Buddenbrooks 2008

The film traces the Buddenbrook family across three generations: Jean Buddenbrook, Armin Mueller-Stahl, and his wife Bethsy Buddenbrook, Iris Berben, as their sons Thomas Buddenbrook, Mark Waschke, and Christian Buddenbrook, August Diehl, come of age under the pressure to subordinate personal happiness to the survival of the family business. Their daughter Tony Buddenbrook, Jessica Schwarz, is married off early to Bendix Grünlich, Justus von Dohnányi, a rising Hamburg businessman whose fortunes soon fail, forcing the family to confront a painful reality: wealth can hinge on fragile, quick-changing markets as much as on hard work.

Tony’s ill-fated match and the brothers’ separate paths unfold as they travel to Amsterdam and London to learn the family trade. When the dust settles, Jean entrusts leadership to the elder son, Thomas Buddenbrook, who marries Gerda Buddenbrook, Léa Bosco, a Dutch heiress more interested in music and aristocratic circles than in the day‑to‑day duties of the firm. After a spell abroad in Valparaiso, Christian returns to Lübeck with a taste for cinema, the theatre, and the attention of the actress Aline Puvogel, Nina Proll, rather than the family business.

Tragedy strikes as Jean dies and Bethsy works to hold the family together, keeping the flag flying as the business endures mounting pressures. Tony, meanwhile, catches the eye of Alois Permaneder, Martin Feifel, a jovial Bavarian hop merchant who marries her and carries her away to Munich, only to fall prey to drink and a troubled household. When Tony returns to Lübeck, she urges Thomas to expand the enterprise by buying grain before harvest from the estates of Prussian aristocrats, a risky move that seems savvy until misfortune strikes: a hailstorm wipes out the crop, and the outlay sinks the company’s standing.

Gerda soon bears a son, Hanno Buddenbrook, a gifted musician who shows little interest in the family firm. Thomas is elected a senator, following in his father’s footsteps, but after a troublesome tooth is extracted, he collapses and dies, leaving a will that orders the liquidation of the near‑moribund business. Hanno dies in his teens, and Gerda returns to the Netherlands. In the wake of these losses, Tony and Christian sell the family home and its contents and go their separate ways, marking a somber, inescapable turning point for the Buddenbrook legacy.