Backdrop fallback

Life Is All You Get

Life Is All You Get

Share

Life Is All You Get

1997

1h 55m

6.6(45 votes)

Romance

Drama

Comedy

Overview

After he loses his job, his father, and his girlfriend, Jan's life is a shambles. Then suddenly he meets freakish street musician Vera, and a bittersweet romance unfolds...

Links & Resources

Social & External

Production Companies

Senator Film

X Filme Creative Pool

ARTE

WDR

The people behind it

Cast & crew

10 featured cast members

Starring

Jürgen Vogel

Jürgen Vogel

Jan Nebel

Christiane Paul

Christiane Paul

Vera

Ricky Tomlinson

Ricky Tomlinson

Buddy

Christina Papamichou

Kristina

Martina Gedeck

Martina Gedeck

Lilo

Armin Rohde

Armin Rohde

Harri

Rebecca Hessing

Rebecca Hessing

Jenni

Meret Becker

Meret Becker

Moni

Andrea Sawatzki

Andrea Sawatzki

Sylvia

Heino Ferch

Heino Ferch

Hoffmann

Creative team

Directed by: Wolfgang Becker
Written by: Wolfgang Becker
Tom Tykwer
Produced by: Stefan Arndt

Similar Movies

The Wing or the Thigh?

The Wing or the Thigh?

Charles Duchemin, a well-known gourmet and publisher of a famous restaurant guide, is waging a war against fast food entrepreneur Tri- catel to save the French art of cooking. After having agreed to appear on a talk show to show his skills in naming food and wine by taste, he is confronted with two disasters: his son wants to become a clown rather than a restaurant tester and he, the famous Charles Duchemin, has lost his taste!

The Lives of Others

The Lives of Others

In 1984 East Berlin, dedicated Stasi officer Gerd Wiesler begins spying on a famous playwright and his actress-lover Christa-Maria. Wiesler becomes unexpectedly sympathetic to the couple, and faces conflicting loyalties when his superior takes a liking to Christa-Maria.

Stalag 17

Stalag 17

After two American prisoners are killed by guards in the act of escaping from a German POW camp in World War II, barracks black marketeer J.J. Sefton is suspected of being an informer.

THX 1138

THX 1138

People in the future live in a totalitarian society. A technician named THX 1138 lives a mundane life between work and taking a controlled consumption of drugs that the government uses to make puppets out of people. As THX is without drugs for the first time he has feelings for a woman and they start a secret relationship.

Lost Highway

Lost Highway

A tormented jazz musician finds himself lost in an enigmatic story involving murder, surveillance, gangsters, doppelgängers, and an impossible transformation inside a prison cell.

Tough Enough

Tough Enough

From the youth directed novel of the same name by Greogor Tressnow comes a film by Detlev Buck that is a realistic portrait of life in the section of Berlin called Neukölln. It’s about power and weakness, delinquents and victims, and the difficulties a 15-year-old faces in a poor and criminal environment.

Distant Lights

Distant Lights

Lichter is an episodic tale from Hans-Christian Schmid about the life on the border between Germany and Poland. The film sheds light on the everyday stories of escape and desperateness.

Shaft

Shaft

Cool Black private eye John Shaft is hired by a crime lord to find and retrieve his kidnapped daughter.

Poseidon

Poseidon

A packed cruise ship traveling the Atlantic is hit and overturned by a massive wave, compelling the passengers to begin a dramatic fight for their lives.

Notting Hill

Notting Hill

London bookstore owner William Thacker's quiet life turns upside down when a chance encounter with famous actress Anna Scott sparks an unlikely romance challenged by their vastly different worlds.

Contrasangre

Contrasangre

Daniel, Juan Palomino is a security guard, he was once a policeman, and he would have liked to be a vigilante hero. But, far from it, his job is to take care of the buildings of others. The city will cross with Analía (Emilia Attias), a distant woman, obsessive and beautiful in a mysterious way. She avoids contact with men because she has been the victim of rape. That terrible past comes back when Julio, Esteban Meloni, a violent and obsessed man, gets out of jail. Between the three are weaving on the streets of the city a plot of passion and crime.

Basquiat

Basquiat

The brief life of Jean Michel Basquiat, a world renowned New York street artist struggling with fame, drugs and his identity.

Dogville

Dogville

A woman on the run from the mob is reluctantly accepted in a small Colorado community in exchange for labor, but when a search visits the town, she learns that their support has a price.

One, Two, Three

One, Two, Three

In Cold War-era West Berlin, American Coca-Cola executive C.R. 'Mac' MacNamara is tasked with playing babysitter to his boss' spoiled 17-year-old daughter Scarlett, who proves more difficult than anticipated when she reveals that she is pregnant by a Communist.

Effi Briest

Effi Briest

When 17-year-old Effi Briest marries the elderly Baron von Instetten, she moves to a small, isolated Baltic town and a house that she fears is haunted. Starved for companionship, Effi begins a friendship with Major Crampas, a charismatic womanizer.

Brute

Brute

Shipped off to a Romanian orphanage to finish his sentence, a British criminal finds romance but also discovers corruption inside the facility.

Zyklopen-Uschi

Zyklopen-Uschi

1998: After being committed to a drunkard's home by her friend Uschi, Edith is released 16 years later. Now she can finally take revenge on Uschi - by mixing mutation powder into her drink. But things turn out differently than expected! By coincidence, the two get into a timeslip and Uschi wins millions in the lottery, which she uses to buy a house with her mother and husband. Strange things start to happen there after the mutation powder takes effect...

Quiet as a Mouse

Quiet as a Mouse

A pseudo documentary study of an archetypal German who tries to model his world according to his ideas of law and (sexual) order.

Leatherheads

Leatherheads

A light hearted comedy about the beginnings of Professional American Football. When a decorated war hero and college all star is tempted into playing professional football. Everyone see the chance to make some big money, but when a reporter digs up some dirt on the war hero... everyone could lose out.

Melody of a Great City

Melody of a Great City

A young woman moves to Berlin to work as a press photographer.

Recommended Movies

Which Brings Me to You

Which Brings Me to You

Two romantic burnouts, Jane and Will, are immediately drawn to each other at a mutual friend’s wedding. After a disastrous hookup in the coatroom, the two spend the next 24 hours together, trading candid confessions of messy histories and heartbreak, on the off chance that this fling might be the real thing.

Not Easily Broken

Not Easily Broken

A car accident and shifting affections test the bond between a married couple.

New York, I Love You

New York, I Love You

New York, I Love You delves into the intimate lives of New Yorkers as they grapple with, delight in and search for love. Journey from the Diamond District in the heart of Manhattan, through Chinatown and the Upper East Side, towards the Village, into Tribeca, and Brooklyn as lovers of all ages try to find romance in the Big Apple.

Dot the I

Dot the I

A fiery Spanish woman is about to marry a kind British man when she meets a Brazilian actor who ignites in her a flame of lust she can't ignore.

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

Two married couples find only trouble and heartache as their complicated lives unfold. After 40 years of marriage, Alfie leaves his wife to pursue what he thinks is happiness with a call girl. His wife, Helena, reeling from abandonment, decides to follow the advice of a psychic. Sally, the daughter of Alfie and Helena, is unhappy in her marriage and develops a crush on her boss, while her husband, Roy, falls for a woman engaged to be married.

West Side Story

West Side Story

In Manhattan’s Upper West Side, rival gangs of Polish-Americans and newly arrived Puerto Ricans clash for control of the neighborhood, even as two young members from opposite sides fall dangerously in love.

I Met a Girl

I Met a Girl

An aspiring musician struggling with schizophrenia falls for a mysterious woman who may be all in his head. When she suddenly vanishes, he takes off on a cross-country journey across Australia to find her, forcing his long-suffering brother to chase after him.

It's Just a Phase, Honeybunny

It's Just a Phase, Honeybunny

The successful writer Paul and the sought-after voice actress Emilia were always considered to be the absolute dream couple by friends: Harmonious, happy, successful, with three charming children named Bo, Marie and Fe. But now, in their late 40s, their relationship is threatened by a crisis.

The Baltimorons

The Baltimorons

A newly sober man's Christmas Eve dental emergency leads to an unexpected romance with his older dentist as they explore Baltimore together.

Jersey Girl

Jersey Girl

Ollie Trinke is a young, suave music publicist who seems to have it all, with a new wife and a baby on the way. But life deals him a bum hand when he's suddenly faced with single fatherhood, a defunct career and having to move in with his father. To bounce back, it takes a new love and the courage instilled in him by his daughter.

Irreplaceable You

Irreplaceable You

A stunning cancer diagnosis spurs Abbie to seek a future girlfriend for fiancé and childhood sweetheart Sam, who's clueless when it comes to dating.

Queen Bees

Queen Bees

Helen is an independent widow who moves into the Pine Grove Senior Community and discovers it’s just like high school – full of cliques and flirtatious suitors. What she initially avoids leads her to exactly what she has been missing: new friendships and a chance at love again with newcomer Dan.

Happiness for Beginners

Happiness for Beginners

At a crossroads after her divorce, a schoolteacher ventures toward a fresh start in life — and love — when she signs up for a grueling group hiking trip.

Love in Taipei

Love in Taipei

A young American woman is sent by her parents to a cultural immersion program in Taipei where she begins a new journey of self-discovery and romance.

Berlin Blues

Berlin Blues

In October 1989, the part of the West Berlin borough of Kreuzberg called SO 36, had been largely shut off by the Wall from the rest of the city for 28 years. A lethargic sub-culture of students, artists, bohemians and barflys had flourished among crumbling buildings. Part of that microcosm is barkeeper Frank, semi-formally called 'Herr Lehmann' by friends and patrons. He hangs out drinking, sports utter disregard for anything beyond SO 36 and lazily pursues an affair with cook Katrin. His lifestyle is gradually disturbed, when his parents show up for a visit, things go awry with Katrin and his best friend Karl starts to act strange. Meanwhile, political turmoil mounts on the other side of the Wall.

A California Christmas: City Lights

A California Christmas: City Lights

Follows Callie and Joseph one year after they fell in love, now running a dairy farm and winery, but their romance is threatened when business and family obligations call Joseph back to the city.

Anything Else

Anything Else

Jerry Falk, an aspiring writer in New York, falls in love at first sight with a free-spirited young woman named Amanda. He has heard the phrase that life is like "anything else," but soon he finds that life with the unpredictable Amanda isn't like anything else at all.

Before We Go

Before We Go

A chance encounter between two strangers in Grand Central Terminal sparks a life-changing, nighttime sojourn through New York City. They grow into each other's most trusted confidants when an evening of unexpected adventure forces them to confront their fears and take control of their lives.

She Said Maybe

She Said Maybe

When German-raised Mavi learns she belongs to a superrich Turkish dynasty, new family expectations quickly turn her world and love life upside down.

Love Potion No. 9

Love Potion No. 9

Unlucky in love, chemist Paul Matthews visits gypsy Madame Rosa for help. Quickly realizing he is a hopeless nerd, she gifts him with Love Potion No. 8, which makes anyone who wears it irresistible to the opposite sex for four hours. Paul and animal psychologist coworker Diane Farrow decide to test it on themselves. The awkward pair suddenly find themselves alluring to anyone they approach, but soon realize they are most attracted to each other.