Head-On ( Gegen die Wand )
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0347048/

Run Lola Run ( Lola rennt )
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0130827/

23 ( 23 - Nichts ist so wie es scheint )
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0126765/

The Baader Meinhof Complex ( Der Baader Meinhof Komplex )
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0765432/

We children from Bahnhof Zoo ( Christiane F - Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo )
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082176/

A bit difficult to give a representative view of good German movies I liked, since many good films are Tv productions that hardly made it to international DVD-releases.
For example recently I saw "Herz im Kopf", a very good, sensible portrait of a rebelling teenager kicked around by his emotions for a Polish girl, with extremely good actors (the Polish girl played by a Polish girl who at that time did not speak a single word of German and just learned the German text: but you do not realise that!),
or "Machen wir's auf Finnisch", a comedy that served any Finnish cliche you could have - but nevertheless made me laughing tears.
Or "Nana", the story of a girl becoming lethally ill, but still living her days to their fullest, was a film I never forgot, because it was so encouraging despite her death and the despair of her father (and again some very good acting even by debutants) - it never was made available on DVD.
And there are quite some more.

In general Germans sometimes can do good German movies - but imo it does not happen as often as with for example British movies. It is somewhat an exception to the rule of mediocrity, still. Most of those movies of the past years that gained international fame, I do not like, also I would disagree on the majority of movies being mentioned here so far. German film making last but not least often is populistic film making.

The German director of the present to watch out for is Tom Tykwer, now working internationally. See "Winter Sleepers" below, and the already mentioned "Run Lola Run". Also, "The Princess + The Warrior" and "Heaven are absolutely brilliant movies, showing that filmmaking can be a form of highly developed art, and an expression of human nature, beauty and vulnerability.

These four German movies come to my mind without meditating an hour about your question, all of them are available either in English translations, or sub-titles, and are quality movies by any standard you can compare against:

Winterschläfer
(Winter Sleepers) - highly recommended, one of my all-time-favourites, and a masterpiece of almost magic story-telling http://www.tomtykwer.com/03_filmogra...er/index.shtml ). Awarded.

Die Brücke
(The Bridge, old version from 1959 in b/w, by Bernhard Wicki, amongst other awards it won a Golden Globe. do not mistake it with the remake last year - that one was simply bad.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Br%C3%BCcke_(film)

Sophie Scholl - Die letzten Tage (The final days)
I mentioned that before. Extremely moving and troubling, but not kitschig. Quite some awards.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_...The_Final_Days

Nosferatu
The original by Murnau, dating back to 1922
No need to say anything on that.

Hmm? Going to have to check that one out. :hmmm:

+1. Just a great film that encapsulates so much about the horrors of WW2. Definitely not Rambo but...well you'll see.

Btw, Stalingrad was partly filmed not far from where I used to live, up in Lapland, the winter scenes near the end of the film.

If you're ready for some 'out of the ordinary but considered cult classic' - type of stuff, there's always Rainer Werner Fassbinder. His Berlin Alexanderplatz is considered a pretty significant work (and long).

Also, if not yet mentioned, M (1931) with Peter Lorre. Fritz Lang and Peter Lorre both escaped Nazi-Germany and the film could be seen as a metafor about the rise of the Nazis. Fritz Lang alledgedly had a meeting with Goebbels but this could be just a rumour.

From new movies, I recently re-watched The Tunnel (2001).

One of Herzog's best documentaries IMHO is Little Dieter Needs To Fly (1997). The story was made into a movie with Christopher Bale but the documentary is better.

Yep very good movie that, also known as "Downfall"

Downfall or Untergang is famous on youtube for mocking anyone from MS to the PS3

example: Hitler gets banned from xbox live

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfkDxF2kn1I

Somebody stole Hitlers car! :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8dl4...eature=related


Recently i watched 'Defiance' more about two jewish brothers who fight against the nazi's during ww2 not a bad movie. Based on a true story.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1034303/

I wouldn't say "Defiance" is a German movie. Production country is USA, director is a British or American, the cast is international.

Looking forward to it, though. After the excellent Casino Royal and very bad Quantum of Solace, I am curious to see Daniel Craig as a different character, although he seems to play the tough fighter guy again. I liked him very much as Bond, though.

From new films that aren't German but deal with Germany I recently caved in and saw Valkyrie in the cinema. I liked parts of if, the attack in the start of the film and the images of the Junkers and other aircraft.

Stauffenberg (2004) is the better film that depicts the events.

Downfall, as mentioned before is a great one to watch, With some brillant casting and direction.

Absolute Giganten

Fitzcarraldo

Seconded - Lives of Others is excellent!

PD

And very unrealistic. Civil right groups and former Eastgerman activists protested a lot against it, saying it is glossing over the StaSi. A case like in the movie is not known in StaSi history.

That'S what I meant with saying "populistic movies". In Germany, since some years we have kind of a wave, or a vogue, to wish back the GDR, glossing over it, talking it better and nicier than it was, and many movies reflect that as well. Another example is the movie "Der Baader-Meinhof Komplex", which is kind of a heroic action movie investing a lot of time to make the audience familiar with the terroists and asking questions about them (or not). The victims of their crimes remain almost anonymous and unimportant, and relatoives of victims protested that parts of the "facts" in the movie are simply wrong. But in Germany, we love to have educated debates about pedagogics. Or what we consider to be an "educated" debate. :nope:

Meanwhile, many youngster leaving school do not know about the GDR anymore, and if asked about it, give more wrong answers than correct ones.

Maybe that's the price of having a Spaßgesellschaft (fun society). And a people busy with partying cannot invest time in thinking about how to send politicians and lobbyists to hell and chnage the economy, so it is pretty much panem et circenses, and officially supported, boosted, enobled and tolerated, it seems to me.

Sorry for the distraction. And now back to the movies.

Defiance is a great movie based on a true story :yeah:
Shindlers List is a classic :yeah:

Yes. But Schindler's list also is no German movie, but an American one. ;) The question for this thread was regarding German-made movies, not Germany-related stories. ;)

It's a bit pointless to suggest the following as even the best translation could not reach even close to the original but I like all of Helge Schneiders movies he made himself (Texas, 00 Schneider, Praxis Dr. Hasenbein).
Scene from Texas :har:

Thanks, I will add those to my list. I have heard about Metropolis dince forever, time to check it out.

Danke, I have seen Downfall and Goodbye, Lenin. Good choices. I will add Das Leben and Komplex to my list :salute:



ok, thx!

Danke, mein komrade :salute:


Thanks, I have see Princess and Warrior, was a good film and I enjoyed it. Sophie Scholl, you and Camero have endorsed it, I will check it out too.



Yeah, that was great :)


Thanks to all for the great response, my Netflix list just got 12 new additions :shucks: