30 years of Movie History

Founded by Thomas Schühly, Laura Film has made movie history working with some of the best directors in the world like Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Gérard Oury, Jean-Jacques Annaud, Terry Gilliam, Bernardo Bertolucci and Oliver Stone.

The Company’s ambition is to make fantastic stories come to life on the theatre screen. Cinema is our passion and time has proven that even after 30 years in the movie business Laura Film belongs to Hollywood’s top cinematic companies.

Awards

2004   “Alexander” – 6 Awards & 19 Nominations

1995   “Der Totmacher” – German Award in Gold & Volpi Cup: in total 7 Awards & 3 Nominations

1988   “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen” – 4 Oscar Nominations: in total 11 Awards & 14 Nominations

1988   European Film Award “Producer of the Year”, Thomas Schühly  

1986   “The Name of the Rose” – Winner of 2 BAFTA Awards: in total 17 Awards & 6 Nominations

1984   “Abwärts” – German Film Award in Gold: in total 8 Awards & 3 Nominations  

1982   “Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss” – Golden Bear: in total 4 Awards & 4 Nominations

1981   “Lola” – German Film Award in Silver: in total 4 Awards

Our Productions

Year: 2004

Genre: Action, Adventure

Director: Oliver Stone

Producer: Thomas Schühly

Writers: Oliver Stone, Christopher Kyle and Laeta Kalogridis

Starring: Colin Farrell, Angelina Jolie, Val Kilmer, Anthony Hopkins, Jared Leto, Rosario Dawson

Alexander

Alexander, the King of Macedonia, leads his legions against the giant Persian Empire.  After defeating the Persians he leads his Army across the then known world venturing further than  any Westerner had ever gone all the way to India.

Year: 1999

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Director: Clare Peploe

Producer: Thomas Schühly

Writers: Clare Peploe, Marilyn Goldin and Bernardo Bertolucci

Starring: Mira Sorvino, Ben Kingsley and Rachael Stirling

The Triumph of Love

In an unidentified country in 18th century Europe, a usurper’s daughter has inherited the throne and feels guilty about her family’s crimes. She learns that a rightful heir exists but has been taught to hate her and reject all love, and who additionally is kept in seclusion to protect him from her. Spying on his household, she falls in love at the first sight of him, suggesting an obvious happy ending as regards the throne. But to even get close enough to him to talk about it, she must embark on a series of bribes, deceptions, and seductions…

Year: 1995

Genre: Crime, Drama

Director: Romuald Karmakar

Producer: Thomas Schühly

Writers: Romuald Karmakar, Michael Farin

Starring: Götz George, Jürgen Hentsch and Pierre Franckh

The Deathmaker

DER TOTMACHER

Fritz Haarmann, who has killed at least 17 boys, is questioned by a psychology professor in order to find out whether he is sane and can be held responsible for his crimes. During this interrogation Haarmann reveals his motives and his killing methods.

Year: 1989

Genre: Drama, History, War

Directors: Robert Enrico and Richard T. Heffron

Producer: Thomas Schühly

Writers: Robert Enrico, Richard T. Heffron, Daniel Boulanger, David Ambrose

Starring: Klaus Maria Brandauer, Jane Seymour and François Cluzet

The French Revolution

LA RÉVOLUTION FRANCAISE

A history of the French Revolution from the decision of the king to convene the Etats-  Generaux in 1789 in order to deal with France’s debt problem. The first part of the movie tells the  story from 1789 until August 10, 1792 (when the King Louis XVI lost all his authority and was put in  prison). The second part carries the story through the end of the terror in 1794, including the deaths by guillotine of Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, Danton, and Desmoulins.

Year: 1989

Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy

Director: Terry Gilliam

Producer: Thomas Schühly

Writers: Charles McKeown and Terry Gilliam

Starring: John Neville, Eric Idle and Sarah Polley

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

DIE ABENTEUER DES BARON MÜNCHHAUSEN

The fantastic tale of an 18th century aristocrat, his talented henchmen and a little girl in  their efforts to save a town from defeat by the Turks. Being swallowed by a giant sea-monster, a trip  to the moon, a dance with Venus and an escape from the Grim Reaper are only some of the  improbable adventures.

Year: 1986

Genre: Drama, Mistery, Thriller

Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud

Producer: Thomas Schühly

Writers: Andrew Birkin, Gérard Brach, Howard Franklin, Alain Godard

Starring: Sean Connery, Christian Slater, Michael Lonsdale, Ron Perlman, F. Murray Abraham

The Name of the Rose

DER NAME DER ROSE

1327: after a mysterious death in a Benedictine Abbey, the monks are convinced that the  apocalypse is coming. With the Abbey to play host to a council on the Franciscan’s Order’s belief that  the Church should rid itself of wealth, William of Baskerville, a respected Franciscan monk, is asked  to assist in determining the cause of the untimely death. Alas, more deaths occur as the investigation draws closer to uncovering the secret the Abbey wants hidden, and there is finally no stopping the Holy Inquisition from taking an active hand in the process. William and his young novice must race against time to prove the innocence of the unjustly accused and avoid the wrath of Holy Inquisitor Bernardo Gui.

Year: 1985

Genre: Comedy

Director: Dominik Graf

Producer: Thomas Schühly

Writers: Martin Gies and Bernd Schwamm

Starring: Stephan Remmler, Gert ‘Kralle’ Krawinkel and Peter Behrens

Drei gegen drei

Three South American generals want to go into hiding in Germany. To do this, they kidnap three German civilians whose place they want to take. The German civilians, on the other hand, are said to take their place and fall victim to an attack. But soon everyone is on the wrong side and a turbulent mix-up fun takes its course.

Year: 1984

Genre: Adventure, Comedy

Director: Carl Schenkel

Producer: Thomas Schühly

Writers: Carl Schenkel, Frank Göhre

Starring: Götz George, Wolfgang Kieling and Renée Soutendijk

Abwärts

Out of Order

It’s Friday evening. The lift repairman leaves the building and wants to finish his work on  Monday. But he doesn’t know there are four men in the building. They use the lift but stay in it  about 100 meters from the floor. They have little oxygen and must survive…

Year: 1983

Genre: TV mini-series, Drama

Director: Tom Toelle

Producer: Thomas Schühly

StarringMario Adorf, Maruschka Detmers, Milena Vukotic and Dominique Pinon

Via Mala

The family tragedy takes place in Switzerland at the end of the 1920s. The family suffers from the tyrannical and drinking addict father who beats the children, abuses his wife and assaults the eldest daughter. The children decide to take revenge on their father. After the murder, in which the youngest daughter Silvie was not involved, the investigations of the examining magistrate and Silvie’s lover lead the family into ever greater conflicts, in which not only the family but also Silvie’s relationship perishes.

Year: 1982

Genre: Adventure, Comedy

Director: Gèrard Oury

Producer: Thomas Schühly

Writers: Gérard Oury, Danièle Thompson

Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Marie-France Pisier, Rachid Ferrache

Ace of Aces

DAS ASS DER ASSE

In this action comedy the French boxer Jo Cavalier is charmed on the train to Berlin for  the Olympics in Hitler’s Germany by the little boy Simon Rosenblum who asks his autograph; when  it turns out his adorable young fan is a Jewish orphan in danger of persecution, he risks his one  shot at Olympic glory to save Simon and his family, helped only by a German officer-gentleman who became his friend in World War I, by an adventurous escape to Switzerland, Nazi troops on their heals and braving impossible odds in roller coaster-style.

Year: 1982

Genre: Drama

Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Producer: Thomas Schühly

Writers: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Pea Fröhlich, Peter Märthesheimer

Starring: Rosel Zech, Hilmar Thate, Cornelia Froboess

Veronika Voss

DIE SEHNSUCHT DER VERONIKA VOSS

Munich, 1955: A sports journalist meets Veronika Voss, an UFA actress who supposedly  had an affair with Goebbels. Now declining, Voss is kept by her “kind” doctor, Dr. Katz, supplying  her house, food, clean clothes and her favourite: morphine. Voss, trying to come back towards the  cinema, cannot perform an absurdly simple scene, but it attracts the attention of the journalist, who suspects that something’s very wrong regarding her doctor.

Year: 1981

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Producer: Thomas Schühly

Writers: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Pea Fröhlich, Peter Märthesheimer

Starring: Barbara Sukowa, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Mario Adorf

Lola

Ten years after the war, West Germany’s market economy is booming. Into an unnamed  city that’s rife with corruption comes a new building commissioner, Herr von Bohm, committed to  progress but also upright. He’s smitten by Marie-Louise, a single mother who’s his landlady’s  daughter. Von Bohm does not realize she is also Lola, a singer at a bordello and the mistress of Schuckert, a local builder whose profits depend on von Bohm’s projects. When von Bohm discovers Marie-Louise’s real vocation and looks closely at Schuckert’s work, will this social satire play out as a remake of “Blue Angel,” a visit of Chekhov to West Germany, or an update of Jean Renoir’s “Rules of the Game”?

Year: 1980

Genre: Documentary

Director: Werner Schröter

Producer: Thomas Schühly

Writer: Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Starring: Pina Bausch, Reinhold Hoffman and Kazuo Ohno

Die Generalprobe

Commissioned by German TV to report on the 1980 World Theatre Festival in Nancy, France, Schroeter weaves a collection of performances, rehearsals and interviews (such as of Pina Bausch’s dance company, performance artist Pat Olesko and butch dancer Kazuo Ôno) into a meditation on the relation of art and politics.

Year: 1979

Genre: TV mini-series

Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Assistant Director: Thomas Schühly

Writer: Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Starring: Günter Lamprecht, Hanna Schygulla, Barbara Sukowa, Elisabeth Trissenaar and  Gottfried John

Berlin Alexanderplatz

This film, which is basically the longest narrative film ever made, is a 15-1/2 hour  episodic exploration of the character of Franz Biberkopf, “hero” of Alfred Döblin’s acclaimed novel,  as well as the Alexanderplatz area of Berlin that he inhabits.