NCW Libraries

"With depth and style, Wim Wenders updates a late-eighteenth-century novel by Goethe, transposing it to 1970s West Germany and giving us the story of an aimless writer (Rüdiger Vogler) who leaves his hometown to find himself and winds up befriending a group of other travelers. Seeking inspiration to help him escape his creative funk, he instead discovers the limits of attempts to refashion one's identity. One of the director's least seen bu earthiest...

An examination of Klaus Barbie, the infamous Nazi 'Butcher of Lyon' and Gestapo chief implicated in 4000 deaths and the deportation of 7000 Jews, during the Nazi occupation of France. Tracing the 40-year hunt for the war criminal, it exposes a complex web of political intrigue, collaboration and deceit. Weaves together historical footage and interviews with former Nazis, American intelligence officers, South American government officials, victims...

Willie, a disenchanted loner, is visited by his sixteen-year old Hungarian cousin Eva. Willie's equally slacker best friend Eddie also meets Eva, and the three become loose friends, until Eva decides to leave to visit Willie and Eva's Aunt Lottie in Cleveland. After a while Willie and Eddie are surprised to find that they miss Eva's companionship and take off for Cleveland in an old car. Finding Cleveland in winter to be disappointingly cold and unattractive,...

Originally made for Polish television, Dekalog focuses on the residents of a housing complex in post-Communist Poland, whose lives become subtly intertwined as they face emotional dilemmas that are at once deeply personal and universally human. Using the Ten Commandments for thematic inspiration and an overarching structure, the ten hour-long films deftly grapple with complex moral and existential questions concerning life, death, love, hate, truth,...