Fräulein, Das (2006) - Andrea Staka

Wings of desire (1987) - Wim Wenders

When the child was a child, it was the time of these questions. Why am I me, and why not you? Why am I here, and why not there? When did time begin, and where does space end? Isn't life under the sun just a dream? Isn't what I see, hear, and smell just the mirage of a world before the world? Does evil actually exist, and are there people who are really evil? How can it be that I, who am I, wasn't before I was, and that sometime I, the one I am, no longer will be the one I am?

What is wrong with peace that its inspiration doesn't endure?

Are there still borders? More than ever! Every street has its borderline. Between each plot, there's a strip of no-man's-land disguised as a hedge or a ditch. Whoever dares, will fall into booby traps or be hit by laser rays. The trout are really torpedoes. Every home owner, or even every tenant nails his name plate on the door, like a coat of arms and studies the morning paper as if he were a world leader. Germany has crumbled into as many small states as there are individuals. And these small states are mobile. Everyone carries his own state with him, and demands a toll when another wants to enter. A fly caught in amber, or a leather bottle. So much for the border. But one can only enter each state with a password. The German soul of today can only be conquered and governed by one who arrives at each small state with the password. Fortunately, no one is currently in a position to do this. So... everyone migrates, and waves his one-man-state flag in all earthly directions. Their children already shake their rattles and drag their filth around them in circles.

Olympia (parts I and II) (1938) - Leni Riefenstahl

Often called a "Nazi propaganda film", it was in fact commissioned by the International Olympics Committee.

Triumph of the Will (1935) - Leni Riefenstahl

Josef Goebbels: [Speech during the Nuremberg Reich Party Conference] May the bright flame of enthusiasm never be extinguished. It alone gives light and warmth to the creative art of modern political propaganda. This art rose from the depths of the people and in order to search out its roots and locate its power, it must always return to these depths. It may be alright to possess power based upon guns, it is however better and more gratifying to win and also to champion the hearts of the people.

The Damned by Luchino Visconti (1969)
(Caduta degli dei, La)

Starring Dirk Bogarde, Ingrid Thulin, Helmut Griem, Helmut Berger, Charlotte Rampling

An interesting, if not successful, parallel between an industrialist family and the Nazi rise in Germany. On the day of the Reichstag fire, the patriarch announces that the family must align with the Nazis. The patriarch is killed the same night by Bogarde, who is an outsider manipulated by an SS officer. The murder suspect, though, is the left-leaning brother who is forced to flee, leaving the field open for the power struggle between the SA officer brother and Bogarde, teamed with Ingrid Thulin (the daughter), backed by the SS officer. (SA were the brownshirts or stormtroopers- the paramilitary organization that was instrumental in the rise of the Nazis, but which was destroyed in a bloody purge at Wiessee). The family manufactures steel and eventually arms, like the Krupp group, but should they be sold to the SA is a question, and the answer, as long as the SS is the manipulator, is a firm No. The parallels should be obvious to anyone familiar with the history of the Nazi rise to power and the power struggles within the Nazis. The eventual descent into decay and hell is quite predictable, too. Powerful performances by some of the best actors in Europe ensure that the film is watchable, despite everything. Not Visconti's best, though.