German movies that work in america?

Question

Im am trying to find some movies new old disney anything but hopefully a good movie were they speak in german in the movie.

ive baught movies before from germany and tried them in america, in the tv but they arent compatible so threw them away. i need some that play with a us tv.

were can i download or purchase these?thnks

Answer 1

There are a lot of German movies released in the US market in NTSC region 1 versions.

For clear and easy dialog for learners, I think "The Experiment" and "Soundless" are pretty good. "Run Lola Run" and "Anatomy" are also pretty easy.

A few more movies I like that are available in US versions:

The Lives of Others

Downfall

Mostly Martha

The Boat (really a mini-series turned into a movie, so this is very long!)

Goodbye, Lenin

Sophie Scholl - The Final Days

Nowhere in Africa

And that is really just to name a very few relatively recent movies. Most major rental companies carry some German-language movies (Netflix has a really good selection, Blockbuster seems to have a decent number of recent movies), and amazon.com lets you search for movies based on original language.

If you are buying German movies online, just verify that it is not listed as an "import", or if it is, check to see if there is information about NTSC vs PAL or the region code. Usually if the name is listed in English, it will be a region 1 DVD in NTSC format, but it never hurts to double-check.

If you want to go beyond the movies that get released in the US, though, it is definitely worth the investment to buy a region-free DVD player that can handle both PAL and NTSC.

Answer 2

German TV's and DVD's run off the PAL system and the American ones run off the NTSC system.  If you want movies with German it is best you buy a dual format dvd player as most american DVD's only offer english, spanish, and french as additonal languages and subtitiles.

Answer 3

I'm not sure PAL/NTSC is the biggest problem. Most common DVD players and TVs in Europe can play both, so I'd assume the same should be true for US gadgets.

The real problem is the artificial obstacle the movie industry has put in place in order to annoy you, and that's Region Codes. North America is Region1 - everywhere else they have other Region Codes.

If you want to circumnavigate the Region Code problem, check some info on the interenet, then get a cheap DVD player for which you can find a "hack" on the web, to make it Region Code free.

But all in all the easier way would be to buy German movies in the US/Canada. I know that many of them (like Run, Lola, Run, or The Princess and the Warrior, etc.) are in German, only with English subtitles.

Answer 4

I would try Netfix ( http://www.netflix.com ) if you want to rent a movie or Amazon ( http://www.amazon.com ) if you want to buy a movie. You can browse their selection on German movies very easily.

Although it’s the German wiki, you can make out the titles and the film awards like Oscars or Golden Globes.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Fi...

That’s a list of Austrian movies:

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_%C3%B...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Aus...

Here is my list of movies in alphabetical that I remember most:

.) Die Blechtrommel (EN: The Tin Drum; I remember it being very disturbing, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078875/ ),

.) Das Boot (EN: The Boat, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082096/ ),

.) Good Bye, Lenin (a very moving movie, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0301357/ ),

.) Die Fälscher (EN: The Counterfeiters, one an Oscar for best foreign film, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0813547/ )

.) Homo Faber (EN: Voyager; One of my favorite books, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102050/ ),

.) Das Leben der Anderen (EN: The Lives of Others, one an Oscar for best foreign film 2007, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405094/ ),

.) Das Parfum - Die Geschichte eines Mörders (Perfume: The Story of a Murderer; based on a bestseller book, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0396171/ ),

.) Sophie Scholl – Die letzten Tage (EN: Sophie Scholl: The Final Days, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0426578/ ),

.) Der Untergang (EN: The Downfall; very dramatic and moving, Bruno Ganz is very convincing, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0363163/ ).

Enjoy watching!

PS: I must disagree with an earlier answer, I think there are a lot of great German and Austrian movies!

Answer 5

that depends on the country code, europe has countrycode 2 i think us has 1 (im not sure, just get a country-code-free DVD player at the electronic store, thats how it works with me (in Germany, with us dvds)

Answer 6

when you are going download a movie; you would have it on your pc; so you can transform it into your usa tv format thought. via any software like microsoft movimaker or so.

Answer 7

Fritz Lang movies, and The Boat.

That's all.

It looks like Germans are less good at making movies than cars and machine gun.

Answer 8

I wonder why nobody referred to "Lola rennt" so far, and the latest hype "Keinohrhasen".

Any DVD player should support "country code 2" (European) DVDs when you're country code 1. And with a computer, it's mostly no problem to get such things codefree (though maybe not actually legal).

I'd also recommend you buy an American movie you already know and like in a cc2 version. In Germany, all movies shown on TV are dubbed in German, and to me it was great fun to have some of them on DVD and finally listen to the original actors. It's also great fun switching between German and English, add subtitles, and all of that. For the more well-known movies, you sometimes have other languages available, too, like French, Italian, Spanish, and recently Turkish. I wish we would have had DVDs when I went to school; it would have been so much easier to learn languages.

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edit:

Are you aware of the VLC media player and of SlySoft's AnyDVD? These are products that make any DVD workable, in any country. I didn't want to mention them before, because they are illegal in some countries, but re-reading my answer, I thought I should.

Answer 9

At blockbuster u can find many German movies - The lives of the others is wonderful

Answer 10

At this site

http://www.videohel p.com/dvdhacks/ cyberhome- ch-dvr-1200/ 6369

you can find out how to decode your DVD player, so you can use it for DVDs from other regions.

Answer 11

As Henny mentioned you should have got a DVD player which is codefree - and you can play any DVD on it.

I had the same problems when I bought movies in Australia as this country has the code 4. I didn't throw my movies away.

Now I have a codefree player and can use the Australian ones. Some time ago I also bought some American ones with code 1 and also can play them. No problem at all.

As DVD players are really cheap at the moment you should think of getting you one.