GFQ 2-2007 - german films

In spite of the ups and downs during the eight-year odyssey to get the
film made, Kraus was adamant that Four Minutes would be his
next project as a director after his impressive debut with Shattered
Glass in 2002. “I like films which ask the question to what extent art
has anything to do with real life and how far artistic expression can
actually intrude on reality. That’s what I like about cinema because
there have been films which have really touched me and changed my
life. I was particularly interested in this potential of the story and that
was the reason why I held out for so many years to see the film
made.”
During the 2005 Berlinale, Kraus began discussing the project with
producer sisters Meike and Alexandra Kordes of the recently
establish ed production company Kordes & Kordes Film and at last
found kindred spirits who shared his vision. “Suddenly, it was like
rock’n’roll,” he observes. “We didn’t have any money, but just a great
passion. I knew from Meike [who had served as line producer on
Shattered Glass] that she only does things she really likes and
would go through concrete to achieve it. I like people who aren’t put
off by the concrete!”
It hadn’t been plain sailing either for his first feature Shattered
Glass which had existed in screenplay form for several years before
going into production. “It just takes a while until you can push through
such individual projects,” Kraus argues, although his perseverance was
then rewarded when the completed film was praised at the 2002
Munich Film Festival as one of the buzz titles and Kraus held up as a
major new talent.
The film went on to win two Bavarian Film Awards, the German
Screenplay Award, the German Film Award for Best Cinematography
for DoP Judith Kaufmann, the New Talent Award for Best Directorial
Achievement, and the Golden Camera for lead actor Juergen Vogel.
While Kraus showed himself adept at working with such seasoned
players as Vogel, Margit Carstensen, Peter Davor and Nadja Uhl in
Shattered Glass – Uhl recalled last year that he “was always prepared
to be open to our suggestions and made for a very creative
atmosphere which has stayed with me in my memory” – Four
Minutes posed new challenges, but also further proof of the director’s
collaborative relationship with his actors.
Casting the two leads – veteran Monica Bleibtreu for the elderly
pianist Traude Krueger and the newcomer Hannah Herzsprung as the
convicted killer Jenny – was of crucial importance. “I could see that it
wouldn’t be possible to have an 80-year-old on such a project work -
ing for 16 hours a day,” Kraus notes. “So when I met Monica
Bleibtreu, I thought she could do it but there’d be the problem of age,
as she is only 60. There was the question of whether the make-up
would function and, above all, whether there would be any chemistry
between the older woman and the younger one.”
As Kraus recalls, he had to go in two different directions with his two
lead actresses: “In actual fact, Monica is a very extroverted person
and we had to tie her down [for the role], while Hannah is very
reserv ed and modest in real life. But this contrast worked thanks to
their talent and the desire to follow this extreme line of preparation.
Hannah, of course, had much more to do in this respect before
the shooting because she had six months of piano lessons and boxing
training.”
He says that it was “a conscious decision” to have the world pre miere
of Four Minutes outside of Germany – at the Shanghai
International Film Festival in June of 2006 – although German film
festivals had also been clamoring to show the film. Four Minutes
then had its German premiere at the 40th Hof Film Days last October
where it was one of the program highlights with a packed-out
Saturday evening slot and Hannah Herzsprung was feted as a “name
to watch”.
As Chris Kraus points out, there has been great interest around the
globe in this film which has now been sold to 40 territories: “In
Eastern Asia, Four Minutes is mostly being launched [in the
cinemas] on a larger scale than in Germany. In these countries, in
parti cular China and Japan, it is, above all, the disciplining by the older
teach er that is at the fore,” he explains. “Most of the Japanese
journalists ask about details of the character of Traude Krueger and
see her as the main figure. In the Western countries, particularly the
USA, the focus is on the young Jenny. That is quite a surprisingly
differ ent reception. But the high emotional effect of the drama goes
straight through all cultural milieus and it is understood everywhere as
a signal for the free dom of the individual.”
Back home in Germany, the film began picking up prizes even before
its theatrical release at the end of January with four Bavarian Film
Awards for Best Screenplay, Best Female Lead (Monica Bleibtreu), and
Best New Talent (Hannah Herzsprung) as well as the VGF Young
Producers Award for Kordes & Kordes Film. Kraus describes himself
as being “overjoyed” at the film’s success on its home turf: distributor
Movienet reached 250,000 admissions with just 70 prints by mid-April
to make it the most successful German arthouse film so far this year.
“The distributor reckons that we will reach between 300,000 and
400,000 spectators in the end, a sensation for this little film,” Kraus
says. “As far as the recognition with the many prizes is concerned, you
only have this luck once in your life. We are all pleased that we can
use this attention to continue working.”
Having also bagged eight nominations for the German Film Awards,
Kraus is now looking at working together again with Meike and
Alexandra Kordes on future projects for the cinema.
He has already prepared one project entitled Acapulco, a black co -
medy and satire, which is intended to be made with the Kordes
sisters. This might seem to be a shift in genre for Kraus, but as he
explains: “that’s where I came from – writing for comedy – starting an
age ago with the Motzki series for television and later writing screenplays
for Pepe Danquart [C(r)ook] and Detlev Buck [A Bundle of Joy].”
Another long-gestating and much cherished project of Kraus’ is the
historical romantic drama Poll whose screenplay was nominated for
the German Screenplay Award back in 1997. Set in the Baltic German
community of Latvia shortly before the outbreak of the First World
War, Poll also has a young girl in the foreground in the same way as
Four Minutes: “It is a love story between a 13-year-old and a
revolutionary she hides on a country estate,” Kraus says. “This project
is a very personal one for me because my family originates from
Riga, my grandmother was Latvian, and so there’s a particular af finity.”
Chris Kraus spoke with Martin Blaney
german films quarterly director’s portrait
2 · 2007 19