Presskit GOETHE

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GOETHE !

A film by Philipp Stölzl

Starring Alexander Fehling, Miriam Stein, Moritz Bleibtreu, Volker Bruch, Burghart Klaussner

produced by Senator Film and Deutschfilm, in co-production with Warner Bros. Film Prod. Germany and SevenPictures Film, in co-production with Erfttal Film, Goldkind Film, HerbX Film, Magnolia Film, CC Medien, Summerstorm Entertainment

Funded by:

Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Filmstiftung Nordrhein- Westfalen, Filmförderungsanstalt, Deutscher Film Förderfonds, Film Fernsehfonds Bayern, Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein

CAST

Alexander Fehling Johann Goethe Miriam Stein Lotte Buff Moritz Bleibtreu Albert Kestner Volker Bruch Jerusalem Burghart Klaussner Lotte's father Henry Hübchen Johann's father Hans-Michael Rehberg Judiciary President Kammermeier Linn Reusse Anna Buff

CREW

Director Philipp Stölzl Producers Christoph Müller, Helge Sasse Screenwriters Philipp Stölzl, Christoph Müller, Alexander Dydyna Co-producers Anatol Nitschke, Stefan Gärtner, Joachim Kosack, Klaus Dohle, Sven Burgemeister, Michael Bully Herbig, Christian Angermayer Nina Bohlmann, Babette Schröder, Matthias Triebel Production Manager Peter Hartwig Director of photography Kolja Brandt Film editor Sven Budelmann Costume design Birgit Hutter Make-up Kitty Kratschke, Heike Merker Production design Udo Kramer Music Ingo L. Frenzel

TECHNICAL DETAILS

Shooting period: August to October 2009 Format: 35 mm Cinemascope Length: 99 minutes Locations: Görlitz, Schloss Merseburg, Quedlinburg, Osterwieck, Wasserschloss Tauchritz, Fürst- Pückler-Park in Bad Muskau, Dresden, Creuzburg, and Krompach in the Czech Republic

German theatrical release: 14 October 2010

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 SUMMARY

When the young and still unsuccessful poet Johann Goethe neglects his law studies, his furious father orders him to take a position at the court of justice in a small, sleepy town. There he falls madly in love with a young woman, Lotte, and it seems like their happiness could be perfect. But they both don't know that Lotte has already been promised to Kestner, Johann's superior...

PRESS NOTES

With its enthralling story about love, death, and art, "Goethe!" is a feature film that dusts off the image of a German legend and lets it shine in new colors. Philipp Stölzl directed his first film after "North Face," his award-winning drama about mountain climbers, in an intensive, comical, and touching manner, an elaborate extravaganza filmed against lovingly evoked 18th-century panoramas. The film revolves around the 22-year-old man who would later become a poet laureate, Johann Goethe. He falls head over heels in love with young Lotte Buff, who inspires him to write his epistolary novel "The Sorrows of Young Werther" (Die Leiden des jungen Werther), which over night makes him the first best-selling author in Europe. Produced by Christoph Müller ("Sophie Scholl"), "Goethe!" features an all-star cast: Alexander Fehling ("Storm," "Inglourious Basterds") as the hero; Moritz Bleibtreu as his superior and rival; and also Burghart Klaussner ("The White Ribbon") and Henry Hübchen ("Go For Zucker!"). The newcomer Miriam Stein plays the role of Lotte, the young woman adored by Goethe.

CONTENT

Strasbourg, 1772: The 22-year-old law student Johann Goethe is more interested in wine, women, and song than studying. He makes fun of the bourgeois – especially the corny poems of the poets idolized in the parlor rooms. For Goethe is determined to become a poet, too. He has poured his heart and soul into writing the dramatic play "Götz von Berlichingen," which he then sends off to a publisher in Leipzig. Because Johann neglects his studies, he fails his doctoral examination. Furious, his father refuses to continue paying for Johann's obviously useless university education. Goethe the Elder arranges a position for his son as an article clerk at the court of justice in the provincial town of Wetzlar. Because the publisher rejects "Götz," Johann is flat broke and he has to do what his father demands.

In the labyrinthine corridors of the courthouse, it doesn't take long before Johann clashes with his strict, by-the-book superior, court councilor Kestner. But he soon makes an impression because he's so intelligent – he doesn't let himself become discouraged by any of Kestner's chicanery, and Kestner is impressed by how Goethe accomplishes the almost impossible amount of work that has to be done. And so at the end of his probation period he's given a position at the court.

Johann becomes friends with his colleague Wilhelm Jerusalem. They go together to a ball, where Johann meets the tipsy Lotte Buff for the first time; she accidentally bumps against him and as a result, he has a huge wine stain on the only suit he owns. The heated exchange of words between the two of them is not really a good way to start a relationship. Johann and Wilhelm use the opportunity that evening to get drunk.

But in church a short time later, Johann hears Lotte, a gifted soloist, sing during mass. He has to admit to himself and his friend that he's impressed after all by this quick-witted young woman. When Johann and Wilhelm go on a horseback ride soon afterwards, "by coincidence" they just happen to ride to the village of Wahlheim, where Lotte lives with her father and numerous younger brothers and sisters. The unannounced visitors surprise Lotte as she's busy baking bread, and they gladly help her with this house chore and play with the small children. Indeed, they have a very pleasurable day. Deep down inside, Lotte senses that she also likes Johann very much.

The two starry-eyed lovers, however, both wait for the other one to make the first move and write a love letter. And so tense days go by and nothing at all happens. But then they can't stand it anymore: They simultaneously leave to go visit each other – Johann rides to Wahlheim, and Lotte drives with her one-horse carriage to Wetzlar. By happenstance, they don't cross paths. Later on, under a pretense Lotte manages to get into the courthouse. She finds several drafts of a love letter to her in Johann's empty office.

On their way home, Johann and Lotte run into each other on the outskirts of the city and spend a wonderful time together in the countryside in summer. Lotte playfully forces the "poet" to finally recite some of his lyric poetry. The two of them seek shelter in a picturesque ruin when a cloudburst catches them by surprise, and for the first time their feelings of love for one another are fulfilled.

The result of this rendezvous is that the two lovers come down with a bad cold. The court councilor, Kestner, has known the Buff family for years, and in the meantime he adores Lotte, who is now a young woman. He visits her on her sick bed, and Lotte senses how much the shy Kestner is in love with her, even if she doesn't feel the same way about him. Her father would like to have Kestner as his son-in-law, one reason being that Kestner would be willing to help finance the education of Lotte's brothers and sisters. Her father hopes Lotte will understand these are good reasons to marry him, but he doesn't want to directly force her to. During a conversation with her sister Anna, however, Lotte realizes how much her father is counting on Kestner's support and therefore on Lotte agreeing to marry him. Meanwhile, Wilhelm falls passionately in love with an older, red-haired woman – but the woman is already married. At the same time, Johann wants to do something nice for Lotte: he makes her a cardboard theater and plans to perform Lessing's "Emilia Galotti" for Lotte with it, because she has never seen the play she adores so much on stage.

In the meantime, Kestner decides to finally ask for Lotte's hand in marriage and pay a formal visit to the Buffs. As he's extremely satisfied with Johann's work, now the court councilor treats the article clerk in a more obliging manner. So he invites Johann to join him and go hunting. Happy, he tells Johann he will be engaged very soon, but he doesn't mention the name of his bride-to-be. Johann is happy for Kestner and gives him advice on what to say to his beloved one to win her over. Kestner asks Lotte for her hand in marriage in front of her father. With tears in her eyes, she accedes to her father's wishes and agrees to marry him. Sad, afterwards she immediately writes Johann a farewell letter, but the letter doesn't reach him in time because he's already on his way to see the woman he loves and present her with the cardboard theater.

And so Johann, not suspecting a thing, arrives in the middle of the engagement celebrations at the Buff family home. When he finds himself confronted with the terrible truth, he struggles to keep his composure. But Johann's strange behavior and the flamboyant present he has for Lotte makes Kestner realize right away that apparently Johann and Lotte know each other quite well. He insists

Johann leave immediately, and he discusses the situation with his future father-in-law. The elderly Buff forbids his daughter to see Johann again.

At the same time, Wilhelm's lover decides to end their affair and stay with her husband. Johann and Wilhelm go to the annual fair and get drunk on belladonna and alcohol. But nothing can console Wilhelm, who is deeply disappointed. His love pangs turn into depression, and then into a death wish: Johann watches helplessly as his distraught friend puts a pistol to his head and pulls the trigger. In the meantime, Lotte's father realizes how much she suffers from the separation from Johann. So he asks Kestner to dissolve the engagement. Kestner realizes his plans are in danger and drastically changes his attitude toward Johann. The situation escalates into an argument – the main reason being Kestner's cynical reaction to Wilhelm's tragic death. Unhappy and depressed, Johann lets his emotions get the best of him and he slaps Kestner in front of witnesses. Although duels are punishable by law, Kestner's honor has been offended and he doesn't see any other possibility: he demands satisfaction.

The two men meet with their seconds. Johann fires the first shot and misses Kestner. Then Kestner shoots in the air – and arrests his opponent for breaking the law. Johann is thrown in the courthouse jail. In his desperation, he feverishly starts writing "The Sorrows of Young Werther" – his and Lotte's story, although he calls himself Werther in the book. In the manuscript Werther commits suicide because of his unrequited love.

Kestner tells Lotte Johann left the city without saying a word of farewell – he doesn't mention the duel and having Johann arrested to his bride-to-be. And so Lotte prepares for the wedding with Kestner, and then she receives a letter from Johann with his manuscript. Lotte reads the epistolary novel and starts to panic more and more: Does this mean that Johann, like Werther, will commit suicide? Angry and fearful, Lotte goes to the courthouse and confronts Kestner. She accuses him of lying and insists she be allowed to visit Johann in his cell. Kestner resigns when he realizes there's no use in trying to stop her.

When Lotte walks into Johann's cell, they both know that everything that's important will be decided in this moment: life, love, and death …

PRODUCER'S NOTE

Goethe is Germany's most famous and important poet and philosopher, and yet there still hasn't been a relevant feature film about this extraordinary personality.

There's a reason for this, too: Goethe could do everything and was everything! He was handsome, came from a wealthy family, wrote successful novels, theater plays and poems, was an accomplished horseback rider and fencer, invented roller skates and discovered the pharyngeal bone, and he was a natural scientist, privy councilor, traveler, artist, minister, lawyer, and much, much more – all in all, a universal genius and thus a completely non-dramatic character for a feature film!

But there was a time in young Goethe's life when he was tortured by self-doubt and self-discovery. A time when he almost died due to an unrequited love, and the only thing that rescued him was dealing with the episode by writing about it.

The film "Goethe!" tells the story of this 23-year-old, who achieved his greatest artistic success as a result of his greatest love pangs: "The Sorrows of Young Werther." The appeal of the story is showing that Goethe was not always the mythical figure and all-round genius as portrayed in thousands of books, interpretations and theories, but rather he was a young man who loved and suffered.

Christoph Müller

PRODUCTION NOTES

"What's exciting about the story of how 'Werther' was created is that it was Goethe's most personal, almost autobiographic novel, a work he was the proudest of, along with 'Faust'," says the producer and co-author, Christoph Müller.

"What's also unusual about the publishing history of 'Werther' is that the exciting story in the epistolary novel has always been, even back then, viewed in connection with the actual events in Goethe's life: Almost every reader knew Goethe had experienced the love story with Lotte himself," reports Müller. "The wave of suicides as a result of 'Werther' was the first media phenomenon and had never been seen before. The young men who killed themselves after reading 'Werther' ignored, however, the fact that Goethe was able to rescue himself from his self-destructive mood by writing the book." But not only unhappy lovers devoured the famous novel. " 'Werther' was an immense catalyst of sentimental pessimism, yearning, and passion," says Müller. "At first I developed a cinematic story that dealt with the period after the success of 'Werther' and Goethe's writer's block afterwards – until my brother Markus came up with the idea that it would be much more exciting to develop the story of the 'blissful and dangerous summer of 1772 in Wetzlar,' which led to the creation of 'Werther.' We then worked on different constellations of this story for a long time, but not until Philipp Stölzl and our young co-author, Alexander Dydyna, came along did we finally manage to hit on the right concept for the script."

Director and co-author Philipp Stölzl adds, "I thought the idea to tell the story about the young Goethe was great – about Sturm und Drang, about the period when he still wasn't the famous privy councilor, minister, and poet laureate. Goethe studies law, he writes poetry, he falls unhappily in love, he fights with his father. This has elements of a young man's rebellion; this is a Goethe you want to see in the cinema."

Christoph Müller has this to say about the celebrated director of the dramatic film about mountain climbers, "North Face": "I thought working with Philipp was very inspiring – I like how precisely he handles language, timing, and direction. For me as the producer, working together on the screenplay is the ideal way to do it, because you can adjust extremely well to the director's work methods before you start shooting the film."

Stölzl says, "At the same time, financing the film worked out very well and happened very quickly. We only needed about a year, from the moment we started to write the script to the moment we began shooting the film. Goethe as the concept, Christoph as the producer, me as the director – that worked." Capable co-workers such as the production manager Peter Hartwig are indispensable; he not only took care of the cast and crew from morning to night during the shooting of "Goethe!", he also was involved in scouting for locations "on the side." 6

Christoph Müller says, "A historical film is just as elaborate as a science fiction film: you have to create a completely new world, because you can't find locations that look like how it looked in the 18th century anymore."

New and familiar faces in front of the camera "Alexander Fehling had already been in films, but I didn't know him," says the director, Philipp Stölzl. "He was the first candidate to show up at the casting for the role of Goethe, and I knew after a minute that he's our lead actor. He was 100% convincing. And then shooting with Alexander confirmed it completely: he's an absolutely exceptional actor. He can play the comical moments as well as the tragic ones, he has an unbelievable palette – everything you want from an actor. We were extremely lucky to find him. His precise performance is also the result of our working closely together – we worked on and tried many variations together to arrive at what would serve the role the best."

The producer, Christoph Müller, had this to say about the actress who plays Lotte: "It's very, very rare that you discover someone like Miriam Stein. With Goethe and also with Lotte, we considered whether we should cast established stars, because with an elaborate costume film, in your mind you automatically see big names on the film poster. But we liked Miriam the best for the role of Lotte; she had never been in a feature film before. She rewarded us with her unbelievably intense performance."

Stölzl adds, "As Lotte, with her tousled hair, young Miriam Stein is the right contrast to Goethe. Most of all, she's a convincing actress with a large emotional range, which enraptured me and made me proud." Goethe is not the only one who falls in love with Lotte – his superior, court councilor Kestner, does, too. Moritz Bleibtreu plays this role. "Moritz feels at home in every genre, from drama to comedy," says Müller. "With his very perceptive performance in the difficult role of Kestner he resonates with the audience."

The director Philipp Stölzl adds, "You could have also cast Kestner as being more bureaucratic and grayer. But we wanted to show him also as an attractive man – the audience has to believe he wants to marry this girl at all costs. There's something touching about that. This means the two men trying to win over Lotte's heart have more or less the same chance. If you wanted to make the accents clear from the start, then over here you would have the young, good-looking wild one, and over there the plain, boring one, who can only offer the girl a long and dismal married life, and then there wouldn't be any tension. That's why I'm even happier now about how well the triangle works between the men and Lotte." The ensemble includes two top-class actors in the roles of the fathers: Burghart Klaussner and Henry Hübchen shine with the qualities you want to have for these small and yet decisive roles. And so the cast of new faces and established actors complement each other and become a unit that appeals to every audience.

Goethe's world – smoke and patina "As the audience, you know and fear the costume film, where the actors seem to be wearing costumes and you have the feeling any second now in the background a group of tourists is going to walk through the castle," says the director, Philipp Stölzl. "That's usually because the filmmakers want to present history as being cleaner than it really was. So we used as our guideline the fact that when Goethe was alive the toilet hadn't been invented yet. If you look at the historical paintings of German cities you realize that at that time they didn't have paved streets yet, just mud, and the buildings were 7

crooked and warped, paint peeled off the facades, chickens ran around everywhere, sewage flowed through ditches in the middle of the street. At night it was pitch dark, they only had candles for light." "So we wanted to have realistic images: smoke and patina are perhaps the best words to describe it," adds Christoph Müller. "The streets back then were muddy and dirty – you sense that traveling was exhausting and you had to overcome hindrances, there were vapors, smoke, and noise. Appropriately, not one of our costumes looks like it was delivered by a costume company warehouse that morning: All of the clothes in our film were artificially patinated so they look as if the characters in the film had been wearing them already for a long time. The audience shouldn't be amazed by museum-like images, but rather notice that it's watching a modern, entertaining and yet historical film. This impression is really important to us – that's why we make sure that the sets and costumes are accurate."

Stölzl continues, "The costumes of the period present a big problem for filmmakers. Many of the people at that time still wore wigs, and other people had already cut off their proverbial 'old pigtails' and wore their own hair short. When you see men in wigs and those knickerbockers they wore at that time they often look a little absurd – so we had big problems creating the costumes in such a way that they looked wholeheartedly convincing. But in the end we succeeded."

Philipp Stölzl has this to say about his work methods: "I insist that everything look as authentic as possible. We researched the 18th century with the wonderful production designer Udo Kramer, who had already worked on 'North Face,' and we used paintings by Canaletto as a starting point. What did the cities and buildings look like at that time? What kind of different architecture was there? What did the interiors look like? We found most of the locations that suited our purposes in Eastern Germany, in Thuringia and Saxony, also from a practical point of view: where can we find as many locations as possible that are very close together? We always planned to use original locations, and we would then add elements to suit our purposes in individual cases. The film crew put everything that was missing into the existing spaces to round out the overall image. This 'mixture technique' was invented by Udo and it's what I prefer, because one hundred percent studio sets always lack the last speck of authenticity, and if you use an original location then you often have the feeling you're in a museum because the filmmakers aren't allowed to change anything or adapt it for the camera. The mixture technique demands a lot of supplemental work from the set designer, but the result is more homogenous."

The main locations in the film are the courthouse in Wetzlar and the Buff family home. For the location of the Buff home, the filmmakers selected Wasserschloss Tauchritz, a rather dilapidated castle with a moat near Görlitz on the Polish border. The location was noticeably altered: stairs, a kitchen, and a fireplace were added. The patina was left on the walls, but a lot of paint was necessary to make it suitable as a film location. In general, 60 percent of a set was the original space, and 40 percent was added by Udo Kramer and his set design crew. For the courthouse, the film team chose a Renaissance building in Görlitz that is normally empty; inside the building, the set crew used many of the actual walls and floors and added some interior decoration in order to attain the right composition. The poetry reading in Rococo atmosphere was shot in Görlitz at the local museum. It was important to plan everything with the director of photography, because he couldn't move the walls for the best position of the camera like you can on a studio set. "We selected the locations from the start in such a manner that the camera could be moved freely – the jail cell was the exception, which was too narrow," remembers the director, Philipp Stölzl. "On the other hand, I don't really like to use the movable walls in a studio, because if you use them too much and the camera is positioned too far away from the objects you get an artificial look that looks 8

like 'studio.' Overall, you find yourself on thin ice very quickly with a costume film, because often the characters seem very artificial in their powdered wigs. I did research for a long time and watched a lot of films to make sure I avoided this. The questions concerning lighting are part of this, too. They only had candlelight at that time – and that's often too dark for the camera. How much light should you add? You have to find a middle ground in order to show how the world looked back then in a way that's as believable as possible. That's why we decided to shoot only in real buildings."

Fact and fancy "The film 'Goethe!' is based for the most part on actual events. But if a Goethe expert says now that this or that scene never happened, that's the wrong way to approach our film. We were more concerned about showing truths, and they are more important than pure facts. You can't get very close to historical characters with facts alone," says the producer, Christoph Müller. "It was like that with 'Amadeus' and 'Shakespeare in Love.' "

Müller mentions an example: "In reality, the duel between Goethe and Kestner in the film never took place. But it's been proven that Goethe wished Kestner would die. Of course, you can put that across with dialogue. But it's more cinematic to transcribe this motif into dramatic images, in order to express what was really affecting Goethe in this situation. The duel sequence expresses, so to speak, Goethe's true emotions. An extreme example for such a dramatic truth is the key scene in Schiller's play 'Maria Stuart,' when Queen Elisabeth I and Maria Stuart have an argument in a park, although these historical figures never met. Schiller's theatrical invention gets us closer to these two persons than all of the facts rolled together ever could."

"We combine in our film Goethe's actual life with his own reflections on his life in 'Werther' – and this results in a new truth," says Christoph Müller. "We even express this theme in the film, when Lotte is asked, 'Did it actually happen this way? Is all of this true?' She answers, 'It is more than the truth. It is poetry.' "

CAST

Alexander Fehling - Johann Goethe

Born in 1981 in Berlin, Alexander Fehling studied from 2003–2007 at the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch in Berlin. In 2006, he received the O.E. Hasse Award from the Akademie der Künste (a sponsorship award for newcomer actors). A year later he won the German Film Sponsorship Award for his lead role in the film "Am Ende kommen Touristen." Recently Fehling appeared in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds." He also played roles in the films "The Art of Dying"; Andres Veiel's "Wer wenn nicht wir"; "13 Semester"; Hans-Christian Schmid's award-winning film "Storm"; and Heinrich Breloer's "The Buddenbrooks." His performances onstage include Peter Stein's production of the Friedrich Schiller trilogy "Wallensteins Lager / Die Piccolomini / Wallensteins Tod"; "Die lustigen Nibelungen"; "Glaube Liebe Hoffnung"; and "Schneewittchen."

Miriam Stein - Lotte Buff

In 1999 Miriam Stein received the German Television Sponsorship Award for her performance in "Das Mädchen aus der Fremde." There followed roles in the television films "Tod durch Entlassung"; "Alles wegen Hulk"; "Liebe and Wahn"; "Jimmie"; and Hermine Huntgeburth's "Neue Vahr Süd!" She also appeared recently in the cinema film "180° – Wenn deine Welt plötzlich Kopf steht."

Moritz Bleibtreu - Albert Kestner

Moritz Bleibtreu, born in 1971 in Munich, is one of the most important actors in Germany. He's the son of Monica Bleibtreu and Hans Brenner, and he studied acting in Rome, Paris, and New York; he had his debut onstage at Hamburger Schauspielhaus. His cinematic debut was in 1993 in Peter Timm's drama "Simply Love." He received rave reviews for his performances in, among other films, Tom Tykwer's "Run, Lola run" and Oliver Hirschbiegel's psycho thriller "The Experiment." Bleibtreu received the German Film Award for his role in the latter film and one for his role in Fatih Akin's romantic film "In July" in 2001. After "Agnes and his Brothers " he played a role in a Oskar Roehler film once again in 2006: he received a Silver Bear at the Berlinale in 2006 as Best Actor for his performance as a sexually disorientated teacher in "Elementary Particles." Recently, Bleibtreu has been performing more and more in international productions, including Steven Spielberg's drama "Munich." His recent German-language feature films were "The Baader Meinhof-Complex" (as Andreas Baader); Fatih Akin's "Soul Kitchen," which won an award at the Venice Film Festival; Bernd Eichinger’s production “Electro Ghetto”, “My Best Enemy” and Oskar Rohler's " Jew Suss: Rise and Fall" (as Joseph Goebbels).

Burghart Klaussner - Lotte's father

Born in Berlin, Burghart Klaussner started studying at the Freie Universität, and then in 1969 he started studying acting at the Max-Reinhard-Schule Berlin. Since then he has performed on almost every important theater stage in German-speaking countries. Klaussner had his cinematic debut in 1983 in director Dietrich Schubert's first feature film, "Ziemlich weit weg." Numerous ambitious cinematic productions were to follow. He worked with the director 10

Hans-Christian Schmid on "23," "Crazy," and "Requiem," and he was nominated for the German Film Award in 2006 as Best Supporting Actor for his role in that film. Burghart Klaussner was presented with this renowned award the year before for his performance as the kidnapped manager in Hans Weingartner's celebrated Cannes entry "The Edukators." At the International Film Festival Locarno in 2006 Klaussner was awarded the Silver Leopard as Best Actor for his performance in the lead role in "The Man from the Embassy" by Dito Tsintsadze. Burghart Klaussner played the judge next to Kate Winslet in the Oscar®-nominated adaption of the novel by the same name, "The Reader" (directed by Stephen Daldry). In the autumn of 2009 Burghart Klaussner was brilliant as the priest in Michael Haneke's drama "The White Ribbon," which won the Golden Palm at the International Film Festival in Cannes, followed by a Golden Globe and the European Film Award, and was also nominated for an Oscar® as Best Foreign Language Film. For his performance in the film, Burghart Klaussner not only received the German Film Critic's Award, he also received the German Film Award 2010 as Best Actor.

Henry Hübchen - Johann's father

Henry Hübchen, born in 1947 in Berlin-Charlottenburg, advanced to become one of the most sought after actors in East Germany after he finished his studies at the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch Berlin (and after he dropped out from the physics program at the HU Berlin). He was in "Jakob, the Liar" (1974, directed by Frank Beyer), and for his performance he was nominated for an Oscar®, the only Oscar® nomination for an East German film. He was also then making a name for himself in the legendary productions of stage director Frank Castorf at the Berlin Volksbühne as, among other roles, Kowalski in "A Streetcar Named Desire." Henry Hübchen celebrated his greatest triumph to date in Dani Levy's theatrical hit “Go for Zucker!” (2005) and won the German Film Award as the first actor from Eastern Germany after reunification. He also played alongside Katja Riemann in “Ein Mann für jede Tonart” (1993), starred in Dieter Wedel's TV series "Der Schattenmann" (1996) and "Der König von St. Pauli" (1997), was one of the stars in Leander Haussmann's comedy hit “Sun Alley” (1999) and dazzled in Hans-Christian Schmid's drama “Distand Lights” (2003). Among his most recent films are “Age and Beauty” (2008), “My Words, My Lies – My Love” and the Andreas Dresen comedy “Whiskey with Vodka” (both 2009).

BEHIND THE CAMERA

Philipp Stölzl - Director, screenwriter

Philipp Stölzl was born in 1967 in Munich, and he has been living for several years now in Berlin. His range as a director is large, from feature films to commercials, music videos to opera productions. Originally a set designer in theater, when he was in his late 20s Stölzl started to direct music videos and soon became internationally successful with these productions. He worked with, among others, Mick Jagger; Dave Stewart; Madonna; Luciano Pavarotti; Garbage; and Marius Müller Westernhagen. As a result, Stölzl was able to establish himself as a director of commercials, and he shot commercials for, among others, BMW; Nokia; Sony; and many other companies. In addition, several years ago he returned to the theater, directing and designing sets for classical operas, including productions for the Ruhrtriennale; the Salzburg Festival; and the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Despite his huge creative range, Stölzl's work focuses on feature films. "Goethe!" is his third feature film; his cinematic debut was "Baby" in 2002, followed in 2008 by the thrilling drama about mountain climbers, "North Face," which won two German Film Awards.

Christoph Müller - Producer, screenwriter

Christoph Müller, born in 1964 in Wuppertal, graduated from the Hochschule für Film and Fernsehen in Munich and was a co-author of Dominik Graf's film "The Scorpion" and Helmut Dietl's "Late Show," and he was executive producer on Bernd Eichinger's "Just the Two of Us." Afterwards he founded Goldkind Film in Munich with Bernd and Sven Burgemeister. Following successful movies such as "Soloalbum" he produced the Grimme Award-winning "Wholetrain" and Marc Rothemand's "Sophie Scholl," which won, among other awards, the Silver Bear; the Bavarian Film Award; the German Film Award; and the European Film Award. It was also nominated for an Oscar® as Best Foreign Language Film. From 2006 to 2009, Christoph Müller was managing director of Senator Film Production, where he produced, along with several co-productions, the successful comedy "Complete Idiot" with Oliver Pocher; the mystery thriller "The Door" starring Mads Mikkelsen and Jessica Schwarz; and the melancholic comedy "Whisky with Wodka" by Andreas Dresen and starring Henry Hübchen and Corinna Harfouch.

Alexander Dydyna - Screenwriter, producer

The 25-year-old Alexander Dydyna celebrated success as a stage actor at Schauspielhaus Hannover before he distinguished himself as a producer, director, author, and editor of several short films that won a number of awards. After numerous projects for various Germany-wide film and television productions as a dramatic advisor, story consultant, and producer, he had his cinematic debut as a screenwriter with the 2010 feature film "Goethe!" Alexander Dydyna lives and works in Berlin.

Kolja Brandt - Director of photography

In 2009, Kolja Brandt was awarded the German Film Award for his spectacular panoramas in Philipp Stölzl's "North Face." In 2006 he won the Bronze Camera at the Brothers Manaki International Film Festival with Detlev Buck's "Tough Enough," a festival dedicated solely to the works of directors of photography. Before that, he was involved in short films such as "Im Dunkeln" with Christoph Maria Herbst; "Drei Wünsche"; "Aus Liebe zur Gefahr"; and "Ferkel." Other productions include the academy film "Letting Go"; the television film "Tänze in der Nacht"; the television series "Boomtown Berlin"; numerous commercials and music videos; and most recently documentary films.

BETA CINEMA (world sales agent)

Beta Cinema, the theatrical division of Beta Film has established itself as a "boutique-operation" for independent feature films with strong theatrical potential. Beta Cinema's philosophy is to keep its selective acquisition policy of 10 to 15 titles per year in order to fully develop the theatrical potential of each title according to its individual character. Beta Cinema’s portfolio includes outstanding productions like "Viva Riva", which won 6 African Academy Awards 2011; "Black Bread", big winner at the Spanish Goya Awards 2011; German Film Award Winners "Vincent Wants to Sea" (2011), "Almanya" (2011) and "John Rabe" (2009); Berlin 2011 out of competition entry "My Best Enemy"; Cannes 2008 Jury Prize-winning "Il Divo"; Academy Award 2008-winning "The Counterfeiters"; Academy Award 2008 nominated "Mongol"; Academy Award 2007-winning "The Lives of Others"; and the Academy Award 2005-nominated "Downfall". 12