Katharina Knie

Pagliacci

Canio and his Comedia dell'Arte troupe tour Italy. His wife Nedda meets a young cadet and they plan to elope. He tries to leave her when he finds how important she is for his husband, but a rejected trouper interferes. As jealous Canio suspects the truth the tragedy approaches. The film was partly made in Ufacolor.

Arabella

A foal runs away from its native pasture, falls into a swamp and is rescued by the circus dancer Arabella. The stud owner, a young gentleman rider, names the animal after its rescuer Arabella. Arabella then becomes a celebrated racehorse, and when the circus performer and the gentleman rider meet again, they fall in love.

Rio's yellow house

When a criminal named King Fu who has terrorized a city substitutes himself for a stage actor who looks like him, the staff and spectators at that night's show think the actor is giving an unusually good performance.

Queen Louise

The young Crown Princess Luise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz grows up sheltered in the North German countryside in the late 18th century and develops into a bit of a rebel. She struggles to come to terms with the rules of etiquette at court; her actions are often spontaneous and driven by emotion. Thus, she resists accepting her father’s mistress and future wife. During a ball, she snubs her future stepmother and even has the audacity to ask the orchestra to play a waltz—a dance considered deeply improper at the time.

Der Graf von Charolais

Explosion

After the revelation that Georg has seduced her, Maria is driven away by her father. Georg, fearing the wrath of Maria's father, has swiftly abandoned the girl and left for the mining town of Sankt Anton, where he expects to hide easily amongst the large population of colliers. Maria must care for herself, and ends up in Sankt Anton, where she attempts to rebuild her life. There, she gets to know Thomas, and soon the young people are engaged. When Georg and Maria meet again, drama ensues. The film originally ran 97 minutes.

The Street

The movie follows two distinct plot lines until the two eventually merge: the first is that of the bored middle-aged man seeking a departure from monotony in his life; the second is that of the blind man and the little boy, his grandson, who are interdependent. None of the characters have been given names and are therefore referred to only by description. The city is an expressionistic nightmare, a dangerous and chaotic place.

King Fu's yellow house

When a criminal named King Fu who has terrorized a city substitutes himself for a stage actor who resembles him, the staff and spectators at that night's show think the actor is giving an unusually good performance.

Der Mädchenhirt

"The Girl's Shepherd" - at that time a common name for a pimp. About promiscuity and naivety leading up to complicated situations.

Jealousy

A couple are at the theatre with a playwright friend. At the end of the play the jealous husband strangles his wife to death. When the play ends, the man talks to his friend about such a nonsensical finale, telling the author that no man with any sense ever gets jealous enough to choke his wife in these modern times. The playwright decides to test this supposedly perfect couple about their happy feelings for each other.

Abdul the Damned

In 1908, Sultan Abdul Hamid rules the Turkish Empire, but he is faced with the threat of revolt by the Young Turk party. He allows Hilmi Pasha, the leader of the Young Turks, to return from exile and form the country's first constitutional government. With tensions still growing, chief of police Kadar Pasha assassinates Hassan Bey, the leader of the Old Turk party, and makes it look as if a Young Turk committed the crime, in order to give Abdul an excuse for arresting the Young Turk leaders. Meanwhile, Abdul becomes infatuated with a visiting Austrian singer. When she rejects his advances, she endangers both herself and her fiancé, a Turkish officer who also knows who really shot Hassan Bey.

At the Edge of the World

A mill situated on the border between two unnamed countries and the residents therein become pawns in a future war.

Waterloo

This presentation of 'Waterloo', a film by Karl Grune about the last hurrah of Napoleon, is a fascinating companion to the Abel Gance epic 'Napoleon'. 'Waterloo' presents a tale of several people involved in the final battle. Napoleon and Wellington, of course, but also the Austrian general Blutcher (who is seen as a ladies' man - his scene with a flirty Countess about halfway through the film is priceless; as are his touching scenes with his plain wife (who he imagines to be a young and nubile girl when they get romantic) and some people within his regiment. Not simply a film of war, 'Waterloo' is a story of people, of lovers, of lost opportunities.

Comedians

"Comedians" - Axel Swinborne is a celebrated stage star. Although much in demand, he now wants to recover and travel by train on vacation. He leans out of the window at full speed, as happens a momentous mishap: his jacket gets tangled on the window lever so unhappy that it ejects the suction force out of the window.

A Man's Girlhood

A Man's Girlhood examines in comic form the conundrums of intersexuality. Depicts the memories of the author, published in 1907 as an anonymous biography under the pseudonym NOBody, but was, following the taste of the time, dramatically oversubscribed. A child born without a clear gender is raised by the father as a boy, later by the uncle as a girl and dissected after death.

The Girl on the Bridge

It's night on a Paris bridge. A girl leans over Seine River with tears in her eyes and a violent yearning to drown her sorrows. Out of nowhere someone takes an interest in her. He is Gabor, a knife thrower who needs a human target for his show. The girl, Adele, has never been lucky and nowhere else to go. So she follows him. They travel along the northern bank of the Mediterranean to perform.

Wings of Desire

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.

Mera Naam Joker

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 Greatest Show on Earth

To ensure a full profitable season, circus manager Brad Braden engages The Great Sebastian, though this moves his girlfriend Holly from her hard-won center trapeze spot. Holly and Sebastian begin a dangerous one-upmanship duel in the ring, while he pursues her on the ground.

Lili

Members of a circus troupe "adopt" Lili Daurier when she finds herself stranded in a strange town. The magician who first comes to her rescue already has romantic entanglements and thinks of her as a little girl. Who can she turn to but the puppets, singing to them her troubles, forgetting that there are puppeteers? A crowd gathers around Lili as she sings. The circus has a new act. She now has a job. Will she get her heart's desire?