Egon Günther

Director

March 30, 1927 (90 years)

† August 31, 2017

Schneeberg, Germany

Biography

Critics describe Egon Günther as an avant-gardist of East German cinema, who was known for stylistically sophisticated films that could compete with international productions.

Filmography

8.0

Morenga

Gottschalk and Wenstrup are two German veterinarians who have settled in German Southwest Africa to tend to the needs of cattle ranchers. When a rebellion by a local dissident named Morenga is brutally crushed by the Germans, the two vets get involved, at great risk to themselves, and offer help to the native revolutionaries.

2.8

Die Braut

The relationship between Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the great German writer, and Christiane Vulpius, a village girl, is one of the instantaneous and fiery passion. They lived together for 28 years, 18 of these living in sin, 10 a married couple. Christiane's rival, Charlotte von Stein, a former favorite of Goethe, begins plotting and scheming against her. Christiane puts up with countless insults and humiliations like having to 'disappear' with their son into the servants' quarters and to stay at home on official occasions. Goethe marries her when she saves his life during an attack by plundering Napoleonic soldiers. Her new social position as Goethe's wife is resented and envied by all. When she is openly attacked by the snooty, jealous people, Goethe is only half-hearted in coming to her defence. But she stays with him for he is her great love, even when she turns to the charms of many youthful admirers...

7.0

Junge Frau von 1914

In 1914 Berlin, bank heiress Leonore Wahl and struggling Munich student Werner Bertin fall passionately in love, defying class and her parents’ expectations. Their idyll is shattered by the outbreak of WWI: Werner, swept up in patriotic fervor, is conscripted to the Western Front, while Leonore, pregnant and abandoned, faces her family’s condemnation and a clandestine abortion. Set against the tumult of war, the film explores idealism, social divides, and the personal costs of duty and desire.

5.9

The Sorrows of Young Werther

The young and rebellious Werther is passionately, but hopelessly, in love with Lotte. Although he knows that she is married to somebody who can offer her a secure future, Werther tries to be near her. Lotte cannot decide between these two men. She eventually rejects Werther, who does not survive her decision.

6.6

Her Third

In this East German film, the third one in The Third is Margit's third lover. After her mother's death, Margit has two affairs which don't work out, and one lesbian friendship which she retains. She is looking for a husband, though, and thinks she has spotted a candidate in her fellow factory worker. As she contemplates marrying him, her story is told in a series of flashbacks.

N/A

Junge Frau von 1914

8.0

Das Kleid

Poor weavers Hans und Kumpan try to enter a town surrounded by a tall, impenetrable wall, where everyone is apparently very happy. When they finally make it inside, the tyrannical Emperor Max demands they make him new clothes that would "bring all creatures to their knees." Hans and Kumpan claim only intelligent people can see the robe, and in order to prove himself clever, the emperor haughtily displays himself before his subjects wearing his new invisible regalia.

N/A

Erziehung vor Verdun

The armouring soldier and writer Werner Bertin is ordered to the Western Front to France during the First World War. The use before Verdun - with all the horrors of war in the period 1916/1917 - brings a fundamental change of consciousness for the academic from Berlin. The intellectual devoted to bravery by fate develops into a disappointed but rebellious being. He sees more and more the injustices of warlike conflicts and their social causes.

9.0

Erziehung vor Verdun

6.6

Farewell

In August of 1914, amidst the public ecstasy surrounding the impending war, Hans Gastl, the young son of a Munich bürger, makes a decision: he will not take part in this war. This resolution signifies a turning point in his life; a farewell to his class and his family.

4.3

The Keys

During their holiday in Kraków, a young worker and a student are asked if their love, despite different views on life, will endure.

5.8

Lotte in Weimar

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was the author of Werther, the romantic novel that was transformed into a play during Goethe's lifetime and which initiated the whole German romantic movement. The book's story tells of young love and suicide. In this East German film, based on a book by Thomas Mann, Lotte (Lilli Palmer) was the woman who served as the model for the heroine in the novel Werther. She comes to Goethe's hometown for a visit, and her experiences there eerily re-create episodes from the book. Goethe comes across as a pompous old bore, and his friends as pandering sycophants, in this very proper communist party-sponsored, anti-heroic movie.

5.3

When You’re Grown Up, Dear Adam

Adam receives a flashlight with special powers: every liar it shines on flies into the air. Production was cancelled in 1965/66 due to the film's political content. Only in 1989/90 could the director reconstruct the film, where missing sounds and images are replaced with script inserts.

4.7

Rosamunde

Berlin at the beginning of the 1930s, economic crisis, chaos: Bruno, Franz and Emil, three unemployed young men, are looking for a way out of their misery and decide to kidnap Abel Austerlitz, the son of a rich Jewish factory owner. Emil's charming sister Rosamunde lures Abel into the trap, and the gang of crooks then hold him captive in a cellar hideout on the outskirts of Berlin. While they organize the money transfer, Abel's father informs the police and the unconventional Inspector Jablonski begins to search for the perpetrators. Rosamunde falls in love with Abel and the situation spirals out of control.

5.0

Ursula

Switzerland 1523. The mercenary Hansli Gyr returns with his soldiers from Italy to his home in the Oberland. They have fought for the Pope and now find a religious upheaval in Switzerland.

3.5

Stein

Actor Ernst Stein, having abdicated from the stage in 1968 in protest of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, has long since retreated from the world around him. In a remote house encircled by an overgrown garden, he lives in a world of dreams and memories. Suddenly, in 1989, an out-of-kilter society sends forth its progeny. Young people, tramps and characters of all sorts take refuge with Stein for a short span, carrying the turmoil of the times into his house.

10.0

Lot's Wife

The marriage of Katrin and Richard Lot has become a routine. She has a career and he, as a Marine officer, comes home only once every fourteen days. The children greet him with joy, but she greets him only with anxiety because their marriage is missing its key ingredient: love. She wants a divorce, but he refuses mainly out of comfort as well as due to pressure from the party. Katrin finds a strange solution: she shoplifts and is put on probation for three months. This is enough to force Richard into a divorce because he is concerned about the "moral liability" of his wife.

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