Bertolt Brecht

Documentary about Brecht and the Berliner Ensemble.

Archive footage of bomb detonations during the Second World War combined with abstract graphic elements which show the destructive potential of modern nuclear missiles. Together the images are a silent warning of armament and war.

A behind-the-scenes look at The Public Theater's production of Bertolt Brecht's "Mother Courage" that examines the playwright's life and ideas.

Here meet personal memory, working knowledge, research interests and anecdotes together to vivid memory about the most important German dramatist of the 20th century. When the director Peter Voigt, former assistant director of Brecht at the Berliner Ensemble in 2004, finds a wallet with pictures and captions from the American exile, he pursued this track and discovered that Brecht has always worked with photography and film. Peter Voigt puts together an exciting collage of this film and photo material. A conversation with Erdmut Wizisla, the head of Bertolt Brecht Archives, moderated by Harald Müller, forms the dramatic bond of the film.

"Cause of Death Unknown" - Carola Neher (1900-1942) actress, singer and feminist. Brecht wrote the role Polly Peachum for her. She practiced boxing with Marlene Dietrich. After Hitler seized power, thousands of German communists and anti-fascists fled to the Soviet Union, the "fatherland of the working people". The tragedy of German communism is that the vast majority of them perished or were lost during Stalin's "cleansing". Carola Neher is one of the fate figures of that time. In the 20s, she belonged to the narrow circle of Brecht actresses. The film accompanies her son Georg Becker in search of his mother's traces in the sinking Soviet Union.

He wanted to revolutionize theater practice and at the same time social awareness: Today Brecht, who was born in Augsburg in 1898 and died in East Berlin in 1956, is one of the most important playwrights of the 20th century.

The Seven Deadly Sins tells the story of two sisters, Anna I and Anna II. The sisters set out from the banks of the Mississippi River in Louisiana to find their fortune in the big cities, intending to send their family enough money to build a little house on the river. Along the way they encounter the seven deadly sins. Meanwhile, the fleshpots of Mahagonny attract many visitors, but prove disappointing and expensive; God orders the inhabitants to hell, but they revolt, claiming they are there already"

Kuhle Wampe takes place in early-1930s Berlin. The film begins with a montage of newspaper headlines describing steadily-rising unemployment figures. This is followed by scenes of a young man looking for work in the city and the family discussing the unpaid back rent. The young man, brother of the protagonist Anni, removes his wristwatch and throws himself from a window out of despair. Shortly thereafter his family is evicted from their apartment. Now homeless, the family moves into a garden colony of sorts with the name “Kuhle Wampe.”

During the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, surgeon Dr. Franticek Svoboda, a Czech patriot, assassinates the brutal "Hangman of Europe", Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heydrich, and is wounded in the process. In his attempt to escape, he is helped by history professor Stephen Novotny and his daughter Mascha.

During the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, surgeon Dr. Franticek Svoboda, a Czech patriot, assassinates the brutal "Hangman of Europe", Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heydrich, and is wounded in the process. In his attempt to escape, he is helped by history professor Stephen Novotny and his daughter Mascha.

Germany 1939. Hans and Lene marry the day before the war breaks out, and Hans is sent to the Eastern front. During a bombing raid their daughter Anna is born. The house is destroyed and Lene and Anna moves in with relatives in Berlin. Hans survives the war but he is not the same person as in 1939, and he and Lene find it difficult to live together again.

Baal is an amoral poetic genius who, after a life of debauchery, betrayal and violence, is about to cut his ties to the world and meet his doom. A high society party is where the end begins.

The hardships faced by a woman trying to survive a bloody civil war while caring for the abandoned child of the deposed former ruler.

The Mysteries of a Hairdresser’s Shop describes the absurd goings-on of a by no means ordinary hair salon, where men with great beards wait in vain for a shave while the barber takes a nap.

Madame Bertini, a newly widowed 70-year-old miser, has lived a sheltered life in squalour. She determines to venture into the modern world and have as much fun as possible, and in doing so finds that she loves it. She blows her life savings, much to the disapproval of the young people around her.

This first film adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s play about class distinctions was made in 1955 in the Vienna Rosenhügel studios, but it was only premiered five years later. Curt Bois plays the rich capitalist Puntila who only becomes somewhat agreeable when he is drunk (which he is most of the time in this film). In his inebriated state, Puntila not only gets amorously involved with three different ladies but also suggests that his daughter Eva marries his chauffeur Matti. The chauffeur, however, doesn’t really agree…

- Recorded live at Los Angeles Opera, 1 & 4 March 2007. Welcome to Mahagonny, where sin is "in" and love is always on sale. This Old West boomtown rises from the desert to become a razzle-dazzle mecca for lust, liberty, and the pursuit of pleasure. Cash is king, poverty is punishable by death, and anything worth doing is worth overdoing. Director John Doyle melds his Tony Award winning talent with the lyrics of influential playwright Bertolt Brecht and an incomparable score by Kurt Weill. The brilliant cast is led by superstars Audra McDonald, as the tart-with-a-heart `Jenny' and Patti LuPone, who portrays the town's feisty madam. Audra McDonald · Patti LuPone · Anthony Dean Griffey Robert Wörle · John Easterlin · Mel Ulrich Directed for Stage by John Doyle Chorus and Orchestra of the Los Angeles Opera James Conlon, conductor

As London's East End scrubs up for the coronation, Mr and Mrs Peachum gear up for a bumper day in the beggary business. Keeping tight control of the city's underground – and their daughter’s whereabouts.

With the help of his assistant Anja, Ottocaro Weiss intends to put the plague on stage: circumstances beyond his control and a lack of fresh talent have forced him to close down his flea circus. For Weiss, the plague means the «extinction of everything that makes life miserable and low and freedom along with it. Unbeknownst to him, he has won the support of a patron who is of the exact opposite opinion: for Johannes Wagner, the plague is an organising principle, and, aided by his agent Moosbrugger, he is able to smuggle a new number onto the programme. Whereas Ottocaro Weiss means to represent the plague theatrically, what appears on stage is the scientific reality of the rat-borne infestation.

During World War II, Şvayk, a seemingly ordinary, hapless dog-seller, finds himself entangled with the Nazi regime.

Baal, a young artist whom society regards as a genius, does not want to be monopolized by the culture and business.

Composed in the 1930s by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, this is a mordant satire on capitalism and the inexorable industrialization of a society in which the ultimate crime is not having money

Depicts the consumerism of the mythical city of Mahagonny, conveying all its ripe decadence. A Hollywood Babylon full of pyramidal towers, carved elephants, commodified sex and licensed gluttony. An opera in three acts, live from the Salzburger Festspiele, 1998. Conductor: Dennis Russell Davies. Stage Director: Peter Zadek.

The rise to underworld eminence of the notorious Chicago gangster Artuto Ui - who bears a striking resemblance to Adolf Hitler.

A tory based on classical theatre play "Mother Courage and Her Children" by Bertolt Brecht.

About a civilian who is press-ganged into a machine-gunner's squadron and transformed into the perfect soldier.

In the search for a single good person in the province of Sezuan, three gods finally find only poor street girl Shen Te, whom they reward with a large gift of money. Now wealthy, Shen Te is now so exploited by all men that she has no choice but to slip into the shoes of her hard-hearted cousin, Shui Ta. Accused of murdering the missing Shen Te, the supposed Shui Ta confesses his dual role and the gods avoid a conviction. But Shen Te aka Shui Ta is now abandoned by all humans and also by the gods – helpless in the world.

Based on the satirical anti-war comedy of the same name by B. Brecht.

A fearless Antigone, refusing to allow the dishonored body of her murdered brother Polynices to be devoured by vultures and dogs, defies the Thebian tyrant Creon by burying him.

Challenged by a new student, tutor and theorist Galileo co-opts emerging telescope technology and discovers irrefutable proof of the heretical notion that the earth is not the center of the universe. But in a rigid society ruled by an uneasy alliance of aristocracy and clergy already undermined by the Plague and the Reformation, science is a threat and enlightenment is a luxury. Faced with either death at the hands of the Inquisition or recantation to a hypocritical but all-powerful Papacy, Galileo must choose between his own life and the restless scientific curiosity that he has spurned family, friends, and wealth to pursue.

In the spring of 1974, a camera team from Studio H&S succeeded against the explicit orders of the Junta’s Chancellery, entered into two large concentration camps in the north of the country - Chacabuco and Pisagua - leaving with filmed sequences and sound recordings.

Galileo, an eminent professor and scientist in the 17th century Venetian Republic, is short of money. A prospective student tells him about a novel invention, the telescope, that is being sold in Amsterdam.

A television staging of the 1941 Brecht play, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui.

BBC version of Brecht's epic account of Galileo's persecution for his 'heretical' idea that the earth moved around the sun.

Set in contemporary Rome, the film shows through a series of encounters with “ancient” Romans, how the economic and political manipulation by ancient Roman society led to Caesar’s dictatorship. - British Film Institute

The Threepenny Opera proclaims itself "an opera for beggars," and it was in fact an attempt both to satirize traditional opera and operetta and to create a new kind of musical theater based on the theories of two young German artists, composer Kurt Weill and poet-playwright Bert Brecht. The show opens with a mock-Baroque overture, a nod to Threepenny's source, The Beggar's Opera, a brilliantly successful parody of Handel's operas written by John Gay in 1728. In a brief prologue following the overture, a shabby figure comes onstage with a barrel organ and launches into a song chronicling the crimes of the notorious bandit and womanizer Macheath, "Mack the Knife." The setting is a fair in Soho (London), just before Queen Victoria's coronation. In this production, Weill champion HK Gruber led the Ensemble Modern in a performance of Weill's complete original score, the first time it had been heard in Germany in many years. This production was broadcast on German television (3sat).

The Threepenny Opera proclaims itself "an opera for beggars," and it was in fact an attempt both to satirize traditional opera and operetta and to create a new kind of musical theater based on the theories of two young German artists, composer Kurt Weill and poet-playwright Bert Brecht. The show opens with a mock-Baroque overture, a nod to Threepenny's source, The Beggar's Opera, a brilliantly successful parody of Handel's operas written by John Gay in 1728. In a brief prologue following the overture, a shabby figure comes onstage with a barrel organ and launches into a song chronicling the crimes of the notorious bandit and womanizer Macheath, "Mack the Knife." The setting is a fair in Soho (London), just before Queen Victoria's coronation. In this production, Weill champion HK Gruber led the Ensemble Modern in a performance of Weill's complete original score, the first time it had been heard in Germany in many years. This production was broadcast on German television (3sat).

Hitler's seizure of power in 1933 and his rule in the years that followed are transferred to the North American criminal world of the 1930s in a parable. Gangster boss Ui needs the protection of the ruling class to achieve his goals and offers his help to their representatives. They initially hesitate, but join forces after Ui violently gains their respect. His victory is perfect and the people fall silent before the revolvers of their "protectors". Ui takes the raised hands as a sign of approval... Bertolt Brecht wrote the play in 1941 in a Finnish asylum - the premiere only took place in Stuttgart after his death in November 1958. It has been staged at the Berliner Ensemble since 1959 - Ekkehard Schall has played Ui over 500 times since then. On January 13, 1974, the play was shown for the last time, recorded in color by GDR television.

Macheath (Mack the Knife), notorious bandit and womanizer, runs afoul of Jonathan Peachum when he marries Peachum's daughter Polly in a ceremony of doubtful legality. Peachum's resolve to have Mack sent to the gallows is complicated by the fact that Mack's old army buddy is the chief of police, Tiger Brown. Peachum and his wife commence a series of strategems to ensnare Mack: bribing prostitutes to turn him in, exercising their influence over the police, and ultimately threatening to ruin the coronation of Queen Victoria by having all the beggars in London (whom Peachum controls) line the parade route. Mack is imprisoned, escapes, and is imprisoned again. When his hour of execution arrives, however, a mounted messenger appears with the Queen's reprieve, which includes a baronetcy and an annual pension of 10,000 pounds.

Macheath (Mack the Knife), notorious bandit and womanizer, runs afoul of Jonathan Peachum when he marries Peachum's daughter Polly in a ceremony of doubtful legality. Peachum's resolve to have Mack sent to the gallows is complicated by the fact that Mack's old army buddy is the chief of police, Tiger Brown. Peachum and his wife commence a series of strategems to ensnare Mack: bribing prostitutes to turn him in, exercising their influence over the police, and ultimately threatening to ruin the coronation of Queen Victoria by having all the beggars in London (whom Peachum controls) line the parade route. Mack is imprisoned, escapes, and is imprisoned again. When his hour of execution arrives, however, a mounted messenger appears with the Queen's reprieve, which includes a baronetcy and an annual pension of 10,000 pounds.

Brecht's company of actors tells the story of Bertolt Brecht: his theatre, plays, poetry and his life.

Harry Smith’s final film; an epic four-screen projection. Smith worked on this cinematic transformation of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (1929) for over ten years and considered it his magnum opus. The film was shot from 1970 to 1972 and edited for the next eight years. The “program” of the film is meticulous, with a complex structure and order. The Weill opera is transformed into a numerological and symbolic system. Images in the film are divided into categories— portraits, animation, symbols and nature— to form the palindrome P.A.S.A.N.A.S.A.P. The film contains invaluable cameos of important avant-garde figures such as Allen Ginsberg, Patti Smith, and Jonas Mekas, intercut with installation pieces from Robert Mapplethorpe’s studio, New York City landmarks of the era, and Smith’s visionary animation.

The city of Mahagonny, founded by three criminals, becomes a place for people looking for their luck or money. One among them is the lumberjack Jim Mahoney. However, he is disappointed by what the city is.

The Mysteries of a Hairdresser’s Shop describes the absurd goings-on of a by no means ordinary hair salon, where men with great beards wait in vain for a shave while the barber takes a nap.

An inexplicable showdown between two men and the downfall of a family that has moved from the prairies to the jungle of the big city.

On the verge of professional breakthrough, a young Bertolt Brecht reflects on relationships.

As London's East End scrubs up for the coronation, Mr and Mrs Peachum gear up for a bumper day in the beggary business. Keeping tight control of the city's underground – and their daughter’s whereabouts.

A hard-hitting new production of Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny by the Catalan collective La Fura dels Baus at the Teatro Real de Madrid. Composed in the 1930s by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, this is a mordant satire on capitalism and the inexorable industrialisation of a society in which the ultimate crime is not having money. In twenty scenes the authors tell the story of a city lost in the middle of a desert and run by three thugs; in Mahagonny food, sex, gambling and violence rule supreme.

Depicts the consumerism of the mythical city of Mahagonny, conveying all its ripe decadence. A Hollywood Babylon full of pyramidal towers, carved elephants, commodified sex and licensed gluttony. An opera in three acts, live from the Salzburger Festspiele, 1998. Conductor: Dennis Russell Davies. Stage Director: Peter Zadek.

The Gangster Macheath secretly marries the daughter of beggar king Peachum. When Peachum finds out, he instructs the police chief Brown to arrest and hang Macheath. If not, all the beggars of Soho will disturb the upcoming coronation.

The city of Mahagonny, founded by three criminals, becomes a place for people looking for their luck or money. One among them is the lumberjack Jim Mahoney. However, he is disappointed by what the city is.

The French-language version of the The Threepenny Opera with a different cast from the German version.

The French-language version of the The Threepenny Opera with a different cast from the German version.

The Gangster Macheath secretly marries the daughter of beggar king Peachum. When Peachum finds out, he instructs the police chief Brown to arrest and hang Macheath. If not, all the beggars of Soho will disturb the upcoming coronation.

After the first world war Andreas returns to Berlin to find it in chaos after the fall of the empire. The main battle is between the Spartacists and the Freikorps and Andreas needs to find a place for himself in the conflict for the future of Germany.

A television drama about a trial against a merchant who killed one of his employees.

When the gods appear in disguise the only person who shows them hospitality is the young girl Shen Te and for this she is awarded by them. After a while she finds her new life has also brought new problems.

Basing his work on documentary material, Andrew Thorndike tells the life story of Wilhelm Pieck: from young worker to fighter for the German working class, and from enemy of national-socialism to the first president of the German Democratic Republic.

The Alter Bahnhof Video Walk was designed for the old train station in Kassel, Germany as part of dOCUMENTA (13). Participants are able to borrow an iPod and headphones from a check-out booth. They are then directed by Cardiff and Miller through the station. An alternate world opens up where reality and fiction meld in a disturbing and uncanny way that has been referred to as “physical cinema”. The participants watch things unfold on the small screen but feel the presence of those events deeply because of being situated in the exact location where the footage was shot. As they follow the moving images (and try to frame them as if they were the camera operator) a strange confusion of realities occurs. In this confusion, the past and present conflate and Cardiff and Miller guide us through a meditation on memory and reveal the poignant moments of being alive and present.

Anna I and Anna II set out on a seven year journey that takes them through a series of varied life experiences while their parents and two brothers remain behind.

An exploration of the cult of the genius, an anti-heroic figure who chooses to be a social outcast and live on the fringe of bourgeois morality.

When the powerful of this world give a small scoundrel the opportunity to become a big scoundrel - how many opportunities there are for a funny comedy...

Co-director Cornelia Geiser sits by a window on an easy chair reading aloud a few verses by Corneille, then a somewhat longer excerpt from Brecht - each writer referencing Rome but really condemning injustice in his own era.

The "Astoria", an English luxury liner, collides with a freighter shortly before the end of its voyage and threatens to sink. Captain Mitchell, successful and envied, sets in motion an expensive rescue operation. He manages to avert a catastrophe and bring the passengers and the ship to safety. But the shipowner considers the operation excessive, calls Mitchell a coward and fires him. His career seems to be over. When his friends and his fiancée also make fun of him, he devises a cunning plan of revenge.

Moscow in the 1920s. A film about the pogroms in southern Russia is being made in a studio. The name of the notorious tsarist governor Muratov, also known as "The Beast", symbolizes the crimes of the time. During filming, an old, decrepit man comes forward who wants to be in the movie because of his resemblance to Muratov. Could it be possible that this man is the real Muratov? Everyone is so preoccupied with the realization of the material that this incident remains hidden. As artists, everyone has their own visions - which often bypass reality ...

Based on a novella by Bertolt Brecht.

A hard-hitting new production of Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny by the Catalan collective La Fura dels Baus at the Teatro Real de Madrid. Composed in the 1930s by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, this is a mordant satire on capitalism and the inexorable industrialisation of a society in which the ultimate crime is not having money. In twenty scenes the authors tell the story of a city lost in the middle of a desert and run by three thugs; in Mahagonny food, sex, gambling and violence rule supreme.

During the Thirty Years' War, the camp-follower Anna Fierling, called "Mother Courage", travels the length and breadth of Europe with her covered wagon. She does not care if it's Catholics or Protestants she trades with as long as business thrives. She loses her three children as a result of the war: bold and spirited Eilif, sincere and upright Swiss Cheese and mute Katrin, who saves the children of Halle by beating a drum on a farmstead roof In wartime, the Fierling children's virtues prove to be deadly. Yet, Mother Courage, remains incorrigible. She will not have anyone "spoil the war" for her and so sets out once more after the soldiers with her wagon.

Baal is an amoral poetic genius who, after a life of debauchery, betrayal and violence, is about to cut his ties to the world and meet his doom. A high society party is where the end begins.

Animation of Bertolt Brecht's namesake poem recited by Mario Viegas

"Don't Be Seduced" - Gothenburg's Brecht-ensemble performs songs and texts of Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill and Hanns Eisler.

A marginal version of Brecht’s piece, “Baal”.

A marginal version of Brecht’s piece, “Baal”.

Mise-en-scène, at the Comédie-Française, of La Vie de Galilée by Bertolt Brecht. This is the last staging by Antoine Vitez.

About a civilian who is press-ganged into a machine-gunner's squadron and transformed into the perfect soldier.

A small town in Western Germany is the last stop for 26,000 pigs per day and a brief home for masses of Eastern European temporary workers. The workers of the largest slaughterhouse in the country are fighting for survival, while German activists who stand up for their rights are fighting against the local authorities. At the same time, Munich high school students are working on the play "Saint Joan of the Stockyards" and trying to grasp the old text and German capitalism of our days. Interwoven with the young people's examination of the text in the rehearsals, the film deals in various fragments with conditions and facets of temporary work and labour migration in Germany.

John Dexter’s brilliant production, James Levine’s masterful conducting of the eclectic score, and a sensational cast come together to make this Kurt Weill–Bertolt Brecht masterpiece a riveting evening of music theater. At the center of the action is Jimmy Mahoney (Richard Cassilly), a logger who stumbles onto the city of Mahagonny, where (almost) anything is allowed. Teresa Stratas gives a mesmerizing performance as Jenny, the prostitute who takes up with Jimmy, until he is executed for the greatest of all crimes in Mahagonny—to not have any money. The legendary Astrid Varnay, in her final Met appearances, is Leocadia Begbick, and Cornell MacNeil sings Trinity Moses.

A young man cruises through the nightly city. He meets people, silhouettes, strange and scary. They all end up in a dim night club.

An allegorical documentary about the workers of the world, whose common destinies and hopes for peace are symbolically united by the rivers that run through their respective lands. The film was shot on the Volga, the Mississippi, the Nile, the Yangtze, the Amazon and the Ganges and combines these images of five continents with the music of Dmitri Shostakovich and the poetry of both Bertolt Brecht and Paul Robeson.

Inspired by the work of Bertolt Brecht and filmed in Porto's former industrial slaughterhouse, A Santa Joana dos Matadouros is a meta-cinematic essay about the labor market in times of economic crisis in Europe. The film explores the possibilities of cinema in its relationship with theater and brings together a cast of professional actors, amateurs, renowned artists from various disciplines, and a group of unemployed residents of Vale de Campanhã.

A flat tire shocks a passenger. Stopped at the roadside, she thinks about her life while the driver changes the tire, unsure if this is the right path.

Dammbeck made this film – a reference to the myth of Icarus and a metaphor for failure, hope, and human exploration – at the invitation of the legendary animator Kurt Weiler. It’s the first example of Dammbeck’s experimental, grotesque, surrealistic style of animation. The idea of flying, which Dammbeck uses here for the first time, will reappear continuously in his next films. THE TAILOR OF ULM established Dammbeck’s reputation among East German animation directors.

A televised play based on the work of Bertolt Brecht.

Based on the Bertolt Brecht play, the movie follows the farmer Puntila, who when he's sober is a real pig but whenever he gets drunk becomes very generous. Puntila is trying to get his daughter to get married, but the problem is that his drunk self wants her to marry another man than his sober personality wants.

Brecht's play Fear and Misery of the Third Reich consists of a series of playlets, portraying National Socialist Germany of the 1930s as a land of poverty, violence, fear and pretence. Nazi antisemitism is depicted in several of the sketches, including "the Physicist", "Judicial Process", and "the Jewish Wife".

In 19th century London, a young girl falls for a womanizing criminal and they decide to wed. Her family strongly disapproves so her father, 'the king of thieves', gets the gangster arrested.

Three gods descend from the heavens in search of something truly rare: one good person. In the city of Szechwan, they find Shen Teh, a poor prostitute with a heart of gold, who agrees to take them into her humble home. As a token of gratitude, they gift her a sum of money that enables her to start a new life. But when goodness meets harsh reality, it becomes clear that a generous heart may come at a high cost. To survive, Shen Teh invents an alter ego: a tough cousin named Shui Ta, who can do all those things she herself wouldn't dare do. As she falls in love with a melancholic pilot, the internal rift between her two selves further deepens. Can one remain good in this world? And if so—at what price?

Mr. Puntilla is kind to his servants only when he's drunk, and at other times, they endure nothing but insults from him. However, the servant Matti manages to preserve his human dignity...

In London at the turn of the century, underworld kingpin Mack the Knife marries Polly Peachum without the knowledge of her father, the equally enterprising 'king of the beggars'.

In London at the turn of the century, underworld kingpin Mack the Knife marries Polly Peachum without the knowledge of her father, the equally enterprising 'king of the beggars'.

An adaptation of the first play written by Bertolt Brecht, charting the decline and fall of Baal, a young poet who rejects the norms of society and destroys the lives of the people with whom he comes into contact.

Film adaptation of Berthold Brecht's play of the same name, in which he depicts everyday life in Nazi Germany in loosely connected scenes.

Film adaptation of Berthold Brecht's play of the same name, in which he depicts everyday life in Nazi Germany in loosely connected scenes.