06/07/2009

Shooting started in Cologne on June 30 on the new project by Bavarian director Oskar Roehler (The Elementary Particles [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Franka Potente & Moritz Ble…
interview: Oskar Roehler
film profile]), whose working title is Jud Süss - Film ohne Gewissen ("Jew Süss: Cinema without Conscience").

As the second part of its title suggests, the film is less concerned with the character of Joseph Süss Oppenheimer than with the antisemitic propaganda film Jew Süss, made at the behest of Joseph Goebbels in response to Lothar Mendes’ 1934 philosemitic UK title of the same name.

This satirical and caricatural film, made in 1940 by Veit Harlan, is one of four fiercely antisemitic propaganda films produced in Babelsberg Studios. It made Austrian actor Ferdinand Marian, who played the unscrupulous Jew, the major star of Nazi cinema, and enjoyed enormous success among audiences (over 20m viewers in Europe).

The film’s presentation at Venice was a triumph, while on the other side of the Atlantic Chaplin released The Great Dictator.

Roehler looks at the making of the film and Marian’s late realisation that he had been used as an instrument of manipulation. The latter is played by Tobias Moretti (1½ Knights), while Martina Gedeck appears as his wife Anna Marian and Moritz Bleibtreu as Goebbels.

This enticing production with a stellar cast is co-produced by dynamic Vienna-based company Novotny & Novotny Filmproduktion (represented at the Producers on the Move 2009 event), Munich’s Clasart Filmproduktion (who are currently wrapping production on Margarethe von Trotta’s latest film, Vision, set to be released by Concorde on September 24) and Tele München.

Jud Süss - Film ohne Gewissen will be released by Concorde next year.

(Translated from French)