Des Lebens ungemischte Freude

A young man seems to be dreaming of a reality different from the business he is about to take over and the married life that goes with it; he is drawn to the spicy life of a queer vaudeville troupe performing in his village.

Two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, glide through the streets of Berlin, observing the bustling population, providing invisible rays of hope to the distressed but never interacting with them. When Damiel falls in love with lonely trapeze artist Marion, the angel longs to experience life in the physical world, and finds -- with some words of wisdom from actor Peter Falk -- that it might be possible for him to take human form.

When Gelsomina, a naïve young woman, is purchased from her impoverished mother by brutish circus strongman Zampanò to be his wife and partner, she loyally endures her husband's coldness and abuse as they travel the Italian countryside performing together. Soon Zampanò must deal with his jealousy and conflicted feelings about Gelsomina when she finds a kindred spirit in Il Matto, the carefree circus fool, and contemplates leaving Zampanò.

Oskar Matzerath is a very unusual boy. Refusing to leave the womb until promised a tin drum by his mother, Agnes, Oskar is reluctant to enter a world he sees as filled with hypocrisy and injustice, and vows on his third birthday to never grow up. Miraculously, he gets his wish. As the Nazis rise to power in Danzig, Oskar wills himself to remain a child, beating his tin drum incessantly and screaming in protest at the chaos surrounding him.

A spirited young woman finds herself destitute and on the streets before joining a traveling carnival, where she meets a vagabond painter.

A criminal on the run hides in a circus and seeks to possess the daughter of the ringmaster at any cost.

Up-and-coming scientist Paul Benedict is betrayed by his mentor, the Baron Regnard, who not only steals discoveries but also his wife Marie. Benedict, reeling from his pain, joins a circus sideshow in order to become the most famous clown in France. He becomes infatuated with Consuelo, a showgirl, who has become the recipient of affections by the Baron.

A circus wild animal trainer searches for the son who was taken away from him by a meddling relative years earlier.

When Polly Fisher, a circus aerialist, is hurt while performing, she is taken to the house of a nearby minister, John Hartley. As she recuperates, they fall in love with each other and secretly marry. But when the truth leaks out , John's congregation rebels at having a circus woman as their minister's wife, and he is fired. Polly decides to leave John in hopes of giving back to him the calling that means so much to him. But fate steps in and rearranges all plans.

Impressionistic glimpses of London life from early morning to rush hour.

Director George Sherman's 1959 circus drama stars Michael Callan as a cocky aerialist causing romantic problems under the Big Top.

A jealous trapeze star decides he must eliminate his romantic rival.

Plauto, the clown, tells us the story of the Circo de las Alegrías. Doña Alegría, owner of the Circus is determined that her son Palevhi, maintain the classic line of the show, which begs for a complete renovation. During the last years, the Circus has been dragging like a dying man until the threat of bankruptcy and unemployment has led his workers to anguish. One night in September, Palevhi decides to inform the big family of the circus the final closure. Tears of frustration give way to the search for solutions.

After Clown Teddy lost his son, he lost his gift for laughter. He opened a joke shop and lives above the shop. His landlady has had a foster son since birth, and Teddy decides to raise the child, who always believed that Teddy was his father. When the mother suddenly appears five years later and wants her son, Teddy decides to run away with the child and goes back onstage with his son. Will the family catch up with them, or will the mother never get her son back?

When his bank fails, a young man loses not only all his money but his fiancée, deserts him, too. Depressed, he joins a circus.

The amazing biography of legendary circus impresario and unparalleled showman, P.T. Barnum.

Raju faces many hurdles and disappointments in matters of the heart throughout his life. But as a clown in a circus, he tries to make his audience laugh at the cost of his own sorrows. Along the way, Raju loves and loses, but must always keep a smile on his face because, in the words of his circus manager, "The show must go on."

The story of five generations of the Austrian-Brazilian Knieps family, from the inauguration of their family-owned Great Mystical Circus in the 1910s up to the early 21st century, following both the family and the circus from their prime through to their decadence.

Director Karl Brown's 1938 circus drama stars Marjorie Main as a tough, fur-coat-wearing circus boss who raises her orphaned niece to be a trapeze star.

A child is born. We see underwater swimmers representing this. He is young, in a jungle setting, with two fanciful "instincts" guiding him as swooping bird-like acrobats initially menace, then delight. As an adolescent, he enters a desert, where a man spins a large cube of metal tubing. He leaves his instinct-guides behind, and enters a garden where two statues dance in a pond. As he watches their sensual acrobatics of love, he becomes a man. He is offered wealth (represented by a golden hat) by a devil figure. In a richly decorated room, a scruffy troupe of a dozen acrobats and a little girl reawaken the old man's youthful nature and love.