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EXPORT-UNION OF GERMAN CINEMA 1/2004 AT BERLIN In Competition GEGEN DIE WAND by Fatih Akin DIE NACHT SINGT IHRE LIEDER by Romuald Karmakar TRUTH & THE UNIVERSE Directors’ Portraits of Esther Gronenborn & Veit Helmer SHOOTING STAR Actress Maria Simon SPECIAL REPORT German-French Kino Film Relations Anne Ratte-Polle in ”Nightsongs“ by Romuald Karmakar (photo © Pantera Film) (photo © Pantera in ”Nightsongs“ by Romuald Karmakar Anne Ratte-Polle KINO1/2004 4 focus on GERMAN-FRENCH FILM RELATIONS 12 directors’ portraits A MATTER OF TRUTH A portrait of Esther Gronenborn 13 MASTER OF HIS OWN UNIVERSE A portrait of Veit Helmer 16 producer’s portrait CROSSING BORDERS A portrait of TATFILM GmbH 18 actress’ portrait SHOOTING STAR A portrait of Maria Simon 20 KINO news in production 24 ATINA & HERAKLES Sebastian Harrer 24 DIE BLAUE GRENZE BLUE BORDER Till Franzen 25 FROZEN ANGELS Frauke Sandig, Eric Black 26 INVENTING DR. GOEBBELS Lutz Hachmeister 26 KAUKASISCHER COUP CAUCASIAN BUSINESS Tatiana Brandrup 27 LAURAS STERN LAURA’S STAR Thilo Graf Rothkirch, Piet De Rycker 28 DER NEUNTE TAG Volker Schloendorff 28 DIE RITCHIE BOYS THE RITCHIE BOYS Christian Bauer 29 SCHNEELAND SNOWLAND Hans W. Geissendoerfer 30 SOMMER HUNDE SOEHNE Cyril Tuschi 30 WILLENBROCK Andreas Dresen 31 ZEIT NACH DER TRAUER Beate F. Neumann the 100 most significant german films (part 12) 32 VAMPYR THE VAMPIRE Carl Theodor Dreyer 33 DER PROZESS Eberhard Fechner 34 DER HAENDLER DER VIER JAHRESZEITEN THE MERCHANT OF FOUR SEASONS Rainer Werner Fassbinder 35 ROMANZE IN MOLL ROMANCE IN A MINOR KEY Helmut Kaeutner new german films 36 4 FREUNDE & 4 PFOTEN 4 PALS AND A DOG CALLED MOZART Gabriele Heberling 37 AUF LEBEN UND TOD – STERNSTUNDEN UND NIEDERLAGEN DER MEDIZIN A MATTER OF LIFE & DEATH – MAGIC MOMENTS & DARK HOURS IN THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE Nina Koshofer, Stefan Schneider 38 AUTOBAHNRASER A2 RACER Michael Keusch 39 BALTIC STORM Reuben Leder AT B E R L I N 40 BLUEPRINT GERMAN CINEMA Rolf Schuebel 41 CHARLOTTE AT BERLIN PERSPECTIVES Ulrike von Ribbeck GERMAN CINEMA 42 FRAU FAEHRT, MANN SCHLAEFT WOMAN DRIVING, MAN SLEEPING Rudolf Thome 43 FREMDER FREUND AT B E R L I N THE FRIEND GERMAN CINEMA Elmar Fischer 44 GATE TO HEAVEN Veit Helmer 45 GEGEN DIE WAND AT B E R L I N HEAD-ON IN COMPETITION Fatih Akin 46 KLEINRUPPIN FOREVER Carsten Fiebeler 47 KROKO AT B E R L I N Sylke Enders GERMAN CINEMA 48 DIE NACHT SINGT IHRE LIEDER NIGHTSONGS AT B E R L I N IN COMPETITION Romuald Karmakar 49 ROSENHUEGEL ROSEHILL Mari Cantu 50 SAMS IN GEFAHR MY MAGICAL FRIEND SAMS Ben Verbong 51 SOLOALBUM AT B E R L I N Gregor Schnitzler GERMAN CINEMA 52 THE STRATOSPHERE GIRL AT B E R L I N M. X. Oberg PANORAMA 53 UNTERWEGS AT BERLIN EN ROUTE PERSPECTIVES Jan Krueger GERMAN CINEMA 54 WAS NUETZT DIE LIEBE IN GEDANKEN AT B E R L I N LOVE IN THOUGHTS PANORAMA Achim von Borries 57 film exporters 59 foreign representatives · imprint (photo courtesy of Filmbild Fundus) Scene from ”Far Away Scene from So Close“ FAR AWAY AND YET SO CLOSE: GERMAN-FRENCH FILM RELATIONS What makes great events so satisfying? The fact that they begin in a really tremendous,“ says Hernandez today – but the ”emotional small way, like everything else. One example is a story from exactly quality“ of the mother-son relationship before the background of a year ago. Visiting French distributors had just seen a film called the fall of the Wall, a topic that fascinates people in France as well, Good Bye, Lenin! at the Berlin Film Festival, and in fact, for a gives the film its simple conviction. Good Bye, Lenin!, Océan’s German film, it wasn’t bad at all. The professionals acknowledged first German film, thus became the first German-language block- afterwards that it might attract 100,000 viewers in France, but they buster in France for 22 years – since Uli Edel’s drug story We also hesitated. Who would have the courage to release such a film Children from Bahnhof Zoo (Christiane F. – Wir – in France, where German cinema has been poison to the box Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo, almost 2.9 million viewers). offices for years? Then suddenly, the man called ”Jeannot“ by the big Parisian family of distributors charmingly begged his colleagues: Generally speaking, 2003 was a year of international successes for “Oh, let me have it, I have a space in my program at the moment.“ German cinema: an OSCAR for Caroline Link’s Nowhere in Africa (Nirgendwo in Afrika), Wolfgang Becker’s triumph So Jean Hernandez, director of the young Océan Films worldwide, the Coppa Volpi in Venice for the very German star, Distribution, secured himself the scoop of the year 2003 as casual- Katja Riemann – perhaps this really has triggered the ”renaissance ly and cleverly as that – and Fabienne Vonier from Pyramide of German film“ in France, too, as the French film magazine Positif Distribution related the tale at the first German-French film meet- so obligingly predicted. On the other hand, it is of course true to ing in Lyon in November 2003, to the great amusement of 150 say: where there was scarcely anything left, even a little is a lot. But specialists from the field. It was a modesty that was destined to pay: what would a renaissance deserving the name actually signify? One Wolfgang Becker’s Good Bye, Lenin! – deliberately marketed or two German films in the competition at Cannes each year, cur- as a German film available only in the original version with subtitles rent films by German directors everywhere in French cinemas, and – drew almost 1.5 million viewers to cinemas in France. ”That is the number of viewers watching these running to six figures on a kino 1 focus on german-french film relations 2004 4 Scene from ”The Tin Drum“ ”The Tin Scene from reliable basis? A renaissance would mean – in other words – condi- until 1997; Fassbinder in 1974 with Fear Eats the Soul (Angst tions like those 20 to 35 years ago. essen Seele auf) and again in 1978 with Despair; and Werner Herzog in 1975 with Every Man For Himself and God Against All (Jeder fuer sich und Gott gegen alle), for PARADISE LOST: CANNES which he received the Grand Prix Spécial du Jury, and later with other films including Woyzeck (1979) and Fitzcarraldo (1982). And At that time, France was a true paradise for some German film- there was influential French film criticism, more powerful than makers: Volker Schloendorff and Wim Wenders, Rainer Werner today and led by the Cahiers du Cinéma, which supported and pre- Fassbinder and Werner Herzog had a safe platform in Cannes, and sented German films to audiences – so well that these directors’ that was right at the top, in the competition – Schloendorff as early films, or at least some of them, ran more successfully in France than as 1966 with his debut Young Toerless (Der junge in Germany, particularly Wenders’ Golden Palm winner, Paris, Toerless) and above all with the Golden Palm in 1979 for The Texas (1984). Tin Drum (Die Blechtrommel); Wenders with Kings of the Road (Im Lauf der Zeit, 1976), going on to become the The Germans, for their part, were interested in the greats of the unchallenged German record-holder with a total of seven films up Nouvelle Vague, in François Truffaut, Claude Chabrol and Eric Scene from ”Kings ofScene from the Road“ kino 1 focus on german-french film relations 2004 5 Scene from ”Fear Eats the Soul“ ”Fear Scene from Rohmer, but also in the unwieldy Jacques Rivette and Jean-Luc symptom: the last primarily German-speaking competition film in Godard – all star directors who in their turn made French acting Cannes was Wenders’ sequel to Wings of Desire (Der stars from Catherine Deneuve to Fanny Ardant, Isabelle Adjani, Himmel ueber Berlin): Far Away, So Close! (In weiter Jean-Pierre Léaud or Jean-Paul Belmondo better known in Ferne, so nah!) in 1993 – 11 years ago! Germany. The other way around, Romy Schneider and Fassbinder’s icon Hanna Schygulla became international stars after moving to Far away, so close: today the title is more fitting than ever. France France, surely the world’s most attractive terrain for the projection and Germany have grown apart cinematically in the last ten to of the self-image. Meanwhile, one or two generations have passed twenty years. This already becomes clear in the true field of com- since this curiosity for great European names in artistic film, which bined creative effort, in co-productions. In the early sixties, legen- also reflected vital impulses from Great Britain and Italy. Not much dary works like the Artur Brauner production Menschen im has matured subsequently, at least nothing with a fascination Hotel with O.W. Fischer and Michèle Morgan drew in audiences beyond the national boundaries; the old names still retain an to view German-French collaboration, and well into the seventies echoing sparkle. Chabrol and Rohmer still attract in Germany their many entertainment films, led by the inexhaustible Angélique series, regular audiences of over 100,000 and the French are true to were co-produced – but there has been a decline in activity since Wenders, Herzog and the legend of Fassbinder. A characteristic then. Of course, in the nineties there were examples of a bilateral Werner Herzog during the shooting of Herzog Werner ”Fitzcarraldo“ (photo courtesy of Filmbild Fundus) kino 1 focus on german-french film relations 2004 6 readiness to invest, for example in the production of Margarethe Petzold and Oskar Roehler – who have found themselves a respec- von Trotta's The Promise (Das Versprechen, Bioskop/ table place in German cinema – have had little chance in France as Munich, Odessa/Paris) or Volker Schloendorff's The Ogre (Der yet.