Presskit COLOURS in the DARK

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COLOURS IN THE DARK

Director SOPHIE HELDMAN

Starring BRUNO GANZ and SENTA BERGER

Produced by unafilm in co-production with Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion

CAST

Fred Bruno Ganz Anita Senta Berger Karoline Carina Wiese Patrick Barnaby Metschurat Yvonne Leonie Benesch Mathis Thomas Limpinsel

CREW

Director Sophie Heldman Script Sophie Heldman Felix zu Knyphausen Director of Photograpy Christine A. Maier Editor Isabel Meier Costume Manfred Schneider Music Balz Bachmann Producer Titus Kreyenberg Co-Producer Karin Koch

Production Titus Kreyenberg, unafilm Co-Production Karin Koch, Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion, Zürich

Commissioning Editor WDR Andrea Hanke / Anke Krause Commissioning Editor Arte Georg Steinert Commissioning Editor SF Lilian Räber

For further information: Beta Cinema Press, Dorothee Stoewahse, Tel: + 49 89 67 34 69 15, [email protected] , www.betacinema.com Pictures and filmclips available on ftp.betafilm.com , username: ftppress01, password: betapress

SHORT SYNOPSIS

Anita (Senta Berger) and Fred (Bruno Ganz) have been together for some 50 years and happily married for just as long. They have two grown-up children, and their granddaughter is about to finish school. Both cannot only look back on a fulfilled life – they are still in the middle of it. Up to now they have not told their family that Fred is gravely ill. For the first time in all these years, Fred allows himself to do things that affront his wife. And for the first time Anita feels left alone and she starts to call their relationship into question. But a love like theirs does not end just like that. In fact, it should never end.

PRESS NOTES

COLOURS IN THE DARK tells a story of love without compromises, of small escapes and mature decisions. The director Sophie Heldman wrote the screenplay to her touching cinematic debut with her co-author Felix zu Knyphausen, and the film was nominated for the FIRST STEPS AWARD 2010.

Sophie Heldman cast her dream actors to play the married couple living their lives without making any compromises in their love for each other: SENTA BERGER and BRUNO GANZ. Her life experiences and personal approach to aging had a dynamic influence on this intimate film. The other lead roles are played by BARNABY METSCHURAT (“L' AUBERGE ESPAGNOLE”); CARINA WIESE (“THE CLOUD”); SILVANA KRAPPATSCH (“IN BETWEEN DAYS”); and the newcomer LEONIE BENESCH (“THE WHITE RIBBON”). The film was produced by Titus Kreyenberg.

COLOURS IN THE DARK is a production of unafilm and Dschoint Ventschr, in coproduction with WDR; arte; and Schweizer Fernsehen SRG SSR. The film was funded by Filmstiftung Nordrhein- Westfalen; DFFF; BKM; Filmstiftung Zürich; Kulturförderung Kanton Zug; and Eurimages.

CONTENT Anita and Fred (SENTA BERGER and BRUNO GANZ) are both in their early 70s; they have been together for 50 years and have been married for almost as long. They have two grown children, Patrick (BARNABY METSCHURAT) and Karoline (CARINA WIESE), and their grandchild Yvonne (LEONIE BENESCH) is studying for her final exams in school. Fred was a successful businessman and is wealthy now, and he and his wife live in a large house with an idyllic yard. They have everything. The only thing they don't have in abundance is time.

"I'm an old woman, and an old woman has the right to have things stay the way they are!"

Fred says "good-bye" on his way to the office on what seems to be a normal, average morning. While Anita is shopping in the city she sees her husband off in the distance on the street. Curious, she follows him, and she sees Fred walk into a building she has never seen before. Anita enters the building and walks into a recently renovated, empty apartment. Fred is surprised to see her and obviously embarrassed in a touching way; he explains to his wife that he bought the apartment as an investment. Anita is absolutely stunned, and she turns on her heels and walks away without saying another word. She never for a second thought her husband would keep secrets from her. When 3

Fred comes home, Anita is furious and demands an explanation. Fred insists he doesn't have a lover on the side. He just needs a place where he can think. Anita is devastated and hurt because her husband – for the first time in all these years they've been together – is hiding something from her and excluding her from something, and he suddenly needs a space for himself in their close relationship.

"I don't want to spend the time I have left as a patient."

Patrick has arrived home for his sister's wedding. When he sees his parents again he realizes right away the atmosphere in the house is tense. In her fury Anita tells her son more or less involuntarily about the secret she and her husband have kept to themselves up until now: Fred has prostate cancer – a malignant tumor. But he refuses treatment: he doesn't want to spend the rest of his life as a patient. He made the decision on his own … and Anita calls Fred an egoist. "And what now?" asks Patrick. The only response he gets from his father is a calm "We'll wait and see." Patrick's sister Karoline is not supposed to find out anything – her parents don't want to spoil her wedding celebrations.

Despite everything, it is a flawless and very romantic wedding. Instead of the bride's father, Fred, Karoline's daughter Yvonne gives a moving speech about the happy couple. But once they're back home the conflict between Anita and Fred immediately surfaces again. She gives her stubborn husband an ultimatum: either the apartment goes or I do! It's late at night by the time their children come home after the wedding celebrations. In the meantime, Patrick has told Karoline everything. Fred dismisses her concerns in a friendly but determined manner. The next morning Fred goes to his office. His secretary, Mrs. Kramer (SILVANA KRAPPATSCH), is surprised to see her former boss in the office: Fred has been retired for a long time now. Patrick offers to stay longer, but his parents reassure him that it's not necessary. Anita and Fred take their son to the airport. The farewell is melancholic and soul-wrenching. None of them know how many times they have left to be together as a family.

"We always talked about the end, we never talked about what comes before it."

Following a turbulent, ominous thunderstorm during the night, Anita comes to a desperate decision: If Fred doesn't want to spend his life with her anymore, then she'll leave him. When Fred comes home, he discovers a postcard with a photograph of a retirement home on the front and a simple message written on the back: "My new address. A." When he visits Anita in the retirement home she points to the door and says, "Do whatever you want!" He should experience himself what it feels like when his lifelong companion withdraws from him. "Please come home," implores Fred as he leaves. When Fred visits her again Anita's reaction is cold and distant at first. He reminds her about Yvonne's upcoming graduation celebration …

Anita comes back home, exhausted and happy. They nearly lost each other, but now their decision stands: they want to stay together – forever and ever. At Yvonne's graduation celebration Anita and Fred dance boisterously with their grandchild and her fellow students, and then they say "good-bye" and disappear through a side door without much ado. They spend that night in a hotel. They make love, reminisce, and exchange stories from their eventful life and from their lifelong love for each other. Anita goes to a jeweler and has him remove her wedding ring from her finger. She has worn it for so long that she can't get it off anymore. No, the ring doesn't need to be repaired; she takes the wedding ring with her and leaves the shop.

The next morning Anita and Fred put on elegant, formal clothes, as if they were getting ready for a celebration: he puts on a dark suit and she dress completely in black. They close all of the curtains before they leave the house. A taxi picks them up. Anita and Fred hold hands on the back seat of the taxi …

PRODUCTION NOTES

Sophie Heldman shot the successful short film "ICKE" during her studies at the dffb film school in Berlin. Her thesis film COLOURS IN THE DARK is based on a true story from her own background, an emotional and moving story that confronts the audience with important questions about life. The film revolves around decisive weeks in the life of a married couple and ends on the theme of eternal love.

The producer Titus Kreyenberg, head of unafilm in Cologne, was given the material by the camerawoman Sophie Maintigneux, who had already shot two films for his company: "HANNAH," directed by Erica von Moeller; and "LIEBE UND VERLANGEN," directed by Judith Kennel. "Sophie set up a meeting with the author Sophie Heldman, who was looking for a producer," recalls Kreyenberg. As COLOURS IN THE DARK is based on the author's personal experiences, there was no question in the producer's mind from the start – he wanted Sophie Heldman to direct her own script: "She had very close ties to the material, she wrote the script. COLOURS IN THE DARK was to be Sophie Heldman's cinematic debut." Although it's her first film, COLOURS IN THE DARK is not a low budget film; it was produced with an appropriate budget and a top quality, experienced team, in front of and behind the camera.

The powerful script, the emotional story, and the newcomer director's commitment also convinced two of Germany's biggest stars to take on the two leads: Sophie Heldmann obtained her dream cast for the film, Senta Berger and Bruno Ganz. "When I first talked with Senta and Bruno about the characters, I thought to myself, 'I found my partners'," remembers Sophie Heldman. "This is very unusual, what we're allowed to film here," remarked Bruno Ganz about his agreeing to take on the role. " COLOURS IN THE DARK is a well-rounded script, which allows space in an unusual way to show how people communicate and deal with each other. This can be a little complicated, and perhaps also repulsive, but on the other hand there is a huge dose of tenderness." As Anita, the loving mother and grandmother, Senta Berger is the mediator between her husband Fred and their children; Fred doesn't want to burden his children with his illness and he more or less involuntarily rebuffs them with his distant attitude. "I try to soften that a little," says Senta Berger. "After all, you want your children to keep on believing in life and at such an early point in their lives to deal with establishing a family and setting up their lives." They shouldn't be involved in the ending Anita and Fred have chosen for themselves.

The core of the film, however, is a two-character piece, according to Titus Kreyenberg. The story centers on two protagonists and one location, lending COLOURS IN THE DARK the characteristics of a chamber play. "But the script is not dialogue-heavy," explains the producer. "It is a very moving film, quiet and solemn – but it's not really a film where the characters talk the entire time." The camera stays in close on the main characters, who deal intensively with their love for each other, their marriage, and the life they have lived so far. Kreyenberg says, "It all has to do with questions such as, what's permanent? What lies ahead? How do we want to spend the rest of our lives? What happens when we become ill? Will we end up as an invalid?" The film portrays the decisive weeks in the lives of this husband and wife, and it ends with the issue of eternal love.

The Austrian Christine A. Maier is the director of photography. She was also behind the camera for the award-winning film "GRBAVICA – THE LAND OF MY DREAM," which won, among other awards, the Golden Bear at the 56th Berlin International Film Festival in 2006, and the Peace Film Award; and "RECLAIM YOUR BRAIN" (2007), directed by Hans Weingartner.

"The camera is modest and withdrawn," explains the director, Sophie Heldman. " COLOURS IN THE DARK is told in distinct, extremely expressive images: the story in the film takes place in the spring, when nature awakens. The colors glow in the beginning. Anita and Fred's house acts as another character; the atmosphere, the light and the objects in the house reflect the life stories of the characters."

Isabel Meier edited the film, and she also was the film editor on Oskar Roehler's "NO PLACE TO GO"; Pan Nalin's "SAMSARA"; and the Swiss Bollywood romance "TANDOORI LOVE." "Isabel Meier is one of those film editors who gets involved already during the scriptwriting phase, and who works hard during the script preparations and examines the script with a critical eye," praised Titus Kreyenberg.

The film was shot in 30 days, from April to early June 2009; the crew filmed for three weeks in a private home in Düsseldorf: The idyllic home of Anita and Fred with its expansive yard has the surreptitious third lead role in COLOURS IN THE DARK . "It took a very long time before we found this fantastic house," says Titus Kreyenberg, an "ideal casting." "After all, the story has to do with people who are very wealthy but don't appear to be snobbish." Not far from the city of Cologne, the wedding of Anita and Fred's daughter Karoline was filmed in a white chapel with a giant oak tree in front of it. "She says 'I do' to a man she has been with for five years, and she has a daughter from an earlier relationship," explains the producer. "This scene contains a tremendous amount of symbolic energy: there is the spiritual union on the one hand, and the mature, grown-up element in the shape of the tall tree on the other. There are two metaphors in that one image, embedded in a magnificent landscape." The locations in the film, however, are never explicitly mentioned or filmed in such a way that they are recognizable. The filmmakers wanted to give COLOURS IN THE DARK a "European face," according to Kreyenberg. "While it's obvious the film takes place in Germany, it's not a specific city. We made a conscious decision to avoid well- known landmarks such as the cathedral in Cologne and even the Rhine River."

***

In 2007 the philosopher and libertine André Gorz committed suicide together with his wife, who had cancer. Shortly before they committed suicide, Gorz published a touching declaration of his love for his wife entitled "A Letter to D.": "You just turned 82. You're still beautiful and desirable. We have been living together for 58 years and I love you more than ever. Just a short time ago I fell in love with you again."

DIRECTOR’S NOTE by Sophie Heldman

A TRUE STORY My film is based on a true story, and there is a direct connection to Anita and Fred, the protagonists in COLOURS IN THE DARK : These two people committed suicide together, and they spent their whole lives together, they knew each other ever since they were very young children. Both of them would be approaching 90 by now. They were our neighbors in Zug, where I grew up. Their son married my sister. To me, their story wasn't just interesting because I knew them personally, but 6

because they belonged to my parent's generation: What values do they have, what do they pass on to us? This affects me directly.

"Anita" and "Fred" met when they were 17 during the final days of World War Two. In the 1960s things improved, in Germany and in their lives. They were part of the "Wirtschaftswunder" generation, the economic boom after the war, and they moved to New York, and he was a successful businessman. They were lucky and enjoyed their life to the fullest. That's important in order to understand the ending – their ending and also the ending in my film. When they both turned 70, they said very clearly, "We have absolutely no desire to go to a retirement home, that's not for us. We always were fortunate enough to be able to decide for ourselves. We spent our lives together and we cannot imagine that one of us will outlive the other." Then came the diagnosis of prostate cancer. The confrontation with death starts on the level of thoughts, emotions, conversations. And that's how "Anita" and "Fred" dealt with their relationship, because they realized that from that point on their days were numbered.

This process of growing old, this process of saying farewell, is in my opinion just as existential as becoming an adult. I found a connection for myself, even if an ending is different than a beginning. These two were so different from the image of elderly people you usually see in films. They made me understand what youth is and what age means.

If my film has a message, then it would be this: Live life with awareness!

SOPHIE HELDMAN – Director

Sophie Heldman was born in Hamburg in 1973 to a Mexican mother and a German father. In 1976 her family moved to Switzerland, where she grew up. In 1993 she moved to New York to work as a locations manager on independent feature films. In 1996 she returned to Europe to study directing at the German Film and Television Academy (dffb) in Berlin. In addition she took classes in directing actors at the Tisch School of Arts, NYU. During her student years she worked on a number of feature films as first and second assistant director, working with directors including Sydney Pollack, Stina Werenfels, Xavier Koller and Daniel Schmid. Sophie Heldman’s student short film “ICKE” was nominated for Best Short Film at the Film Festival Max-Ophüls-Preis and was shown at several other Festivals. Sophie Heldman lives in Berlin. COLOURS IN THE DARK is her first feature film.

BRUNO GANZ is Fred

Bruno Ganz was born in Zurich-Seebach. After finishing his acting school he took part in a few Swiss films. In 1962 he worked at the Jungen Theater in Göttingen and later at the Theater am Goetheplatz in Bremen. Followed by theatre projects with Peter Zadek, Kurt Hübner and Peter Stein. Very quickly Bruno Ganz was at the core of the ensembles at the Schaubühne am Halleschen Ufer in Berlin – together with Edith Clever, Jutta Lampe, Michael König and Werner Rehm. In 1996 he was rewarded the Iffland-Ring, der highest reward for a theatre actor. And in 2006 he was rewarded the Federal Cross of Merit The audience also knows Bruno Ganz through his work for the cinema. He played in films like “THE MARQUISE OF O,” by Eric Rohmer, “THE AMERICAN FRIEND” and “WINGS OF DESIRE” by Wim Wenders, “NOSFERATU THE VAMPYRE” by Werner Herzog, “DIE FÄLSCHUNG” by Volker 7

Schlöndorff or “DOWNFALL” by Oliver Hirschbiegel (Academy Award shortlist 2005). But the son of a Swiss father and an Italian mother was also very successful with a comedy like “BREAD AND TULIPS”. Recently Bruno Ganz was seen in films like “DUST OF TIME”, “THE BAADER-MEINHOF COMPLEX” and “THE READER”.

FILMOGRAPHY cinema (selection) 2010 THE END IS MY BEGINNING, director: Jo Baier 2009 THE READER, director: Stephen Daldry 2008 DUST OF TIME, director: Theo Angelopoulos 2008 THE BAADER-MEINHOF COMPLEX, director: Uli Edel 2007 YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH, director: Francis Ford Coppola 2006 VITUS, director: Fredi M. Murer 2006 HAVE NO FEAR, director: Jeff Bleckner 2004 DOWNFALL, director: Oliver Hirschbiegel 2003 LUTHER, director: Eric Till 2000 BREAD AND TULIPS, director: Silvio Soldini 1998 ETERNITY AND A DAY, director: Theo Angelopoulos 1993 FARAWAY, SO CLOSE!, director: Wim Wenders 1987 WINGS OF DESIRE, director: Wim Wenders 1983 IN THE WHITE CITY, director: Alain Tanner 1981 DIE FÄLSCHUNG, director: Volker Schlöndorff 1980 DER ERFINDER, director: Kurt Gloor 1979 NOSFERATU THE VAMPYRE, director: Werner Herzog 1978 MESSER IM KOPF, director: Reinhard Hauff 1977 DIE LINKSHÄNDIGE FRAU, director: Peter Handtke 1977 THE AMERICAN FRIEND, director: Wim Wenders 1976 LUMIÈRE, director: Jeanne Moreau 1976 THE WILD DUCK, director: Hans W. Geißendörfer 1976 THE MARQUISE OF O., director: Eric Rohmer

SENTA BERGER is Anita

Senta Berger is looking back on a formidable acting career both in film and theatre. She was born in Vienna and started acting when she was only fourteen. In her twenties she moved to Hollywood, where she starred next to stars like Charlton Heston, Frank Sinatra, Richard Harris, George Hamilton and Kirk Doulglas. Together with her husband, Michael Verhoeven, she founded her own production company, Sentana Film in Munich. She is well known to the German television audience through the much acclaimed “Kir Royal” and “Unter Verdacht”. She was awarded the Golden Globe Award in 1965, to be followed by numerous national and international awards like the Bambi, the German Television Award, The Platin Romy, The Golden Camera and the Bavarian Television Award.

In COLOURS IN THE DARK she plays Anita, the female lead – her first major part in the cinema for many years.

Filmography cinema/TV (selection) 2009 Frau Böhm sagt nein (TV), director: Conny Walther 2008 LIKE IT OR NOT, director: Ben Verbong Schlaflos (TV), director: Isabel Kleefeld 2004 Die Konferenz (TV), director: Niki Stein 2003 Die schnelle Gerdi und die Hauptstadt (TV), director: Michael Verhoeven 1998 AM I BEAUTIFUL?, director: Doris Dörrie 1989 Die schnelle Gerdi (TV) , director: Michael Verhoeven 1986 Kir Royal (TV), director: Helmut Dietl 1984 THE TWO LIVES OF MATTIA PASCAL, director: Mario Monicelli 1976 CROSS OF IRON, director: Sam Peckinpah 1973 THE SCARLET LETTER, director: Wim Wenders MERRY-GO-ROUND, director: Otto Schenk 1971 MORALS OF Ruth Halbfass, director: Volker Schlöndorff 1968 DIABOLIQUEMENT VOTRE, director: Julien Duvivier 1967 THE TRESURE OF SAN GENNARO, director: Dino Risi 1966 THE QUILLER MEMORANDUM, director: Michael Anderson 1965 CAST A GIANT SHADOW, director: Melville Shavelson 1964 MAJOR DUNDEE, director: Sam Peckinpah 1963 THE VICTORS, director: Carl Foreman 1961 OPERATION CAVIAR, director: Géza von Radványi Diesmal muss es Kaviar sein, director: Géza von Radványi 1960 THE GOOD SOLDIER SCHWEIK, director: Axel von Ambesser

BETA CINEMA (world sales agent)

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