On improvising a burglary at a shady tycoon's home, Fred takes refuge in the hip and surreal universe of the Paris Metro and encounters its assorted denizens, the tycoon's henchmen and his disenchanted young wife.

Set during the fading glory of the Austro-Hungarian empire, the film tells of the rise and fall of Alfred Redl (Brandauer), an ambitious young officer who proceeds up the ladder to become head of the Secret Police only to become ensnared in political deception.

Two escaped convicts and a female railway worker find themselves trapped on a speeding train with no brakes and nobody driving.

A wealthy woman is murdered in her beach house. The husband is allegedly knocked out first. He inherits all. He has a female ex criminal prosecutor represent him in court.

The son of a German General becomes part of a mysterious conspiracy to gain hidden Nazi funds.

After discovering that his wife is cheating on him, an insomniac aerospace engineer accidentally meets, and tries to help, a beautiful model on the run from some extremely dangerous people.

After an odd new medical student arrives on campus, a dedicated local and his girlfriend become involved in bizarre experiments centering around the re-animation of dead tissue.

After finding an old rifle, a young boy joins the Soviet resistance movement against ruthless German forces and experiences the horrors of World War II.

A young woman's body is found frozen in a ditch. Through flashbacks and interviews, we see the events that led to her inevitable death.

Mario (Placido), an Italian American who manages a pizzeria in NYC, is charged with an assassination of a judge in Palermo. He leaves the States, comes back to Sicily and recruit Michele, his younger brother, for some help. Michele is a good guy not involved with the Mafia, who is trying to build his life on honesty and hard-working. Michele needs some money to give freedom to a prostitute he is in love, and Mario promise his help in change of an hands to set up his trap for the judge. Anyway Michele isn't made with the same "pasta" of Mario, he couldn't never be a real Mafioso and this causes many between the two brother and the Mafia. There is only a way for Mario to save his brother. A way that Mafia could like.

After his proposal to sail west to the East Indies is rejected by Portugal, Columbus overcomes court intrigue in Spain to gain support for his expedition.

In the winter of 1942-43, a Jewish family leaps from a train going through Silesia. They are separated in the woods, and Leon, a local peasant who's now a farmer of some wealth, discovers the woman, Rosa, and hides her in his cellar. Leon's a middle-aged Catholic bachelor, tormented by his sexual drive. He doesn't tell Rosa he's seen signs her husband is alive, and he begs her to love him. Rosa offers herself to Leon if he'll help a local Jew in hiding who needs money. Leon pays, and love between Rosa and him does develop, but then Leon's peasant subservience and his limited empathy lead to tragedy. At the war's end, a ray of sunshine comes from an unexpected place.

A man searches for survival after nuclear war forces people into an underground bunker. The inhabitants await rescue while their refuge decays around them.

A moody, jaded police detective, while investigating a drug ring, falls for a mysterious woman and is drawn into a shady and dangerous scheme.

A group of seamen from Norway find a Soviet listening station and they become targets for both America and Russia. Another cold war takes place.

A mother's love for her children leads to a son's revenge for her death in this dramatic thriller that begins during the Greek civil war.

A film version of a well-known Georgian folk-tale. A young boy has to be immured into the walls of a fortress in order to stop it from crumbling to pieces.

The true story of a disillusioned military contractor employee and his drug pusher childhood friend who became walk-in spies for the Soviet Union.

After Stalin's purges, Zinaida Volkova, daughter of Leon Trotsky, is exiled to Berlin. As the Nazis rise to power, and World War II is approaching, she becomes obsessed with Antigone, the protagonist of a famous Greek tragedy, and loses her mind.

Norman Jewison's adaptation of John Pielmeier's stage play. When naive novice nun Agnes is discovered with a dead newborn baby in her convent quarters, court-appointed psychiatrist Dr. Martha Livingston investigates her case.

The story of Marie Ward, a religious woman from a devout, aristocratic Yorkshire Catholic family who lived between 1585 and 1645 and moved to St. Omer in Walloon France, where she joined the Order of St. Clare, later returning to England to found her own order and devote her life to helping others.