EXPORT-UNION OF GERMAN CINEMA 1/2001 At Berlin in Competition MY SWEET HOME by Filippos Tsitos Special Report TALENT MADE IN GERMANY BETWEEN THE PRIVATE AND THE POLITICAL Portrait of Margarethe von Trotta Kino Scene from “MY Scene from SWEET HOME“ GERMAN CINEMA We make the best even better Subtitling Dubbing Post-Production DVD-Mastering Graphic Design tel: +49-2205/9211-0 fax: +49-2205/9211-99 www.untertitelung.de [email protected] NEW ADDRESS as of march 2001 Sonnenstrasse 21 D-80331 Munich phone +49-89-59 97 87 0 GERMAN Export-Union des Deutschen Films GmbH CINEMA www.german-cinema.de · email: [email protected] KINO 1/2001 33 Suck My Dick 6 Talent Made In Germany Oskar Roehler Talent Agencies in Germany 34 Der Tanz mit dem Teufel – Die Entführung des Richard Oetker 13 On People And The Times Peter Keglevic Portrait of directors Barbara and Winfried Junge 34 A Woman And A Half – Hildegard Knef Clarissa Ruge 14 Between The Private And The Political Portrait of director Margarethe von Trotta 17 Personal Contacts Count World Sales Portrait: Exportfilm Bischoff 36 German Classics 18 ”MEDIA LUNA, That’s My Passion!“ 36 Lissy World Sales Portrait: Media Luna, Ida Martins Konrad Wolf 37 Metropolis 20 ODEON FILM: The Makings Of Fritz Lang An International Player 38 Tag der Idioten Producer’s Portrait: Odeon Film DAY OF THE IDIOTS Werner Schroeter 22 KINO news 26 In Production 40 New German Films 26 Anam – Meine Mutter 40 100 Pro Buket Alakus Simon Verhoeven 26 Auf den Flüssen 41 Als Großvater Rita Hayworth liebte Gordian Maugg WHEN GRANDPA LOVED RITA HAYWORTH 27 Auf Herz und Nieren Iva Sˇvarcová Thomas Jahn 42 BERLIN – Du Fremde, Du Schöne 28 Caroline Ein Zyklus in sieben Filmen 1995-2001 Hannu Salonen BERLIN – YOU STRANGER, YOU BEAUTY 29 Flüchtige Bekannte A Cycle In Seven Films 1995-2001 Michael Baumann Manfred Wilhelms 30 Heaven 43 Berlin is in Germany AT BERLIN Tom Tykwer PANORAMA Hannes Stöhr 30 Jud Süß – Ein Film als Verbrechen? 44 Duell – Enemy At The Gates Horst Königstein AT BERLIN OPENING FILM Jean-Jacques Annaud 31 Love The Hard Way (OUT OF COMPETITION) Peter Sehr 32 Ramstein – Das durchstoßene Herz 32 Rave Macbeth Klaus Knoesel CONTENTS 60 Nancy und Frank NANCY AND FRANK Wolf Gremm AT BERLIN 45 Eisenstein FORUM 61 Pinky und der Millionenmops Renny Bartlett PINKY AND THE MILLION-PUG 46 Emil und die Detektive Stefan Lukschy EMIL AND THE DETECTIVES 62 planet alex Franziska Buch Uli M Schüppel 47 Erotic Tales: Angela 63 Der schöne Tag Amos Kollek A FINE DAY AT BERLIN FORUM Erotic Tales: Powers – Thomas Arslan Magische Kräfte 64 Stiller Sturm POWERS SILENT STORM Petr Zelenka Tomasz Thomson 48 Feindliche Übernahme – 65 Tanz mit dem Tod – althan.com Der Ufa-Star Sybille Schmitz Carl Schenkel DANCE WITH DEATH – 49 Girl THE UFA STAR SYBILLE SCHMITZ Piers Ashworth Achim Podak 50 HAWAiiAN GARDENS 66 Venus Talking AT BERLIN NEW GERMAN FILMS Percy Adlon Rudolf Thome 51 Invincible 67 Weiser AT BERLIN IN COMPETITION Werner Herzog Wojciech Marczewski 52 Jetzt oder Nie 68 Das weisse Rauschen Lars Büchel THE WHITE NOISE 53 Julietta Johann Weingartner Christoph Stark 69 www.vermisst-auf-dem-Oktoberfest.de 54 Küss Mich Frosch WWW.MISSING-AT-THE-OKTOBERFEST.DE KISS ME FROG Charly Weller Dagmar Hirtz H 55 Lieber Fidel – Maritas Geschichte DEAR FIDEL – MARITA’S STORY 70 Foreign Representatives Wilfried Huismann 56 Mein langsames Leben 74 Film-Exporters PASSING SUMMER AT BERLIN FORUM Angela Schanelec 78 Imprint 57 Mit IKEA nach Moskau TO MOSCOW WITH IKEA Michael Chauvistré 58 Mr. Boogie Vesna Jovanoska 59 My Sweet Home Filippos Tsitos AT BERLIN IN COMPETITION Talent Agencies in Germany xxxxxxx TALENT Heike Makatsch, Moritz Bleibtreu, Nina Hoss MADE IN GERMANY Compared to other countries, the German talent agent scene as it now exists is quite a young one, since until April 1994, the few artists’ agencies which had survived from before the Second World War had operated with a license on behalf of the Federal Employment Office and they were the only ones allowed to Carla Rehm represent actors. ”The working conditions were very difficult“, recalls Sigrid Narjes, who established her Above The Line agency initially on an ”illegal“ basis at the end of the 1980s and then took legal proceedings against the Federal Republic of Germany to bring about a reform of the regulations. ”Everything from the agency notepaper to the sign outside had to be approved by the employ- ment authorities“. However, 1994 then finally saw a reform which led to the 25-odd agencies under license being joined by a whole new generation of talent agents as companies sprung up all over Germany. According to some sources, the number of agencies now exceeds 250 al- though nobody really knows how many talent agents are now in business. ”There has been a real proliferation in agencies“, explains Mechthild Holter whose Players has been based in Berlin since 1996, ”there is no healthily evolved market structure. In a healthy scene like London you have a handful of agents – the 6 Talent Agencies in Germany three main ones, some literary agencies and a few specialising in decided to set up an operation with Eichborn outside of the theatre – and that’s it. Put in an exaggerated form: you need an publishing house to emphasise their closeness to the audiovisual agent when the market needs you. But this healthy relationship world. between the agency and the client doesn’t exist in Germany, every person who says they are an actor gets an agent and Indeed, other agencies have also changed their remit as they have people are with an agent before anybody has even got to know become more established in the market. As Munich-based agent who they are“. Marlis Heppeler observes, ”initially, I was exclusively handling actors, but it very soon transpired that it definitely made sense to use the existing network of contacts (to producers, distributors Agencies’ specialities and commissioning editors at the TV stations) to also act as a mediator for the work of directors and screenwriters“. ”Whereas in the past, agencies were classical actors’ ones, there are now agencies based on the Anglo-Saxon model which target ”What is different from America“, Hoestermann says, ”is that all professional groups in the arts“, Berlin-based Bernhard one still doesn’t have a producer being represented by an agent. An-Dorte Braker, Bernhard Hoestermann, Sabine Schroth An-Dorte Braker, Hoestermann points out, ”they cater for writers, directors, In Germany, there is a very clear division - even when they are directors of photography, editors as well as actors and other so-called writer-producers – they see themselves as being ’on the talents“. other side’ as a rule“. Hoestermann, for example, focuses on actors while Steffen Weihe’s Pegasus specialises in screenwriters and directors and Preparing the Package Tina Brandner in Munich handles job placement for crew members. Sigrid Narjes, on the other hand, covers the three At the same time, the idea of agents being involved in packaging main groups – actors, directors and screenwriters – at Above has increasingly become an issue in the German film landscape. The Line. ”We have a few agencies in Germany who try according to the foreign model to sell so-called packages“, explains Carla Rehm, Narjes has since added a new arm – ATL Books – to her whose Agentur Alexander can look back on over 40 years agency in collaboration with the Eichborn publishing house to of managing actors, ”i.e. to sell the screenplay, cast and director represent the film rights of novels and non-fiction material on as a overall concept“. the books at Eichborn. ”We will be active nationally and inter- nationally offering film rights of books and will also acquire From the producers’ camp, though, ”this always results in rights from third parties“, she declares, adding that unlike annoyance and resistance because in Germany this is always Michael Töteberg at Rowohlt, Above The Line understood as blackmail“, Bernhard Hoestermann says, 7 Talent Agencies in Germany ”along the lines of ’If you want to have my star, you’ll have to take those others as well‘“. ”Packaging in the correct sense of the word should be about bringing people together“, he continues.”about who can then really get a project on the way, who can help get a financing together quicker. In that sense, I don’t think any producer would have anything to fear“. Who wants to be a star? Despite the efforts of such young talents as Franka Potente, Til Schweiger, Moritz Bleibtreu and Katja Jürgen Vogel, Franka Potente Riemann, the German cinema does not boast a long line of For Bernhard Hoestermann, the way people treat achieve- stars who are national household names in the same way as was ment and prominence in Germany is difficult in any case: ”It is perhaps the case during the German film industry’s halcyon days not easy to cultivate a star. In the USA, one’s achievement is in the post war years. acknowledged with great enthusiasm. In Germany, though, the basic attitude is more of one scepticism; the journalists here ”In the media, young talents don’t yet receive the necessary like to make people big and well-known, but they have even support and attention“, Carla Rehm declares. ”The real stars more pleasure in tearing them to pieces again. That’s a particular are rather sportsmen and show personalities. Germany’s film stars element which keeps the potential of becoming a star to a have continually attained their popularity through TV films and minimum here“.