Shortly after WWII, the DEFA Studios produced a series of operas and operettas which belonged to the classical German musical heritage. This enchanting film, the very first opera production of DEFA, stands out because of its lavish decor and costumes, its outstanding actors and their masterful voices of that time.
As the title "The Queen's Heart" suggests, this early German black and white version of Mary Queen of Scott's eventful reign and death focuses on her emotional perception rather lyrically, with some songs, mainly by her.
In 1920s Chicago, Italian immigrant and notorious thug, Antonio 'Tony' Camonte, aka Scarface, shoots his way to the top of the mobs while trying to protect his sister from the criminal life.
After returning from a concentration camp, Susanne finds a traumatized ex-soldier living in her apartment in bombed out Berlin. Together the two try to move past their experiences during WWII.
A musician is offered a job in Vienna as stage director, but his disagreements with the aristocratic opera manager end in abrupt firing in spite of a mutual attraction. He's quickly engaged by another theatre and becomes famous for his lavish stage productions and fine acting, which begins their golden age with Suppé and Strauss.
Two small children and a ship's cook survive a shipwreck and find safety on an idyllic tropical island. Soon, however, the cook dies and the young boy and girl are left on their own. Days become years and Emmeline and Richard make a home for themselves surrounded by exotic creatures and nature's beauty. But will they ever see civilization again?
A musical film based on biographical facts about Clara Wieck's love for composer Robert Schumann (1810-1856), her marriage against her will, Schumann's triumph, and his tragic end due to mental illness. The film is beautiful and entertaining, full of noble spirit and beautiful words about art and love, which only conflict in a theoretical context; not least thanks to its solid cast, this film is quite serious and far from kitsch. Completed in 1944, during World War II, the film was rejected by the Nazi leadership, but was eventually released and enjoyed success with an audience already weary of war.
The famous tightrope artist Truxa is drinking at the Artisan bar in New York. He meets a young man, Husen, and gives him his stage name Truxa. He is to take the real Truxa's place at a circus show in Wintergarten, Berlin.
Ramesh, the youngest son of a well-to-do family, falls in love with a woman he hears singing on the radio -- even though he's never seen her. When he finds out his mystery woman is Ksama, a servant in his parents' house, everything is thrown into turmoil. Will Ramesh accept Ksama? Will they get married? Love may just conquer all in this classic Bollywood melodrama.
Professor Sonnenbruck is a scientist who is not particularly interested in politics. Even the meeting in 1943 with his former assistant Peters does not change him. He does not betray Peters, who has escaped from a concentration camp, but that is already enough for him. But after the war Sonnenrbruck gets into a conflict of conscience. He thought that science was finally free of politics again only to find the opposite happening at his university in Göttingen. A medical congress in the GDR brings him together with Peters, who is working on a major research contract there. Sonnenbruck decides to visit Peters.
An English peace judge in an Irish district is married to an Irishwoman. She is a caring patriot. He is heavily indebted by a life of luxury, and doesn't shy away from dark deeds to maintain his lifestyle. Anti-Britsh propaganda film.
Based on plays by Bhattacharya and the story Annadata by Krishan Chander. A film about the famine that swept through Indian villages in the final years of the war for independence. After natural disasters (floods and droughts), villagers seek refuge in the city.
Tom Joad returns to his home after a jail sentence to find his family kicked out of their farm due to foreclosure. He catches up with them on his Uncle’s farm, and joins them the next day as they head for California and a new life... Hopefully.
Unemployed Antonio is elated when he finally finds work hanging posters around war-torn Rome. However on his first day, his bicycle—essential to his work—gets stolen. His job is doomed unless he can find the thief. With the help of his son, Antonio combs the city, becoming desperate for justice.
Carola has been running the family-owned circus alone since her husband’s death, but she suddenly finds herself at odds with her three adult sons who are also performance artists and want to have a say in how the business is run. The family discord leads Carola to turn her back on the circus, leaving the three inexperienced sons in charge. This turn of events forces the family to learn to work together or face bankruptcy.
A Nazi propaganda movie from 1941 directed by Max W. Kimmich, covering a story of Irish heroism and martyrdom over two generations under the occupation of the British.
Joe, who owns a gas station along with his brothers and is about to marry Katherine, travels to the small town where she lives to visit her, but is wrongly mistaken for a wanted kidnapper and arrested.
Marika is a cheerful girl who lives on the Danube aboard an old barge she inherited from her father. She works as a waitress in her aunt's inn, entertaining the guests with singing and dancing. Her greatest dream is to save enough money to repair the old barge and sail down the Danube. One day, she meets three young artists, Georg, Oskar, and Christoph, who all fall in love with her. Together, they put on an open-air revue and raise the necessary money. And with Georg, Marika is lucky in love.
In the south of France, in a vast plain region called the Camargue, lives White Mane, a magnificent stallion and the leader of a herd of wild horses too proud to let themselves be broken by humans. Only Folco, a young fisherman, manages to tame him. A strong friendship grows between the boy and the horse, as the two go looking for the freedom that the world of men won’t allow them.
Factory workers in 1947 repair a bridge over Song Hua River so that Communist forces can use it.