EXPORT-UNION OF GERMAN CINEMA 1/2000 GERMAN MASTERS Schlöndorff, Thome and Wenders in Competition at the Berlin International Film Festival Special Report SELLING GERMAN FILMS Spotlight on GERMAN TV-MARKETS Kino Scene from:“THE MILLION DOLLAR HOTEL” Thanks to our national and international customers subtitling film video dvd 10 years of Film und Video Untertitelung dubbing post-production 10 years of high-quality subtitles editing telecine 10% reduction on our regular prices standard conversion video transfer inspection of material during 10 celebratory months graphic design from 10 July 1999 to 10 May 2000 dvd mastering you will see the difference www.untertitelung.de [email protected] tel.: +49-2205/9211-0 fax: +49-2205/9211-99 www. german- cinema. de/ INFORMATION ON GERMAN FILMS. now with links to international festivals! Export-Union des Deutschen Films GmbH Tuerkenstrasse 93 · D-80799 München · phone +49-89-39 00 95 · fax +49-89-39 52 23 · email: [email protected] KINO 1/2000 6 Selling German Films 25 In Competition at Berlin Special Report 25 The Million Dollar Hotel 10 Opening Reality OPENING FILM Wim Wenders For Illusions 26 Paradiso – Sieben Tage mit Portrait of Director Sherry Hormann sieben Frauen PARADISO 11 ”I Sold My Soul To Rudolf Thome The Cinema“ 27 Die Stille nach dem Schuss Portrait of Director Tom Tykwer RITA’S LEGENDS Volker Schlöndorff 12 Purveyors Of Excellence Cologne Conference 13 German TV Fare Going Like Hot Cakes German Screenings 15 A Winning Combination Hager Moss Film 16 KINO news 28 German Classics 18 In Production 28 Die Legende von 18 Besser als Bier Paul und Paula Matthias Lehmann THE LEGEND OF 18 Bis zum letzten Mann PAUL AND PAULA Carl Schenkel Heiner Carow 19 Denk ich an Deutschland … – Ein Fremder 29 Olympia I + II Peter Lilienthal Leni Riefenstahl 20 Du lebst noch 7 Tage 30 Solo Sunny Sebastian Niemann Konrad Wolf 20 Invicible 31 Die verlorene Ehre der Werner Herzog Katharina Blum 21 Jahrestage THE LOST HONOUR OF Margarethe von Trotta KATHARINA BLUM 22 Poison Heart Volker Schlöndorff, Margarethe von Trotta Winfried Bonengel 22 Sommer Nana Djordjadze 23 Der Zauberlehrling Thomas Riedelsheimer C ONTENTS 32 New German Films 47 Die Königin – Marianne Hoppe 32 Airbag THE QUEEN – Juanma Bajo Ulloa MARIANNE HOPPE 33 Amerika Werner Schroeter Jens Jenson 48 Die Legende vom 34 Anatomie Potsdamer Platz Stefan Ruzowitzky THE LEGEND OF 35 Der Bär ist los POTSDAMER PLATZ BEAR ON THE RUN Manfred Wilhelms Dana Vávrová 49 Marlene 36 Bonhoeffer – Joseph Vilsmaier Die letzte Stufe 50 Midsommar-Stories BONHOEFFER – AGENT OF GRACE Elena Alvarez, Michael Chauvistré, Andi Eric Till Niessner, Livia Vogt, Heike Wasem 37 Chill out 51 Spiel mit dem Teufel Andreas Struck PLAYING WITH THE DEVIL 38 Damaskus Stefan Schwiertert Manfred Beierl 52 Sumo Bruno 39 Fandango Lenard Fritz Krawinkel Matthias Glasner 53 Tobias Totz und sein Löwe 40 Flashback – TOBIAS TOTZ AND HIS LION Mörderische Ferien Thilo Graf Rothkirch, Piet de Rycker FLASHBACK 54 Der tote Taucher im Wald Michael Karen Markus O. Rosenmüller 41 Frau2 + Happy End 55 Undertaker’s Paradise FEMALE2 + HAPPY END M. X. Oberg Edward Berger 56 Verlorene Flügel 42 Ganz Unten, Ganz Oben LOST WINGS FROM THE DEPTHS Wolfgang Scholz TO THE HEIGHTS 57 Verzweiflung Matti Geschonneck DESPAIR 43 Hans Warns – Marcus Lauterbach Mein 20. Jahrhundert HANS WARNS – MY 20TH CENTURY 58 Foreign Representatives Gordian Maugg 44 Hillbrow Kids 60 Film-Exporters Michael Hammon, Jacqueline Görgen 45 Kanak Attack 62 Imprint Lars Becker 46 Käpt’n Blaubär CAPT’N BLUEBEAR Hayo Freitag Special Report SELLING GERMAN FILMS In this new series of features we will be looking films hardly travelled outside of their home borders and pointed in forthcoming issues of KINO at the nuts-and- to the fact that, on average, 80% of the box-office takings bolts of the German sales business with profiles of at cinemas in Europe are taken by US films, 15% by national leading sales companies operating from Germany. European films, and only 5% by non-national European films. To start with, though, this issue is presenting a general overview of what it is like selling German Over the last couple of years a number of high-profile sales films in the international market today. successes – particularly, Caroline Link’s Oscar-nominated Beyond Silence and Joseph Vilsmaier’s Comedian A pan-European phenomenon Harmonists (both to Miramax) and Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run (to Sony Picture Classics) – have prompted industry Before turning specifically to the German experience, it has to be observers to suggest that German cinema has become attractive said that many of the challenges and hurdles that German sales for the international market again. agents face are not any different from those confronting many of their European neighbours. But, sales veteran Dieter Menz of Atlas International Film voices a note of caution about the euphoria surrounding While US colleagues may speak all too easily in shorthand of the the international popularity of Run Lola Run and pinpoints ”European market“, such a statement ignores the fact that the film some key problems shared by other European filmmaking nations. market is far from being homogenous like the North American ”One swallow doesn’t make a summer“, he declares. ”Lola was one and is in fact made up of several individual, national markets an exception because most German feature films find it hard to with their own cultural and linguistic specificities which are some- be sold abroad – the actors aren’t known, the directors are times held up as a positive factor, i.e. Europe’s much vanuted unknowns as well and, what's more the language is a hindrance heritage of cultural diversity, but are not conducive to a film’s for some territories“. reception outside of its own national borders. Similarly, Ida Martins of Cologne-based Media Luna Film Germany shares with many of its European neighbours the fact Sales says that sales companies have to be careful not to slip that the domestic market share fluctuates from year to year – into ladling on the hype about German films because of their usually in a downward trajectory, and the market share of domestic commercial success: ”We got a negative reception non-national European films has been shrinking year by year. from some countries when we later offered German films Indeed, Vivian Reding, the European Union's new Commissioner because those other [hyped] films didn’t have the anticipated for Education and Culture, called it a ”scandal“ that European success“, she notes. ”Run Lola Run“ by Tom Tykwer ”Run Lola Run“ by Tom 6 Selling German Films ”Buena Vista Social Club“ by Wim Wenders Classics in demand Exacoustos continues. ”Sometimes, it is for individual titles, but the that fact these producers have films with a long shelf life However, those sales companies with films by the leading lights of means that they can regularly see a trickle of money coming back the New German Cinema from the 1970's and early 1980’s – by from international sales“. the likes of Schlöndorff, Herzog, Fassbinder and Wenders – enjoy a regular income from foreign distributors In his opinion, the same goes for Edgar Reitz’s award-winning coming back every few years to renew rights to films in their back TV series Heimat and Heimat II, which were sold around the catalogues. globe and are now being represented internationally by ARRI TV, and Exacoustos anticipates considerable international interest Antonio Exacoustos, Jr., who ran Futura Film – Welt- for Reitz’s ambitious new project, Heimat 2000, which will vertrieb im Filmverlag der Autoren until the end of last be co-produced by ARRI. year and is now managing a world sales unit within ARRI TV, says that ”Fassbinder is, by far, the most popular and most ”The demand abroad for such classics has become very strong“, requested of those directors. And with good reason“. agrees veteran sales agent Lilli Tyc-Holm of company Cine- International. ”For example, we just sold a package of three ”There is also a constant demand for films from Percy Adlon, Schlöndorff films to a video company in the US“. Michael Verhoeven and Helma Sanders-Brahms“, And she points out that a filmma- ker like Werner Herzog – who has practically all of his inter- nationally renowned films on Cine-International’s books – had more recognition and success abroad than at home in Germany with such films as Aguirre – Der Zorn Gottes, Kaspar Hauser and Fitzcarraldo. Cinepool’s Wolfram ”Der bewegteWortmann Mann“ by Sönke Skowronnek’s has similar positive experiences with leading German woman filmmaker Doris Dörrie, handling the features Geld, Happy Birthday, Türke, Keiner liebt mich (sold to 47 territo- ries) and now the latest picture Erleuchtung garantiert. ”We got a print of Erleuch- tung at the very last minute for the MIFED and had two wonderful screenings with 7 Selling German Films ”Life Is All you Get“ by Wolfgang Becker ”Life Get“ by Wolfgang Is All you people sitting on the floor“, Skowronnek recalls. ”I have been Similarly, festival programmers and foreign buyers can be keep in talks with US distributors since then, but they are waiting to see their eyes peeled for the German talents of tomorrow by the international reaction after the film shows at festivals in Rot- checking out the films shown in the”"Next Generation“ of film terdam, Göteborg and Iran. I’ll know more by the AFM“. student shorts which are programmed by the Export-Union in Cannes and during its Festivals of German Cinema at selected Pushing a new generation cities around the globe. At the same time, this familiarity with and demand for films by Creating markets for German films the so-called ”name“ directors can arguably make it difficult for the sales companies to get a buzz about the new generation of ”Ideally, Europe should really be the key market for German films filmmakers active in Germany.