Hans Hirschmüller

Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day: A Series Becomes a Family Reunion

Documentary about the making of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1972 German television series EIGHT HOURS DON'T MAKE A DAY, featuring interviews with actors Hanna Schygulla, Irm Hermann, Wolfgang Schenck, and Hans Hirschmüller.

My Name Is Not Ali

Travelling between Germany, France and Tunisia, Viola Shafik reconstructs and deconstructs the unknown life story of El Hedi Ben Salem through interviews with his companions and family members as well as archive material. With openness and slight naivety the interviewees explain how “Ali” became an oriental object of projection for the Fassbinder group, while El Hedi Ben Salem, the human being, was overlooked in order to establish the foreigner as “other.” A no-frills examination of a piece of German and Munich film history.

Das Baby der schwangeren Toten

A pregnant woman suffers severe head trauma in a car accident. The doctors are unable to help her, but at the request of her fiancé, they decide to keep her body functioning artificially in order to save the unborn child. The ethical issues involved in the case trigger fierce public controversy.

Yearning for Sodom

Made during the last months of actor Kurt Raab, who died of AIDS in 1988. Raab, who had worked in both theatre and film, most notably with Fassbinder, was in the process of making a series of video sketches for a new production when he learned that he had AIDS. Despite his deteriorating health, and with the caring support of his friend Hans Hirshmuller, he carried on working. This tape is his last testimony. Awarded with the Adolf Grimme Award and Cinéma du Réel Award

Last Five Days

At Gestapo head quarters a young woman establishes a relationship with another inmate. This young woman is Sophie Scholl who tells the story of her life and of her resistance movement′s courageous fight against Hitler′s Nazi regime.

Invitation to the Dance

Theo Gromberg is a bon vivant, apparently with built-in guarantee to failure. Faithful to his side is his friend Enno, an Italian guest workers. Both have a dream: to which they want to get into the trucking business its own trucks.

Alice in the Cities

German journalist Philip Winter has a case of writer’s block when trying to write an article about the United States. He decides to return to Germany, and while trying to book a flight, encounters a German woman and her nine year old daughter Alice doing the same. The three become friends (almost out of necessity) and while the mother asks Winter to mind Alice temporarily, it quickly becomes apparent that Alice will be his responsibility for longer than he expected.

Tenderness of the Wolves

A German serial killer preys on boys and young men during the so-called years of crisis between the wars. Based on the true story of Fritz Haarmann, aka the Butcher of Hanover and the Vampire of Hanover.

The Merchant of Four Seasons

Hans is a street fruit peddler and born-loser. His choice of career upsets his bourgeois family, causing him to turn to drinking and violence. After recovering from a debilitating heart attack, his business finally begins to take off. However the more he becomes a credit to his family, the more depressed he becomes.

Fassbinder Produces: Film No. 8

About the making of "Der amerikanische Soldat/The American Soldier" in 1970.

The Coffee House

Avant-garde adaptation of a Carlo Goldoni play. Well-to-do Venetians congregate in a coffee house and discuss their problems.

Love Is Colder Than Death

Small-time pimp Franz is torn between his mistress and Bruno, the gangster sent after him by a shady crime syndicate he's refused to join.

Katzelmacher

A group of young slackers spend most of their time hanging out in front of a Munich apartment building. When a Greek immigrant named Jorgos moves in, however, their aimless lives are shaken up. Soon new tensions arise both within the group and with Jorgos.

Die Versöhnung

A man bored with his wife goes to the Munich Oktoberfest. He meets a pregnant student who discusses the problems of bourgeois marriage with him and finally returns home disappointed.