Leopold and his young wife want to be different from their bourgeois neighbours in Lower Bavaria. They invite the Vietnamese refugee family Hung to tea and meals at their house, give them warm winter clothing and a pair of new shoes for Mrs Hung. Only a few days later, however, they are obliged to capitulate in the face of the cultural differences which appear to be insuperable despite all good intentions. He is newly divorced and is trying to work through the pain of being separated from his children at a course of therapy in Tuscany. She is there to moan about her children getting on her nerves and her longing to return to her career as a civil engineer. Together, they abandon the therapy-zoo for a few hours... Charlotte wants to start working again and tries to find a nanny to look after her small daughter. Not, of course, just any nanny, but »a babysitter who respects me, leaves me in peace and is always available«. Naturally, she will also have to learn quickly about »healthy feeding« and »fear-free education«, and she must also have a good karma. Anita, a young girl from Eastern Germany who only came to the West two weeks previously, gets the job: Good karma from Zschopau – and its consequences...

The four stories of »Love, Pain, and the Whole Damn Thing« comprise a modern survival manual on mating, marriage, and money, answering some of life's most urgent questions: how to find a man, how to dump him; how to protect your position as a mistress, or as a cuckold; how to maintain your dignity when spying on a lover; or how to salvage your credit rating when your husband loses his job. The result - wickedly funny and utterly fresh - heralds the emergence of a major international writer.

In his mid-forties, Fred Kaufmann has become what he never wanted to be: instead of being in films, he now manages the German branch of an American fast-food chain, instead of jeans, leather jacket and El Fatah scarves, he now wears Calvin Klein underwear and Boss suits, and the cowboy boots were first changed for Nike sports shoes and finally for hand-sewn English lace-ups. He is professionally successful, has at last enough money – but he is not happy. He is afraid of losing his family. He and his wife have been in a marital crisis for some time, which Claudia has tried to heal by turning to Buddhism – while he has tried it with an extra-marital affair. His seventeen year-old daughter Franka has fallen in love with a Tibetan lama, and wants to emigrate to India with him. As modern parents, Claudia and Fred cannot forbid it, but have decided to let Franka spend a few weeks in a Buddhist monastery in Southern France together with the man she worships. They trust – from their own experience – more in the disillusioning effect of everyday life rather than prohibition. Fred travels together with Franka accompanied by the worst possible feelings. The trip and the stay in the monastery, however, brings father and daughter closer together than ever before. For Fred, this journey on which he started so unwillingly becomes above all a journey to himself.

Whether she writes about men, the father of the bride or the question »Am I beautiful?«, Doris Dörrie takes a close look, surprises us with unexpected twists and very refreshing comedy. Doris Dörrie's best stories in one volume.

This insight into the making of the film Eternity and a Day (winner of the ›Palme d’Or‹ at the Cannes Film Festival, 1998) reveals a whole new side to the crime writer Petros Markaris.

Featuring photos from the film set.

»I have no idea how to write a screenplay.«
»Don’t worry,« Theo said, »I’ll show you.«
From then on, we were inseparable.

On the inspiring friendship between the writer Petros Markaris and director Theo Angelopoulos.

Petros Markaris is known for his fast-paced crime fiction, Theo Angelopoulos for his epic auteur films. Together, the two men wrote the screenplay for one of Europe’s most important films, Eternity and a Day. The dialogue between them shows the interplay of humour and the serious side in the creative process – and how literature and great cinema come about.

Antonia, Fanny and Charlotte - we seem to know Doris Dörrie's main characters for a long time already. In brief episodes and stories we follow their lives: from teeny romanticism to the first bitter disappointments of their twens to the aberrations of the forties and fifties - Doris Dörrie's stories excel themselves in density and laconic accuracy. Her dry humour, her solid unpretentious way of narrating always concentrates on the development of her characters. She shows us in what funny but bitter ways the ravages of time prey upon us.

Three friendly couples meet on a Saturday evening. Everything seems as usual – and yet it is not: Emilia and Felix, recently separated, are both suffering financially and psychologically. Charlotte and Dylan have made a lot of money through Dylan's clever speculating, but their relationship is growing more and more miserable despite their wealth. Only Annette and Boris are still happily in love; true, they would like rather more money, but they manage quite well all the same. The six friends meet for dinner in Charlotte and Dylan's smart apartment. But the happy, carefree atmosphere that characterised their previous meetings is lacking. Emilia and Felix feel lonely because they are no longer a couple, and hostile sparks fly between Charlotte and Dylan. Then Emilia tells them that she recently read that couples who have lived together for over twenty years are often unable to identify their partner's hands on a photograph. She said she was willing to bet that most men would not even recognize their own wives with their eyes shut. The others are indignant, they are sure that they would know their partners anywhere. Felix adds fuel to the fire: if they are all so certain, then why not take a bet on it... and an experiment with considerable consequences begins.

It all began in the 1970s, as hopeful young actresses Johanna and Heidi and the inventive director Rainer made it all the way to Hollywood with their very first film. But the illusion factory of Hollywood is always on the lookout for something new, and the three newcomers are soon no longer so refreshing. Johanna returns to Germany to work as a props supervisor, Heidi begins to earn her living as channelling medium – only Rainer cannot seem to say goodbye to the film business. The love of Rainer's life is his teenage daughter, Allegra, who lives with his ex-wife and visits him only once a year. For her sake, he maintains the illusion that he has made it in Hollywood and that every year he moves into a new mansion – which in reality he is only housesitting. And then it happens. The owner of the mansion decides to come home earlier than planned. Rainer hits upon an idea of how he can save the situation. He pretends that he has been called in for a ›highly urgent shoot‹ and asks Johanna to take Allegra to a trendy yoga hotel until he returns. And so begins a rather curious road movie…

Sixteen irresistible stories written in a dizzying array of moods and locales. With the compulsive focus of a video freak and the intensity of a hungry reporter covering a weird series of events, Doris Dörrie takes us on a magical misery tour of human behaviour. Ranging from the psychologically dark terrain of her native Germany to the bleak brilliance of southern California, the storis explore the longings of the lonely, the sad farces of the mismatched, and the dangerous comedy of those fuzzed-out enough to believe their own lies. Zooming in through the surface layers to explore the anarchy that lurks beneath, Dörrie allows little to escape her quietly ironic view.