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The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum Volker Schlondorff/Margarethe von Trotta This powerful adaptation of Heinrich Boll's Nobel Prize-winning novel is a fierce condemnation of police abuse and the reckless, irresponsible nature of sensational journalism. A shy housekeeper has a one-night-stand with a handsome stranger she meets at a party. The following morning she is arrested for terrorism and brutally interrogated. A smear campaign in the press forces the innocent woman to fight for her freedom and her reputation. Margarethe von Trotta made her directorial debut, in collaboration with Volker Schlondorff, with this frightening portrayal of injustice. Starring Angela Winkler, Mario Adorf, Heinz Bennent and Jurgen Prochnow. The DVD is a Criterion Collection edition, and is letterboxed, 16x9 widescreen, with interviews with the directors and cinematographer Jost Vacano, a documentary on Heinrich Boll, the original trailer, and more. German with English subtitles. West Germany, 1975, 109 mins. DVD | $44.95
Margarethe von Trotta (3-Pack) The Second Awakening of Christa Klages/Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness/Sheer Madness Margarethe von Trotta Three landmark accomplishments from one of the central figures in the New German Cinema movement. Like all of her films, these dramas explore pressing issues of personal and national politics. The Second Awakening of Christa Klages (1977, 92 mins.) is an early solo venture for von Trotta--an intense political film exploring the relationship that develops between a desperate bank robber (Tina Engel), her accomplice (Marius Muller-Westerhagen), and the woman who shelters her (Silvia Reize). Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness (1981, 107) is an intimate, Strindbergian drama about the complex and compelling rivalry between two sisters (Gudrn Gabriel and Jutta Lampe). Von Trotta's keen attention to psychic extremes lends the film a fluctuating quality of tenderness and violence. Finally, Sheer Madness (1985, 106 mins.) is a psychological tour-de-force of friendship and feminism. The film explores the compelling relationship between two seemingly opposite women (Hanna Schygulla and Angela Winkler) who've been burned by bad relationships. In German with English subtitles. West Germany 1977-1985 296 mins. DVD | $99.95
Rosenstrasse Margarethe von Trotta New German Cinema veteran Margarethe von Trotta brings a diverse stylistic palette to this unusual but effective war drama about the plight of "mixed married" Jewish/non-Jewish couples during the Holocaust. Maria Schrader plays Hannah, a woman living in contemporary New York whose curiosity about her family's past leads her on a journey to Berlin, where she meets an older woman (Doris Schade) who cared for her mother during WWII. Here Hannah learns of Rosenstrasse, a street where Jewish husbands were rounded up and kept, and of her mother's personal history there. Ranging between a devastating Holocaust film and a colorful melodrama, von Trotta's film packs a direct emotional wallop despite its surfeit of characters and plot lines. In German with English subtitles. Germany, 2003, 136 mins. DVD | $44.95
The Second Awakening of Christa Klages Margarethe von Trotta Von Trotta's first solo directorial effort without husband Volker Schlondorff is the story of Christa (Tina Engel), a young divorced mother who, to finance her day-care center, robs a bank with two male accomplices and then finds that her associates at the center will not accept the stolen money. An unpredictable, didactic and profoundly political film. "Christa Klages is about friendships and bonds of identification between women…it's the film that the touted Girl Friends and One Sings, The Other Doesn't claimed to be but never got around to" (Chicago Reader). German with English subtitles. West Germany, 1977, 93 mins. DVD | $44.95
Sheer Madness Margarethe von Trotta In this intellectually complex and exhilarating film, von Trotta maps the destructive side of heterosexual politics as she explores the relationship of two profoundly enmeshed women. Olga (Hanna Schygulla), a professor of women's literature, saves Ruth (Angela Winkler), an artist, from suicide and tries to free her from going into the dark places of the self. "A moving and first-rate piece of work" (Barbara Koenig Quart, Cineaste). German with English subtitles. West Germany/France, 1982, 107 mins. DVD | $44.95
Sisters, Or the Balance of Happiness Margarethe von Trotta Von Trotta's stunning story of two sisters: the orderly and efficient Maria (Jutta Lampe), and the dependent and resentful Anna (Gudrun Gabriel), who studies biology at university while Maria foots the tuition and bills. Though they are physical and emotional opposites, they can live neither with nor without each other. When Anna commits suicide, Maria attempts to reinvent Anna through Miriam, a lively typist in the office secretarial pool, who obliges Maria to weigh the balance inside herself instead of searching out opposite types to stabilize her needs. "Beautifully visualized, intelligently written, von Trotta's movie is a stunning achievement" (Carrie Rickey, Village Voice). German with English subtitles. West Germany, 1979, 97 mins. DVD | $44.95
