Canadian premiere! One night only Thursday 19 May 2022, 6:30 pm at GOETHE FILMS @ TIFF Lightbox: “Confessions of Felix Krull” by Detlev Buck... "the gin and tonic among Thomas Mann adaptations.” (Süddeutsche Zeitung)
When, after a few strokes of fate, an opportunity opens up for him to work as an elevator boy in a luxury hotel in Paris, small-town boy Felix Krull doesn't hesitate to leave his old life behind. He quickly rises to the position of head waiter, especially driving the female guests crazy. During a meeting with the Marquis Louis de Venosta, who is unhappily in love, the two come up with the idea of swapping identities to allow the Marquis to live with the free-spirited Zaza. Although for Felix this means losing the love of his life, Zaza, to another man, his insatiable hunger for change and social advancement is greater. His ability to charm and deceive people eventually leads him to the royal court of Lisbon, where he delivers his masterpiece as an impostor.
The remake of Thomas Mann's popular novel "Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man" was directed by Detlev Buck, the screenplay written by star author Daniel Kehlmann ("Tyll," "Measuring the World"). The cast is top-class: The role of the charming, slightly amoral but thoroughly amiable young Felix is played by Jannis Niewöhner (Munich; Je Suis Karl); Liv Lisa Fries (Munich; Babylon Berlin) takes on the part of Zaza, and Marquis Louis de Venosta is embodied by David Kross (The King's Man; The Reader).
"The character of Felix Krull is a very contemporary one," finds producer Markus Zimmer. "A young person who is not a hundred percent satisfied with their own identity and who tries to slash his way through life with tricks and gimmicks, helped by his dazzling appearance as well as his ability to manipulate others. We find these kinds of characters in abundance today, they just cavort on other platforms like reality shows or on Instagram. The goal is the same -- they want to be loved, to win people over and to be as materially well off as possible. They are looking for the good life without having to work too hard for it.”
To prepare, director Buck and the actors listened to Thomas Mann's own reading of Krull. Buck there hears "the longing of the impostor, the idler, living life as an illusionist. That is something that many people wish for but are not allowed to do. Krull does what Mann would have wished for but never dared to do. He tastes the sunny side, but as an impostor he must remain permanently in his role, otherwise he is outed. That's why he has to give up his love. That is his fate."
For leading actor Niewöhner, what makes Felix Krull so special are his looks and his lust for life: "Everything is love, every person is a game, he looks forward to every game. It's an incredible euphoria with which he goes through life. But behind that there's also a pressure never to satisfy yourself as the individual you are, but always to slip into other roles." David Kross, who plays the Marquis, adds to the playing of multiple personas, "You want to reflect yourself, that's what people are most interested in. To find similar emotions, situations that you've experienced to some extent yourself, in a story."
Niewöhner was no stranger to the part: "My uncle, a huge Thomas Mann fan, gave me the book when I was 18. He always saw me as a little Felix Krull when I was small. I've always loved dressing up and taking a playful approach to the world. So this story has been with me for a while and is close. For me, it's a project that gives me a lot of new opportunities to approach material in a different way, even linguistically. Because I don't have any training in that regard -- I've never been to acting school, I've only ever done film, and there are rarely texts like this. This is a great gift, and I was happy to accept it."
While working on the screenplay together with author Kehlmann, a devoted Mann fan, director Buck became aware of how current the background to the con theme is: The fear of poverty that drives Felix Krull is as relevant today as it was then, and the gap between rich and poor remains a major issue." But the character as Mann describes him, in love with the world without serving it in the bourgeois sense, is also contemporary, Buck says: "An illusionist, a dreamer, an impostor -- we love people who escape reality. People who dream give us strength in times like these," the director stresses.
For Niewöhner, this is a successful approach: "The fact that the book consists only of Felix's words, which he addresses to the reader, gives us a very strong insight into his world of thought. But it's also limited. The film goes a step further and shows the tragedy that lies beneath, including the broken Krull, who would never admit that he is broken. There's quite a crack behind this predisposition to keep putting himself in new roles and winning people over. You can read that in the novel, too; the movie puts it out there again."
"Through Instagram and the digital world, there is a giant stage for impostors that have nothing to do with reality," Kross elaborates about our contemporary illusory worlds, just like the one created by Krull around him. "Deep down, we know that this is not reality at all. Buck once said a society gets the movies it deserves." The film is set in 1905, "but it's not historical, it takes place in its own world, the Krull world and the Buck world, which is bigger and more colorful and brighter than the normal world," says Niewöhner. Liv Lisa Fries sums it up: "The film deals with who you are and who you want to be -- is that good? The viewer can ask himself the same questions."
Source: Warner Bros. Pictures Germany, DFF, © 2021 Bavaria Filmproduktion GmbH, Marco Nagel
Jannis Niewöhner in "Confessions of Felix Krull" (2021)
