Karambolage

Karambolage 1970

1

Karambolage is a television series broadcast Sunday evenings at 7:30 p.m. on the Franco-German television channel arte. Each episode is roughly 12 minutes long, and is usually broken up into three or four segments. The title is the German version of the French loan word carambolage, which means "carom" or "collision". As such, Karambolage aims to explore the differences, similarities, and overlaps of French and German culture through anecdotes, household objects that are common in one country, yet virtually unknown in the other, as well as brief, tongue-in-cheek lectures by etymologists, historians, and the like. The anecdotal segments are often accompanied by simple, stylized animation. In recent years, the makers of the series have also included segments dedicated to the experiences of members of the larger immigrant populations of both countries; i.e. the Turks in Germany and the West- and North Africans in France. At the end of each episode, viewers can participate in a sort of guessing game, in which a thirty second long video recording of a public place is shown. Participants are then asked to determine whether the shot was recorded in Germany or France based on the presence of a key detail, such as road signs or businesses unique to that country. Anyone who can determine the country and name the key detail can then mail the solution to arte by postcard or submit it on the station's website. From the correct solutions, ten winners are randomly pulled and receive a small prize.

1970

Through the Night with...

Through the Night with... 2002

8.00

Durch die Nacht mit … is a German documentary film television series produced by ZDF for Franco-German television channel ARTE. Locations are mainly in France or Germany. The title of the French version is Au cœur de la nuit. Two Celebrities spend an filmed evening together. One of them is the host who sets the location and the program. There is no moderator.

2002

Charité

Charité 2017

7.30

Berlin, 1888. After penniless Ida’s life is saved at the Charité Hospital she must work off the treatment costs. While she becomes acquainted with the most brilliant physicians of this era at the world-famous hospital, the self-determined young woman discovers her passion for medicine.

2017

Bad Banks

Bad Banks 2018

7.30

Ambitious Jana is confronted with the unscrupulous machinations of the world of finance. Her working life is determined by egotism, the pressure to succeed and machismo. She soon has to decide how far she is prepared to go for her career.

2018

Too Young to Die

Too Young to Die 2012

7.20

Those who knew them best describe the sensational lives and premature deaths of iconic actors and musicians whose passing left a void in pop culture.

2012

A Very Secret Service

A Very Secret Service 2015

7.70

At the height of the Cold War in 1960, André Merlaux joins the French Secret Service and contends with enemies both foreign and bureaucratic.

2015

Laogai: Prison Nation - Inside China's Ruling System

Laogai: Prison Nation - Inside China's Ruling System 2023

7.00

After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Mao Tsetung established a system of labor camps for systematic repression, known as Laogai, an abbreviation for "Reform Through Labor". In such camps, forced labor and physical and mental torture were used to bring about a so-called mental reform, re-education in the spirit of the Chinese Communist Party. Millions of Chinese were affected. Many were executed. In hundreds of camps, the Party took advantage of the prisoners' free labor to build the economy. Self-criticism and denunciation were often the only way to escape martyrdom. Successive waves of purges culminated in the Cultural Revolution, which saw massive human rights abuses, political assassinations, massacres, and exiles in remote parts of the country. Using unreleased archive footage, the documentary tells the story of the invention, development and improvement of China's totalitarian system of surveillance and repression up to the present day, never told before.

2023

The Silence

The Silence 2021

6.90

Dramatic events unfold in Croatia and Ukraine. The first girl drowned, the second one died from a drug overdose. The main suspect in these deaths, however, soon turns out to be innocent - and dead too. While detective Vladimir and reporter Stribor struggle to solve these murders in Croatia, the niece of Olga, an Ukrainian philanthropist, goes missing in Kyiv.

2021

Icon of French Cinema

Icon of French Cinema 2023

5.20

Returning to Paris after exile from Hollywood, Judith is intent of making a comeback with a new movie. However, her 16-year-old daughter falls in love with her much older dance teacher and Judith is forced to deal with personal ambition, maternal anxiety and the demons of her past with humor and disillusion.

2023