A Late Quartet

The Life of Beethoven(de)

Filmed in Austria for the hundredth anniversary of Beethoven's death, this 1927 silent film tells the story of the German genius' eventful emotional life. Presented in a restored version and with rearranged music, a biopic to be savored with ears wide open.

Janine Jansen spielt Tschaikowskys Violinkonzert(de)

The Nutcracker(en)

The Nutcracker is Mikhail Baryshnikov's breathtaking and critically acclaimed Emmy-nominated production. This spectacular performance is danced by the magnificent team of Baryshnikov, one of the greatest classical dancers of the century, and Gelsey Kirkland, both showcased at the peak of their careers, with members of the American Ballet Theatre.

The Planets(en)

Based on the famous Gustav Holst musical suite, this musical film takes watchers on a magnificent journey of the planets of the Solar System.

John Cage: I Have Nothing to Say and I Am Saying It(en)

This 56-minute documentary on America's most controversial and unique composer manages to cover a great many aspects of Cage's work and thought. His love for mushrooms, his Zen beliefs and use of the I Ching, and basic bio details are all explained intelligently and dynamically. Black Mountain, Buckminster Fuller, Rauschenberg, Duchamp are mentioned. Yoko Ono, John Rockwell, Laurie Anderson, Richard Kostelanetz make appearances. Fascinating performance sequences include Margaret Leng-Tan performing on prepared piano, Merce Cunningham and company, and performances of Credo In Us, Water Music, and Third Construction. Demystifies the man who made music from silence, from all sounds, from life.

André Rieu - The Christmas I Love(nl)

The Christmas I Love’ is a very special Christmas gift – a collection of some of the most tender carols personally chosen by Andre for this album and performed with the full forces of the Johann Strauss Orchestra and Choir. All the popular carols are there Ave Maria, White Christmas, Silent Night, Jingle Bells but also included are Baroque Christmas Classics Corelli's Christmas Concerto and “Winter” from Vivaldi's Four Seasons. The DVD offers a delightful Christmas experience featuring timeless yuletide favorites filmed in many of Europe's most beautiful locations.

Rainbow Raani(en)

A sexy comedy with a message that shatters geographic and gender barriers for true love. The story revolves around a musical band called "The Rainbows": a quartet, like the Beatles, but composed of an African, an Indian, a Caucasian and a Chinese player.

Keeping Score: Beethoven's Eroica(en)

Beethoven spent three years composing the Eroica, an intimate journal of his emotional crises and his dramatic emergence as an original master. Michael Tilson Thomas and the musicians of the San Francisco Symphony help you make sense of this voyage into life as it really is.

Deception(en)

After marrying her long lost love, a pianist finds the relationship threatened by a wealthy composer who is besotted with her.

Zigeunerliebe(de)

G. F. Händel: Koncert B dur pro varhany a orchestr(cs)

Karajan: Strauss: Death and Transfiguration & Metamorphosen(en)

The Secret of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony(en)

Ian Hislop and John Eliot Gardiner reveal the story behind Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Described as the 'greatest 'great' piece ever written,' its opening notes are among the most recognisable in history. But no one really knows what Beethoven was trying to express with this piece. The traditional wisdom is that he is railing against fate and his deafness. But John Eliot believes the music expresses Beethoven's belief in the French Revolution. This is turbulent music from a turbulent man living in a turbulent age. John Eliot and Ian Hislop bring to life the exciting and dangerous times that shaped Beethoven personally and creatively.

Humoresque(en)

A classical musician from a working class background is sidetracked by his love for a wealthy, neurotic socialite.

The Art of Singing: Golden Voices of the Century(en)

Imagine a window into the past. Imagine finally connecting singers' bodies to the voices you have always treasured on record, watching footage of performances from another era. All of singers featured here have something in common (with one exception, Sutherland): they sang and performed on stage before the advent of filmed opera. . And it shows, for the first time, a few tantalizing minutes of recently recovered footage from Callas' legendary Lisbon Traviata, featuring Addio dal Passato and Parigi oh cara with Alfredo Kraus. This DVD will leave you asking for more.

Waldbühne 2017 | Legends of the Rhine(de)

For their annual season end concert, the Berliner Philharmoniker take the audience on a dreamy, magically journey through the river Rhine with Schumann’s beloved 3rd Symphony Rhenish. Pieces from Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen under the baton of dynamic conductor Gustavo Dudamel complete this evening.

Tchaikovsky: Symphonies Nos. 4, 5 & 6 - Gergiev(en)

Valery Gergiev is widely recognised as the greatest modern interpreter of Tchaikovsky’s music and the Mariinsky holds a peerless reputation in the repertoire. Together they deliver definitive interpretations of Tchaikovsky’s most popular symphonies. These acclaimed performances were filmed at Salle Pleyel in Paris during January 2010, directed by Andy Sommer. The themes of fate and death pervade Tchaikovsky’s final symphonies. The composition of the Fourth Symphony coincided with the breakdown of Tchaikovsky’s marriage and a failed suicide attempt, yet he considered it to be his greatest. In contrast he believed his Fifth to be flawed and uninviting, yet today this heartfelt work is widely regarded as one of his finest. The subject of fate is further instilled in the Sixth Symphony, premiered shortly before Tchaikovsky’s death. It was posthumously entitled ‘Pathétique’ by his brother and is a deeply melancholic work, full of dynamic extremes and an inherent sense of finality.

Copying Beethoven(en)

A fictionalised exploration of Beethoven's life in his final days working on his Ninth Symphony. It is 1824. Beethoven is racing to finish his new symphony. However, it has been years since his last success and he is plagued by deafness, loneliness and personal trauma. A copyist is urgently needed to help the composer. A fictional character is introduced in the form of a young conservatory student and aspiring composer named Anna Holtz. The mercurial Beethoven is skeptical that a woman might become involved in his masterpiece but slowly comes to trust in Anna's assistance and in the end becomes quite fond of her. By the time the piece is performed, her presence in his life is an absolute necessity. Her deep understanding of his work is such that she even corrects mistakes he has made, while her passionate personality opens a door into his private world.

The Beat That My Heart Skipped(fr)

A ruthless real estate agent discovers a passion for piano and auditions with help from a young virtuoso, but the pressures of his corrupt career threaten to derail his musical aspirations.

Four Minutes(de)

Jenny is young. Her life is over. She killed someone. And she would do it again. When an 80-year-old piano teacher discovers the girl’s secret, her brutality and her dreams, she decides to transform her pupil into the musical wunderkind she once was.

The Sonata(en)

After a gifted musician inherits a mansion after her long lost father dies under mysterious circumstances, she discovers his last musical masterpiece riddled with cryptic symbols that unravels an evil secret, triggering dark forces that reach beyond her imagination.

Hamlet 2(en)

Failed actor-turned-worse-high-school-drama-teacher Dana Marschz rallies his Tucson students as he conceives and stages politically incorrect musical sequel to Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Life of Riley(fr)

In the midst of rehearsals for a new play, amateur dramatics proponents Colin and Kathryn receive the shattering news that their friend George is fatally ill and only has a few months to live.

The Inugami Family(ja)

When a tycoon passes away, he unexpectedly leaves the family fortune to outsider Tamayo on the condition that she marries one of the grandsons, pitting blood against blood.

Hello I Must Be Going(en)

An affair with a 19-year old actor helps reinvigorate life for thirty-something Amy after she moves home to her parents’ house following her divorce.

Revanche(de)

Alex, an ex-con working as muscle in a Vienna brothel, dreams of escaping with his girlfriend Tamara, who also works there. Their attempt to break free sets off a chain of events that links their fate with a rural police officer and his troubled marriage. As their lives intersect, a quiet struggle unfolds between guilt, grief, and the desire for redemption.

Legendary(en)

A book-smart teenager joins his school's wrestling team as a way to reunite his surviving family members, who split apart after the death of his father, a college wrestling legend, 10 years ago.

Manglehorn(en)

AJ Manglehorn is an aging, ordinary guy in a small town. He nurses his sick cat, squeezes out a conversation with the local bank teller every Friday, and eats at the same place every day. But there is more to Manglehorn than meets the eye: he’s an ex-con who, 40 years ago, gave up the woman of his dreams for a big ‘job’. After a dramatic effort to start over, Manglehorn faces a terrifying moment and is unmasked as a guy with a very, very dark past.

Kontroll(hu)

A tale about a strange young man, Bulcsú, and the fellow ticket inspectors on his team who work aboard the subterranean Budapest Metro. A tale about racing along the tracks, and about a mysterious serial killer. And a tale about love.

The Sapphires(en)

It's 1968, and four young, talented Australian Aboriginal girls learn about love, friendship, and war when they entertain the US troops in Vietnam as singing group The Sapphires.

Big is Beautiful(fr)

A resort for individuals who want to lose weight is helps several women discover friendships, acceptance with body image and hard truths.

Marguerite(fr)

Paris in the 1920s. Marguerite Dumont is a wealthy woman with a passion for music and the opera. For years, she has performed regularly for a circle of guests. But Marguerite sings tragically out of tune and no one has ever told her. Her husband and her close friends have always encouraged her in her illusions. Things become very complicated the day she gets it into her head to perform in front of a genuine public, at the Opera.

The Motive(es)

Álvaro, a man obsessed with the idea of writing what he brands as “high literature,” manipulates the lives and feelings of the people around him to write about the consequences caused by his devious acts.

The Sea of Trees(en)

In Japan's Aokigahara Forest, a troubled teacher meets a mysterious lost stranger who takes him on a life-changing journey of love and redemption.

Broken Embraces(es)

Harry Caine, a blind writer, reaches this moment in time when he has to heal his wounds from 14 years back. He was then still known by his real name, Mateo Blanco, and directing his last movie.

Police Story: Lockdown(zh)

A man looking for the release of a long-time prisoner takes a police officer, his daughter, and a group of strangers hostage.

Million Dollar Arm(en)

In a last-ditch effort to save his career, sports agent JB Bernstein dreams up a wild game plan to find Major League Baseball’s next great pitcher from a pool of cricket players in India. He soon discovers two young men who can throw a fastball but know nothing about the game of baseball. Or America. It’s an incredible and touching journey that will change them all — especially JB, who learns valuable lessons about teamwork, commitment and family.

Robot & Frank(en)

Curmudgeonly old Frank lives by himself. His routine involves daily visits to his local library, where he has a twinkle in his eye for the librarian. His grown children are concerned about their father’s well-being and buy him a caretaker robot. Initially resistant to the idea, Frank soon appreciates the benefits of robotic support – like nutritious meals and a clean house – and eventually begins to treat his robot like a true companion. With his robot’s assistance, Frank’s passion for his old, unlawful profession is reignited, for better or worse.

A Bittersweet Life(ko)

Kim Sun-woo is an enforcer and manager for a hotel owned by a cold, calculative crime boss, Kang who assigns Sun-woo to a simple errand while he is away on a business trip; to shadow his young mistress, Hee-soo, for fear that she may be cheating on him with a younger man with the mandate that he must kill them both if he discovers their affair.

Philomena(en)

A woman searches for her adult son, who was taken away from her decades ago when she was forced to live in a convent.