Crew & Cast


With the right mixture of nose and professionality Rainer Erler succeded always to put the perfect crew together fitting to the theme. The schedule of the actors he engaged is full of famous names. Among unforgettable film- and theatrecracks like Hanns Lothar, Martin Held and Wolfgang Kieling Rainer Erler emploid superactors like Mario Adorf, Horst Frank, Gudrun Landgrebe, Götz George, Jürgen Pochnow and Helmut Lohner, telling only a few names.

Summaries from the crew&cast-lists of famous Erler-Films:

Seelenwanderung

(in German)
(Transmigration of a Soul)
A Film by Rainer Erler
Featuring: Hanns Lothar, Wolfgang Reichmann, Robert Meyn  and others
D.O.P.:  Günther Senftleben
Music by Carl Otto Schilling
Editor: Johannes Nikel
Written and directed by Rainer Erler
Based on Karl Wittlinger’s Stage Play
80 minutes, 1962
Produced by Bavaria Atelier GmbH, Munich
Distribution: Matthias Film Verleih, Stuttgart

Awards: Ernst Lubitsch Prize, Prix Italia, Golden Nymph of Monte Carlo, Dibelius Prize of the Bishop of Berlin, Berlin Film Festival. German Cinema Award besonders wertvoll (‚special valuable’)

Seelenwanderung, previously produced for TV, had a successful nine week first run in Munich’s legendary “Studio for Cinema-Art”, and was screened for more than ten years in the Art Cinemas of Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Axel and Bum, two fellow underdogs, undergo a satiric adventure in those days of Germany’s „wonder years“, the decade after WWII.


Orden für die Wunderkinder

(in German – with English subtitles)
(Medals for the Boys)
A Film by Rainer Erler
Featuring: Carl Heinz Schroth, Edith Heerdegen, Robert Meyn and others
D.O.P.: Charly Steinberger
Music by Eugen Thomass
Editor: Johannes Nikel
Written and directed by Rainer Erler
90 min, 1963
Produced by Bavaria Atelier, Munich
Awards: Prix Italia, Golden Nymph of Monte Carlo, First Prize  Mifed, Milano.

To gain the Order of the Republic, the highest decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany, some people would invest a fortune. Why not create a private enterprise to fulfil these dreams of vanity?


Endkampf

(in German – with English subtitles)
(The ultimate Battle)
A Film by Rainer Erler
Featuring: Gustl Bayrhammer, Ruth Drexel, Dora Altmann, Fritz Strassner, Marlies Schönau, Kurd Sowinetz, Holger Ungerer and others
D.O.P.: Werner Kurz
Music by Eugen Thomass
Editor: Johannes Nikel
Written and directed by Rainer Erler
90 min, 1966
Produced by Bavaria Atelier, Munich

In this bizarre comedy – set in the last and most chaotic days of World War II - defenders and deserters meet in a remote mountain-farm, forced to pretend patriotism to the last shot.


Fast ein Held

starring Martin Held  (in German)
(Almost a Hero)
(Die Abenteuer des braven Kommandanten Küppes)
A Film by Rainer Erler
Featuring: Martin Held, Pascale Petit and others
D.O.P.: Werner Kurz
Music by Eugen Thomass
Editor: Juliane Sperr
Script: W.P.Zibaso and Rainer Erler
Directed by Rainer Erler
Produced by Franz Seitz Film for Nora Distribution

German Cinema Award: wertvoll (‚valuable’)

100 min, 1967
The story, set in Southern France, was produced in Kastav and Opatja, Istria.

When a German Occupation Company was transferred from a peaceful Southern France township to the battlefields of no return in Russia, paymaster Küppes was unexpectedly left behind with a valuable treasure box: official vouchers, forms and stamps, priceless in these days at the end of World War II. That’s why he became the honourable ‘Monsieur le Commandant’!


Der Attentäter

(in German – with English subtitles)
(The Assassin)
A Film by Rainer Erler
Featuring: Fritz Hollenbeck as Georg Elser
  D.O.P.: Werner Kurz
Music by Eugen Thomass
Editor: Johannes Nikel
Script: Hans Gottschalk
Directed by Rainer Erler
90 min, 1969
Produced by Bavaria Atelier GmbH, Munich
Award:  Adolf Grimme Prize in Gold.

The 9th of November 1939 - two months after Hitler occupied Poland - a humble carpenter, Georg Elser, tried to assassinate the dictator and his core-fellows with his handmade bomb. He failed his target only by minutes!

Die Delegation

(in German, Italian, French and Engl.subtitles)
(The Delegation)
A Film by Rainer Erler
Featuring Walther Kohut as TV-reporter Will Roczinski
D.O.P.: Charly Steinberger
Music effects by Eberhard Schoener
Editor: Henry Sokal and Jacqueline Hoffmann
Written, directed and produced by Rainer Erler
120 min, 1970
Produced in the Bavaria Studios, Munich, in Canada, in the US, in Puerto Rico and Peru.
Produced by Bavaria Atelier GmbH, Munich, in coproduction with the European broadcasting stations ZDF-Mainz, ORF-Vienna, SRG-Zurich, RAI-Rom, ORTF-Paris
Video distribution (2001): EuroVideo, Munich and Amazon
Critic-award: Golden Camera

Have Extraterrestrials visited the earth? Was the TV-reporter Will Roczinski a victim of this  „Delegation“? The Thriller, camouflaged as documentary, tries to solve the riddle about accidentally detected news-reels, found in Roczinskis wrecked car.

In his novel „The Delegation“, based on his film, Rainer Erler describes in a fictional‑ fiction way, “how this film could have been created”. The book has been published as a long-seller over 20 years by several publishers: C.Bertelsmann, Goldmann, Fischer Orbit, Bastei Lübbe, Ullstein and in several European languages.


Das Blaue Palais

(in German, Italian, French and with English subtitles)
(The blue Palace)
A five-part „Science Thriller“ miniseries by Rainer Erler
Featuring: Silvano Tranquilli, Loumi Jacobesco, Peter Fricke, Dieter Laser, Evelyn Opela, Eric P.Caspar, Helga Anders, Herbert Steinmetz, Werner Rundshagen, Rolf Henninger, Angelika Bender, Edward Meeks, Eva Renzi, Udo Vioff, Jean Pierre Zola, Ben Zeller and others
  D.O.P.: Frank Brühne and Josef Vilsmeier
Music by Eugen Thomass
Editors: Hilwa von Boro, Ingrid Broszat, Margot von Schlieffen Written, directed and produced by Rainer Erler
5 x 90 min, 1974/1976
Produced by Bavaria Atelier GmbH, Munich in the Bavaria Studios, the old heritage Odelzhausen Castle in Upper-Bavaria, in Alaska, Japan, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Venice, Knokke, London, Scottland, New York, New Mexico, Texas and in Mexico: in Oaxaca and Palenque
in Co-production with ZDF-Germany, ORF-Vienna, SRG-Zurich, RAI-Rom, ORTF-Paris.
Video distribution (2001): EuroVideo, Munich, and Amazon

A group of progressive, independent scientists have gathered in the Blue Palace to inquire into the different aspects of our future, discussing - and crossing - ethnic and moral borders. The controversial topics of the five Science Thrillers are:
I.                   The Genius                         (Transfer of Memory)
II            The Traitor                      (Laser light and Antimatter)
III            The Medium                     (Parapsychology, Telepathy)
IV            Immortality             (Elimination of our aging gene)
V            The Giant              (New invented synthetic material replaces steel)
Award: Rainer Erler: Best European Science Fiction Screenwriter, Brighton.
Rainer Erlers five novels The Blue Palace haven been published by Goldmann, Bastei Lübbe, Bertelsmann Club, Das Neue Berlin and Readers Digest.
Award:  Adolf Grimme Prize in Gold.


Die  Halde

(in German – with English subtitles)
(The Rubbish Tip)
Featuring:
Angelika Bender, Ekkehardt Belle, Hanns Herrmann Schaufuss, Alexander May, Bruni Löbel, Kurd Sowinetz, Willi Semmelrogge, Herbert Steinmetz, Cordula Trantow and others.

D.O.P.: Wolfgang Grasshoff
Music by Eugen Thomass
Editor: Hilwa von Boro
Written and directed by Rainer Erler

90 min, 1974
A pentagramma production – Renate Erler in coproduction with ZDF, ORF-Vienna, SRG-Zurich
Distribution: ImBild; World sales: Atlas International, Munich

In this bizarre „Apocalyptic Comedy“, a young man follows a girl to an idyllic weekend colony, which gets buried day-by-day and step by step by a giant rubbish tip. Together with all those friendly narrow-minded citizens, which ignore the disaster.


Die  letzten  Ferien

(in German and English) (The Last Holidays)
Featuring:
Jutta Speidel, Udo Vioff, Dieter Laser, Margot Leonhard, Veit Relin and others

D.O.P.: Wolfgang Grasshoff
Music by Eugen Thomass
Editor: Hilwa von Boro
Written and directed by Rainer Erler

90 min, 1975
Produced in Frankfurt, Gran Canary and Lanzarote

A pentagramma production – Renate Erler in coproduction with ZDF, ORF-Vienna, SRG-Zurich Distribution: ImBild; World sales: Atlas International, Munich
Video distribution: EuroVideo, Munich and Amazon

Rainer Erler’s novel  Die letzten Ferien has been published by Goldmann and  Ullstein.
A Remake was produced in 2001 by Engram Pictures, directed by Rainer Matsutani. („Invitation for a Murder“)

On a nightly boat trip on the Atlantic, a young girl escapes her brutal killer only by chance. Next morning, back in her parent’s apartment, instead of finding comfort and help, she meets him again, sitting beside her parents at the breakfast table: A murderer on her parent’s payroll! – So she has to run for her life.


Operation  Ganymed

(in German and in English)
(Operation Ganymede)
Featuring:
Horst Frank, Jürgen Prochnow, Dieter Laser, Uwe Friedrichsen, Claus Theo Gärtner and others

D.O.P.: Wolfgang Grasshoff
Music by Eugen Thomass
Editor: Hilwa von Boro
Written and directed by Rainer Erler

127 min, 1977
Filmed in the Bavaria studios, Munich, and on the Canary Islands:  Lanzarote and Fuerteventura

A pentagramma production – Renate Erler in coproduction with ZDF, ORF-Vienna, SRG-Zurich Distribution: ImBild; World sales: Atlas International, Munich
Video distribution: Starlight Film and Amazon

Awards:
Goldenen Asteroid, best Science Fiction Film, Trieste Film Festival
German Cinema Award wertvoll (‚valuable’)

Only one of three space ships of an international space mission with the remaining crew of  5 astronauts has survived the disaster behind Jupiter. After a successful but dramatic and tragic mission on the Jupiter Moon Ganymede they return unexpected in the earth’s orbit.


Plutonium

(produced in English and German simultaneously)
Featuring:
Charlotte Kerr, Wolf Roth, Werner Rundshagen, Bob Cunningham, Lester C. Muller, Anton Diffring, Ilse Neubauer and others

D.O.P.: Wolfgang Grasshoff
Music by Eugen Thomass
Editor: Hilwa von Boro
Written and directed by Rainer Erler

90 min, 1978
Locations: Gran Canary and South America

A pentagramma production – Renate Erler in coproduction with ZDF, ORF-Vienna, SRG-Zurich Distribution: Fantasia Film-Verleih; World sales: Atlas International, Munich
Video distribution: EuroVideo, Munich and Amazon

Awards:
Silver Asteroid, best Science Fiction TV-movie, Trieste Film Festival

„Eichborn Magazin“ published the script together with photos

Camouflaged as a political suspense documentary, Plutonium demonstrates the theft of highly enriched nuclear material from a Third World Country nuclear power plant - enough for five bombs of the Hiroshima type. Is this material now in the hands of terrorists – or in the possession of a brutal and inhuman dictatorship?


Fleisch

(produced in English)
(in German, English and French language)
(Spare Parts)
Featuring:
Jutta Speidel, Wolf Roth, Herbert Herrmann, Charlotte Kerr, Christoph Lindert, Bob Cunningham, Tedi Altice, Ben Zeller, Ron Williams and others

D.O.P.: Wolfgang Grasshoff
Music by Eugen Thomass
Editor: Hilwa von Boro
Written and directed by Rainer Erler

125 min, 1979
Filmed in New York, New Mexico and Texas

A pentagramma production – Renate Erler in coproduction with ZDF, ORF-Vienna, SRG-Zurich Distribution: Avis Filmverleih and Film-Allianz, Filmverlag der Autoren, ImBild
World sales: Atlas International, Munich and Viacom-Los Angeles
Video distribution: EuroVideo, Munich and Amazon

Fleisch (Spare Parts) became an European „Cult Film“! The story of a self-sacrificing friendship in a world of ultimate horror ran in more than 120 countries for theatrical release

Award: Golden Nymph, Monte Carlo

Rainer Erler’s best selling novel Fleisch reached 600.000 copies in the German edition alone. Published by Goldmann, Verlag Das Neue Berlin, Ullstein and Herbig-Langen-Müller. Zhe novel was translated in several European languages.

Set in New York, at Princeton University New Jersey and in the Southwest, New Mexico and Texas, Rainer Erler’s Psycho-Thriller follows a young couple on their honeymoon trip – ending up in a deadly nightmare: An organised crime syndicate catches healthy young people – spare parts for organ banks.


Die  Quelle

(in German)
(The Source)
Featuring:
Herbert Herrmann, Josefa Guerra Sinsolo, Siegfried Wischnewski, Wolf Harnisch, Werner Kreindl, Paco Romero and others

D.O.P.: Wolfgang Grasshoff
Music by Eugen Thomass
Editor: Hilwa von Boro
Written and directed by Rainer Erler

90 min, 1978
Filmed on the Canary Islands Lanzarote and Fuerteventura

A pentagramma production – Renate Erler for the Bavarian Broadcasting Company BR
World sales: Telepool, Munich

Die Quelle was nominated for the German Adolf Grimme Prize and was entry in the Monte Carlo TV-Festival.

Wolf, the young adventurer, ends up on a remote island, where water is more precious than gold, and in a nightmare of threat, greed and murder.


Ein  Guru  kommt

(in German – with English subtitles)
(Here comes the Guru)
Featuring:
Wolfgang Reichmann, Eric. P. Caspar, Wolfgang Kieling, Jörg Pleva, Ron Williams, Wolf Harnisch and others

D.O.P.: Wolfgang Grasshoff
Music by Eugen Thomass
Editor: Ulrike Pahl
Written and directed by Rainer Erler

90 min, 1980
Filmed in and around Munich, in northern India, in New York and in San Francisco

A pentagramma production – Renate Erler in coproduction with ZDF, ORF-Vienna and SRG-Zurich
Distribution: ImBild; World sales: Atlas International, Munich

“India enhances your neurosis!”  In this satiric film comedy a third class Opera Singer ‘inherits’ a group of strange believers in Indian spirituality - but most successful in collecting donations.


Der  Spot  oder  Fast  eine  Karriere

(in German)
(The Commercial – or – Halfway up the Ladder of Success)
Featuring:
Claus Obalski, Elisabeth Endriss, Wolfgang Kieling, Andrea L’Arronge, Alexander May, Uschi Winter, Michael Gahr, Donald Arthur, Dietrich Mattausch and others

D.O.P.: Ingo Hamer
Music by Eugen Thomass
Editor: Ulrike Pahl
Written and directed by Rainer Erler

90 min, 1981

Filmed in and around Munich, on the Canary Islands and in New York

A pentagramma production – Renate Erler in coproduction with ZDF, ORF-Vienna, SRG-Zurich Distribution: ImBild; World sales: Atlas International, Munich

This bizarre comedy demonstrates - as a convincing example - how TV-commercials may be produced, sacrificing extensive amounts of money, bottomless creativity and even human life without any respect right to the finish.


Das  schöne  Ende  dieser  Welt

(produced in English)
(The Beautiful End of this World)
A Film by Rainer Erler
Featuring:
Robert Atzorn, Claire Oberman, Judy Winter, Götz George, Werner Kreindl, and others

D.O.P.: Wolfgang Grasshoff
Music by Eugen Thomass
Editor: Ulrike Pahl
Written and directed by Rainer Erler

90 min, 1983
Filmed in Germany and in Western Australia

A pentagramma production – Renate Erler in coproduction with ZDF, ORF-Vienna, SRG-Zurich, Books&Films-Australia
Distribution: ImBild; World sales: Atlas International, Munich
Video distribution: Starlight Film

Chemist Michael Brandt travels to Western Australia on behalf of a great German Company. Pretending to be a private investor he purchases industrial real estate for a pesticide factory - chemicals which have long been on the forbidden list in Europe and in the U.S. but make huge profit on sales in Third World Countries.

Mirapuri published the screenplay.

Awards: „TV-movie of the month“ and nominated for the environmental prize of Prince Rainier of Monaco, Monte Carlo TV-Festival


NEWS – Bericht  über  eine  Reise  in  eine  Strahlende  Zukunft

(“Journey to a Glowing Future”)
(In the U.S.: „The Nuclear Conspiracy“)
(produced in English)

Featuring:
Birgit Doll, Albert Fortell, Mark Lee, Kitty Myers, Lucia Bensasson, Frank Wilson, Len Stanger and others

D.O.P.: Wolfgang Grasshoff
Music by Eugen Thomass
Editor: Peter Przygodda
Written and directed by Rainer Erler

120 min, 1986
Filmed in London, New York, Marseille, Cherbourg, Singapore and in West-Australia

A pentagramma production – Renate Erler in coproduction with ZDF, ORF-Vienna, SRG-Zurich Reflex Film Ltd, London, Books&Films-Australia
Distribution: ImBild and Filmverlag der Autoren,; World sales: Atlas International, Munich
Video distribution: Starlight Film („Singapore Connection“)

Awards: Academy Award of Italy (Accademia Italia, Targa d’Oro), the German Kurd Lasswitz Prize, the environmental prize Golden Flame and nominated for the Emmy Award

Rainer Erler’s novel „Reise in eine strahlende Zukunft: HC published by Gustav Lübbe Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach and Naumann & Göbel, PB: Bastei Lübbe and Das Neue Berlin

Where to store the nuclear waste of the European and Japanese nuclear power plants, the burnt out fuel rods?  Solving this problem would be a billion-billion-profit business.


Zucker

(Sugar – The Sweet Disaster Comedy)
(Produced in English)
Featuring:
Helmut Lohner, Bruce Spence, Sally Sander, Emily Weare and others

D.O.P.: Simon Akkerman
Music by Eugen Thomass
Editor: Ingrid Broszat
Written and directed by Rainer Erler

90 min, 1989
Filmed in Perth, Western Australia

A pentagramma production – Renate Erler in coproduction with ZDF, ORF-Vienna, SRG-Zurich, Reflex Film Ltd-London and Books&Films-Australia
Distribution: ImBild; World sales: Atlas International, Munich

Herbig Verlag, Munich (HC) and Goldmann (PB) published Rainer Erlers „Novel  of a Sweet Disaster – Sugar“

Genetically modified microbes turn all paper to sugar. All paper!! When they accidentally escaped from Professor Dr.Dr.Dr. Leo Kaminski’s laboratory, this will be the end of our Civilisation.


Die  Kaltenbach  Papiere

(The  Kaltenbach  Papers)
(In the U.S.:  A Fatal Assignment)

(Part 1 „Sharon“, Part 2  „Eva“)

Featuring:
Mario Adorf, Simona Cavallari, Gudrun Landgrebe, Ulrich Tukur, Dietrich Mattausch, Carlos Estrada and others
D.O.P.: Wolfgang Grasshoff
Music by Eugen Thomass
Editor: Gabi Probst
Producer: Renate Erler
Written and directed by Rainer Erler
2 x 95 min, 1990

Produced by Universum Film Berlin (UFA) in coproduction with ZDF, Coral Europe, Beta Film - Taurus, RAIUNO-Roma, ORF-Vienna, SRG-Zurich and Pay-TV-Premiere
World sales: Beta Film

Filmed in Berlin and Cannes, in Morocco: Casablanca, Essaouira, Marrakech, Ouarzazate, Erfoud and Rissani, in Portugal: Lisbon and Sintra.

Rainer Erlers Novel „Die Kaltenbach Papiere“ has been published by Weitbrecht Verlag Stuttgart (HC), and Goldmann (PB)

Three nuclear warheads, the ultimate weapon for terror, blackmailing and mass destruction, are on their way to their final destination in North Africa. Two journalists, Tom Severin and his wife Eva, together with Sharon, weapon dealer Kaltenbach’s daughter, try to stop the deadly cargo.