West Germany 1966, 94 min., Rated 12+

Artisten-Orje, a safe-cracker recently released from prison, is introduced by his girlfriend Nelly, a prostitute, to Berlin’s “Sparverein,” which is nothing more than a pimping ring. Orje isn’t used to so much idleness, and so he falls victim to the seductive arts of Nelly’s boss, Olga. Complications follow hot on their heels: A “court of honor” convenes, and Olga and Nelly are expelled from the club. Orje, however, takes the ladies’ side, and so the other men decide to hasten his elimination. 

Wolfgang Staudte’s film features a whole host of well-known actors, including Mario Adorf, Gert Fröbe, Curt Bois, and Karin Baal.

Director: Wolfgang Staudte
Screenplay: Curth Flatow, Hans Wilhelm
Cinematography: Friedl Behn-Grund
Music: Hans-Martin Majewski
Starring Gert Fröbe, Mario Adorf, Curt Bois, Karin Baal, Helen Vita

West Germany/France 1978, 145 min., Rated 16

Mario Adorf and Volker Schlöndorff were close friends. Any list of Mario Adorf’s films must include THE TIN DRUM. In it, he plays Alfred Matzerath, the father of Oskar Matzerath. Born in 1924 in the Free City of Danzig, Oskar refuses to grow any further on his third birthday and to participate in the adult world. On his tin drum, the eternal child voices his protest against Nazis and their followers, and only after the war ends does Oskar decide to grow up again so he can have a say. 
Schlöndorff’s brilliantly directed, largely faithful adaptation of Nobel Prize winner Günter Grass’s novel was the first German film to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

Director: Volker Schlöndorff
Screenplay: Jean-Claude Carrière, Volker Schlöndorff, Franz Seitz
Cinematography: Igor Luther
Music: Maurice Jarre, Friedrich Meyer
Starring David Bennent, Angela Winkler, Mario Adorf, Katharina Thalbach
"The direction, in its conception of both the visual and the acting direction, can in good conscience be described as congenial. [In the film] nothing was added 'for the sake of cinema.' And yet the film is “cinema”—it makes contemporary history directly accessible through people, critically yet far removed from any “questioning” abstraction.” From the FBW jury’s report, 1979 

F/FRG/I 1975, 111 min., Rated 16+, German with subtitles

Georgis, a low-level clerk, is arrested and taken to the secret police. He is accused of being a member of a banned underground organization, but he insists on his innocence. The next morning, an inspector and a “manager” are supposed to transport the suspect to the capital, to the secret service headquarters. But after just a few kilometers, the car breaks down.
Peter Fleischmann, usually more of a cinematic free spirit, tells a Kafkaesque comedy here in a dangerously quiet and logically disciplined manner. Michel Piccoli, Ugo Tognazzi, and Mario Adorf lend the pawns in this clever, paradigmatically abstract experiment almost human traits. Ennio Morricone contributes to the film’s unsettling atmosphere with his minimalist soundtrack.

Director: Peter Fleischmann
Screenplay: Jean-Claude Carrière, Martin Walser, Peter Fleischmann, Lorenzo Gicca Palli
Cinematography: Luciano Tovoli
Music: Ennio Morricone
Starring Michel Piccoli, Ugo Tognazzi, Mario Adorf, Adriana Asti

West Germany 1981, 115 min., Rated 16

Rainer Werner Fassbinder also relied on Mario Adorf, who played the Coburg real estate tycoon Schuckert for him in the film LOLA. In 1957, Schuckert profits from corruption and nepotism. When the new head of the building department, von Bohm, is transferred to the small town in northern Bavaria, Schuckert senses danger. The town’s elite gather at “Villa Fink,” a thriving brothel that even the morally upright von Bohm cannot resist. When von Bohm falls in love with Marie-Luise, who, as Lola, is the star of the brothel, the drama unfolds.

Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Screenplay: Peter Märthesheimer, Pea Fröhlich
Cinematography: Xaver Schwarzenberger
Music: Peer Raben
Starring Barbara Sukowa, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Mario Adorf, Rosel Zech, Helga Feddersen, Karin Baal

West Germany 1975, 106 min., FSK: 16 and up

After a wild Carnival party, Katharina Blum, a young, attractive, and single housekeeper, spends the night with a man she met by chance. The next morning, a police SWAT team storms her apartment, searching for the man who is wanted as a suspected terrorist—but the man they’re looking for has already vanished. Because of this incident, Katharina Blum finds herself in the crosshairs of the police and the media. The investigating detective grills her relentlessly; she loses her job, faces hostility from her neighbors, and a cynical reporter from a major German tabloid drags her entire life through the mud. As the psychological and personal pressure from prejudice, slander, and open hatred becomes increasingly unbearable, Katharina resorts to drastic measures to save what little honor she has left. 

The film captures the oppressive atmosphere in West Germany during the RAF era.

Directed by: Volker Schlöndorff, Margarethe von Trotta
Screenplay: Volker Schlöndorff, Margarethe von Trotta
Cinematography: Jost Vacano
Music: Hans Werner Henze
Starring: Angela Winkler, Mario Adorf, Dieter Laser, Jürgen Prochnow

West Germany 1958, 101 min., FSK: 12 and up

In 1957, Rosemarie Nitribitt, a well-known “high-class escort” in Frankfurt am Main, was murdered. Her clients allegedly included prominent industrialists. The Nitribitt affair caused a huge stir but remained unsolved. Journalist Erich Kuby adapted the story into a screenplay draft that inspired one of the most controversial and successful films of the 1950s. Under the careful direction of Rolf Thiele, and accompanied by satirical songs about the economic miracle and remilitarization, the film satirizes the double standards of West German society during the reconstruction era through a blend of satire, cabaret, and ballad.

Director: Rolf Thiele
Screenplay: Rolf Thiele, Rolf Ulrich, Jo Herbst, Erich Kuby
Cinematography: Klaus von Rautenfeld
Music: Norbert Schultze
Starring Nadja Tiller, Mario Adorf, Carl Raddatz, Peter van Eyck, Gert Fröbe, Hanne Wieder