Background: German Cinema

“When it comes to the number of films shown at the Berlinale, over 90 of them were either wholly German films or German co-productions – a new record,” said festival director, Dieter Kosslick, gleefully at the 2009 festival. What has brought about this boom? One of the major reasons why German films are beginning to make a name for themselves is most certainly the fact that the number of big productions involving international participation has risen sharply.

These films have well-known stars in them and the language they are shot in often enough is English – both these factors mean that they have a very good chance of bringing in all the money that was invested in them. Money that in fact is being spent more and more in Germany. “This is not only instrumental in sustainably strengthening the film business, but also in helping German subject matter, actors and writers to make it on the international scene,” says German Minister of State for Culture, Bernd Neumann.

Take the following for example: alongside the number of German co-productions there are films like The Reader (directed by Stephen Daldry) that was based on a German novel and has a German actor in a starring role, Sturm (Storm, directed by Hans Christian Schmid) has a German director and screen author or The International (directed by Tom Tykwer) that has a German director, a German cameraman and a German film editor. The German film industry owes this vitamin boost mainly to the German Federal Film Fund that was set up in 2007 – the fund subsidises a percentage of the money invested in film productions “made in Germany”.

Playing it safe – TV companies as co-producers

Big budgets require some form of economic security and this is provided by as diverse an exploitation as possible (cinema, DVD, TV). The film adaptations of literature and bio-pics are, for example, an indication of just how consistent this trend is. It is the adaptations of classics in particular, like Die Buddenbrooks (Heinrich Breloer) or Effi Briest (Hermine Huntgeburth) that guarantee TV audiences being kept happy and this no doubt is more important to the co-producing TV companies than pandering to the whims of any film buffs and artists. This is why the latter complain again and again – and often quite rightly so – about the influence these editors, who are so void of artistic interest and so averse to taking risks, have on their work.

Exciting treatments of contemporary history (The Baader Meinhof Complex, directed by Uli Edel) and biographies like Hilde (Kai Wessel) or John Rabe (Florian Gallenberger) along with film adaptations of literature in the meantime account for over one third of all German cinema film productions – and the trend is their friend. Not every film that deals with German history however requires a multi-digit budget of millions. In his film Dorfpunks Lars Jessen depicts, just as he did in his previous film Am Tag als Bobby Ewing starb (The Day Bobby Ewing Died), a telling glimpse of life in the 1980s. In his films he not only succeeds in resurrecting the dungaree and punk era, but also captivates his audience with the originality of his stories and the charm of his protagonists.

So what is already in the pipeline for 2009/2010? Sönke Wortmann’s adaptation of the book Die Päpstin (The Popess) or Margarethe von Trotta’s Vision – aus dem Leben der Hildegard von Bingen (Vision). Oskar Roehler’s biography of Ferdinand Marian – Jud Süss – Sympathie für den Teufel (Jew Süss) – is also being eagerly awaited.

On and on and on – the “Berliner School” and its epigones

In contrast to the historical dramas of the global stage there are the films devoted to people’s private dramas. Among the best in this category is most definitely Christian Petzold’s Jerichow – a tense psychodrama that he made with his gang of regulars, actors Nina Hoss and Benno Führmann. It is a remake of “The Postman Always Rings Twice” and in it Hoss and Führmann forge a plan to murder Hoss’s husband (Hilmi Sözer). Of course – nothing goes the way they planned it …

The critics coined a special phrase to describe Petzold’s lucid, dissecting approach – the “Berliner School”. Alle Anderen (Everyone Else), director Maren Ade’s entry at the Berlinale, is also strictly geared to this tradition. We become intimate onlookers of a gruelling love drama in which in the end there are no winners. The jury liked the film and awarded it two Silver Bear prizes – one for direction and one for outstanding actress in a leading role, Birgit Minichmayr.

Caroline Link’s long-awaited film Im Winter ein Jahr (A Year Ago In Winter) on the other hand has a completely different aesthetic approach to Petzold and Ade, yet is still a private drama, in which the grief and sorrow over the death of a son threatens to destroy the whole family.

In close-up – the Berlinale and the festival in Hof focus on authenticity

The third prevailing trend on the German filmmaking scene is the intimate examination of reality in documentary form, be it a feature film, pure documentary film or docu-drama. At the 2009 Berlinale’s Perspektive Deutsches Kino section about one third of the entries were once again documentary films. Achterbahn (English title Catapult, directed by Peter Dörfler) was particularly outstanding – a story without any false pathos about vehicle fleet operator, Witte, and how he failed.

The Hof Film Festival – another reliable stomping ground for new talent – showed Weltstadt by Christian Klandt. Based on a true story – in a small town in the state of Brandenburg a gang of youths set a homeless person on fire – Klandt covers the 24 hours leading up to the crime and reveals a breathtaking psychogram.

This balancing act between documentary and feature film is also the realm in which Julia von Heinz skilfully made her feature film debut with Was am Ende zählt (Nothing Else Matters). The film deals sensitively with subjects like child murder and lesbian love devoid of any voyeurism.

The best episode in the Deutschland 09 series (13 short films on the state of the nation) was also a documentary film by Romuald Karmarkar called Ramses. The director interviews the Iranian landlord of a brothel bar in Berlin and his objective questioning brings forth an interesting conversation. In the end Ramses says, “I would like to thank the German nation. I would like to thank the German people,” and it is as grotesque as only real life can be.

Outlook

At the moment German films have a 26.6 % share of the German market. It is however mostly humourless comedies like Keinohrhasen (Rabbit Without ears) or family films like Die wilden Hühner (The Wild Chicks) that constitute the lion’s share. We can only hope that sophisticated films – like Sturm – will not only be a hit with audiences at international film festivals, but also in cinemas all over Germany. Films like Sturm might then set the pattern for German film productions – putting an end at last to “playing it safe”.