2005

In German with English subtitles, 86 minutes, 35mm, 1:1.66, Color, Dolby Stereo
Written and directed by Percy Adlon, produced by Eleonore Adlon
Starring: Marianne Sägebrecht, Eisi Gulp, Manuela Denz, Toni Berger, Hans Stadlbauer

A big, not so young woman who works in a funeral parlor... is sitting in the subway one day when the young subway driver’s voice hits her like a bolt of lightening. She takes time off her job, spies on him, and tracks him down. They wind up in seventh heaven but a crash landing finally brings them back down to earth. That, however, is not the end of the story…

Marianne Sägebrecht plays the big woman who falls head over heals in love and Eisi Gulp plays the amazed young man who simply stops going home. Sägebrecht was awarded the Ernst-Lubitsch-Award for her lead in 1985.

Johanna Heer, the New York artist camerawoman, has bathed this comedy about an impossible love affair in bright, contemporary colors.

BAGDAD CAFE (Out of Rosenheim)
1987 In English, 108 min
Director: Percy Adlon
Screenplay: Percy and Eleonore Adlon and Christopher Doherty
Starring: Marianne Sägebrecht, CCH Pounder , Jack Palance, Christine Kaufmann, Monica Calhoun, Darron Flagg, G. Smokey Campbell, Hans Stadlbauer

Driving through the Mojave Desert somewhere between Las Vegas and Disneyland, a middle aged German tourist couple has a spat...and the wife, Jasmin, strikes out on her own. Trudging down the highway pulling along a large suitcase, she is so unlikely a sight that Brenda, the irascible proprietor of the Bagdad Cafe where Jasmin stops, is instantly suspicious. So begins a hilarious and touching account of the relationship that develops between these two women of different cultures. It also offers a renewed, endearingly quirky vision of America as a land with room for self discovery and individuality.

Progressing from bleak reality to Utopian fantasy, BAGDAD CAFE offers the flip side to one other German film directed in America, PARIS TEXAS. But Adlon celebrates the possibilities of a uniquely American sense of community, of harmony between disparate people. Winner of numerous awards and an international box-office success, BAGDAD CAFE creates, in the middle of desolation, an oasis of friendship.

ROSALIE GOES SHOPPING (1989)
In English, 94 minutes
A film by Percy Adlon, produced by Eleonore Adlon
Starring: Marianne Sägebrecht, Brad Davis, Judge Reinhold, Erika Blumberger, Willy Harlander, Patricia Zehentmayr, John Hawkes, Alex Winter, Courtney Kraus

Marianne Sägebrecht, Junoesque heroine of SUGARBABY and BAGDAD CAFE, returns as a GI wife and mother, Rosalie, now settled down in Stuttgart, Arkansas, who keeps her family afloat financially by check and credit card fraud. Creditors send her so many notices that even the mailman is impressed. But as well as Rosalie manipulates the financial system of Stuttgart, she’s falling behind, until her great revelation comes.

One day she discovers that if she owes the bank $100,000, the bank wants its money, but if she owes the bank $1 million, the bank is scared of her. That’s all she needs to know: she buys herself a home computer, hooks herself up with local industry and makes it into the financial big league.

Adlon pokes fun at merchandise-mad America here with lighthearted cultural condescension. He goes for the underbelly where mind-numbing hypocrisies and bizarre contradictions lurk among eccentric people. But Rosalie, who starts out as a victim of American consumer society, ends up beating the system to a pulp as a computer hacker and con woman extraordinaire.

“Rosalie is simply trying her best to understand, practice and master the American way,” says Adlon.

About filmmaker Percy Adlon

Percy Adlon was born on June 1, 1935 in Munich. He grew up in the Bavarian countryside. He studied art, theater, and German literature at Munich’s Ludwig-Maximilian University, and took acting and singing classes. After three years as a stage actor, he worked as a narrator and editor of literature series for the radio, and as a moderator and voice over actor for television. In 1970 he made his first short film for Bavarian television, followed by 150 documentaries about art and the human condition.

His first feature film "Céleste" (1981) drew international attention. His biggest success so far came 1987 with "Bagdad Cafe" ("Out of Rosenheim")

Percy Adlon is married to Eleonore Adlon since 1961. She co-produced all and co-wrote most of their films. Besides documentaries, shorts and music videos, the Adlons made 10 theatrical features and 4 TV plays. They won numerous national and international awards. They run the Munich based pelemele FILM GmbH, and the Santa Monica based Leora Films, Inc.

Percy and Eleonore Adlon live in Pacific Palisades, California. They have one daughter, Saskia, and one son, Felix, who made his feature film debut in 1997 with "Eat Your Heart Out".

Percy Adlon is a recipient of the Officer’s Cross of the Federal Republic of Germany, and a member of the Director’s Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.