Why are German films often so formulaic even though Germany...

Das Haus in Montevideo

Didi - alles im Eimer

Berlin - Sinfonie einer Großstadt

Your Apple Watch Is About to Get a Pretty Cool New Ability - Yahoo

Metropolis

In Wirtschaftswunder times, most Western German movies were junk but the GDR produced some very good ones, e.g. Western movies and Spur der Steine; in the 70s Paul und Paula. I definitely recommend both!

I have seen some very good German movies. It is not that they don't exist, but they hardly ever achieve much fame. Especially since people have been accustomed to the dominance of US popular culture.

How do you get a girl to like you?

Besides these, there are some really good children's movies: More recently, the Bibi und Tina series as just one example. Looking back into the 80s and 70s, as well as into the present, I would even say that movies for children are what the German Film industry excels at. There is much less screaming and cake throwing and slimy monsters and much more discussing of matters that affect children in real life (even in phantasy plots) than in most US children's movies as far als I know them. The GDR was particularly well known for excellent children's movies but the west was and is good at it, too.

What is of absolutely horrible quality is the “movies” that are produced for TV. They are famously bad.

In jenen Tagen

Police arrest roughly 60 protesters outside US Capitol - CNN

Man spricht Deutsh

Es geschah am helllichten Tag

Nackt

Report: Packers taking full dead cap hit of $17 million on Jaire Alexander in 2025 - NBC Sports

Lola rennt

Zur Sache, Schätzchen (and its sequel)

Here is a list of some (by no means all) German movies that are considered Classics (and a few that should be, in my opinion):

Pope Leo XIV delivers message of peace, unity at Rate Field in first address to his hometown - Chicago Sun-Times

Es war eine rauschende Ballnacht