Edgar Reitz | |
|---|---|
 Reitz in 2015 | |
| Born | 1 November 1932 |
| Occupation(s) | Film director, producer, writer |
| Years active | 1953–present |
| Website | edgar-reitz |
Edgar Reitz (born 1 November 1932) is a German filmmaker and Professor of Film at the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung (State University of Design) in Karlsruhe. He is best-known for his internationally acclaimed Heimat film series (1984-2013).
Reitz was born in Morbach, Hunsrück. His father Robert was a watchmaker and his business in Morbach was later taken over by Reitz's brother Guido. Reitz's interest in acting and producing plays began in his school years in Simmern, where he was encouraged by his German teacher Karl Windhäuser. After taking his Abitur, he studied German studies, journalism, art history and theatre studies in Munich from 1952. His first experiences in film-making however were not theoretical; he worked as a camera, editing, and production assistant from 1953.
His interests in the advancement of new developments in film went as far as he cooperated with Wolfgang Georgsdorf and his Osmodrama in 2016 which led to a complete scent synchronisation of his movie “home from home” which premiered as an allegedly well functioned cinema on 17 July 2016. [1]
In 1963 along with Alexander Kluge he founded the Institut für Filmgestaltung (Institute for Film Design) which was affiliated to the Ulm School of Design, where he taught film directing and camera theory until the School of Design closed in 1968. As part of the group around Kluge, Reitz was a participant in the Oberhausen Manifesto which was announced at the Oberhausen Short Film Festival of 1962. With this manifesto young German filmmakers demanded nothing less than a new form of cinema: "Der alte Film ist tot. Wir glauben an den neuen." ("The old film is dead. We believe in the new film"). The manifesto is associated with the motto "Papas Kino ist tot" ("Papa's cinema is dead"). Subsequently, the concept of the auteur gained in popularity in Germany, and Reitz played a significant role in shaping this concept in the following years.
Reitz received one of his first awards for his film Mahlzeiten which was awarded the prize for best debut work at the Venice Film Festival in 1967. In 1971 he founded Edgar Reitz Filmproduktion (ERF) in Munich. He now began to collaborate on films with his former academic colleague Alexander Kluge amongst them the 1974 fictitious documentary In Gefahr und größter Not bringt der Mittelweg den Tod. The lavish production costs of the 1979 film The Tailor of Ulm , which portrays the downfall of the aviation pioneer Albrecht Berblinger, caused Reitz's own financial circumstances to suffer. The film was entered into the 11th Moscow International Film Festival. [2] It was during this crisis that the idea for a film project about his homeland, the Hunsrück, first came to Reitz. What began as an attempt at self-discovery, ultimately broadened out into the Heimat trilogy (from 1984), which met with critical acclaim, an enthusiastic international audience, and numerous prizes. With this epic and monumental production, Reitz achieved a quite new perspective, an approach, both poetical and realistic, to the past of Germany as it might have played out in the provinces.
In 2004 Reitz was awarded the Carl Zuckmayer Medal by the state of Rhineland-Palatinate for his life's work. In the same year, he received the Master of Cinema Award of the International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg. Reitz is married to the singer and actress Salome Kammer (who appeared in Heimats 2 and 3) and lives in Munich.
He is an atheist. [3]
This article is derived principally from the German Wikipedia article of the same name and the sources listed there.
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New German Cinema is a period in German cinema which lasted from 1962 to 1982, in which a new generation of directors emerged who, working with low budgets, and influenced by the French New Wave and Italian Neorealism, gained notice by producing a number of "small" motion pictures that caught the attention of art house audiences. These filmmakers included Percy Adlon, Harun Farocki, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Peter Fleischmann, Werner Herzog, Alexander Kluge, Ulli Lommel, Wolfgang Petersen, Volker Schlöndorff, Helma Sanders-Brahms, Werner Schroeter, Hans-Jürgen Syberberg, Margarethe von Trotta and Wim Wenders. As a result of the attention they garnered, they were able to create better-financed productions which were backed by the big US studios. However, most of these larger films were commercial failures and the movement was heavily dependent on subsidies. By 1977, 80% of a budget for a typical German film was ensured by a subsidy.
Alexander Kluge is a German author, philosopher, academic and film director.
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Morbach is a municipality that belongs to no Verbandsgemeinde – a kind of collective municipality – in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is also a state-recognized climatic resort (Luftkurort).
The Oberhausen Manifesto was a declaration by a group of 26 young German filmmakers at the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, North Rhine-Westphalia on 28 February 1962. The manifesto was a call to arms to establish a "new German feature film". It was initiated by Haro Senft and among the signatories were the directors Alexander Kluge and Edgar Reitz. The manifesto was associated with the motto "Papas Kino ist tot", although this phrase does not appear in the manifesto itself.
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Germany in Autumn is a 1978 West German anthology film about the period of 1977 known as the German Autumn, which was dominated by incidents of terrorism. The film is composed of contributions from different filmmakers, including Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Alexander Kluge, Edgar Reitz, Bernhard Sinkel, Alf Brustellin, Hans Peter Cloos, Katja Rupé, Peter Schubert and Volker Schlöndorff. It was entered into the 28th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won a Special Recognition award.
Marita Breuer is a German actress, known for her portrayal of Maria Simon born Wiegand in the Heimat series.
Gernot Roll was a German cinematographer, film director and script writer. He collaborated on several films with directors Edgar Reitz and Sönke Wortmann. He was regarded as an expert on literary adaptations and film biographies, such as The Buddenbrooks, filming Thomas Mann's novel in eleven television episodes directed by Franz Peter Wirth, and the same work again in 2008 in the film directed by Heinrich Breloer.
The Hof International Filmfestival is a German film festival that takes place in Hof, Bavaria, every year in October. Apart from numerous foreign productions, the main focus traditionally is on German films. During six festival days, about 130 films are shown in 8 theaters of 2 cinema centers, adding up to a total of 200 individual film presentations. With the exception of the retrospective, all films are German or world premieres.
Home from Home is a 2013 German drama film directed by Edgar Reitz. It was screened out of competition at the 70th Venice International Film Festival. It is shot in black and white, but there are some colour sequences. It is a prequel to the Heimat film series and concerns the Simon family living in the fictional Hunsrück village of Schabbach from 1840–1844.
The 29th annual Venice International Film Festival was held from 25 August to 7 September 1968.
In Danger and Deep Distress, the Middleway Spells Certain Death is a 1974 drama film directed by Alexander Kluge and Edgar Reitz. It is set in Frankfurt and tells the story of two women, one who sleeps with many men and steals their wallets, and one who is a spy for East Germany. The film mimics the style of documentaries, with actual documentary footage from the city as well as essayistic aspects.
Smeller is an installation by the Berlin-based artist Wolfgang Georgsdorf, which as an instrument and medium enables the composing and precise broadcasting or performance of complex scent sequences. These can also be synchronized with simultaneously reproduced sounds, films, narrative texts, dance or theatre.
Eight Hundred Times Lonely or 800 Times Lonely - One Day with German Filmmaker Edgar is a 2019 German documentary film directed by Anna Hepp about the German film director Edgar Reitz, who is known for his series of films called Heimat and was also a representative of the New German Cinema movement. Anna Hepp's film celebrated its world premiere at the 2019 Venice Film Festival in the Venice Classics section.
Ula Stöckl is a German feminist film maker and director, screenwriter and occasional actress.
