Even in Communist times the stirring epics about the interesting lives of lathe-operators

Even in Communist times, the stirring epics about the interesting lives of lathe-operators and Westerns in which the Indians always won had some artistic merit.But five years after Schlondorff took over Babelsberg, Hollywood it certainly ain't, and nor is it an up-market art-house. The Marlene Dietrich Hall, the movie studio where the actress made The Blue Angel, stands empty. The studios that are occupied are churning out soaps, chat shows and game shows for German television Some movies did make money, but its biggest production. Schlondorff's The Ogre, a beautiful film about the war, underwhelmed the critics and sank in the German market last year without a trace. Its only, slim chance of recouping the DM27m (pounds 10m) invested is with foreign sales and video rights.There are rumours, hotly denied, that Schlondorff is so dispirited that he is threatening to quit. His name still adorns the company letterhead, but the real power now rests with the French owners' employee, a manager named Pierre Couveinhes who climbed the corporate ladder of his native steel industry before embarking on a glittering career in water.

Mr Couveinhes and his masters were always more interested in cash flow than art, and are now deftly repositioning Babelsberg in the market.Future profits lie in television - yet more game shows - and the theme park. Fritz Lang's robot from Metropolis and gimmicks salvaged from more recent productions are pulling in the punters in their thousands. The company is also looking for post-production niches where its hi-tech expertise is almost unrivalled. Rather than compete with Hollywood, it is trying to entice big American studios to bring some of their work to Berlin.

Babelsberg will become a "media city" with expensive apartments and wine bars.That seems to leave the phoenix of German cinema firmly stuck in the ashes. They do not talk so big at Babelsberg as they used to five years ago. German movies, they now say, do not have a chance, because 80 per cent of the home market is occupied by Americans, and the language barrier keeps the rest of the world closed. Everything from funding - even Frankfurt banks invest in Hollywood, rather than Berlin - to marketing is stacked against Europeans. The box office hits in the past two years have been comedies, but German humour is thought not to travel well.As for Schlondorff, he will no doubt make great films again, though perhaps not in German and not in Babelsberg.

He is about to start work on a new movie, a thriller entitled Just Another Sucker It will be made in America.. India's notorious Bandit Queen, Phoolan Devi, is on the run again. The former outlaw, elected as a member of parliament from Mirzapur last year, went missing last week after mass murder, kidnapping and robbery charges against her were revived and her petition for advance bail was turned down. Police now vie to be the hero who captures Ms Devi, though some officials from the state government of Uttar Pradesh are reported to have asked them to back off, given her privileges as an MP. But many officers remember repeated humiliations from this foul-mouthed woman who for years would taunt them through her megaphone, scatter stolen jewellery in their midst to distract them, then vanish laughing into the Chambal ravines until her next raid. Ms Devi, now 37, eluded arrest so often that legends grew about her mastery of disguise.