West Germany (Sorted by Popularity Ascending)
1. The NeverEnding Story (1984)
PG | 102 min | Adventure, Drama, Family
A troubled boy dives into a wondrous fantasy world through the pages of a mysterious book.
Director: Wolfgang Petersen | Stars: Noah Hathaway, Barret Oliver, Tami Stronach, Gerald McRaney
Votes: 135,819 | Gross: $20.16M
2. Wings of Desire (1987)
PG-13 | 128 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
An angel tires of overseeing human activity and wishes to become human when he falls in love with a mortal.
Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander, Curt Bois
Votes: 66,996 | Gross: $3.33M
3. Das Boot (1981)
R | 149 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
The claustrophobic world of a WWII German U-boat; boredom, filth and sheer terror.
Director: Wolfgang Petersen | Stars: Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, Klaus Wennemann, Hubertus Bengsch
Votes: 237,925 | Gross: $11.49M
4. Paris, Texas (1984)
R | 145 min | Drama
Travis Henderson, an aimless drifter who has been missing for four years, wanders out of the desert and must reconnect with society, himself, his life, and his family.
Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski, Dean Stockwell, Sam Berry
Votes: 96,907 | Gross: $2.18M
5. The Name of the Rose (1986)
R | 130 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
An intellectually nonconformist friar investigates a series of mysterious deaths in an isolated abbey.
Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud | Stars: Sean Connery, Christian Slater, Helmut Qualtinger, Elya Baskin
Votes: 104,368 | Gross: $7.15M
6. Hair (1979)
PG | 121 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical
Claude Bukowski leaves the family ranch in Oklahoma for New York where he is rapidly embraced into the hippie group of youngsters led by Berger, yet he's already been drafted. He soon falls in love with Sheila Franklin, a rich girl but still a rebel inside.
Director: Milos Forman | Stars: John Savage, Treat Williams, Beverly D'Angelo, Annie Golden
Votes: 36,049 | Gross: $15.28M
7. Captain Sindbad (1963)
Passed | 85 min | Action, Adventure, Family
The peaceful kingdom of Baristan has an evil ruler named El-Carim. He plans to capture his rival, Sindbad, who will soon return from sea in order to marry Princess Jana. The Princess ... See full summary »
Director: Byron Haskin | Stars: Guy Williams, Heidi Brühl, Pedro Armendáriz, Abraham Sofaer
Votes: 934 | Gross: $5.45M
8. Cruising (1980)
R | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A police detective goes undercover in the underground S&M gay subculture of New York City to catch a serial killer who is preying on gay men.
Director: William Friedkin | Stars: Al Pacino, Paul Sorvino, Karen Allen, Richard Cox
Votes: 21,624 | Gross: $19.80M
9. Being There (1979)
PG | 130 min | Comedy, Drama
A simpleminded, sheltered gardener becomes an unlikely trusted advisor to a powerful businessman and an insider in Washington politics.
Director: Hal Ashby | Stars: Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas, Jack Warden
Votes: 68,993 | Gross: $30.18M
10. Tatort (1970– )
90 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A German language television series that has been running continuously since 1970, which makes it the longest-running German TV drama. Every episode features different detectives of a different city trying to solve a murder case.
Stars: Klaus J. Behrendt, Miroslav Nemec, Udo Wachtveitl, Dietmar Bär
Votes: 2,794
11. Nekromantik (1987)
Not Rated | 71 min | Horror
A street sweeper who cleans up after grisly accidents brings home a full corpse for him and his wife to enjoy sexually, but is dismayed to see that his wife prefers the corpse over him.
Director: Jörg Buttgereit | Stars: Bernd Daktari Lorenz, Beatrice Manowski, Harald Lundt, Collosseo
Votes: 8,801
12. Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
PG | 107 min | Drama, Horror
Count Dracula moves from Transylvania to Wismar, spreading the Black Plague across the land. Only a woman pure of heart can bring an end to his reign of horror.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Klaus Kinski, Isabelle Adjani, Bruno Ganz, Roland Topor
Votes: 33,804
13. Visions of Eight (1973)
G | 110 min | Documentary, Sport
Eight film artists from different countries are given carte blanche to make a collection of short documentaries on the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics, offering unexpected, original and often humorous perspectives.
Directors: Milos Forman, Kon Ichikawa, Claude Lelouch, Yuriy Ozerov, Arthur Penn, Michael Pfleghar, John Schlesinger, Mai Zetterling | Stars: Vasiliy Alekseev, Nikolay Avilov, Valery Borzov, Avery Brundage
Votes: 479 | Gross: $0.28M
14. Fitzcarraldo (1982)
PG | 158 min | Adventure, Drama
The story of Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, an extremely determined man who intends to build an opera house in the middle of a jungle.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Klaus Kinski, Claudia Cardinale, José Lewgoy, Miguel Ángel Fuentes
Votes: 32,852
15. Autumn Sonata (1978)
PG | 99 min | Drama, Music
A married daughter who longs for her mother's love is visited by the latter, a successful concert pianist.
Director: Ingmar Bergman | Stars: Ingrid Bergman, Liv Ullmann, Lena Nyman, Halvar Björk
Votes: 29,935
16. The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981)
R | 122 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
The sensuous wife of a lunch wagon proprietor and a rootless drifter begin a sordidly steamy affair and conspire to murder her Greek husband.
Director: Bob Rafelson | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Jessica Lange, John Colicos, Michael Lerner
Votes: 22,316 | Gross: $12.38M
17. Das Boot (1985–1987)
TV-MA | 293 min | Drama, Thriller, War
A World War II German U-Boat crew have a terrifying patrol mission in the early days of the war.
Stars: Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, Klaus Wennemann, Hubertus Bengsch
Votes: 27,495
18. The Tin Drum (1979)
R | 142 min | Drama, War
In 1924, Oskar Matzerath is born in the Free City of Danzig. At age three, he falls down a flight of stairs and stops growing. In 1939, World War II breaks out.
Director: Volker Schlöndorff | Stars: David Bennent, Mario Adorf, Angela Winkler, Katharina Thalbach
Votes: 22,981
19. Christiane F. (1981)
R | 138 min | Biography, Drama
A teen girl in 1970's Berlin becomes addicted to heroin. Everything in her life slowly begins to distort and disappear as she befriends a small crew of junkies and falls in love with a drug-abusing male prostitute.
Director: Uli Edel | Stars: Natja Brunckhorst, Eberhard Auriga, Peggy Bussieck, Lothar Chamski
Votes: 23,234
20. Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)
Not Rated | 95 min | Action, Adventure, Biography
In the 16th century, the ruthless and insane Don Lope de Aguirre leads a Spanish expedition in search of El Dorado.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Klaus Kinski, Ruy Guerra, Helena Rojo, Del Negro
Votes: 54,111
21. 14 and Under (1973)
X | 87 min | Comedy
A series of "sex reports" intended to address the issue of pedophilia in the early 1970s.
Director: Ernst Hofbauer | Stars: Harald Baerow, Hans Billian, Ulrike Butz, Elke Deuringer
Votes: 304
22. Lesbian Vampires (1971)
Unrated | 89 min | Drama, Horror
An erotic horror tale about a vixen vampiress seducing and killing women to appease her insatiable thirst for female blood.
Director: Jesús Franco | Stars: Soledad Miranda, Dennis Price, Paul Muller, Ewa Strömberg
Votes: 4,408
23. The American Friend (1977)
Not Rated | 128 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Tom Ripley, who deals in forged art, suggests a picture framer he knows would make a good hit man.
Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: Dennis Hopper, Bruno Ganz, Lisa Kreuzer, Gérard Blain
Votes: 14,937
24. Eugenie (1970)
X | 87 min | Drama, Horror
An innocent girl goes to spend the weekend on an island with a woman and her brother, but soon she finds herself entangled in a web of dream-like sexual experiments.
Director: Jesús Franco | Stars: Maria Rohm, Marie Liljedahl, Jack Taylor, Christopher Lee
Votes: 1,533 | Gross: $0.08M
25. Bagdad Cafe (1987)
PG | 95 min | Comedy, Drama
A lonely German woman ends up in the most desolate motel on Earth and decides to make it brighter.
Director: Percy Adlon | Stars: Marianne Sägebrecht, CCH Pounder, Jack Palance, Christine Kaufmann
Votes: 12,975 | Gross: $3.59M
26. The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972)
Not Rated | 124 min | Drama, Romance
A successful fashion designer abandons a sado-masochistic relationship with her female assistant in favor of a love affair with a beautiful young woman.
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Stars: Margit Carstensen, Hanna Schygulla, Katrin Schaake, Eva Mattes
Votes: 8,985
27. Alice in the Cities (1974)
Not Rated | 113 min | Drama
A German journalist is saddled with a nine-year-old girl after encountering her mother at a New York airport.
Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: Yella Rottländer, Rüdiger Vogler, Lisa Kreuzer, Edda Köchl
Votes: 10,748
28. Freedom to Love (1969)
90 min | Documentary
Documentary, dramatized at times, on human sexual behaviour. Daring for its time for its approach to some of the most delicate aspects of this taboo subject.
Directors: Eberhard Kronhausen, Phyllis Kronhausen | Stars: Marie Antoinette, Daniel D. Halleck, Monique Kraamwinkel, Sacha Kraamwinkel
Votes: 200 | Gross: $0.03M
29. Querelle (1982)
R | 108 min | Drama
A handsome sailor is drawn into a vortex of sibling rivalry, murder, and explosive sexuality.
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Stars: Brad Davis, Franco Nero, Jeanne Moreau, Laurent Malet
Votes: 6,128
30. Mark of the Devil (1970)
R | 90 min | Drama, History, Horror
In 1700s Austria, a witch-hunter's apprentice has doubts about the righteousness of witch-hunting when he witnesses the brutality, the injustice, the falsehood, the torture and the arbitrary killing that go with the job.
Directors: Michael Armstrong, Adrian Hoven | Stars: Herbert Lom, Udo Kier, Olivera Katarina, Reggie Nalder
Votes: 3,119
31. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
Not Rated | 92 min | Drama, Romance
A lonely widow meets a much younger Arab worker in a bar during a rainstorm. They fall in love, to their own surprise and to the outright shock of their families, colleagues, and drinking buddies.
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Stars: Brigitte Mira, El Hedi ben Salem, Barbara Valentin, Irm Hermann
Votes: 19,878
32. The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)
R | 120 min | Drama
Maria marries Hermann Braun in the last days of World War II, only for him to go missing in the war. Alone, Maria puts to use her beauty and ambition in order to find prosperity during Germany's "economic miracle" of the 1950s.
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Stars: Hanna Schygulla, Klaus Löwitsch, Ivan Desny, Gisela Uhlen
Votes: 12,888
33. The Apple (1980)
PG | 90 min | Music, Musical, Sci-Fi
In 1994, a young couple enters the world of the music industry, and subsequently the world of drugs.
Director: Menahem Golan | Stars: Catherine Mary Stewart, George Gilmour, Grace Kennedy, Allan Love
Votes: 2,137
34. She Killed in Ecstasy (1971)
Unrated | 80 min | Horror
After a doctor commits suicide when his research into human embryos is terminated, his wife seduces and then executes revenge upon those she holds responsible.
Director: Jesús Franco | Stars: Soledad Miranda, Fred Williams, Paul Muller, Howard Vernon
Votes: 1,660
35. Lola (1981)
R | 115 min | Drama, Romance
A seductive cabaret singer-prostitute pits a corrupt building contractor against the new straight-arrow building commissioner, launching an outrageous plan to elevate herself in a world where everything-and everyone-is for sale.
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Stars: Barbara Sukowa, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Mario Adorf, Matthias Fuchs
Votes: 5,520
36. Moon 44 (1990)
R | 98 min | Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller
An unconventional corporate agent is given the task of shaping a group of violent criminals and technical wizards into a helicopter defense force assigned to protect a mining station on a remote moon.
Director: Roland Emmerich | Stars: Michael Paré, Lisa Eichhorn, Dean Devlin, Brian Thompson
Votes: 4,927
37. The Fan (1982)
Unrated | 92 min | Drama, Horror, Music
The hero-worship that Simone has for a pop singer is built to a crescendo until she passes out when she finally sees him up-close in a crowd of fans. She is later shocked when he lets her know that he does not love her.
Director: Eckhart Schmidt | Stars: Désirée Nosbusch, Bodo Staiger, Simone Brahmann, Jonas Vischer
Votes: 1,381
38. The Bridge (1959)
Not Rated | 103 min | Drama, War
In 1945, Germany is being overrun, and nobody is left to fight but teenagers.
Director: Bernhard Wicki | Stars: Folker Bohnet, Fritz Wepper, Michael Hinz, Frank Glaubrecht
Votes: 7,403
39. Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980)
Not Rated | 931 min | Crime, Drama
In late-1920s Berlin, Franz Biberkopf is released from prison and vows to go straight. However, he soon finds himself embroiled in the city's criminal underworld.
Stars: Günter Lamprecht, Claus Holm, Hanna Schygulla, Franz Buchrieser
Votes: 4,229
40. The Vampire Happening (1971)
Not Rated | 102 min | Comedy, Horror
An American actress inherits a castle in Transylvania. What she doesn't know is that her ancestor, the Baroness Catali, was in actuality a vampire countess, and emerges from her tomb to ravage the nearby village and Catholic seminary.
Director: Freddie Francis | Stars: Pia Degermark, Thomas Hunter, Yvor Murillo, Ingrid van Bergen
Votes: 447
41. The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism (1967)
M | 84 min | Horror, Mystery
In the Olden Tymes, Count Regula is drawn and quartered for killing twelve virgins in his dungeon torture chamber. Thirty-five years later, he comes back to seek revenge on the daughter of ... See full summary »
Director: Harald Reinl | Stars: Lex Barker, Karin Dor, Christopher Lee, Carl Lange
Votes: 1,442
42. Winnetou (1963)
91 min | Western, Adventure
When violent conflict breaks out between greedy railroaders and a tribe of Mescalero Apaches, only two men, destined to be blood brothers, can prevent all-out war: chief's son Winnetou and German engineer Old Shatterhand.
Director: Harald Reinl | Stars: Lex Barker, Pierre Brice, Marie Versini, Mario Adorf
Votes: 3,832
43. More (1969)
112 min | Drama, Romance, Crime
Stefan, a recent college graduate, hitchhikes from Germany to Paris where he meets American expatriate, Estelle. They chase the sun to Ibiza. An idyllic island life degenerates when she introduces him to heroin and they get addicted.
Director: Barbet Schroeder | Stars: Mimsy Farmer, Klaus Grünberg, Heinz Engelmann, Michel Chanderli
Votes: 2,757 | Gross: $0.30M
44. Stroszek (1977)
Not Rated | 115 min | Comedy, Drama
In Berlin, an alcoholic man, recently released from prison, joins his elderly friend and a prostitute in a determined dream to leave Germany and seek a better life in Wisconsin.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Bruno S., Eva Mattes, Clemens Scheitz, Wilhelm von Homburg
Votes: 13,591
45. Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun (1977)
Not Rated | 80 min | Drama, Adventure, Horror
16-year-old Maria is forced into Serra D'Aires convent, secretly run by Satanists. Her confessor is in collusion with the Mother Superior. Maria is tortured, forced into sex with men, women... See full summary »
Director: Jesús Franco | Stars: Susan Hemingway, William Berger, Herbert Fux, Ana Zanatti
Votes: 1,045
46. Mephisto (1981)
Unrated | 144 min | Drama
In early-1930s Germany, a passionate stage actor finds himself before a dilemma: renounce his apolitical stance and comply with the Reich's doctrine, or face oblivion. But, Faustian bargains never end well. What is the price of success?
Director: István Szabó | Stars: Klaus Maria Brandauer, Krystyna Janda, Ildikó Bánsági, Rolf Hoppe
Votes: 9,928
47. Wrong Move (1975)
Not Rated | 103 min | Drama
A writer goes on a road trip across West Germany with a group of eclectic people he meets along the way.
Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: Rüdiger Vogler, Hanna Schygulla, Hans Christian Blech, Nastassja Kinski
Votes: 3,094
48. The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)
Not Rated | 110 min | Biography, Drama, History
A young man named Kaspar Hauser suddenly appears in Nuremberg in 1828, barely able to talk or walk, and bearing a strange note.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Bruno S., Walter Ladengast, Brigitte Mira, Willy Semmelrogge
Votes: 16,980
49. World on a Wire (1973)
Not Rated | 212 min | Crime, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Somewhere in the future there is a computer project called Simulacron one of which is able to simulate a full featured reality, when suddenly project leader Henry Vollmer dies. His ... See full summary »
Stars: Klaus Löwitsch, Barbara Valentin, Mascha Rabben, Karl Heinz Vosgerau
Votes: 5,720
50. Making Contact (I) (1985)
PG | 98 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Believing to be able to communicate with his deceased father, a young boy develops psychic powers where he uses them to try to stop supernatural forces threatening his family and friends, especially a possessed ventriloquist dummy.
Director: Roland Emmerich | Stars: Joshua Morrell, Eva Kryll, Tammy Shields, Jan Zierold
Votes: 1,381