Edition Filmmuseum

With his "production films", from Ofenbauer, Stars, Der Sekretär and Ein Vertrauensmann to Wäscherinnen, Jürgen Böttcher emancipated himself from the conventions of Socialist Realism and placed the focus of his work inspired by Cinéma vérité and Direct Cinema on pure observation. The commissioned short films Im Pergamonmuseum and Tierparkfilm subversively tested the censors' tight restrictions. In 1977, Böttcher began his long-term collaboration with cinematographer Thomas Plenert, resulting in Im Lohmgrund.

With Jahrgang 45, Jürgen Böttcher wanted to establish a culture of film making within the DEFA which "developed authentically, straight from reality". Yet like his earlier works, Drei von vielen and Barfuß und ohne Hut, whose youthful, anti-dogmatic vitality and spirit was not 'representative' enough for the GDR culture functionaries, the film was banned. This double DVD traces its history from the censored version to its final restoration.

The 2-disc DVD set features all films by Katrin Seybold about the White Rose and the resistance against National Socialism in Munich: Unique documents about strong personalities.

The 2-disc DVD presents the two most beautiful films shot in Germany by Max Ophüls in restored versions: The wonderful adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's famous play Liebelei was the last film before Ophüls was forced to emigrate. The German version of the international co-production Lola Montez, shot in color and CinemaScope, remained his last movie. Additionally the DVD set features Martina Müller's highly praised documentary Max Ophüls - Den schönen guten Waren and never before published documents and out-of-print books in the extensive ROM section.

With his debut feature, Mysterious Object at Noon, acclaimed Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul expertly blended cinematic fact and fiction in a manner that fifteen years later continues to defy both categorization and comparison. A low-fi "genre bender," independently produced on a shoestring and subsequently endangered by neglect, Mysterious Object at Noon has now been painstakingly restored by the Austrian Film Museum and the Film Foundation from the best surviving elements. This DVD release also includes three short works, selected by the director himself, plus the Austrian Film Museum's now out-of-print monograph on Apichatpong Weerasethakul from 2009 as an exclusive DVD-ROM feature.

The beautiful restoration from the original camera negative of the earliest surviving film by F. W. Murnau gives an accurate representation of Murnau's innovative, highly expressive lighting techniques. The plotan eminent physician comes under the spell of an unscrupulous dancerfinds echoes in Murnau's later masterpiece Sunrise. Conrad Veidt appears in a supporting role as a sinister painter, whose entrance eerily presages Nosferatu. "The new restoration allows you to see everything in the frame, with a marvelous translucence and density of detail. Forget High Frame Rate: This is hypnotic, immersive cinema." (David Bordwell) Lupu Pick's Scherben, like Der Gang in die Nacht based on a screenplay by Carl Mayer, has been celebrated as a masterful piece of tension-filled film-making built up through purely cinematic means. The 2-disc DVD set offers exceptional scores for both films.

This adaptation of Günter Grass's novel "Cat and Mouse" was one of the first films of the "Young German Cinema" and subject of a controversial political debate. The DVD puts Katz und Maus in the historical context with rare documents in the booklet and in the ROM section. Also included are two short films by Hansjürgen Pohland and Michael Klier, a selection of photos from the set and the original recordings of Attila Zoller's famous score.

The 4-disc DVD presents for the first time the surviving films Kafka saw in his lifetime and mentioned in his writings: documentaries, early feature films, newsreels. All the films were restored by archives in the U.S., Germany, Czechia, France, Italy, Denmark, and Russia. New scores are performed by Günter A. Buchwald and Richard Siedhoff.

This double DVD comprises all three of Antonio Skármeta's films shot during his exile in Berlin in the 1980s: His award-winning story about Pablo Neruda and a simple postman, which was also published as a novel and later famously re-filmed as Il Postino; the portrait of a three-generation Chilean family living in a Berlin apartment; and a cinematic dairy, in which Skármeta visits other Chilean artists in exile. These films cast light on the everyday occurrences in a life shaped by politics the hope, the joy and the humour.

The construction of the Berlin Wall on August 13, 1961, was a pivotal break in German history and had to be justified in movies produced by East Germany's DEFA studio. The 2-disc DVD set presents for the first time films by reknowned directors that tried to address topical events. Two of the films even include documentary footage shot in the summer of 1961.