German melodramas have attracted viewers to the screens for decades. This article talks about some of the most notable tapes with which you should start familiarizing yourself with this genre of German cinema.
"Pandora's Box"
Even at the time of silent cinema, German melodramas occupied a special place, attracting a large number of fans. An example is the classic silent tape of George Wilhelm Pabst "Pandora's Box", which was released in 1929.
It tells about the mistress of a wealthy newspaper owner Ludwig Shen named Lulu. The events of this picture begin to develop after Shen announces Lula about his upcoming engagement with the daughter of the influential minister von Tsarnikov Charlotte.
After that, Lulu meets with his friend Alva, who is also the son of Shen. Her lover, in order to distract the girl from her upcoming marriage, offers her the main role in her review.
Shen comes to the premiere with Charlotte, Lulu categorically refuses to go on stage while her rival is in the hall. Shen tries to persuade her to change her mind, but she eventually seduces him, behind the scene of their passion and Charlotte finds. The engagement is broken, the desperate Shen agrees to marry Lula, but all the main events in this German melodrama about love are just beginning.
"Girls in uniform"
In 1931 another picture was released that deserved attention. This is Leontina Zagan's German melodrama Girls in Uniform. It is believed that this is the first film in the world of cinema about lesbians, which has become a cult for them.
The film takes place in Prussia on the eve of the First World War. 14-year-old Manuela von Meinhardis arrives in Potsdam, where he enters a boarding house for the daughters of German officers. Her mother died, and her father spends all the time in the army, unable to deal with her daughter.
She gets into a class with Fraulein von Bernburg, who tries to communicate with her students on equal terms, becoming a universal favorite. The very first meeting with von Bernburg throws the main character into great confusion, she becomes very attached to the teacher, the teacher also begins to distinguish Manuel from the rest. Soon, the girl confesses to the teacher that she is in love with her.
"Silence after the shot"
The German melodrama, the film-drama Volker Schlendorf "Silence after the shot" was released in 1999. He talks about a radical organization of which the main character Rita Vogt is a member. Together with associates, she fights against the oppression of human freedoms. They are even supported by special services of the GDR, which are interested in such communities abroad for the sake of the absence of problems within the country.
In particular, the group manages to arrange the escape of their like-minded Andreas Klein, who was kept in prison in Germany. In addition, he is Rita's lover.
A few years later, a split occurs among like-minded people. Rita begins to seriously doubt that their work can bring real benefits to the world. They disagree with Andreas and quarrel.
Returning to the GDR, they remain in the expectation that they will soon be sent to arrange a revolution at some distant point on the planet, while their leader receives instead an indication of self-dissolution. Only Rita agrees to this, who noticed that during the time they spent in France, Andreas started a relationship with another girl, so now she is not connected with these people either by political beliefs or romantic feelings.
"Barefoot on the pavement"
In 2005, Til Schweiger's German melodrama Barefoot on the Pavement was a great success.
This is a story about a loser Nick, who constantly loses his job. Everyone around him considers him an outsider. He gets a job, this time as a janitor in a mental hospital. A day later, Nick saved one of the patients named Laila from suicide.
Layle 25, she is very naive, has no idea what real life is, she always walks barefoot. Her mother did not let her out of the house until the age of 19, and when she died, Laila was sent to this institution.
Late in the evening, she hunts down where Nick lives, comes to his apartment, saying that she will now live there. He does not manage to return her to the hospital, then they go to the wedding of his brother. The irritation that a man experiences with his new girlfriend is gradually replaced by affection.
"Pretty boy"
In 2007, German comedy-melodrama "Handsome" was released on German screens. In the center of the story is journalist Ludo, who works for the yellow newspaper. His main hobby is to seduce all the girls in the area.
He fails the next task: to remove the engagement of boxer Wladimir Klitschko. Ludo falls through the glass ceiling, falling directly into the cake. He is sentenced to eight months of probation and sent to mandatory correctional labor in a kindergarten.
Surprisingly, one of the teachers is the girl with whom they studied at school together. Then he constantly mocked her, now falls into submission to a woman who dreams of revenge.