“The day after Alfred Herrhausen’s murder, I wanted to make a film about it,” says German producer Gabriela Sperl. “Because I knew the official story we were being told just wasn’t the truth.”
This was back in 1989 and Herrhausen, the charismatic chairman of the board of German financial giant Deutsche Bank, had just been blown up, his armored Mercedes-Benz shredded by a 15 lbs bomb hidden in a bag on a bicycle parked next to the route Herrhausen and his security convoy traveled by every day.
It was a shocking and surprising act of assassination, quickly blamed on the Red Army Faction (Raf), a far-left German terror group which, a decade earlier, had killed a number of prominent capitalist figures, including Jürgen Ponto, the head of Dresdner Bank, and Hanns Martin Schleyer, the president of the German employers association. The Raf claimed responsibility, but the actual bombers were never...
This was back in 1989 and Herrhausen, the charismatic chairman of the board of German financial giant Deutsche Bank, had just been blown up, his armored Mercedes-Benz shredded by a 15 lbs bomb hidden in a bag on a bicycle parked next to the route Herrhausen and his security convoy traveled by every day.
It was a shocking and surprising act of assassination, quickly blamed on the Red Army Faction (Raf), a far-left German terror group which, a decade earlier, had killed a number of prominent capitalist figures, including Jürgen Ponto, the head of Dresdner Bank, and Hanns Martin Schleyer, the president of the German employers association. The Raf claimed responsibility, but the actual bombers were never...
- 7/1/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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Since Angela Merkel left office last year after a remarkable 16-year reign as German Chancellor, the timing is perfect to examine her history and her legacy. German-born filmmaker Eva Weber has seized the challenge and created a thoughtful portrait of Merkel. An impressive group of witnesses — including Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice, Tony Blair, journalist Christiane Amanpour and even award-winning filmmaker Volker Schlondorff (a longtime friend of Merkel’s) — help to put her achievements and even some of her failings into sharp focus.
Merkel’s background was as remarkable as her rise to the central corridors of power. She grew up in East Germany under the repressive Communist regime but achieved unusual success when she earned a doctorate in physics. So she was a pioneer in several areas — as a scientist and a woman before she ever entered politics. Her life spans much of...
Since Angela Merkel left office last year after a remarkable 16-year reign as German Chancellor, the timing is perfect to examine her history and her legacy. German-born filmmaker Eva Weber has seized the challenge and created a thoughtful portrait of Merkel. An impressive group of witnesses — including Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice, Tony Blair, journalist Christiane Amanpour and even award-winning filmmaker Volker Schlondorff (a longtime friend of Merkel’s) — help to put her achievements and even some of her failings into sharp focus.
Merkel’s background was as remarkable as her rise to the central corridors of power. She grew up in East Germany under the repressive Communist regime but achieved unusual success when she earned a doctorate in physics. So she was a pioneer in several areas — as a scientist and a woman before she ever entered politics. Her life spans much of...
- 9/4/2022
- by Stephen Farber
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Premiering at Telluride, “Merkel,” Eva Weber’s documentary on former Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, seems like a star-studded fête featuring many world leaders and dignitaries, such as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Notably missing, though, is the guest of honor, Merkel herself, who appears only via archival footage. What we have is a montage of interviews and speeches punctuated by punditry, and most commentators aren’t even from Merkel’s inner circle and thus can’t impart any intimate knowledge.
The film opens with Merkel’s 2019 Harvard commencement speech, which is a choice in and of itself, and juxtaposes that with former President Donald Trump disparaging her at a rally. The contrast is clear: She implored students to tear down walls, while he promised voters he’d build the wall. Weber will eventually circle back to drive this point home, but...
Notably missing, though, is the guest of honor, Merkel herself, who appears only via archival footage. What we have is a montage of interviews and speeches punctuated by punditry, and most commentators aren’t even from Merkel’s inner circle and thus can’t impart any intimate knowledge.
The film opens with Merkel’s 2019 Harvard commencement speech, which is a choice in and of itself, and juxtaposes that with former President Donald Trump disparaging her at a rally. The contrast is clear: She implored students to tear down walls, while he promised voters he’d build the wall. Weber will eventually circle back to drive this point home, but...
- 9/4/2022
- by Martin Tsai
- The Wrap
If Germans are notoriously stoic, then Angela Merkel is extremely German. The notoriously unflappable former German chancellor served for a nearly record sixteen years, only outlasted by Otto Von Bismarck and Helmut Kohl, her predecessor and mentor who appointed her to her first government position in 1991. Throughout her tenure, she steered Europe through the 2008 financial crisis, oversaw healthcare reform, developed renewable energy resources, opened German borders to a record number of migrants, and navigated the Covid-19 pandemic. During her time in office, she was often refereed to as the de facto head of the European Union and the most powerful woman in the world. And yet, unlike her friend Barack Obama, very little is known about her personally.
The new film “Merkel” valiantly attempts to paint a portrait of Angela Merkel, from her childhood in the former Ddr (East Germany) to the most momentous days of her political career. Though...
The new film “Merkel” valiantly attempts to paint a portrait of Angela Merkel, from her childhood in the former Ddr (East Germany) to the most momentous days of her political career. Though...
- 9/3/2022
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Ruth Beckermann’s investigation into Kurt Waldheim’s Austrian presidential campaign is as engrossing as it is relevant
During Kurt Waldheim’s Austrian presidential campaign in the spring of 1986, that nation’s collective consciousness experienced a painful return of the repressed, a psychological agony recalled by director Ruth Beckermann in this documentary. Waldheim, who had been Un secretary general from 1972 to 1981, was running for the presidency very largely on the grounds of his international prestige. As far as his war service went, Waldheim had claimed in his autobiography to have been invalided out of (conscripted) military service on sustaining a wound at the eastern front in 1942. But in the febrile few weeks leading up to the election, investigative journalist Hubertus Czernin, together with New York Times reporters and researchers from the World Jewish Congress, discovered documents showing his active membership of the Sa, the Nazi Party’s original paramilitary wing,...
During Kurt Waldheim’s Austrian presidential campaign in the spring of 1986, that nation’s collective consciousness experienced a painful return of the repressed, a psychological agony recalled by director Ruth Beckermann in this documentary. Waldheim, who had been Un secretary general from 1972 to 1981, was running for the presidency very largely on the grounds of his international prestige. As far as his war service went, Waldheim had claimed in his autobiography to have been invalided out of (conscripted) military service on sustaining a wound at the eastern front in 1942. But in the febrile few weeks leading up to the election, investigative journalist Hubertus Czernin, together with New York Times reporters and researchers from the World Jewish Congress, discovered documents showing his active membership of the Sa, the Nazi Party’s original paramilitary wing,...
- 3/21/2022
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
The 120 Days of BottropThere is a teasingly confrontational moment in Paul Poet’s 2002 action document, Ausländer raus! Schlingensiefs Container, wherein shock artist and political provocateur Christoph Schlingensief, having staged a Big Brother-style reality TV show in which viewers vote asylum seekers out of the country, proclaims, “You are now officially commissioned to the resistance!” His cheerful enunciation of a radically collusive public riles up the Austrian crowd before him into a state that is as perturbed as it is voracious, as outraged as it is inspired—with a smattering of confusion, just to top things off. This distillation of emotions has been at the root of much of the late artist’s critical reception, beginning with the early 16mm films he made as a teen through to his later works on stage, screen, and in public space.No stranger to controversy, the late artist has come to be embraced, albeit with a wary eye,...
- 5/16/2018
- MUBI
Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Jean-Gabriel Périot's A German Youth (2016), which is receiving an exclusive global online premiere on Mubi, is showing from October 27 - November 26, 2017 as a Special Discovery.I’ll never accept the tendency of the late capitalistic society, which leads us straight to fascism. You just have to look at what’s happening in the USA.—Gudrun EnsslinIn the last analysis, terrorism is an idea generated by capitalism to justify better defense measures to safeguard capitalism.—Rainer Werner FassbinderWhen fascists began getting punched this summer, and an excited wave of schadenfreude took hold, briefly, of the social-media trashcan, out came the liberal cavalry: in force. Punching Nazis, so went the cry, is at best the first step to moral oblivion and, at worst, already as bad as the people who want you dead. They are nothing if not predictable,...
- 10/27/2017
- MUBI
Attendance up 22%; festival director Karl Spoerri talks about Zurich’s potential as a film finance hub.
The Zurich Film Festival’s ninth edition has given its Golden Eye for best international film to The Golden Cage (La Jaula De Oro) from Mexico’s Diego Quemada-Diez. The jury gave a special mention to actor Michael B Jordan in Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station.
The International Documentary Film winner was Danish director Kaspar Astrup Schroeder’s Rent A Family Inc. (Lej En Familie A/S). A special mention went to Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq’s These Birds Walk from Pakistan.
The German-language competition awards went to Frauke Finsterwalder’s German feature Finsterworld and Anna Thommen’s Swiss documentary Neuland. A special mention went to Die Frau Die Sich Traut by Marc Rensing for feature and to Sabine Lidl’s Nan Goldin – I Remember Your Face for documentary.
Each of the awards comes with a $22,050 (CHF20,000) cash prize and...
The Zurich Film Festival’s ninth edition has given its Golden Eye for best international film to The Golden Cage (La Jaula De Oro) from Mexico’s Diego Quemada-Diez. The jury gave a special mention to actor Michael B Jordan in Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station.
The International Documentary Film winner was Danish director Kaspar Astrup Schroeder’s Rent A Family Inc. (Lej En Familie A/S). A special mention went to Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq’s These Birds Walk from Pakistan.
The German-language competition awards went to Frauke Finsterwalder’s German feature Finsterworld and Anna Thommen’s Swiss documentary Neuland. A special mention went to Die Frau Die Sich Traut by Marc Rensing for feature and to Sabine Lidl’s Nan Goldin – I Remember Your Face for documentary.
Each of the awards comes with a $22,050 (CHF20,000) cash prize and...
- 10/6/2013
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
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