Archive notice: This article was originally published on August 25, 2009. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
The Reader: Bernhard Schlink’s original book sold worldwide. It was therefore no surprise that the film rights went to Hollywood years ago. But it took a while before the first clapperboard snapped: Stephen Daldry (The Hours) took over as director, while Kate Winslet stepped in for the pregnant Nicole Kidman. A good decision: Winslet won an Oscar, and more than two million cinemagoers saw the film in Germany alone. But why was it filmed in Germany (including Berlin, Görlitz, Saxon Switzerland and Cologne) with German actors such as David Kross, Alexandra Maria Lara and Hannah Herzsprung? Because, despite its international team, the story is German through and through.
The Pianist: German history is also the subject of Roman Polanski’s award-winning Holocaust drama, made in locations including Studio Babelsberg and Beelitz/Brandenburg: a Polish pianist (Adrien Brody) hides in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Second World War, and a German officer (Thomas Kretschmann) saves his life. Brody won an Oscar for it, and Kretschmann became an internationally sought-after star. And Polanski? He liked Germany so much that he also shot his new film here: the thriller “The Ghost”, starring Pierce Brosnan, is due for release in 2010.
Inglourious Basterds: Berlin, Potsdam, Görlitz, Nauen, Sebnitz, Rüdersdorf: these are just some of the places where Quentin Tarantino shot his long-announced World War film with Brad Pitt as a Nazi hunter. Tarantino wanted as much local colour as possible for his gruesome Nazi fairy tale, so he filmed almost exclusively in Germany. All the actors speak in their native languages (at least in the original). Christoph Waltz, who won the best actor award at Cannes for his role as the nasty Nazi colonel Hans Landa, even shines in four languages. And Daniel Brühl, Diane Kruger, August Diehl and Til Schweiger get to show an international audience what they can do.
Valkyrie is probably the best-known film made in and around Babelsberg in recent years. There was extensive reporting on the historical thriller starring Tom Cruise beforehand. This was partly due to the subject itself, which takes up one of the most exciting chapters of Germany’s past: Count Stauffenberg’s failed assassination attempt on Hitler on 20 July 1944. But it also had to do with Cruise himself, whom many Germans (including Stauffenberg’s descendants) did not want to see in this role. He was not deterred, however – and was therefore also permitted to film at original locations such as the Bendlerblock. This gave the film an authenticity it could never have achieved elsewhere.
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The International: He is one of Germany’s most talented directors, so Tom Tykwer (Perfume) was allowed to shoot large parts of his Hollywood debut in his home country. Clive Owen jets around the globe as an Interpol agent to bring down a particularly wicked bad bank – but most of the filming took place in Germany. In Wolfsburg’s Autostadt, for example. Or at Studio Babelsberg, where the world-famous Guggenheim Museum was reconstructed. Why go to all that trouble? Well, the real museum might have objected… But the spectacular action scenes in the Guggenheim are not the only reason this exciting financial thriller “Made in Germany” is worth seeing!
Speed Racer: It simply sounded too good for the newly established German Federal Film Fund (DFFF) to resist: the Wachowski brothers wanted to shoot their multimillion follow-up to The Matrix entirely in Germany. Naturally, with everything that entailed: cult source material, revolutionary effects and German stars such as Benno Fürmann and Moritz Bleibtreu in small supporting roles. This earned the project almost nine (!) million euros in funding. Whether it paid off economically is not known. Artistically and commercially, the garishly colourful children’s adventure was certainly a bitter disappointment. But the filming location cannot have been to blame: after all, films have been made at Studio Babelsberg for almost 100 years, so the occasional flop is allowed.
In summary, money, locations, stars and stories are the main reasons Hollywood productions are drawn to Germany.