GFQ 1-2006 - German Cinema

Elementarteilchen
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
Michael and Bruno are two half-brothers who could
scarcely be more different. Their mother Jane led a
carefree life in the jet set – while her sons grew up
separately with their respective grandmothers. While the
introverted molecular biologist Michael devotes his main
attention to genetic research rather than women, Bruno’s
“contacts” with the opposite sex have been expressed
more in his mind or in brothels.
Finally, however, each one of them meets the love of his
life: Michael re-encounters his former school friend
Annabelle, with whom he has shared a shy affection since
his early childhood. In contrast, Bruno gets to know
Christiane at an esoteric holiday camp; here is someone
with whom he can finally live out his sexual obsessions.
But their happiness appears short-lived – both women
become seriously ill. Bruno and Michael face the ultimate
decision: do they return to their former, familiar loneliness
or accept a new kind of togetherness?
Genre Drama, Love Story Category Feature Film Cinema Year
of Production 2006 Director Oskar Roehler Screenplay
Oskar Roehler, based on the novel of the same name by Michel
Houellebecq Director of Photography Carl-Friedrich
Koschnick Editor Peter R. Adam Music by Martin Todsharow
Production Design Ingrid Henn Producers Bernd Eichinger,
Oliver Berben Production Company Constantin Film
World Sales
Celluloid Dreams · Hengameh Panahi, Tanja Meissner
2, rue Turgot · 75009 Paris/France
phone +33-1-49 70 03 70 · fax +33-1-49 70 03 71
email: info@celluloid-dreams.com · www.celluloid-dreams.com
Production/Munich, in co-production with MOOVIE-the art of entertainment/Berlin
Principal Cast Moritz Bleibtreu, Martina
Gedeck, Christian Ulmen, Franka Potente, Nina Hoss, Uwe
Ochsenknecht, Corinna Harfouch, Jasmin Tabatabai, Tom Schilling
Casting An Dorthe Braker Length 105 min, 2,873 m Format
35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German Subtitled
Version English Sound Technology Dolby SR/SRD Festival
Screenings Berlin 2006 (In Competition) With backing from
Filmstiftung NRW, Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung, Medienboard
Berlin-Brandenburg, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA) German
Distributor Constantin Film Verleih/Munich
Oskar Roehler was born in 1959 and grew up in London, Rome
and Nuremberg. He made his first short film She LA in 1994. He
had his feature debut in 1995 with Gentleman, which was shown
at the Munich Filmfest the same year. He followed this two years
later with Silvester Countdown which won the Hypo-Bank
Young Director’s Award ex aequo with Martin Walz’s Liebe Luegen in
Munich. Roehler has been a scriptwriter since 1990 with Ex (1995)
and Terror 2000 (1992), and he is also the author of the novel Das
Abschnappuniversum. He has lived in Berlin since the early 1980s and
also works as a freelance journalist and author. For No Place To
Go (Die Unberuehrbare, 2000) he received the German Film
Award in 2000. His other films include: Greedy (Gierig, 1998),
Suck My Dick (2000), Angst (Der alte Affe Angst, 2003),
Agnes and His Brothers (Agnes und seine Brueder,
2004), and Elementary Particles (Elementarteilchen,
2006), among others.
german films quarterly new german films
1 · 2006 46
(photo © Constantin Film Production)