Saving The Greats for last (for part I of this series, see previous article below):
Ulrich Seidl* is working on two projects. The documentary IM KELLER, started three years ago, deals with Austrians‘ strange relationship with their basements. I shudder to think what it will unearth. And together with curator and wife Veronika Franz he is planning the horror film ICH SEH/ICH SEH for 2014: When a mother “comes home after cosmetic surgery entirely bandaged, nothing is like it was before,” as the producer’s announcement goes. Some might claim most of his films are horror films one way or another (I am still somewhat sick from his 2001 DOG DAYS, but no regrets!).
The Goethe-Institut has many times and across the globe --in Toronto in 2007-- shown
Edgar Reitz' 3-day made-for-TV labour of love HEIMAT, a German chronicle of the 20th century as seen from the perspective of the fictional but authentic German village of Schabbach. The 80-year-old pioneer of the Oberhausen Manifesto is now back on the
big screen. DIE ANDERE HEIMAT*,
starring Werner Herzog, in theatres 3 October, jumps back to the mid-19th century and includes a story of emigration.
Heimatfilm reimagined. Here's a
German news report visiting the set of the latest, fourth part of the project.
Further ahead:
Volker Schlöndorff ...
<* more in following entry on German Films @ TIFF 2013 to be posted on August 13!>
...is in development for MONTAUK, inspired by Max Frisch's novel of the same name: Writer Max travels to his former home New York to attend the premiere of his latest play when his past catches up with him. With another (French-German) project he follows his scrutiny of 20th century German history: DIPLOMATIE tackles the events of 25 August 1944, when the German Commander of Paris, General von Choltitz, defies Hitler in not bombing the city to bits.
Margarethe von Trotta is at work on her next directorial project, DIE ABHANDENE WELT, a drama around a jazz singer who finds out she has a sister in New York and decides to get to know her. Starting production in New York at the end of the year. And
Chris Kraus (4 MINUTES; THE POLL DIARIES), who I had the pleasure of interviewing during TIFF 2010 at our Goethe Directors Talks, is working on "Die Blumen von gestern" (roughly Yesterday's Flowers).
In an update to my spring blog entry on
German films in production, the busy
Wim Wenders, with James Marsh, Michael Madsen, Karim Ainouz, Michael Glawogger, and Robert Redford, will release
CATHEDRALS OF CULTURE this October, the anticipated
3D and 2D documentary TV series about the soul of buildings. The team of six award-winning filmmakers lets six significant and very different buildings speak for themselves. The series aims to explore how buildings reflect our culture. Each is portrayed by a different filmmaker who brings his own visual style and artistic approach to the project, answering the question: “If buildings could talk, what would they tell about us?”:
Karim Ainouz: Building in negotiation
Michael Glawogger: National Library - St. Petersburg, Russia
Michael Madsen: Halden Prison – Halden, Norway
James Marsh: St. Pancras Railway Station – London, United Kingdomn
Robert Redford: The Salk Institute – La Jolla, Kalifornien, USA
Wim Wenders: Berlin Philharmonic – Berlin, Germany
He will be even busier now that he has announced
he will be a hands-on mentor for the fellows selected to work with his new Düsseldorf-based Wenders Foundation.
Much further down the line --as in "script in development"-- are two note-worthy projects.
Sandra Nettelbeck (BELLA MARTHA; MR. MORGAN'S LAST LOVE) tries to find out "what won't kill us" in WAS UNS NICHT UMBRINGT. The author-director creates a tragic-comic dance around the middle of life - love, menopause, separation and new encounters included. In short: mid-life survival.
Actor Aykut Kayacik (of ALMANYA fame) will try his hand at writing with a Camel for Breakfast (KAMEL ZUM FRÜHSTÜCK). The comedy centres around 26 year-old Kevin from eastern Germany, who finds out that he has a (deceased) Turkish father plus larger family plus camel. The successful German subgenre of (mostly Turkish-themed) "multikulti" crosses over into the German East-West arena. Interesting...
Finally, under the heading “Not a German film in production but still”, the German media were full of George Clooney sightings over the past few months, from Potsdam’s UFA studios to the town of Goslar. THE MONUMENTS MEN, which he directs and which is scheduled to be out January 2, 2014, is an action thriller starring Matt Damon, Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett and Clooney. In a race against time, a crew of art historians and museum curators unite to recover renown works of art stolen by Nazis before Hitler destroys them. NATIONAL TREASURE meets VALKYRIE meets THE GOOD GERMAN? I will go and see it of course.
Happy summer, back in August with a TIFF sneak peek and fall announcements!
by Jutta Brendemühl
