Greetings from snow-bound Berlin. Instead of tearing through the Berlin winter running after the likes of Renee Zellweger I am doing what any sensible person would do in these circumstances - spending a lazy morning drinking excellent coffee chez Göttsching.Here's some news of what Ilona Ziok (Missus Manuel), my dear filmmaking friend, and Manuel are up to.
On Sunday at 5pm Ilona has the world premiere of her latest documentary - Fritz Bauer - Death by Instalmets. It's a blinder. I had a sneak preview. German State Attorney General Bauer devoted his life to rooting out the Nazis gone to ground in the political and legal system just after the war. He helped get Eichmann brought to Israellfor trial and had the honour of the "Valkyrie" plotters posthumously and officially restored. Strangely enough, he ended up dead in his bathtub with his arms folded peacefully across his chest... It's a wonderful but chilling documentary that leaves you with surges of impuissant anger against evil institutionalised on the system....Here's the website.
Then at 9pm they have organised a Carl Laemmle evening (that's him on the left). Laemmle founded Universal Studios and they are showing Hiawatha (1909) his first film with a soundtrack specially composed by Manuel. This soiree will take place at the famous ufa Fabrik, the birthplace of German cinema. For those of you who are in Berlin or roundabouts, you can find details here.
Many directors during the Nazi era left the ufa to go to... Hollywood!!!
Bisous from Berlin, FP.
3 comments:
Deeply envious, very unhappy about being stuck in Somerset... Are you going to see the restored version of Metropolis?
FP: there's an intriguing detail re. Spill posters, I play a game to try and guess the poster when I see a new post and I'm usually correct, I knew this was yours as soon as I read 'greetings from...." etc, I think it's called style. Another minor detail, the camera that Carl Laemmle is standing next to is an Akeley, a very advanced camera in it's day, easily identifiable by it's round shape, an even more trivial detail, Robert Flaherty used Akeleys when he spent a year in the arctic shooting Nanook of the North and then all of his nitrate footage went up in flames when he started editing and he had to go back and do it all again, the version that you see was based on his second year in the arctic.
See what you get for posting pictures of obscure cameras,
I'll bet there's those who knew it was me without looking for a name!
@ Hach: Yes I did. Wonderful with the orchestra - superb evening. Drank irish coffees in the Adlon afterwards and watched Ewan McG and Pearce B. in the lobby. Joe Pesci was just over the way.
@ GF: I knew it was you with the camera-lore. Who else?
Post a Comment